Reata Pharmaceuticals Contracts ApoCell to Detect Innovative Biomarkers in a Phase II Clinical Study of RTA 402 for Diabetic Renal Disease
Posted on: Tuesday, 10 June 2008, 09:00 CDT
ApoCell, Houston, Texas, and Reata Pharmaceuticals, Irving, Texas, announce the start of a laboratory study conducted as part of a phase II clinical trial of Reata RTA 402 for the treatment of diabetic renal disease. RTA 402 has also shown promising activity in a recent cancer phase I study of patients with advanced solid tumors.
RTA 402 is the lead molecule emerging from Reata's platform of Antioxidant Inflammation Modulators (AIMs). RTA 402 and other AIMs promote the resolution of innate and adaptive immune-mediated inflammation by restoring redox homeostasis in inflamed tissues. This restoration of redox homeostasis causes the cells that host the inflammatory event to revert to a non-inflammatory state, inhibits the production of inflammatory cytokines, and reduces inflammation and cellular damage from pro-oxidant molecules.
ApoCell develops assays for biomarker expression in circulating tumor and endothelial cells (CTC and CEC). Among other objectives, the RTA 402 diabetic nephropathy study seeks to isolate and enumerate the number of circulating endothelial cells with a specific protein expression profile in patients to monitor the efficacy of treatment response. Improvement in these biomarkers of endothelial function would suggest that RTA 402 restores proper filtration in the kidney by repairing damaged vasculature and may decrease the severity of cardiovascular complications that are associated with diabetes.
Dr. Darren Davis, ApoCell CEO, comments, "This is the first non-cancer trial that we are applying our extensive experience in detecting and quantifying expression profiles in circulating rare cells. We intend to follow this trend and expand our offering to pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturers of treatments for inflammation, cardiovascular, autoimmune and CNS disorders with the ultimate goal of making personalized medicine a reality."
About ApoCell Corp.
ApoCell Inc. was founded in 2004 to commercialize biomarker technologies developed at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. This proprietary method monitors the effectiveness of cancer drugs by measuring biomarker expression patterns in tumor cells. The company has conducted 38 clinical studies with over 11,000 specimens on 28 investigational drugs and 8 FDA-approved cancer drugs.
About REATA Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on translating innovative science into breakthrough medicines for intractable diseases such as cancer, inflammation and neurodegenerative disease. Reata's two lead programs are in Phase 2 clinical studies for cancer and inflammatory diseases.
Source: Business Wire
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