AEterna Zentaris presents three posters at the AACR meeting

By Lisa Kerner

Erie, Pa., April 4 - AEterna Zentaris, Inc. presented abstracts outlining preclinical results on various novel drug candidates for multiple cancers at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington, D.C., according to a company news release.

The company's first poster entitled, "A New Highly Potent Cytotoxic Compound with Inhibitory Effects on Tubulin Polymerization and Topoisomerase II" reviewed results of a preclinical trial on ZEN-012/ZEN-017. Administered orally once weekly, ZEN-017 proved to be an inhibitor of in-vivo tumor growth in melanoma, mammary, colon and leukemia cancers at well-tolerated doses (40-80 mg/kg b.w.).

The second poster, "Novel Pyridopyrazine-Urea Derivatives Are Highly Selective Dual Mechanism Inhibitors of PI3K and Erk1/2" related preclinical results for signal transduction inhibitors in breast, colon and pancreatic cancer.

"We have been focusing efforts on single and dual inhibitors of Raf-Mek-Erk and PI3K-Akt pathways," said Jurgen Engel, executive vice president global R&D and chief operating officer, in the release.

"Results disclosed showed that we now have identified a new compound class with inhibitory activity against both the Erk and PI3K pathways, therefore demonstrating their unique potential in treating malignant tumors."

The company's third poster entitled, "Targeted therapy of gynecological tumors with cytotoxic peptide analogs" demonstrated that targeted therapy of breast, endometrial and ovarian cancer with cytotoxic peptide analogs AN-207, AN-215 and AN-238 is more effective and less toxic than non-targeted chemotherapy.

AEterna Zentaris plans to bring at least one preclinical compound to the clinical stage each year, officials said.

Located in Quebec City, Quebec, AEterna Zentaris is a global biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery, development and marketing of therapies for cancer and endocrine disorders.

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