BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Therapeutics: p53

October 15, 2015 7:00 AM UTC

Mouse studies suggest inhibiting p53 could help prevent radiotherapy-induced thymic lymphoma and acute hematologic toxicity. In normal mice receiving whole-body irradiation, p53 knockdown decreased acute apoptosis of thymic and bone marrow cells, a measure of hematologic toxicity, decreased T cell receptor β chain (TCRB)-induced thymocyte expansion and the incidence of thymic lymphoma, and increased survival compared with normal p53 expression. Next steps include testing whether p53 knockdown prevents radiation-induced development of other cancers in mice.

SBI Biotech Co. Ltd. has QPI-1002, a short interfering RNA (siRNA) that temporarily inhibits p53 expression, in Phase II testing to prevent renal damage and delayed graft function (DGF) after renal transplantation...