The pioneering precision medicine company, ARIZ Precision Medicine (ARIZ), and the Medical Research Council’s Nucleic Acid Therapy Accelerator (NATA) which is based at Harwell Campus, has announced a collaboration to develop breakthrough therapies to treat certain types of cancer.

Together the organisations will harness their platforms to develop nucleic acid therapy (NAT) drug candidates for novel gene targets with strong genetic associations to leading cancers. The collaboration combines NATA’s expertise in NAT design and optimisation with ARIZ’s lead RNAi compound, which is being developed to treat a range of cancers.

ARIZ is using RNAi to treat cancers by targeting an over-expressed truncated onoprotein known as PRDM2, which is mis-regulated in almost 75% of lung cancer patients. ARIZ has developed an aptamer-guided calcium phosphate nanoparticle for delivery in vivo, which is delivered specifically to cancer cells. The lead compound has been shown to kill 90% of cancer cells in vitro and inhibit tumour growth by 80% in a xenograft mouse model.

ARIZ and NATA aim to develop direct conjugates between ARIZ’s DNA aptamer and siRNAs through NATA’s liker technology, to explore different delivery options that could target several types of cancers.

“NATA brings a clear development path for our lead compound and offers the potential to accelerate development of our broad portfolio of multiple PRDM-targeted nucleic acid therapies”, said Brad Niles, CEO of ARIZ.

“We are excited to be working with ARIZ, bringing together world-renowned experts in epigenetic cancer targeting, and optimised design of nucleic acid therapies.”, said Professor Nick Lench, Executive Director, NATA.

This recent collaboration is testament to Harwell’s cluster approach which helps forge new connections to solve global challenges such as health.

Nucleic acid therapeutics have world-changing potential for treating diseases. Rather than conventional treatments that target proteins, nucleic acid therapeutics target the genetic blueprint of a disease to achieve long-term or curative effects. The Nucleic Acid Therapy Accelerator mission is to accelerate the development of these treatments, as well as advancing the technology used to manufacture and administer them. You can find out more and watch the video about NATA below.