Results are presented today at the 17th Vitamin D Workshop in Chicago, USA
Paris, 20 June 2014 – Hybrigenics SA (ALHYG), a bio-pharmaceutical company listed on the
Alternext market of Euronext in Paris, with a focus on research and development of new
treatments against proliferative diseases, announces the presentation today at the 17th Vitamin D
Workshop in Chicago, USA, of the results from an international group of researchers1 on the
synergy between inecalcitol, a vitamin D receptor agonist, and azacytidine, a hypomethylating
anticancer drug, in in vitro and in vivo preclinical models of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).
In this study, inecalcitol in combination with azacytidine has been shown in vitro to inhibit the
growth of human AML cell lines, to stimulate their differentiation into more mature and functional
myeloid cell type or to induce their programmed cell death (apoptosis) more effectively than the
addition of the individual activities of each compound alone. The same synergy has been found in
in vivo models of AML in mice treated with both compounds.
The molecular basis of this synergy has been elucidated: azacytidine “unmasks” the gene coding
for vitamin D receptors (by reducing the methylation of its promoter region). As a consequence,
more vitamin D receptors are expressed and available to be activated by inecalcitol.
Azacytidine (Vidaza®, Celgene) and decitabine (Dacogen®, Janssen-Cilag) are two hypomethylating agents already used for AML in older (>65 years old) or frail patients not eligible to standard induction chemotherapy. “Combination of inecalcitol with either of these drugs would be the clinical setting of choice to look for synergistic effects in a future Phase II study in
Acute Myeloid Leukemia patients,” said Jean-François Dufour-Lamartinie, Hybrigenics’ Head of
Clinical R&D.
About Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the second most frequent form of leukemia (behind CLL) and accounts for about 30% of all leukemic patients. Annual estimates of newly diagnosed AML cases amount to 14,600 in the United States (American Leukemia Lymphoma Society, Facts 2013), 18,500 in Europe (RARECARE Working Group, 2012) and 110,000 world-wide (Globocan, 2012). AML is designated as an orphan disease in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. AML is
characterized by a fast-increasing overproduction of immature white blood cells, called myeloblasts. These cells rapidly crowd the bone marrow, soon preventing it from making normal blood cells. They can also spill out into the blood stream and circulate around the body. Due to their immaturity, they are unable to function properly to prevent or fight infection. Inadequate numbers of red cells and platelets being made by the marrow cause anemia, and easy bleeding and/or bruising. AML is sometimes called acute myelocytic, myelogenous or granulocytic leukemia.
AML can occur at any age but is more common in adults over the age of 60 years. Treatment needs to begin soon after AML is diagnosed, as it progresses very quickly. Chemotherapy is the main form of treatment for AML; occasionally, a stem cell transplant may be used. Despite available treatments, AML shows the lowest 5-year survival rate of all leukemias: 25% in the US and 19% in Europe.
About Hybrigenics
Hybrigenics (www.hybrigenics.com) is a bio-pharmaceutical group listed (ALHYG) on the Alternext market of Euronext in Paris, focusing its internal R&D programs on innovative targets and therapies for the treatment of proliferative diseases and providing cutting-edge proteomic and genomic scientific services.
Hybrigenics’ current development program is based on inecalcitol, a vitamin D receptor agonist active by oral administration. Oral inecalcitol has shown excellent tolerance and strong presumption of efficacy for the first-line treatment of metastastic castrate-resistant prostate cancer in combination with Taxotere®, which is the current gold-standard chemotherapeutic treatment for this indication. Oral inecalcitol is currently being tested in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients, an indication for which inecalcitol has received orphan drug status in Europe and the United States.
Hybrigenics has a research collaboration with Servier on deubiquitinating enzymes and their inhibitors in oncology, neurology, psychiatry, rheumatology, ophthalmology, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Hybrigenics continues to build on its pioneer research position in the field of ubiquitin-specific proteases by exploring their role in other areas of particular relevance, such as inflammation and virology.
Hybrigenics Services (www.hybrigenics-services.com) is the market leader in Yeast Two-Hybrid (Y2H) and related services to identify, validate and inhibit protein interactions for researchers in all areas of life sciences, using its ISO 9001-certified high-throughput Y2H screening platform.
Helixio (www.helixio.eu), Hybrigenics’ genomic branch, provides state-of-the-art services specialized in DNA chips, DNA or RNA target enrichment and next generation sequencing.
Hybrigenics Corp., based in Cambridge, Mass., is the American subsidiary of Hybrigenics.
1 from France (Necker and Saint-Louis Hospitals in Paris), Belgium (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) and the United Kingdom (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton).
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