Silence Therapeutics said this week that it has received a notice of allowance from the US Patent and Trademark Office on a patent application directed to a cancer target and the use of RNAi molecules against it.
The target, PKN-3, is a protein kinase C-related molecule associated with the growth of cancer cells, as well as metastasis formation, and is the target for the company's phase I siRNA-based solid tumor drug Atu-027.
"The allowed subject matter is directed to, among other things, methods of treating cancer with small interfering RNA or antisense molecules that target the PKN-3 messenger RNA," the company said.