MDRNA said this week that the US Patent and Trademark Office has allowed a company patent application covering "methods for the delivery of a broad array of compounds with pharmacological activity, including siRNAs, using proprietary targeting peptides that have preferential binding affinity for lung tissue."
The application, No. 20070197444, is entitled, "Phage-Displayed Cell-Binding Peptides," and claims "a tryptophan cage-binding domain polypeptide containing of all or part of [a defined] amino acid sequence," according to its abstract.
"This technology is directly applicable to the company's DiLA2 [drug-delivery] platform as peptides are readily conjugated to the amino acid scaffold of a DiLA2" molecule, MDRNA said. "Peptides capable of directed delivery are expected to further improve the delivery efficiency of UsiRNAs, which have demonstrated significant knockdown of target genes in mouse models of liver and bladder cancer, and in non-human primates."