SomaGenics Presents Progress in Diabetic Wound Healing at the 10th RNA Consortium Meeting
Santa Cruz, CA, June, 2016- In a talk at the City of Hope National Medical Center’s 10th RNA Consortium Meeting, held in Duarte, CA, Dr. Brian Johnston, CEO SomaGenics, Inc. presented results showing accelerated wound closure rates in diabetic mice in response to treatment with SG404, SomaGenics’ synthetic short hairpin RNA (sshRNA) targeting PHD2.
SomaGenics’ NIH-funded project to accelerate wound healing in diabetic patients aims at restoring the normal wound-healing response, which is dysregulated in diabetics. In healthy people, tissue injury induces a healing response that involves repair of the tissue and formation of new blood vessels. When healing is complete, a protein called PHD2 keeps the wound healing machinery quiescent. However, in diabetic patients, PHD2 is expressed even when a wound is present, preventing activation of the healing response.
“Experiments in murine and human cell lines confirmed that downregulation of PHD2 expression by sshRNA decreases the level of PHD2 transcript and increases levels of downstream wound-healing factors,” said Dr. Johnston. “ We were able to increase biostability of the therapeutic sshRNA in serum by chemical modification without significantly reducing efficacy. Most exciting was the efficacy seen in a diabetic mouse model, where application of SG404 coated onto a slow-release matrix significantly accelerated the rate of closure of punch wounds and sped the formation of new vasculature as shown by immunofluorescent staining.”
The study was a collaboration with LayerBio of Arlington, MA, which contributed its proprietary layer-by-layer method for applying therapeutic RNA to a bandage substrate, and Dr. Geoffrey Gurtner and colleagues at Stanford University’s Department of Surgery, who performed the mouse experiments. Funding was provided by the NIH in the form of a Phase II SBIR grant to SomaGenics.
SomaGenics is a privately held biotech company with offices and laboratories located in Santa Cruz, Calif. It specializes in developing innovative technologies that focus on RNA molecules as therapeutic agents and targets as well as biomarkers. The company's therapeutic platform includes sshRNA therapeutic candidates for wound healing. Additionally, SomaGenics’ RNA analysis platforms include miR-ID®, a novel circularization-based RT-qPCR method, miR-Direct™ for microRNA analysis directly from blood samples, and the RealSeq™ family of technologies for non-biased small RNA library construction for next-generation sequencing (NGS).
Somagenics website: www.somagenics.com
Contact: Brian Johnston, 831 426 7700.