AVI BioPharma, Inc. Presents At American Society Of Virology Annual Meeting

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 15 Jul 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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AVI BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVII), a developer of RNA-based drugs, today announced that Dr. Fred Schnell of AVI presented at the American Society of Virology Annual Meeting which took place July 11-15 in Vancouver, B.C. The title of the presentation was "Pan-Arenavirus Antisense Therapeutic Based On PMOplus™ Chemistry." In addition to Dr. Schnell, Drs. Bestwick, Iversen and Mourich, all of AVI, coauthored the presentation.

Schnell presented results of preclinical findings using an antiviral oligomer compound that incorporates AVI's proprietary backbone chemistry (PMOplus™). The work shows that a single oligomer blocks a terminal sequence common to the eight distinct RNAs expressed by viruses from the family of hemorrhagic fever arenaviruses. Because this sequence is highly conserved among arenaviruses, a single agent might serve as a pan-arenavirus drug. Arenaviruses include Lassa fever, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, Junin and Machupo viruses, all members of the Class A bioterrorism pathogen list.

"We believe that the PMOplus™ chemistry is particularly useful for targeting potential variable or mutation prone sequences within the viral RNA," said Ryszard Kole, AVI Senior V.P. Discovery Research. "This chemistry, combined with the fact that a single agent blocks RNAs involved in several steps of the viral life cycle of a whole family of viruses, makes this approach to viral drug discovery look very promising."

Source
AVI BioPharma

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