Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Scientific Advisor Shows SIRT1 Activation Improves Huntington's Disease In Preclinical Model
March 28 2008 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRT), a biopharmaceutical
company focused on discovering and developing small molecule drugs
to treat diseases of aging, announced that Sirtris Scientific
Advisory Board Co-Chair Leonard P. Guarente, PhD, the Novartis
Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
is presenting new data showing that in a preclinical model of
Huntington�s disease, mice live longer and have less disease
pathology in the brain with increased SIRT1 expression. Dr.
Guarente will present the data at 12:00 pm, central European time,
on Friday, March 28 at the Pasteur Institute, Paris and at 7:00 pm
western European time on Monday, March 31 in a Joint Meeting of the
British Societies for Cell and Developmental Biology at the
University of Warwick. �These new data support the belief that
SIRT1 is a potential therapeutic target for neurodegenerative
diseases,� says Dr. Guarente. In research published last year in
the European Molecular Biology Organization Journal, Sirtris
Scientific Advisory Board members showed that activation of SIRT1,
one member of the sirtuin family of enzymes, was neuroprotective in
animal models for Alzheimer's Disease and Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis. Also last year, in work published in the scientific
journal Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science,
researchers found that SIRT1 activation with SRT501, Sirtris�
proprietary formulation of resveratrol, was neuroprotective in a
preclinical model for optic neuritis. �In this study, with lead
investigator Kenneth Shindler, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of
Ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania Scheie Eye
Institute, we were able to show that SRT501 reduced the loss of
retinal ganglion cells,� says Peter Elliott, PhD, Sirtris Senior
Vice President of Development. Optic neurtis, which is common in
patients with multiple sclerosis, is a result of inflammation of
the optic nerve and can cause complete or partial loss of vision.
"These neuroprotective data expand the promise for small molecule
sirtuin activators as potential therapeutics for a broad range of
diseases of aging," says Christoph Westphal, MD, PhD, Chief
Executive Officer and Vice Chair of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals.
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is engaged in human clinical trials for
diabetes and MELAS�a mitochondrial disease�and is planning similar
trials in cancer. About Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Sirtris
Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on
discovering and developing proprietary, orally available, small
molecule drugs with the potential to treat diseases associated with
aging, including metabolic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes. Our
drug candidates are designed to mimic certain beneficial health
effects of calorie restriction, without requiring a change in
eating habits, by activation of sirtuins, a recently discovered
class of enzymes that the Company believes control the aging
process. The company's headquarters are in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. This press release contains forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited
to, the potential therapeutic effects of SIRT1 expression and
activation for diseases of aging, such as Type 2 Diabetes and
neurodegenerative disorders; the progress and results of
preclinical and clinical studies of SIRT1 activators; and the
potential of sirtuin modulators to receive regulatory approval.
These forward-looking statements about future expectations, plans
and prospects of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals involve significant risks,
uncertainties and assumptions, including risks related to the lack
of results that would provide a basis for predicting whether any of
the Company's product candidates will be safe or effective, or
receive regulatory approval, the possibility that results of
pre-clinical studies are not necessarily predictive of clinical
trial results, the Company's potential inability to initiate and
complete pre-clinical studies and clinical trials for its product
candidates, the fact that none of the Company's product candidates
has received regulatory approvals, the potential inability of the
Company to gain market acceptance of the Company's product
candidates, and those other risks factors that can be found in the
Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Actual results may differ materially from those Sirtris
Pharmaceuticals contemplated by these forward-looking statements.
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals does not undertake to update any of these
forward-looking statements to reflect a change in its views or
events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release.
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