Senesco's Factor 5A kills myeloma cells during in vitro study

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, Dec. 16 - Senesco Technologies Inc. said results from its funded research agreement at the Mayo Clinic found that the company's Factor 5A gene technology killed human multiple myeloma cells grown in vitro.

Human multiple myeloma cells were grown in the presence of IL-6, a cytokine that acts as a growth factor for the myeloma cells. The aim of the study was to show that Senesco's technology could induce these dividing myeloma cells to die.

Roughly 90% of the cancer cells treated with Factor 5A died, in comparison to 25% of the untreated cells, the company said.

"This early-stage study has shown that Factor 5A is not only able to kill myeloma cells, but also eliminate myeloma cells in the presence of IL-6. This latter finding is of interest in that it has proven to be very difficult to induce apoptosis in myeloma cells in the presence of IL-6 with standard therapies such as dexamethasone," vice president of research and development Richard Dondero said in a company news release.

The company said it will next determine the efficacy of Factor 5A in a multiple myeloma animal model.

Multiple myeloma is a type of bone marrow cancer that produces high levels of inflammatory cytokines which can lead to bone lesions and tumor progression, the company said.

Senesco is a biotechnology company based in New Brunswick, N.J., that develops medical and agricultural products using its platform technology, which is based on the identification and characterization of specific genes that regulate cell death in plants (senescence) and humans (apoptosis).

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