WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a RNA interference (RNAi) company focused on developing breakthrough oncology therapeutics, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for patent application number 12/824,011, which broadly covers use of the company’s proprietary Extended Dicer Substrate™ therapeutic structures. The newly allowed claims reinforce Dicerna’s unparalleled intellectual property position in the field of Dicer substrate therapeutics and further support the company’s commitment to developing a new class of oncology treatments using its Dicer Substrate Technology™ platform.
“We are delighted that the U.S. Patent Office has allowed these claims, thereby acknowledging the novelty of Dicerna’s ongoing efforts to identify and develop proprietary Dicer substrate structures,” said Douglas M. Fambrough, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Dicerna. “This allowance expands Dicerna’s position as the industry leader in functional Dicer substrate payloads and literally extends the scope of proprietary, active Dicer substrates available to us and our partners for use in therapeutic programs. These rights will help us continue to advance our therapeutic compounds and technologies toward clinical trials, which will ultimately benefit patients.”
The allowance applies to 102 claims and provides exclusivity around both in vivo therapy and in vitro uses of Extended Dicer Substrates for reducing mammalian target gene expression, regardless of their specific sequence. The current Extended Dicer Substrates build off of the 25-30mer Dicer substrate form via addition of an oligonucleotide extension to the 5’ end of the guide strand.
“The extended portion of these novel Dicer substrate payloads provides a domain useful for immunosilencing of Dicer substrate therapeutics,” said Bob D. Brown, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Dicerna. “Because this extra domain is removed by the Dicer enzyme once the Extended Dicer Substrate reaches the cytoplasm of a target cell, concentration of immunosilencing modifications within this extended domain should diminish the risk of negatively impacting the region of the Dicer substrate molecule that ultimately affects RNA interference. We are confident that these novel and proprietary Dicer substrate structures can be further developed and exploited in our therapeutic programs.”
About Dicer Substrate RNAi (DsiRNA)
Dicerna’s DsiRNA molecules are uniquely structured and different from first generation siRNAs. Specifically, the company’s DsiRNA molecules are 25 or more base pairs in length and are processed by the Dicer enzyme. The ability to engage the Dicer enzyme, which operates early in the gene silencing cascade, provides functional benefits over conventional, shorter siRNA molecules.
About Dicerna
Dicerna is a private, venture-backed biopharmaceutical company harnessing RNA interference (RNAi) to develop breakthrough, targeted cancer therapeutics. Utilizing its Dicer Substrate Technology™ platform and EnCore™ lipid nanoparticle delivery technology, Dicerna is developing a pipeline of programs to reach previously undruggable intracellular disease targets. The company has collaborations and major alliances with global pharmaceutical companies, including Kyowa Hakko Kirin and Ipsen, and will continue to build on this momentum to advance its research and development efforts. Founded in 2007, Dicerna is based in Watertown, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit www.dicerna.com.