CytRx to develop diabetes/obesity drug based on University of Massachusetts fat cell drug targets

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, Dec. 15 - CytRx Corp. said it has signed an expanded agreement with the University of Massachusetts Medical School to develop small molecule drugs based on several newly discovered drug targets for the regulation of insulin activity in fat cells.

Decreased insulin activity is known to contribute to type 2 diabetes and other complications such as obesity, the company said.

"Obesity has reached global epidemic proportions and type 2 diabetes is among the leading health concerns in the United States. Our ultimate goal is to develop drugs against these novel targets to help patients lose weight and maintain normal glucose levels," CytRx president and chief executive officer Steven A. Kriegsman said in a company news release.

"Two of these newly discovered drug targets regulate a well-known 'fat burning' metabolic pathway that has been the focus of significant interest to several large pharmaceutical companies. Our strategy is to secure a significant pharmaceutical or biotechnology partnership to assist with resources as we develop drugs that alter the activity of these novel targets."

The drug targets were shown to regulate insulin action in fat cells when specific gene expression was silenced, the company said. Many of these drug targets are part of pathways previously shown to be important to diabetes and obesity.

The novel insulin-regulating drug targets were discovered through experiments conducted at the university by Michael P. Czech, professor and chair of molecular medicine, and identified using RNA interference screening technology through CytRx's existing collaborative program with the university.

"We have now screened over 700 possible drug targets in fat cells for regulation of insulin action and fatty acid metabolism. Through this process, we have discovered many promising targets that have never before been identified as having involvement with type 2 diabetes," Czech said in the release.

Worldwide, more than 1 billion adults are overweight and at least 300 million are clinically obese, the company said. Obesity and being overweight pose a major risk for serious diet-related chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke and certain forms of cancer.

According to a recent Rand study, by 2020 about one in five health care dollars spent on people age 50 to 70 will be due to obesity-related disabilities, the company said.

CytRx is a biopharmaceutical research and development company based in Los Angeles that develops small molecule and ribonucleic acid interference drugs.

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