Therapeutic Applications

PCA3 gene technology

DiagnoCure holds an exclusive worldwide license to all diagnostic and therapeutic applications of the PCA3 gene technology. The Company intends to enter into a partnership or a strategic alliance for the use of the PCA3 gene technology for therapeutic applications.

In 2005, DiagnoCure initiated basic research programs at the University of Iowa and University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands). Additional basic research programs are being contemplated to begin looking at various ways the PCA3 gene may be used in therapy and/or in-vivo imaging.

The first project, at the University of Iowa under the direction of Dr. Timothy Ratliff, will investigate whether the promoter of the PCA3 gene can be put into cultured prostate cancer cells and cause a “suicide gene” to be expressed.

The second study  will be undertaken at the University of Nijmegen, under the direction of Dr. Jack Schalken, to investigate the possibility of using anti-sense oliginucleotides to PCA3 to deliver a toxic or radioactive molecule to prostate cancer cells in tissue culture.

DiagnoCure considers these studies to be very preliminary.