Cerylid claims 95 per cent success rate in early screening

Genomics-based drug discovery company Cerylid Biosciences has announced that its lead anti-cancer compound successfully halted the disease in 95 per cent of human cell lines used.

The company said its compound, CBL316, had progressed through important screening stages at the National Cancer Institute in the United States.

Cerylid CEO Dr Jackie Fairley said that while the investigations so far were promising, the compound was still in the early stages of development.

"While CBL316 shows great promise we are certainly realistic about the fact that it is still at an early stage of development," Fairley said. "It is precisely because of the inherent risks associated with drug development that Cerylid is developing several compounds in parallel, to ensure our risk is appropriately spread."

She said that in the first stage of NCI screening, CBL316 showed potent growth inhibitory activity against 57 of the 60 human cancer cell lines used, and selectively killed cell lines from tumours of the central nervous system, breast cancer and melanoma.

"Initial experiments showed that the anti-cancer activity of CBL316 persisted in vivo for most of the cell types tested," Fairley said.

She said that the performance of CBL316 in the first screen had resulted in its selection for advanced in vivo testing at the NCI, although Cerylid had already confirmed activity in its own equivalent experiments.

Furthermore, she said that the fact the compound demonstrated activity across 60 cells lines suggested CBL316 attacked cancer cells through a new mechanism.

CBL 316 is one of several lead compounds currently under development by Cerylid as part of the company's program to use high-throughput screening methods to identify and develop pharmaceutical agents from its library of natural product extracts.

Its other lead compounds include anti-cancer agents and compounds that modify immune function.