Angiosplice

AngioSplice is an early drug discovery and a development company based in Cambridge, UK. The company is focused on producing novel alternative splicing based therapies, that have will one day prevent blindness and cure cancer.
AngioSplice Ltd was founded in 2009 by Dr Dawid Nowak PhD, Sam Hall and Dr James Harmsworth King MBBS. The three met whilst studying at the University of Cambridge in 2008.
In 2009 Angiosplice won the 2009 the CUE Technology & CleanTech Prize from the University of Cambridge.
Angiogenesis
AngioSplice's primary focus is the prevention of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) in cancers and eye disease. AngioSplice™ is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics that modulate angiogenesis, by upregulating the ratio of the anti-angiogenic VEGF-Axxxb and thereby decreasing the formation of new blood vessels.
VEGF-A is the dominant growth factor involved in physiological angiogenesis and pathological angiogenesis in a number of cancers. It exists as multiple isoforms resulting from pre-mRNA splicing that either promotes growth of new vessels or inhibits this process, VEGFxxxb has been identified as a antiangiogenic isoform. http://ajprenal.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/286/4/F767 Differentiated human podocytes endogenously express an inhibitory isoform of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A165b) mRNA and protein, Tai-Gen Cui. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol, 2003</ref>
Existing therapies pursue a "shotgun" approach that silences naturally occurring anti-angiogenic signals along with pathologic pro-angiogenic signals and has the potential for significant off-target toxicities . The AngioSplice™ approach promises to produce safer, more effective therapies that address the >$8 billion market opportunity for anti-angiogenic therapies in oncology (Avastin) and ophthalmology (Lucentis)
Approach
Manipulation of the splicing machinery of VEGF-A is an attractive therapeutic target. Angiosplice claims to be able to modulate the expression of these isoforms by alterating their expression ratio. . AngioSPlice uses two approaches: a small molecule Protein kinase inhibitor (AS-002) and antisense oligonucleotides (AS-001) that both act to alter the splicing machinery.

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