Lixte Biotechnology Holdings Compound LB-205 Reported to Have Therapeutic Potential for Gaucher Disease

EAST SETAUKET, N.Y., Dec. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- An article in the early edition (December 12, 2011) of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, reported that Lixte's investigational drug, LB-205, was shown to have therapeutic potential in a laboratory model of Gaucher disease  (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/12/08/1119181109.full.pdf+html).

John Kovach, MD, founder and president of Lixte said, "This is a novel use of the class of drugs known as histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi's). HDACi's have been used clinically primarily as an anticancer treatments. To our knowledge, this is the first time HDACi's have been shown to have therapeutic potential in a model of Gaucher disease. We were pleased that the effectiveness of LB-205 compared favorably with a clinically approved HDACi.  Primary treatment for many Gaucher disease patients is injection of the enzyme, glucocerebrosidase, which decreases the toxic accumulation of glucocerebroside in many tissues. Unfortunately, in some patients, the brain is significantly affected by glucocerebroside accumulation and the injected enzyme does enter the brain readily. Although the effectiveness of HDACi's for Gaucher treatment remains to be proven in clinical studies, the discovery is intriguing because some HDACi's, like LB-205, penetrate the brain and may be effective given by mouth rather than injection, simplifying long term management."

About Lixte Biotechnology Holdings, Inc.
Lixte is a cancer drug discovery company, using biomarker technology and innovative chemistry to develop new potentially more effective anti-cancer drugs. It has lead compounds in two classes of drugs, protein phosphatase inhibitors for which a US patent was recently issued with world-wide patent applications pending for a lead compound LB-100 and structural variants , and novel histone deacetylase inhibitors for which broad patent applications are also pending. The Company is targeting treatments for several types common and rarer but devastating cancers. The primary emphasis is on the most common and most aggressive type of brain cancer of adults, glioblastoma multiforme and other cancers of neural tissue (nerve and brain), including medulloblastoma, the most common brain tumor of children, and neuroblastoma, the most common cancer of children, as well as non-neural cancers of adults, including breast and pancreatic cancer, melanomas and sarcomas. 

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For additional information, please see:  www.Lixte.com

SOURCE Lixte Biotechnology Holdings, Inc.