" 11:15 Gene Therapy to Control Intractable Pain in Cancer Patients: A New Paradigm? A very high proportion (up to 85%) of terminal cancer patients suffer from severe pain; current therapies, principally opioids, are of limited use. Benitec Biopharma Ltd. is developing a gene therapy strategy to control pain in such patients using intrathecal delivery of lentiviral particles expressing shRNA constructs designed to inactivate the Protein Kinase C gamma gene (PKCg) in neurones of the spinal cord. Others have demonstrated the strategy works in neuropathic pain models in rats. Benitec has developed constructs that strongly inactivate PKCg in vitro; these particular shRNAs target sequences within PKCg that are absolutely conserved between rat and humans as well as pre-clinical test species (dogs and macaques), simplifying pre-clinical testing. These new constructs are being validated in rat pain models and protocols for pre-clinical testing are being developed. Benitec believes a gene therapy approach for pain control in terminal cancer patients is warranted, the approach is relatively low risk and offers the prospect of a single treatment providing long term pain relief.
Peter French, Ph.D. (biography), Chief Executive Officer, Benitec Biopharma "
