Curis presents data on CU-906 compound designed to inhibit HDAC and PI3K/mTOR targets simultaneously

Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), a drug development company seeking to develop next generation targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer treatment, today announced that data provided in a presentation entitled, "Antitumor activity of single small molecule agent targeting PI3K/mTor and HDAC," were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 101^st Annual Meeting 2010, which is being held in Washington, DC April 17-21. The poster highlights data on the Company's novel research compound CU-906, which is designed to inhibit HDAC and PI3K/mTOR targets simultaneously. This presentation was given during a poster session on April 20^th by Rudi Bao, M.D., Ph.D., Curis' Senior Director of Oncology.

“Antitumor activity of single small molecule agent targeting PI3K/mTor and HDAC”

"It has been widely published that the activation of the PI3K-mTOR and related Akt signaling pathways play a crucial role in cancer development and progression, and inhibition of these pathways have recently been investigated extensively as a cancer therapy," stated Dan Passeri, Curis President and Chief Executive Officer. "However, the efficacy of the PI3K pathway inhibition is limited by the release of negative feedback loops, resulting in the activation of alternate pathways such as the RAF-MEK-ERK pathway. In an effort to enhance anti-tumor activity and overcome these limitations, we have developed a series of small-molecule compounds that are able to simultaneously inhibit both PI3K/mTOR and HDAC, an epigenetic cancer target, based the synergistic effects of inhibition of these targets in cancer cells. We expect to select CU-906 or another molecule from this class of compounds as a development candidate in 2010."