This is another version of the news item posted earlier this week - "New
Drug holds promise for brain injury and disease."
Drug Shown In Early Studies To Prevent Brain Cell Death After Injury
August 25, 1999
The Medical Tribune
In what could be a tremendous breakthrough in the treatment of brain
diseases and
injuries, researchers announced on Tuesday that they have discovered a
new drug that has
been shown in laboratory experiments to protect brain cells from death
following injury.
If proven successful in humans, the drug will be the first of its kind
to protect neurons in
such conditions as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, epileptic brain damage
or traumatic head
injury.
"We have found one unique group of signals that leads straight to the
death of
cells. What we have developed is a chemical that blocks that process,"
said Dr. Nicolas
G. Bazan, who presented his findings at the American Chemical Society's
national
meeting in New Orleans. Bazan is the founder and director of the
Louisiana State
University Heath Science Center Neuroscience Center of Excellence in New
Orleans. He
is also a Boyd professor of ophthalmology, biochemistry and molecular
biology and
neurology.
Bazan and his colleagues have been working closely with researchers at
the
Universidad de Alcala in Spain, and through a number of research
projects, have
developed an experimental drug called LAU-0501, which blocks the
chemical signals
that lead to the death of neurons. (LAU stands for Louisiana Alcala
Universities.) Once
neurons were severely damaged, such as in Alzheimer's disease or
traumatic head injury,
the process that leads to their death was believed to be irreversible.
Further, the brain
does not generate new neurons to replace ones that have died.
LAU-0501 interferes with the expression of a gene and a protein, both
called
cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). With disease or injury, the COX-2 gene in the
neurons
begins to produce a chemical messenger RNA. This chemical messenger then
instructs
the gene to produce the COX-2 protein, which is known to cause
inflammation and
precede neuronal death in experimental models of brain disease and
injury. LAU-0501
works by inhibiting this gene expression and prevents cell death before
it occurs.
"In injury and neurodegenerative diseases of several kinds," Bazan
said, "this
signaling by chemicals may be a common pathway to the death of cells."
He said that a drug like LAU-0501 might one day be used in long-terms
treatments to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Bazan also
said that he hopes
one day "to put this drug in ambulances, and when there's a [head]
injury, for example, at
the roadside this drug can be administered to patients immediately. Then
you will slow
down and halt the damage and death of neurons."
Motor vehicle-related accidents are the number one cause of death and
disability
in people under age 42 in the United States, according to Bazan.
Currently, paramedics
are only able to treat a person's immediate and visible injuries. Yet
with untreated head
trauma, "after a few hours, there is damage to the brain that is
irreversible," he said. This
drug could provide paramedics with the ability to treat head injury
before the cells die, he
suggested.
However, when such a treatment will become available is "very difficult
to predict," Bazan commented. The next step will be for a pharmaceutical
company to begin conducting clinical trials of the drug. Once clinical
trials are done,
Bazan said he hopes it will be possible to speed FDA approval of the
drug because of its
tremendous potential to help victims of disease and injury.
William Thies, vice president for medical and scientific affairs at the
Alzheimer's
Association in Chicago, said that he is hopeful about the effectiveness
of this type of
treatment, yet warned that a "cure" is not at hand. "It's important for
us to have this
information because it's the foundation that we're going to build the
next group of
therapeutic interventions on," he said, "but this is not a therapeutic
finding."
He also explained that COX-2 inhibiting drugs are one of many
treatments for
Alzheimer's disease that researchers are investigating. Nonetheless, he
speculated that
within two years, researchers will begin to see the results of the
clinical trials of COX-2
inhibitors and will have a better picture of the treatment's
effectiveness and side effects.
Copyright 1999 The Medical Tribune News Service.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
[log in to unmask]
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