Studies Show Proposed Anti Aging Therapy Kills Cancer Cell
HOUSTON - November 12, 1997 - Cryogenic Solutions, Inc.
(OTC BB:CYGS), while perfecting the patent on their anti aging therapy, became aware of studies indicating that the same technology intended to rejuvenate healthy cells actually killed cancer cells in laboratory and animal studies.
Experiments at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and the University of Nebraska Medical Center have recently shown that inserting telomere single strand DNA into certain cancer cells results in cell death. The production of single strand DNA in the body is central to CSI's patent application, the significant claims of which have been allowed by the US Patent Office.
"On paper, this looks a lot like the 'silver bullet' ", said Mike Skillern, CSI's VP of Technology Development. "--- a man made virus that may rejuvenate healthy cells and kill cancer cells. Obviously, there is a work to be done, but there are no apparent negatives in the equation."
CSI is in the final development phases of its ssDNA expression vector (TeloVectorT, patent pending), an engineered virus that manufactures custom sequences of single stranded DNA inside the nucleus to rejuvenate aging cells.
Telomeres are the end segments of chromosomes and they become shorter with each cell division. The company is working to "program" the vector (virus) to produce single strands of DNA inside cells of organisms to lengthen the telomeres. The evidence continues to mount that lengthening telomeres should be an effective anti-aging therapy. In addition, independent research now indicates that the same process may be a powerful anti-cancer therapy.
The experiments at The Department of Pharmacology and Department of Medicine of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York have recently shown that inserting telomere single strands into certain cancerous cells results in the cell's death because it interferes with telomerase. CSI researchers believe that this phenomenon will prove to be a generally applicable cancer treatment because over 90% of cancer types express telomerase (the enzyme that cancer uses to preserve telomere length and helps make cancer cells immortal).
"One of the strengths of CSI is its commitment to stay abreast of related research that may reconfigure or enhance our efforts." said Steve Sloat, company President. "We are very excited about these discoveries. Our
TeloVectorT is the only effective way to introduce single stranded DNA into
the cells of living organisms. If they are simply injected, single strands of DNA
degrade in the bloodstream long before they can enter the cells." Sloat
continued, " We will, of course, vigorously pursue this application of our
technology as well as our other products."
"This new-found evidence that our telomere elongation process could significantly effect cancer therapy is indeed profound. Our cell culture
experiments are scheduled for the first quarter of 1998 with animal studies
immediately thereafter." said CSI Chairman Dell Gibson.
Cryogenic Solutions, Inc. is a biomedical research company with a broadening product mix that includes diabetes therapies, aquaculture, and dermal cell regeneration technologies. Its predominate focus is on discovering and developing therapeutic and diagnostic products based upon the company's
understanding of telomeres and telomerase in cells -- fundamental biological
mechanisms underlying cancer and age-related diseases.
The company desires to take advantage of the "safe harbor'' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Specifically, the company wishes to alert readers that matters discussed in this press release may constitute certain forward- looking statements that are dependent on certain
risks and uncertainties.
The following three paragraphs are a purely technical explanation of the technology:
Recent experiments have shown that cell transfection with oligonucleotides identical to the mammalian telomeric repeating sequence, 5'-d(TTAGGG)-3', increases the replicative capacity of a variety of phenotypically normal cell types, consistent with the "telomere hypothesis" to explain replicative
senescence. These experiments further showed that the transfected
oligonucleotides induced an increase in hematopoietic stem cell populations.
Conversely, the same mammalian telomeric hexanucleotide has now been shown to inhibit telomerase activity in cell lysates, lengthen cell doubling time, and induce apoptosis in a variety of cancer cells. Malignant cells often have Higher telomerase activity than normal cells.
The company will commence in vitro and in vivo studies of telomeric ssDNA transfection immediately upon completion of its ssDNA expression vector. The telomeric ssDNA expression vector "cassette" will direct the incorporation the telomeric hexanucleotide sequence into the genome, in vitro and in vivo, without the cytotoxic and oligonucleotide instability which occurs with simple oligonucleotide transfections. The "cassette" can be cloned into other vectors to target specific cell types.
Information about telomere single strands and cancer can be found on Medline:
A hexameric phosphorothioate oligonucleotide telomerase inhibitor arrests growth of Burkitt's lymphoma cells in vitro and in vivo.
Inhibitory effects of telomere-mimic phosphorothioate oligonucleotides on various human tumor cells in vitro.
For Further Information contact:
Mike Skillern 713-780-1399 |
