i have been in and out of nymx several times so far this year...they are on to something i believe and the nature of the illness and its prospects should keep nymx in the news...this today...2.25 on nasdaq:
(COMTEX) B: Nymox Developing New Drug Candidates for the Treatment of
B: Nymox Developing New Drug Candidates for the Treatment of Alzheimer's
Disease
MAYWOOD, N.J., Mar 13, 2001 (BW HealthWire) -- Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation
(NASDAQ: NYMX) announced today that it is increasing its development efforts in
the areas of diagnosing and treating Alzheimer's disease, the leading cause of
dementia among the elderly.
This is National Brain Awareness Week (March 12 -18) across the United States,
Canada and Europe. Brain Awareness Week is an annual public information campaign
sponsored by the Society for Neuroscience in conjunction with the Dana Alliance
for Brain Initiatives and designed to raise public awareness of brain and
nervous system research.
Nymox has two principal development programs aimed at Alzheimer's disease, both
based on original research into the possible causes of this terminal brain
disease. The findings illustrate how basic research in neuroscience can lead to
promising new drug treatments for Alzheimer's disease and new diagnostic tools
for physicians.
The first program targets spherons, tiny dense balls of protein found in the
brains of everyone from age one. Spherons are the only normal new brain
structure visible through the light microscope found in the last century. The
fact that they are not visible by the most routine neuroscience methods may have
contributed to their surprisingly late characterization.
Nymox researchers believe that spherons are the principal source of the senile
plaques, the characteristic abnormality found in abundance in crucial areas of
the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease and widely believed to play a
pivotal role in the cause and course of the illness. The researchers found that,
as we grow older, spherons enlarge until they can no longer be held by their
brain cells. When they reach their maximum size of 5 to 10 microns in diameter,
they burst, creating the senile plaques and setting off a cascade of cellular
damage and biochemical changes that are instrumental to the symptoms and signs
of Alzheimer's disease.
In 1998, Nymox researchers summarized their findings linking spherons to senile
plaques and Alzheimer's disease in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Drug
News & Perspectives. These summaries set forth 20 important criteria of validity
correlating the disappearance of spherons in old age with the appearance of
senile plaques and implicating spherons as a significant cause of Alzheimer's
disease. In 2000, an international group of researchers from the United States,
Canada and the United Kingdom published further findings in Alzheimer Reports
(2000; 3: 177-184) confirming that spherons contain key proteins that are also
known to be in senile plaques and showing that, like senile plaques, spherons
contain unusually old proteins in terms of the human body's metabolism, with an
average age of 20 to 40 years.
Nymox researchers believe that stopping or inhibiting the transformation of
spherons into senile plaques will stop or slow the progress of this devastating
disease. They extracted spherons from human brain tissue and developed novel,
proprietary drug screening methodologies and promising new drug candidates based
on spherons.
Nymox's second Alzheimer's disease drug development program targets a brain
protein called neural thread protein (NTP) which is elevated early in
Alzheimer's disease as reported both in the scientific literature and at
scientific conferences. Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital and
Brown University led by Doctors Suzanne de la Monte and Jack Wands first found
large amounts of the protein in the brains of patients known to have died with
Alzheimer's disease. Subsequent research at Harvard and Brown led to the
characterization of NTP and the gene that produces it. Nymox succeeded in
developing a highly sensitive test to detect the presence of NTP in the spinal
fluid and, most recently, in the urine of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
To date, many independent studies published in peer-reviewed scientific
publications or presented at scientific conferences have confirmed the accuracy
of NTP as a marker for Alzheimer's disease. These publications include, for
example, the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology (1996; vol.
55: 1038-1050), Journal of Clinical Investigation (1997; vol.100; pages
3093-3104), Journal of Contemporary Neurology (1998; art. 4a), Journal of
Clinical Laboratory Analysis (1998; vol.12: 223-226) and (1998; vol.12:
285-288), Alzheimer's Reports (1999; vol.2: 327-332) and (2000; vol.3: 177-184),
and Neurology (2000; vol. 54: 1498-1504).
Nymox is currently marketing a clinical reference laboratory test, known as
AlzheimAlert(TM), that detects elevated levels of NTP in the urine of patients
with Alzheimer's disease. The results of this unique and accurate urine test can
assist a physician faced with the task of diagnosing whether a patient has
Alzheimer's disease. Nymox offers the test at a cost of $295 through its
reference laboratory in Maywood, New Jersey.
Based on the research that led to the discovery of NTP and evidence linking NTP
to the cell loss found in Alzheimer's disease, Nymox has also developed a unique
drug screening system to identify other potential drug candidates for the
treatment of Alzheimer's disease. These potential drug candidates are aimed to
reduce or prevent the cell loss associated with high levels of NTP. Recently,
Dr. Suzanne de la Monte and Dr. Jack Wands of Brown University published the
results of a series of experiments in the February, 2001, issue of the Journal
of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology (Vol. 60, No.2, pp. 195-207), a
prestigious peer-reviewed medical journal, which provided further evidence of
the key role played by NTP in Alzheimer's disease. The researchers implanted the
gene that produces NTP in nerve cells derived from humans. They then induced the
cells to turn on the NTP gene and to begin producing NTP in elevated quantities.
This caused a marked increase in nerve cell death. Sophisticated analysis showed
that the cells died in a programmed fashion similar to the way the nerve cells
in brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease die. Extensive loss of brain
cells and accompanying brain shrinkage is a key part of the Alzheimer's disease
process.
Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation has facilities in Montreal and Maywood, NJ. Its
stock is traded on NASDAQ with the symbol NYMX. More information is available at
nymox.com.
This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" as defined in
the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve
a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such
statements will prove to be accurate and the actual results and future events
could differ materially from management's current expectations. Such factors are
detailed from time to time in Nymox's filings with the United States Securities
and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities.
CONTACT: Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation
Dr. Michael Munzar, 1-800-93NYMOX
www.nymox.com
or
Sitrick & Company
Lew Phelps, 310/788-2850
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