I try to stay neutral on these things. I don't know much about the history amongst the antagonists and don't much care. If I like what they say on a certain topic, I'll talk to 'em.
Agreed.
It's the bottom line that we all learn.... scientists don't cheat.
Undeniable.
This looked interesting (to this layman).
biz.yahoo.com
ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 28, 2000--Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that a scientific paper has been published outlining the Company's proprietary approach to treating Parkinson's Disease (PD) and other Lewy body disorders.
Panacea has exclusive worldwide rights to the technology, and the Company has established a Collaborative Research agreement with researchers at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois for its further development.
The findings were published in The Journal of Neuroscience (Vol. 20, No. 16, pages 6048-6054), the official journal of the Society of Neuroscience. The paper is entitled ``The A53T alpha-Synuclein Mutation Increases Iron-Dependent Aggregation and Toxicity.'' The senior author of the paper is Benjamin Wolozin, M.D., Ph.D., Panacea's collaborator at Loyola.
The data supports the theory that alpha-synuclein (A-Syn) acts in concert with iron and dopamine to induce formation of Lewy body pathology in PD and cell death in PD. The paper also describes the drug screening models that were employed by the Company leading to its two pre-clinical candidates, PAN-408 and PAN-527.
Background on Alpha-Synuclein
The discovery of the A-Syn gene has opened exciting new opportunities to explore the pathophysiology of PD and other Lewy body diseases. Lewy bodies are neuronal inclusions that are the neuropathologic hallmark of PD. A-Syn is present in Lewy bodies in PD and diffuse Lewy body disease.
In addition, mutations in A-Syn cause rare cases of familial PD, which demonstrates that changes in A-Syn biology are sufficient to drive the pathophysiology of PD.
The striking accumulation of A-Syn inclusions in Lewy body diseases indicates that A-Syn also plays an important role in the pathophysiology of these diseases.
Nevertheless, the cause of A-Syn aggregation and the role of this aggregation in causing dementia, including that seen in Alzheimer's disease, has to date been unidentified.
The paper demonstrated that iron and free radical generators stimulate the production of intracellular aggregates that contain A-Syn and ubiquitin. The amount of aggregation that occurred in the cultured neuronal cells depended on the amount and type of A-Syn expressed.
In addition to stimulating aggregate formation, A-Syn also appeared to induce toxicity, demonstrated by the observation that neuroblastoma cells overexpressing A-Syn displayed up to a fourfold increase in vulnerability to toxicity when induced by iron.
``We are continuing to screen potential inhibitors of alpha-synuclein aggregation using our proprietary models,'' said Hossein A. Ghanbari, Ph.D., President and CEO of Panacea.
``Our hit rate has been exceptional, and we are currently pursuing the development of two of the most active compounds, PAN-408 and PAN-527. We believe our approach can effectively address the underlying cause of Parkinson's disease, not merely the symptoms.''
``This technology is already attracting enormous interest in the scientific and medical communities,'' stated Christopher Kircher, M.D., Chairman of Panacea's Clinical Advisory Board.
``Panacea is making the move from the standard industry approach of symptomatic treatment, which is used for the management of the disease, to a specific neuroprotective disease-modifying treatment approach that has the power to change the course of the disease.
``We are currently positioning the advisory board's membership to reflect the Company's aggressive development schedule for its current pre-clinical candidates.''
Parkinson's Disease is the most common motor disorder, affecting 1% of the population over 60 years of age. Among individuals older than 70 years, 1.5-2.5% have the disease. In the United States alone, 50,000 people are diagnosed with PD each year, and more than half a million are affected at any one time. With the increasing age of the world population, a substantial increase in PD is anticipated.
About Panacea Pharmaceuticals
Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. focuses on developing and utilizing protein-based technologies to detect and identify changes associated with and involved in diseases of the central nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, brain tumors, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, and Lewy body diseases such as Parkinson's disease.
Changes in disease-relevant proteins by altered expression, post-translational modification, and functional variation are utilized to develop diagnostic tests and therapeutic agents.
More information is available at www.PanaceaPharma.com |
