Know you think this is BS, but will keep an eye out for trial results...
Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Prana Biotechnology Limited (ASX: PBT) today announced that Dr. Ashley Bush, M.D., Ph.D., scientific advisor to the Company, will be presenting a potential treatment for Alzheimer's Disease at the Society for Neuroscience 30th Annual Meeting in New Orleans on November 7, 2000.
Previous research by Bush and his team had shown that excess zinc and copper in the brain could cause ABeta to accumulate into the lesions found in the brain of the patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease, (``Alzheimer's''). The brain accumulates high concentrations of zinc, copper and iron in the regions affected by Alzheimer's, an exposure thought not to be caused by environmental factors.
Dr. Bush found that the drug known as PBT1, which traps and absorbs copper and zinc, profoundly reduces ABeta accumulation in the brains of transgenic mice. The drug had no adverse side effects and, on a general behavioral rating scale, the PBT1-treated mice actually performed better after three weeks of treatment than placebo-treated mice.
Bush says that this study breaks the previously held dogma that ABeta is deposited only as a consequence of the production of the long form of the protein possessing 42 amino acids. ``The dominant target has been to shut down the production of ABeta altogether. Our results show that that approach may be unnecessary,'' Dr. Bush said.
Clinical trials of PBT1 have begun at the University of Melbourne in Australia. The investigators are looking not only to halt the decline that accompanies Alzheimer's, but also to detect improvements in brain function. The trials are conducted by Professor Colin Masters, M.D. and are sponsored by Prana Biotechnology. Professor Masters is a Director of Prana Biotechnology and chair of the Company's Scientific Advisory Board.
Approximately 50 patients are participating in a double blind phase 2 clinical trial of the drug (over a six month interval) at the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, and the University of Melbourne, Australia. The patients are all moderately affected by Alzheimer's disease, but still live independently and are able to give informed consent. Results will not be known for at least another 12 months.
Dr. Bush is the Director of the Laboratory for Oxidation Biology, within the Genetics of the Aging Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Visiting Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His discoveries relating to the role of metals and oxidative stress in neurological disorders have opened a new field of research of neuroscience that forms the basis of the Company's platform technology in the arena of age-related diseases. Bush is a consultant and member of the scientific advisory board for Prana Biotechnology, which had sponsored the research at MGH until September 1999.
Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D., Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and Geneticist, Neurology Service, and Director of the Genetics of the Aging Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital is a co-author on the paper, and is also a member of the scientific advisory board for Prana Biotechnology.... |
