Burgers - again
Companies race to develop better mad cow test
Monday February 5, 2:58 pm Eastern Time
biz.yahoo.com
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - As mad cow disease spreads from Britain and threatens
the European cattle industry, scaring meat-eaters who fear they may catch the brain-wasting illness from eating beef, several companies are working to develop an easier test for the disease.
The only surefire way now to test for mad cow disease, known officially as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is to check an animal's brain after it has been killed.
The same goes for the human version of the disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and the new human strain, variant CJD (vCJD), caused by eating infected beef.
``Everyone is racing to get a blood test,'' Sandy Stewart, a vice president at Paradigm Genetics Inc. (NasdaqNM:PDGM - news), one company hoping to market a test, said in a recent telephone interview.
``It's a big issue. It was the same with HIV.''
And although vCJD has been detected in fewer than 90 people -- most in Britain and three in France -- a test could guide doctors who suspect a patient has the incurable illness.
``Unfortunately, at present the only way to diagnose mad cow disease in cattle or the human form of the disease ... is after the symptoms have developed and the disease is entering its late stages,'' Dr. Robert Petersen, chief scientific adviser at Prion Developmental Laboratories, Inc., one of the companies hoping to develop a test, said in a statement.
``By then it's usually too late to ensure that infected meat or beef products have not entered the human food supply,'' Petersen, a pathologist at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, added.
``There is still no treatment for prion diseases, including BSE and vCJD, but a reliable and sensitive diagnostic would permit the testing not only of cattle, but also of human blood products and tissues before they are used in medical procedures.''
MAD COW CAUSE NOT EASY TO TEST FOR
But BSE is not caused by something easy to test for, such as bacteria. It is not even caused by a virus, which is somewhat easier to test using immune proteins called antibodies or by looking for its genetic material.
BSE, CJD and related diseases such as scrapie are caused by prions, nerve system proteins that are normally benign but which can take on a misshapen form that can cause holes to form in the brain.
Nonetheless, a few companies are forging ahead to develop tests that might find the prions in the blood or in an easily reached part of the body such as the back of the throat.
Privately owned German pharmaceuticals firm Boehringer Ingelheim said in December it had applied for a global patent for a blood test to detect BSE in living cattle.
The company has not detailed just what the test looks for, but says its animal health subsidiary Vetmedica GmbH had developed the test, which it hopes will be available later this year in Europe.
German biotech company GeneScan Europe AG, said earlier it hoped to test its assay for mad cow disease in January.
IDEXX Laboratories Inc. (NasdaqNM:IDXX - news) of Westbrook, Maine, and Caprion Pharmaceuticals of Canada said they were working to develop a blood test but declined to identify the ``novel agents'' that recognize the prion protein.
``That's our goal, to develop a blood test, but we're still in the development area,'' Quentin Tonelli, vice president of research and development at IDEXX, said in a telephone interview. ``We hope to have a faster and more sensitive test.''
Paradigm, based in San Francisco, made a pact with Prionics AG, a private Swiss firm, to use Prionics' ``proprietary antibodies'' that can find rogue prions.
FAST APPROVAL OF NEW TESTS EXPECTED
Roche Holdings AG recently agreed to market the test. ``We'd anticipate (regulators) would accelerate the (approval) process,'' Stewart said. ``We don't anticipate a tremendous lag in getting a test to the market because there's a food safety issue here.''
Bayer Corporation and Rockville, Maryland-based BioReliance (NasdaqNM:BREL - news) said they had developed a test for prions that could be used to see whether blood purification methods worked to remove the infectious prions.
At least one company has been formed specifically to find a test for the disease. Dr. Robert Gallo, who helped discover the HIV virus that causes AIDS, has helped set up Prion Developmental Laboratories, Inc. to find a BSE test.
Working with BioLabs, Inc., the researchers hope to come up with a test that can be used on cattle at the slaughterhouse, and then later perhaps human blood.
Gallo's team has not said what they will use as the basis for their test. But in November, Swiss scientists reported they had discovered a blood protein, called plasminogen, that attaches to the rogue prions. |
