NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CANADIAN CORPORATE NEWS
FOR: DIMETHAID RESEARCH INC.
TSE SYMBOL: DMX
FEBRUARY 11, 1998
Dimethaid Research Announces Important New Information on
WF10
MARKHAM, ONTARIO--Dimethaid Research Inc. announced today that
important new information on WF10, Oxo Chemie AG's platform drug,
will be presented at the 3rd International Conference on Clinical
and Experimental Immunosuppression in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr. Michael McGrath, head of the AIDS Immunobiology Research
Laboratory at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF),
and his co-researchers led by Dr. Edgar Engleman at Stanford
University School of Medicine, employed standard techniques to
detect the response of normal CD4++ T-lymphocytes, following
in-vitro presentation of antigens in the presence of varying
dilutions of WF10 or its absence. They demonstrated that WF10 is a
potent inhibitor of antigen presentation by both dendritic cells
and monocytes.
The potential benefits of this effect could extend to treatment of
diseases and conditions triggered by unbridled antigen-driven
reactions of the immune system. Since WF10 is extremely well
tolerated when administered to humans systemically, its possible
role in the treatment of autoimmune disease and organ
transplantation are warranted.
Previous work by Dr. F. W. Kuhne, the inventor of WF10, and
others, has demonstrated the drug's augmentation of macrophage
phagocytosis, both in-vitro and in-vivo. "This new information
expands our understanding of WF10 as a platform drug," said
Rebecca Keeler, President and CEO of Dimethaid Research. "WF10
appears to represent a completely new drug treatment, which can
have the effect of correcting inappropriate immune response."
Dr. McGrath's presentation will take place on February 14, 1998
and will be reviewed and published in Transplantation Proceedings.
Dimethaid Research holds a 20 percent interest in Oxo Chemie with
an option to increase this to 25 percent, as well as the Canadian
distribution rights to WF10. Dimethaid Research is a
pharmaceutical company engaged in the development and
commercialization of innovative therapeutic products which work
with the body's own healing mechanisms. |
