Here's the most detailed of the articles
Copyright 1999 U.P.I.
United Press International
May 18, 1999, Tuesday, BC cycle -16:24 Eastern Time
SECTION: Domestic News
LENGTH: 598 words
HEADLINE: New drug cuts cold misery UPI Science News
DATELINE: CHICAGO, May 18
BODY:
It may not be a cure for the common cold, but a new medicine in a nose spray appears to cut cold misery by half, say South Carolina scientists. Despite promising study results, however, the company developing the cold-fighting drug says it has been shelved indefinitely, to divert research funding to other projects. Tests of the genetically engineered medicine, called tremacamra, showed that it reduced all cold symptoms by 45 percent and runny noses by about 56 percent, says Dr. Ronald B. Turner, head of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina at Charleston. ''These are the first human trials of a new technique for fighting colds,'' Turner said. Unlike other illness-fighting methods, which involve attacking the virus or fighting the inflammatory symptoms, the new drug works like a decoy, drawing the virus away from target molecules in the nose, he says. The results of the studies, conducted on 177 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 60, are published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, published in Chicago. The study was sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Ridgefield, Conn. -- the company that makes the drug. The firm has been studying the drug since 1994. The volunteers studied at MUSC were first exposed to the cold virus, and given the drug -- in a wet or dry form -- 12 hours later. Another group, studied by Turner's colleagues at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, were treated seven hours after they were infected with cold viruses. Both groups were compared to patients who were exposed to the virus but given only a placebo. Scientists then asked the subjects if they had any or all of the eight most common cold symptoms, including sneezing, stuffy nose, sore throat, headache, chilliness and malaise. The volunteers were then asked to rate how bad they felt. The investigators also measured nasal secretions by collecting and weighing all the tissues used by each volunteer. They then subtracted the weight of unused tissues to those heavy with mucus, he says. Turner says the studies only looked at patients before symptoms started, and he says further research would be needed to show if the medicine works after the suffering begins. In an editorial accompanying the study, Kenneth McIntosh of Boston's Harvard Medical School calls Turner's results encouraging. He says further research is needed to show if the drug will work as well after symptoms show up. Also, there are about 100 different strains of rhinovirus, and this study focused on only one of them. It is unknown whether the drug will work as well on different virus types, and if it will prevent colds under everyday conditions. Turner says it is clear that a cure for the common cold is still not in hand. Turner also said his group has no immediate plans for pursuing further work with tremacamra, because Boehringer Ingelheim has backed off. He says, ''At this point, we're stalled.'' A spokeswoman for the company, Pam DeMala, says that the development of the drug has been put on hold, because other compounds being developed by the firm showed more potential, and appeared to be more worthy of research dollars. She says, ''It fell to a lower priority.'' In a statement, the company said it hasn't ruled out continuing development of the molecule in the future. (Written by Mara Bovsun in New York City)
---
Copyright 1999 by United Press International
All rights reserved
---
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: May 18, 1999
|
