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Biotech / Medical : INCR -- Incara Pharmaceuticals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: keokalani'nui who wrote (94)	5/1/2001 12:53:17 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Respond to of 196

Saturday April 28, 5:00 pm Eastern Time Press Release SOURCE: MetaPhore Pharmaceuticals, Inc. New Drug Could Improve Heart Function by Removing Free Radicals, According to Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center BALTIMORE, Md., April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- A developmental drug being studied at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has been shown to improve heart function in animal models of heart attack, according to researchers in a study presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies here today. The drug, a synthetic compound developed by MetaPhore Pharmaceuticals in St. Louis, removes free radicals from injured heart tissues. Free radicals can cause extensive damage to the heart following a heart attack. Administeredprior to re-opening the blood vessels in the heart in animal models of heart attack, the compound, which mimics the action of a natural free-radical fighting enzyme, appears to protect the heart cells from further damage. In laboratory rats, the drug has been shown to be highly protective against injury from free radicals, according to R. Mark Payne, M.D. associate professor of pediatric cardiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and principal investigator of the study. ``The applications of this research are enormous,'' Payne said. ``The early animal studies are very positive, but more animal studies need to be completed. These data support our hypothesis that tissue can be protected during a heart attack, with potentially improved cardiac function.'' When a person has a heart attack, blood flow to the heart and other organs is restricted. Doctors must quickly reestablish blood flow by opening up the damaged blood vessels, providing needed blood to the heart and other organs in the body. However, additional damage also typically occurs when the blood flow is reestablished. The renewed inflow of blood to heart tissues produces a large excess of dangerous free radicals, which damage proteins and DNA in the cell, causing the tissue to die. Dead tissue later results in scar tissue in the heart, according to Payne. If the drug is administered before the blood vessels in the heart have been re-opened -- the period in which most of the cardiac damage occurs -- then cardiac tissue may be saved with a better long-term outlook for the patient. ``Normally these cells have coping mechanisms to deal with free radicals that are generated within the cells in low amounts,'' he said. ``But when the heart has suffered an attack, the cells become overwhelmed and cannot cope with the enormous burst of free radicals that are produced when blood flow is reestablished to the injured regions of the heart. As a result, the cells die and are replaced by scar tissue, which does not function as normal heart muscle.'' The enzyme mimetic compound replicates the action of the natural enzyme, superoxide dismutase (SOD), one of the body's primary defense mechanisms against free radical damage to tissues and cells. ``This enzyme mimetic is much smaller in size than naturally occurring enzymes that usually remove free radicals,'' Payne said. ``The small size is very important because it allows the drug to penetrate into tissues, such as the brain and the heart, that larger synthetic drugs and proteins cannot easily penetrate.'' In other studies, the SOD enzyme mimetic also has been shown effective in decreasing stroke injury in laboratory animals when administered prior to the onset of the stroke. ``These data are exciting because they suggest a role for these drugs in the early treatment of stroke, as well as heart attacks,'' added Payne. More studies need to be conducted to study the efficacy of the drug if it were administered after the opening of the blood vessels, instead of prior to opening them up. Researchers studied the enzyme mimetic M40403 in rat models of heart attack. Half the rats were given the drug and half were used as a control group. The half given the drug showed less damage to the heart than the control group. In addition to Payne, Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D., with MetaPhore Pharmaceuticals, participated in the study. The National Institutes of Health and the Brenner Center for Child and Adolescent Health funded the study. Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are ``forward looking'' statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The actual results may differ from those projected in the forward looking statement due to risks and uncertainties that exist in the company's operations, development efforts and business environment. SOURCE: MetaPhore Pharmaceuticals, Inc.