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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: A.J. Mullen who wrote (33269)	12/29/2009 8:21:56 PM
From: rkrw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

There actually was a company business plan i saw last year, it came out of the University of Iowa to sell some sort of special worm for Chrohn's Disease. Believe it or not they were trying to get funded to run clinical trials and sell it as a drug i suppose. They did have some evidence albeit very small numbers of efficacy. ehow.com

To: A.J. Mullen who wrote (33269)	12/29/2009 10:22:26 PM
From: Arthur Radley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

AJ, On the surface one might say that infecting someone with hookworms would be crazy, but in reality there 'might' be merit to this idea as it relates to MS,Parkinson, and Dementia. Growing up in the south where shoes were only required on Sunday church visits, most kids suffered from hookworms (treatment with something that only can be described by saying the pills were as big as 'horse pills' and they induced hallucinations. TRUST ME...I know! Hookworms caused major loss of iron and this could be the connection to the NPR story. However, other complications from hookworms can even include heart problems, so the monitoring and limited inducement would have to be a consideration.

To: A.J. Mullen who wrote (33269)	12/30/2009 12:15:27 PM
From: Biomaven	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

Here's a failed allergy trial, with only slight hints of efficacy: Clin Exp Allergy. 2009 Dec 16. [Epub ahead of print] Experimental hookworm infection: a randomized placebo-controlled trial in asthma. Feary JR, Venn AJ, Mortimer K, Brown AP, Hooi D, Falcone FH, Pritchard DI, Britton JR. Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK. Summary Background Epidemiological studies suggest that hookworm infection protects against asthma, and therefore that hookworm infection may have a direct or an indirect therapeutic potential in this disease. We now report the first clinical trial of experimental hookworm infection in people with allergic asthma. Objectives To determine the effects of experimental hookworm infection in asthma. Methods Thirty-two individuals with asthma and measurable airway responsiveness to adenosine monophosphate (AMP) were randomized and double blinded to cutaneous administration of either ten Necator americanus larvae, or histamine solution (placebo), and followed for 16 weeks. The primary outcome was the change in provocation dose of inhaled AMP required to reduce forced expiratory volume in 1 s by 20% (PD(20)AMP) from baseline to week 16. Secondary outcomes included change in several measures of asthma control and allergen skin sensitivity and the occurrence of adverse effects. Results Mean PD(20)AMP improved in both groups, more in the hookworm [1.49 doubling doses (DD)] than the placebo group (0.98 DD), but the difference between groups was not significant (0.51 DD; 95% confidence interval: -1.79 to 2.80; P=0.65). There were no significant differences between the two groups for other measures of asthma control or allergen skin sensitization. Infection was generally well tolerated. Conclusions Experimental infection with ten hookworm larvae in asthma did not result in significant improvement in bronchial responsiveness or other measures of asthma control in this study. However, infection was well tolerated and resulted in a non-significant improvement in airway responsiveness, indicating that further studies that mimic more closely natural infection are feasible and should be undertaken. There's a theory that the current high rates of reflux reflect the gradual eradication of h. pylori in the population - those bugs (despite causing ulcers) actually suppress acid production in the stomach to avoid getting killed by the acid. Peter