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Biotech / Medical : Procept (PRCT): 50% rise on high volume. Why? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Douglas who wrote (282)	11/5/1997 4:07:00 PM
From: Douglas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 455

It is always good to know your competition: Shark extract takes a bite out of sexual diseases By Rosie Mestel Extract of shark could help to stop the spread of some of the world's most rampant sexually transmitted diseases. Researchers at Magainin Pharmaceuticals in Pennsylvania are testing the chemical, known as squalamine, against the microorganisms responsible for a range of STDs, including herpes, gonorrhoea and chlamydia. Squalamine was isolated from the dogfish, a small shark, in 1993 by Michael Zasloff, who is now president of the research arm of Magainin Pharmaceuticals. Since then, studies have shown that squalamine kills a broad range of bacteria as effectively as conventional antibiotics such as penicillin. Squalamine also acts on viruses, including HIV by attacking the cells they invade. The chemical's mode of action is not fully understood, but it appears to disrupt the pH of bacteria and virus-infected cells, making them too acidic and so disabling them. Because the chemical attacks agents that cause serious STDs, researchers at Magainin decided to first explore its use as a "chemical condom", either as a cream or a coating for condoms. There is a great need for such drugs, says Nancy Alexander, who heads the contraceptive development branch at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and has been collaborating with the Magainin team. The WHO estimates that there are as many as 356 000 new cases of STD each day, and the only available forms of protection are condoms or spermicidal detergents such as nonoxynol-9, which are also antimicrobial to some degree. But nonoxynol-9 can irritate the vagina, and many men do not like condoms. "Some women are not in the position to negotiate condom use, so if there were better accepted products available that they could use surreptitiously, this would be very important," says Alexander. Animal tests with squalamine have been promising, says Leonard Jacob of Magainin. "Realistically, if things go well, we could be testing this drug in humans by the year after next." From New Scientist, 26 April 1997