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Biotech / Medical : Stressgen (VSE: SSB) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Luke who wrote (39)	4/22/1998 10:45:00 AM
From: don jackson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 236

Well it looks like like this news release is catching the eye of some investor's. Nice to see some action again. full story is at this link newswire.ca but here is part of it from Canada NewsWire "STRESSGEN'S LEAD PRODUCT ERADICATES TUMOURS IN PRECLINICAL MODELS OF CERVICAL CANCER VICTORIA, B.C., April 21 /CNW/ - StressGen Biotechnologies Corp. (TSE:SSB) today announced that its lead cervical cancer product, HspE7, can completely eradicate large tumours in animal models. These findings were presented by StressGen scientist, Dr. N.R. Chu at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology 98 held in San Francisco, CA. HspE7, a recombinant fusion product, combines the potent immune-stimulating properties of stress proteins with a tumour-associated antigen, to effectively enlist and direct the immune system to attack cancer cells. In the study, Dr. Chu and his team evaluated the efficacy of HspE7 in the treatment of mice challenged with an aggressive cervical cancer cell line. Tumours were completely eliminated in 90% of the mice treated with HspE7. In contrast, not a single member of the saline-treated control group exhibited tumour elimination. In addition, after re-challenge with 5 times the number of cancer cells, 100% of the mice in the HspE7-treated group remained tumour-free. ''These data demonstrating therapeutic utility, are an important advance in the development of HspE7, our first immunotherapeutic product'' said Richard M. Glickman, StressGen's President and CEO. ''Combined with our earlier demonstration that HspE7 protects against tumour formation in animal models of cervical cancer, these data constitute a strong foundation, as we continue on schedule, to move towards filing an IND during the fourth quarter of 1998.'' HspE7 is composed of heat shock protein 65 (Hsp65) from M. bovis BCG and the protein E7. As a member of the family of stress proteins, Hsp65 is known to elicit a powerful immune response. E7 is a tumour-specific antigen and thus represents a precise target for the immune system attack on abnormal cervical epithelial cells. The E7 protein is derived from the human papillomavirus (HPV) and is now known to be responsible for the malignant transformation of cervical epithelial cells. HPV infection, one of the most widespread sexually transmitted diseases, has been identified as the major causative agent of cervical dysplasia (abnormal cells which are the precursor to cervical cancer) and invasive cervical cancer. This year in the US, 300,000 - 1.5 million women will be newly diagnosed with HPV-induced abnormal cervical epithelial cells. nother 15,000 will develop invasive carcinoma and approximately 5,000 will die. StressGen is developing a broad range of immunotherapy and prophylactic vaccine products based on a natural class of powerful immune-stimulating molecules, called stress proteins or heat shock proteins. A large body of scientific research by Richard Young, Ph.D. of the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research and others have demonstrated that these molecules potently activate the body's immune defense system, including the recruitment of the killer T cells that are essential to effectively combat cancer cells and virally-infected cells. StressGen is incorporating stress proteins into proprietary fusion protein products for specific cancer immunotherapy and prophylactic vaccines for the prevention of infectious disease. Through its joint venture with Genzyme Molecular Oncology, the Company is also incorporating the genes encoding stress proteins into gene therapy products for the treatment of cancer.