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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Pharmos(PARS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ron who wrote (865)	5/29/1998 9:15:00 PM
From: yosi s	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1491

The following is a copy from yahoo thread a very nice description of Dexanabinol mechanism of action. messages.yahoo.com@m2.yahoo.com "The marijuana-derived drugs countering the effect of head injury. Israeli neurologists need go no further than their own country to recognise the need for a drug to prevent the contamination of healthy brain cells caused by serious head injuries. Some 528 people in Israel were killed in road accidents last year and about 3,430 were seriously injured. Most deaths and injuries were caused by damage to the head. Now, using substances derived from marijuana, scientists may have found a solution. When the brain is injured, trauma, strokes or even death do not occur immediately. Brain cell molecules, tightly under control in a normally functioning brain, start reacting wildly. Over a period of a few hours, they rush from the damaged cells through narrow channels to other cells, causing confusion and excitement. This process, known as neuronal cell death, causes severe brain trauma. There is also the danger of swelling. Under normal circumstances, water is tightly controlled in the brain, operating like small blood vessels. But following an injury, water enters the brain from outside. The cells cannot cope; swelling occurs, often leading to strokes or death. Finding a way to contain damaged cells - which would limit brain injury by preventing neuronal cell death - is one project being undertaken by Pharmos, a small biotechnology company based at the Kiryat Weizmann scientific park close to Tel Aviv. Haim Aviv, chairman of Pharmos as well as the Israel National Committee for Biotechnology, says the company is developing a chemical compound, Dexanabinol, which can protect healthy brain cells by blocking glutamate, the neurotransmitter. Head trauma and strokes cause the release of excessive glutamate, often resulting in irreversible damage to brain cells. Pharmos has separated from marijuana properties for medical use that do not induce psychotropic side affects associated with the drug. With Dexanabinol, we want to plug the receptor which sits at the entrance to the channel of the cells, says Anat Biegon, a physiologist and vice-president of research and development at Pharmos. By blocking the channel, Dexanabinol, which has potent anti-oxidant and anti-inflamatory properties, inhibits calcium influx in the primary neural cells. This means it interferes with, or blocks, the cascade of biochemical processes unleashed through an injury on the brain. Pharmos started phase II trials for Dexanabinol in October 1996, involving 67 patients in six of Israel's neurotrauma centres. About 1,000 patients will be involved in phase III, at a cost of $15m (œ8.9m). According to Sturza, the US medical investment analysts, Dexanabinol showed no serious side effects when administered to healthy volunteers in a phase I trial. The drug is administered through injection. The market for such a drug is large, according to Jesup & Lamont Securities, US analysts. An estimated 500,000 strokes occur in the US each year while worldwide more than 5m people suffer each year from stroke, head trauma or other conditions associated with neuronal cell death. Pharmos says it should soon be in a position when phase II trials are complete to assess the level of neurological recovery."