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Biotech / Medical : T/FIF Portfolio -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Henry Niman who wrote (530)	2/8/1999 6:29:00 PM
From: scaram(o)uche	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1073

I just posted the header and time stamp, Henry. Thursday December 31, 1:38 PM (EST) Gene therapy with molecular switch opens new possibilities WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (AFP) - Using a unique combination of cutting-edge technologies, scientists have introduced a new gene therapy that will make a number of new treatments possible, a report in Science magazine said Thursday. The novel therapy introduces therapeutic genes into the body and then controls them with a drug given as a simple pill. What the research shows is an entirely new form of drug delivery through a harmless virus acting as a carrier of a molecular switch that can control the gene. Reeseachers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and ARIAD Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developed the technique which has been successfully tested on monkeys and mice. "It's a very precise gene switch, a kind of molecular rheostat," Dr James Wilson of Pennsylvania Medical Center explained. A common rheostat is the dimmer switch used in household lights. "We're excited about these results, because they create new opportunities for experimental and then clinical applications of gene threapy that we couldn't consider before," said Wilson, director of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy at Penn, and senior author of the Science report. The system couples advances at Penn allowing long-term introduction of genes into the body with ARIAD's patented technology to regulate gene activity. "The ability to achieve dosage control of a drug in the context of gene therapy is going to be critical to making a number of new treatments possible," Michael Gilman, chief scientific officer at ARIAD said. The new method has distinct advantages over current drug delivery systems, Gilman said. With oral or injectable drugs, the patient has peaks and valleys in the amount of drug in the blood. "One of the real advantages of using gene therapy to deliver drugs is that you can deliver them in a steady trickle that can be adjusted through administration of a pill," Gillman added. The next step, researchers say, will be clinical trials. pa/smb/ld