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Biotech / Medical : Repligen Corp (RGEN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Curtis E. Bemis who wrote (126)	6/2/1999 7:22:00 PM
From: Gary	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 395

Should be a good day tomorrow, Gary Yahoo! News AP Headlines Wednesday June 2 5:01 PM ET Drug Helps Bone Marrow Transplants By DANIEL Q. HANEY AP Medical Editor BOSTON (AP) - A new, highly selective immune-suppressing drug may allow cancer victims to receive bone marrow transplants from poorly matched donors without suffering life-threatening complications. The drug suppresses only that part of the immune system that causes these complications. Doctors say this could allow patients to receive marrow transplants without the need for drugs that broadly suppress the body's immune defenses. These broad drugs raise the risk of infections and other health problems. In Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, researchers reported that the approach worked surprisingly well in the first experimental use on terminally ill cancer patients. They predicted it may also make it easier to transplant hearts, kidneys and other organs. ''This is starting to crack open the door on a new way of manipulating the immune system,'' said Dr. Eva C. Guinan of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where the approach was developed and tested. She said the treatment could make more transplants possible by eliminating the need for near-perfect matches between donors and recipients, and it could make transplants safer by potentially making lifelong immune suppression drugs unnecessary. Bone marrow manufactures new blood cells and sometimes must be replaced in leukemia and other marrow cancers. To minimize complications, doctors seek a close genetic match between donor and recipient. The new treatment, called CTLA4-Ig, blocks development of a dangerous complication called graft versus host disease, which occurs when foreign tissue is placed in the body. The drug stops only the category of white blood cells that promote this response, leaving intact the rest of the immune function of the newly transferred marrow. Doctors treat the donated marrow with CTLA4-Ig outside the body before transplanting it. Doctors tested the new approach on 12 young victims of advanced leukemia for whom only poorly matched marrow was available. No severe graft versus host disease occurred. Five have survived for five to 29 months, while the rest died of treatment complications and cancer relapse. All would have died without marrow transplants, the doctors said, and ordinary transplants would have been expected to cause serious graft verses host disease in most or all patients. ''This is the step to the next century,'' said Dr. Lee M. Nadler of Dana-Farber. ''This is the first specific immune suppression that has every been done.'' Journal deputy editor Robert S. Schwartz, who helped pioneer immune suppression for organ transplants in the 1950s, called the results impressive. However, in an editorial, he cautioned that this ''must be balanced against the small number of patients, the high death rate and the lack of information about immunologic reconstitution in the survivors.'' Guinan said the approach may also be widely used for those who need marrow transplants for other reasons, such as curing the blood diseases sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. CTLA4-Ig is being developed commercially by Repligen Corp. (Nasdaq:RGEN - news) of Needham, Mass. It plans to sponsor a larger study by the end of the year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Search News Stories Search News Photos Jun 01 \| May 31 \| May 28 \| May 27 \| May 26 \| May 25 \| May 24 \| May 23 \| May 22 \| May