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Biotech / Medical : GUMM - Eliminate the Common Cold -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Linda Kaplan who wrote (623)	5/19/1999 12:44:00 PM
From: out_of_the_loop	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5582

Final clarification and answer to your question. I called GelTech to speak with the scientists regarding the mechanism of action and, technically speaking, Zicam does not actually bind the ICAM site on the cell, but it does stabilize the cell membrane making it impermeable to the virus. It does bind the virus outside the cell (like "T") and inside the cell. This means that my #1 and #3 mechanisms are entirely correct, but that #2 is factually incorrect, but functionally correct. <whew!> I apologize for my misunderstanding of the exact occurrences at the level of the nasal epithelial cell. It is not an intentional misrepresentation but functionally makes no difference since Zicam does physically prevent the virus from getting into the cell and thus works differently in an added way that "T" does not. I think the fact that Boehringer has shelved "T" says they are aware of Zicam and do not want to waste a lot of money, time and effort on something that will be expensive, require a prescription and be not as effective. Anyway, to answer your question, Zicam is applied directly to the nasal epithelium. Cold-eze has to get there by absorption and movement through the blood for the most part, the way I understand it. If it should directly attach to receptors in the back of the throat/upper nasopharynx, it would have to diffuse from there to the other receptors. That would take some time and have a dilutive effect. Take a look at the drawings on the www.zicam.com site and look at the "how Zicam works" section. Look at their cross section representation of the nasopharynx and you will see what I mean. I hope that I have been helpful and informative. Again, I apologize for my earlier errors but I think they bother me more because I should have reviewed more to get the exact details rather than stating anything functionally inaccurate about the product. The exact details still support a multi-tiered mechanism of effectiveness that includes the direct blockage of viral entry into the epithelial cells. So, no harm done. Prima non nocere (First, do no harm).