http://www.newswire.ca/releases/July2002/19/c6228.html
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Attention Business, Medical And Health Editors:
--Data on Scrapie Prophylaxis to Appear in 20 July Issue of The Lancet--
WELLESLEY, Mass., and OTTAWA, Canada, and Langenfeld, Germany, July 19
/CNW/ -- Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Inc., today announced the
publication of a fast-track research letter entitled "Postexposure prophylaxis
against prion disease with a stimulator of innate immunity" in the July 20
issue of The Lancet. Investigators at the Institute of Neuropathology,
Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich (Shneh Sethi, M.D., and Hans
Kretzschmar, M.D.) and at the Technical University of Munich (Hermann Wagner,
M.D., Ph.D.), as well as Coley scientist Grayson Lipford, Ph.D., report the
prevention of scrapie development by treating infected mice with repeated
injections of a CpG molecule. Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease
affecting the central nervous system and is among a number of diseases
classified as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE). Examples of
TSE include bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease") and
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).
"Normally, the immune response to bacteria and viruses is triggered by,
among other things, the presence of foreign nucleic acids which act as a
'danger signal'," said Dr. Hermann Wagner. "Since prions contain no nucleic
acid danger signal, we used a known stimulator of innate immunity, a CpG
molecule, to develop a possible post-exposure prophylaxis for prion diseases
in a mouse model. These data clearly show a dramatic effect of the repeated
CpG treatment on arresting the disease in mice."
"The exciting aspect of these results is that even after prion infection,
the CpG activation of the immune system for several weeks may indefinitely
delay the development of disease," said Arthur M. Krieg, M.D., Senior Vice
President and Chief Scientific Officer of Coley Pharmaceutical Group. "CpG
1826 that was used in this study, is a mouse version of our CpG 7909, which is
currently in human clinical trials in cancer and infectious diseases. This
new discovery that CpG can be used against prions is a surprising and
unexpected finding, with potentially major implications in the treatment of
humans who may have been exposed to prions." However, Dr. Hans Kretzschmar
cautioned that "further experiments will be required to determine whether CpG
might be useful in the treatment of sporadic or variant CJD in humans."
Study Details
Mice were injected with brain extracts containing Rocky Mountain
Laboratory (RML) mouse-adapted scrapie isolate. The mice were then
simultaneously treated with either saline or a CpG molecule (CpG 1826)
followed by 3 additional treatments at 24 hour intervals. An additional cohort
of mice was treated 7 hour post-infectious challenge with either saline or a
CpG molecule. The treatment course was 4 times or 20 times at 24 hour
intervals. Brain extracts are known to transmit scrapie directly, presumably
through the presence of the infectious agent PrP(Sc) or infectious prion
protein.
All saline-treated mice succumbed to the neurodegenerative disease by 183
days post-infection. Mice given a CpG molecule immediately after infection,
or 7 hour post infection followed by 4 treatment injections experienced a
delay in the onset of disease by 38 percent compared to the saline-treated
mice. Remarkably, infected mice that received a CpG molecule at 7 hour post-
infection, and then daily for 20 days never developed disease during the 330
days of the experiment.
About Prion Diseases
Prions are infectious protein particles, which are modified forms of a
normal cellular membrane protein. Scrapie is one of a group of so-called prion
diseases, or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies involving neuronal
degeneration in the brain; the brain shows microscopic holes or "vacuoles",
termed spongiosis. Invariably fatal, these diseases afflict animals and
humans, respectively known as mad cow disease (BSE) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease (CJD). CJD can be caused by exposure to infectious brain, pituitary
or ocular tissue, or by ingestion of infected food items. A few hundred
iatrogenic cases of CJD have been diagnosed worldwide, the majority due to
transmission by cadaveric pituitary growth hormone. Thus far, more than 120
cases of vCJD have been diagnosed caused by BSE-contaminated food. The
eventual size of the epidemic is still unclear. There is no known treatment
for these diseases.
About Coley Pharmaceutical Group
Coley Pharmaceutical Group is developing a new class of drugs with broad
potential applications in cancer, asthma, allergy and infectious diseases.
These CpG drugs activate the human immune system to fight disease. Coley
currently has Phase I and Phase II clinical trials ongoing and has established
a novel Human Cell Screening drug discovery and development platform for the
rapid validation and optimization of new product candidates. Coley has a
product development and licensing agreement with Aventis Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., for the development of CpG products in the treatment of asthma and
allergic rhinitis, as well as a license agreement with GlaxoSmithKline for the
use of certain CpG product candidates in specified preventive and therapeutic
infectious disease vaccines. Coley's patent portfolio includes 55 U.S.
patents and patent applications and their worldwide counterparts, including 9
U.S. patents that have been issued. Coley is a private company with
operations in the United States, Germany and Canada. For further information,
please visit www.coleypharma.com.
Contact:
Patricia F. Dimond, Ph.D.
VP, Corporate Communications
Strategic Development
Coley Pharmaceutical Group
+1.781.718.3616
pdimondcoleypharma.com
Karla MacDonald or Candace Ashir
Feinstein Kean Healthcare (U.S.)
+1.617.577.8110
cashirfkhealth.com
Michael Sinclair or Fay Weston
Burns McClellan (Europe)
+44.20.7534.1520
fwestonburnsmc.co.uk
-30-
For further information: Patricia F. Dimond, Ph.D., VP, Corporate
Communications Strategic Development of Coley Pharmaceutical Group,
+1-781-718-3616, pdimond@coleypharma.com; or Karla MacDonald or Candace
Ashir, cashir@fkhealth.com, of Feinstein Kean Healthcare (U.S.),
+1-617-577-8110; or Michael Sinclair or Fay Weston, fweston@burnsmc.co.uk,
of Burns McClellan (Europe), +44.20.7534.1520
/Web site: http://www.coleypharma.com
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