Myelin Repair Drug Trial - Biogen Starts Human Trial..

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ElMarino
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Myelin Repair Drug Trial - Biogen Starts Human Trial..

Post by ElMarino »

Ok!

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Note that this article only mentions Myelin repair but I have read elsewhere that manipulating the LINGO 1 gene promotes axonal repair. Nothing goes in to too much detail though, perhaps for simple articles myelin repair is axon repair?

-edit-
The proteins Nogo and Lingo-1 appear to have the ability to block nerve cells from growing, so if they can be blocked, the nerve cells might be able to recover.
(from 'MS Research Into Reparative Cells Offers New Avenue for Fighting Disease ' here: http://www.msrc.co.uk/printable.cfm?pageid=1398

- - -

By Thomas Gryta and Jon Kamp
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) has begin human testing of an experimental drug, dubbed BIIB033, that it hopes will take the revolutionary step of repairing some of the damage done by multiple sclerosis.

Although it is a major step to begin testing in humans, drug development is always risky and it will take years to measure the drug's effectiveness and potential side effects.

Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a chronic, inflammatory condition that occurs when the body attacks its own myelin, the protective insulation surrounding the nerve fibers, or axons, in the central nervous system. The debilitating disease affects an estimated 400,000 people in the U.S., according to the National MS Society, but current treatments only aim to slow the disease's progression and cannot help repair damage.

Research that focuses on ways to help the body regenerate myelin is growing and scientists around the world are taking several different approaches. Damage to myelin can distort or block messages carried by axons and result in a wide variety of MS symptoms such as vision problems, limb numbness and paralysis.

BIIB033 is an antibody designed to turn off Lingo-1, a molecule that the company believes prevents myelin production in adults after axons are well covered. Blocking Lingo-1 may encourage myelin regeneration, something that occurs in healthy adults, after damage from MS occurs.

The antibody has been shown to be effective in mouse models that are accepted as being useful for mimicking the properties of MS.

The small Phase I study will include 64 healthy volunteer adults in the Netherlands, with the main goal of assessing safety and tolerability, and is expected to be completed in 2011.

The placebo-contolled study will give patients a single dose of the drug and different groups will get different amounts, a standard practice in such early trials that helps determine the optimal dose for later investigation.

The secondary goals of the trial relate to how the body processes the drug and there is no measure of its effectiveness, which is not surprising in such an early study that doesn't actually include MS patients.

MS is an attractive area of drug makers as its often requires lifelong treatment, and MS drugs brought in more than $8.7 billion in 2009 revenue worldwide, according to projections from Bernstein Research.

Biogen is mostly focused on selling MS treatments, including Avonex and Tysabri, which are expected to bring sales of more than $3 billion for 2009.
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burntsienna
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Post by burntsienna »

:o WOW! does anybody else find this as exciting as I do? I mean, I'm not one to pin my hope on fancies, and it's early early days yet, but this is closer than they've gotten before to actually working on repair rather than just prevention and maintenance!
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Post by ElMarino »

Yup, this could be tremendous.

I just wish that Biogen weren't being so secretive about this. Or perhaps I missed the peer rated article regarding the success of their experiments so far...
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Post by burntsienna »

I am really coming to realise how much the discovery of treatments to help us are based around drug company finance and competition. I hate it.
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Post by ElMarino »

burntsienna wrote:I am really coming to realise how much the discovery of treatments to help us are based around drug company finance and competition. I hate it.
It would be good if governments were giving greater funding to researchers, to universities directly and take big business, who will usually only jump on an idea relatively late in the research process, out od the loop by awarding innovation and ptoducing drugs..

Still, it's a sign that Biogen are aware that research into regenerative processes and medicine is being conducted elsewhere. Now that they have commenced human trials I should imagine that other pharmaceutical companied will try to follow suit.

As much as I am disheartened by the politics of big pharmaceutica; companies, it angers me so muchj more that Western powers put so much money into belligerent wars. Such a deal was made in the news of a £1,000,000 grant in Cambridge for MS research earlier this month. Imagine if the £750,000,000,000+that has been spent by the West's excursion into Iraq was used for research into difficult-to-treat disease! Well, it's easy for me to imagine because I can remember well what it was like to run (as I'm sure do the Iraqis and Western servicemen who have had their legs blown off). Anyway, that's a different story and I shouldn't speak like this here, because this is about our illness and not politics. But it's true, it does annoy me so very much that the priorities of our rulers are the way that they are.
Last edited by ElMarino on Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Absentee »

this makes me want to scream!!!!!!!!

"MS is an attractive area of drug makers as its often requires lifelong treatment"

Aren't they lucky to have us?
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