The best magazine
New Drug May Prevent Brain Damage from Injuries, Stroke, and Alzheimer's
Nov. 16, 1999 (Atlanta) -- Scientists have developed a new drug that may one day be used to stop the brain damage caused by tissue injury, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, epilepsy, and a host of other disorders. The drug works by turning off the gene that controls the making of chemicals that destroy the brain's nerve cells, called neurons.
If the drug -- called LAU-0501 while it's in the current experimental phase -- becomes widely available, it could prevent the disability that often results from brain-cell death, says the drug's developer, Nicholas G. Bazan, MD, PhD. He is hoping that the FDA will approve it quickly once all testing results are in and the drug is shown to be safe and effective, "because many of the diseases that are implied as a target [for the drug] today have no cure."
Besides stroke, Alzheimer's, and other degenerative diseases, Bazan tells WebMD, "a major need for [nerve cell] protection is when there are car crashes. Having a drug like this at the roadside to give immediately to accident victims would be another potential application."
Bazan, founder and director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, says that the early "discovery phase" of his research is complete. Now his team is waiting to receive a patent for the drug. He calls the team's findings "very important" because the drug does not appear to cause side effects and only affects areas of the brain that are being damaged.
Bazan says that the research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, has broad application for understanding all of the processes that occur when brain cells are damaged by injury or disease. "[It is] a tool for us to really begin understanding the mechanisms involved. We're at the beginning of the road to figuring out the processes involved in what we broadly call neuronal survival."
Scientists have long known that the brain responds to injury by releasing large amounts of a substance called glutamate, which helps form brain cells and plays a role in memory and learning functions. But glutamate has a negative effect in brain injury, because it sets off a chain reaction that leads to irreversible cell damage and death -- a process that has been little understood.
Bazan's drug works by 'switching off' that process before cell damage occurs. "It's a very novel approach," Bazan tells WebMD. COX-2 inhibitors -- the type of drug currently used to reduce the neurological damage caused by stroke -- kick in later in the process, he notes.
Source: ...