Press News

PRESS RELEASE

NeuroRepair Validates IP with Lab's Success in
New Stroke Therapy

San Francisco, CA (PRWeb) (February 9, 2010) – Two recent studies by neuroscientists at the University of California, Irvine, have had startling success with a neuroregenerative therapy tested in rats. The therapy may eventually help restore limb function in people with impaired mobility, long after they have experienced a stroke, traumatic injury, or the onset of neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson’s. (Read more in the PDF.)

The results of the studies, announced on January 12 in an online press release in UC Irvine Today, validate the Intellectual Property owned by NeuroRepair, a small San Francisco-based biotech company. NeuroRepair is committed to developing an effective, non-invasive procedure for repair of neurological damage based on a protein called Transforming Growth Factor alpha (TGF alpha). The studies found that nearly total functional repair was effected months after the brain injury was suffered.

Historically, it has generally been thought impossible to reverse brain injury. Only recently have scientists found ways to reduce, or modestly reverse, the effects of brain injury with therapeutics administered within a few hours of injury. This discovery, that an injury may be completely repaired months, or even years after the event, is revolutionary.

"For the first time, TGF alpha has been shown to repair damage long after a stroke. We believe this same therapy will be effective in Parkinson’s and a number of other brain injuries and diseases," said James Fallon, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at UCI and senior co-author of the studies. Fallon also serves as chief science officer at NeuroRepair.

"This is an extremely significant finding – that a protein naturally occurring in humans restores motor function in rats following a stroke. The potential for using this therapy in humans is very exciting," said Fallon.

In the studies, scientists discovered that TGF alpha was stimulating neuron growth in the rats' brains one month (roughly a year in human terms) after the induction of a stroke. The protein restored 99 percent of lost movement if administered directly to the brain and 70 percent when given through the nose.

"There is an obvious advantage to being able to deliver a drug to the brain intranasally, without a surgical procedure," said Matthew Klipstein, founder and CEO of NeuroRepair. "The study proves the efficacy of TGF-a and of the non-invasive method of administration. While I caution people not to get their hopes up for a readily available cure this month, or even this year, this is an exciting development.”

The studies at UC Irvine were conducted by postdoctoral researcher Magda Guerra-Crespo. The first was published in the journal Neuroscience and the second study appeared in the Journal of Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases on January 11. In the first study, scientists demonstrated that TGF alpha administered directly to the brain helps rats with stroke-induced loss of limb function on one side, as is typically seen in humans.

In the second study, scientists simulated a nasal spray by placing TGF alpha in the rats' noses. The chemical version of the protein was slightly different to make it more stable as it traveled to the brain.

"The results were unexpected and amazing," according to Fallon. "We observed the same regenerative process in the second study as in the first. And while the behavioral improvements weren't exactly the same, they were still impressive."

TGF alpha induces massive proliferation, migration and differentiation (the changing of pluripotent stem cells into replacement cells, such as neurons, of the kind that were lost or damaged) in the damaged adult brain. The degree of proliferation and migration surpasses that of other known growth factor or synthetic molecules. Naturally occurring in humans, TGF alpha plays a critical role in development and tissue formation, from the time just following conception through birth and into old age. While it has been studied for two decades in other organ systems, the UCI studies represent the first time it has been shown to reverse the symptoms of a stroke.

In addition to Guerra-Crespo and professor Fallon, UCI researchers Andres Sistos, Tina Toosky, Ihsan Solaroglu, John Zhang and Peter Bryant worked on the intracranial study.

NeuroRepair is a corporation founded and funded by Matthew Klipstein shortly after he suffered a neurological injury in a sports accident in 2000. NeuroRepair owns the Intellectual Property relating to this invention, and has pending patent applications respecting the use of Transforming Growth Factor alpha for treatment of central nervous system disorders and injuries, including stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, retinal disorders, and brain injury from head trauma.

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CONTACT: Kirk Surry
619.955.6172
info@neurorepair.com

 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Fox News Posts Health headline and article "Breakthrough Stroke Drug Could Almost Completely Reverse Limb Paralysis" on James Fallon's recent studies.

Fox News article:

A groundbreaking treatment, that can almost completely restore the limb paralysis that follows a stroke, has been successfully tested on rats, scientists in California announced Tuesday.

Studies by biologists at University of California, Irvine, found that a material that occurs naturally in humans can restore 99 percent of movement in rats if applied to the brain days after a debilitating stroke.

At present, no drugs exist that can help victims recover from a stroke after days have elapsed, James Fallon, psychiatry and human behavior professor and senior co-author of the studies said.

"Now we have evidence there may be therapies that can repair damage to a significant degree long after the stroke," he said. "It's a completely unexpected and remarkable finding, and it's worth trying in humans."

In one of the team's studies published in the January edition of the journal Neuroscience, scientists discovered that injecting the human protein into rats one month after they suffered a stroke (equal to about a year for humans) led to the recovery of nearly all their movement.

Rats that did not receive treatment improved just 30 percent.

"It's becoming more and more clear that the brain is like any other organ - it has a lot of potential to regenerate," said Darius Gleason, a developmental and cell biology graduate student who worked on the study.

"We are just emulating nature by giving a little nudge to what the brain is trying to do itself."

The treatment is based on a protein called Transforming Growth Factor Alpha, which plays a role in tissue formation.

Click here to read the article on the foxnews.com site.

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For additional information contact: info@neurorepair.com

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Contact:
Neurorepair, Inc.

Guerra-Crespo, M, D. Gleason, A. Sistos,  T.Toosky, I. Solaroglu, J.H. Zhang, P.J. Bryant and Fallon J.H.(2009) Transforming Growth Factor-alpha Induces Neurogenesis and Behavioral Improvement in a Chronic Stroke Model. Neuroscience 160: 470-483.
Purchase the full-text article

References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.

M. Guerra-Crespo, Corresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author, D. Gleason, A. Sistosa, T. Toosky, I. Solaroglu, J.H. Zhang, P.J. Bryant and J.H. Fallon

• Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, 335 Med Surge II, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
• Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, USA
• Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, USA
• Department of Psychiatry, Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine, USA

Received 6 November 2008;
accepted 4 February 2009.
Available online 25 February 2009.

Abstract

Transforming growth factor-alpha (TGFα) is a powerful endogenous mitogen and neurotrophic factor, which has previously been shown to induce a massive proliferative response in the brains of Parkinson's disease model rats injured by an acute neurotoxic lesion. We now show that TGFα can also produce a massive proliferative response in rat brains subjected to stroke caused by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), even when the growth factor is administered as late as 4 weeks after injury. This combination of stimuli provokes DNA synthesis, shown by 5′-bromo-2-deoxyuridine incorporation, throughout the ependymal layer and subventricular zone (SVZ) of the forebrain during the 4 weeks following injury. The newly generated cells migrate preferentially along and ventral to the corpus callosum (CC) and external capsule to the site of the injury where many of them differentiate into several site-appropriate neuronal phenotypes in association with near complete (99%) behavioral recovery. We conclude that the injury response of endogenous neural stem cells as well as behavioral recovery can be significantly enhanced by application of TGFα, and that this approach represents a potential therapeutic strategy for chronic stroke and other neurological damage in human patients.

Key words: adult stem cell; subventricular zone; injury; proliferation; differentiation; neurotrophic factor

Abbreviations: BrdU, 5′-bromo-2-deoxyuridine; DARPP-32, 3′,5′-monophosphate–regulated phosphoprotein, 32 kD; GFAP, glial fibrillary acidic protein; MCAO, middle cerebral artery occlusion; NeuN, neuron-specific nuclear protein; PD, Parkinson's disease; PMD, proliferation, migration and differentiation; SVZ, subventricular zone; TGFα, transforming growth factor-alpha

 

For additional information contact: info@neurorepair.com

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