http://www.hadassah.org.il/NR/exeres/92F77906-7244-42A5-A922-26926B4866F4.htm
 Lifesaving Treatment for Stroke Victims Developed by Hadassah-UPenn Team
 

 
25/10/2006
 

 
A Hadassah-University of Pennsylvania research team has developed a peptide that
could save the lives and improve the treatment of people stricken with ischemic
strokes. Their findings, published recently in the prestigious medical journal,
Nature Neuroscience, indicate they have found a way to bypass the serious side
effects of the thrombolytic agent tPA, a medication that dissolves clotting.

 

For over 50 years, doctors and scientists have known that the body's tPA
(tissue-type plasminogen activator) has the natural ability to dissolve blood
clots.  However, in the vast majority of stroke victims, 97 percent, it also
causes acute cranial hemorrhaging. Pharmaceutical companies have replicated tPA
to augment the body's natural supply, but they have been unable to eliminate its
dangerous side effects or give it a longer therapeutic window. Currently, only
about three percent of stroke victims can receive tPA, the only FDA-approved
treatment for acute ischemic stroke. 

 

Prof. Abd Al-Roof Higazi , and colleagues from the Hadassah University Medical
Center's Department of Clinical Biochemistry, and a team led by Prof. Douglas B
Cines  of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Pathology and
Laboratory Medicine developed the peptide. The article that appeared on August
27 described how they had modified tPA's function using a peptide that can bind
to tPA, change its structure and significantly decrease its side effects. The
peptide treated tPA preserves tissue viability after traumatic brain injury and
stroke without inhibiting tPA's clotting activity and provides a longer
therapeutic window. 

 

An editorial commenting on the Hadassah-University of Pennsylvania team's
findings that appeared in another prestigious medical journal, Nature Medicine,
concluded: "If these results are extended to humans, they could usher in a new
era of thrombolytic therapy for stroke, which is the leading cause of disability
in the world and the third leading cause in the United States after cancer and
heart disease."

 

Prof. Higazi is the Chief Scientific Officer of Thrombotec Ltd., a start-up
company of Hadasit, the technology transfer company of the Hadassah Medical
Organization, which owns the patents for both the stroke and heart attack
treatment involving the peptide-treated tPA. Thrombotec Ltd is included in the
portfolio of Hadasit Bio-Holdings Ltd. (HDST) that was floated on the Tel Aviv
Stock Exchange last December.

 

Thrombotec is involved in advanced negotiations with a strategic partner that
has designated its potential investment to enhancing the development of the
peptide in preparation for clinical trials. Thrombotec has already signed an
agreement with a Belgium company to manufacture the peptide.

 

The researchers have successfully tested their findings on animal models. After
completing toxicology tests, they will request permission to conduct clinical
trials, which they anticipate will begin within one to two years.

 

More than 750,000 Americans suffer strokes and about 150,000 die each year.
About $51 billion is spent on treatment and rehabilitation annually. In Israel,
15,000 people suffer stroke every year and 1,200 die.

 

 

 

For further information contact:

Dr. Rafi Hofstein, CEO, Hadasit - 972-2-6778757

Ophir Shahaf, Associate Dir. Gen., Hadasit Bio-Holdings Ltd. - 

 972-54-5201177

Prof. Abd Al-Roof Higazi - 972-2-6776673

Yael Bossem-Levy, Hadassah spokesperson - 972-50-5280597

 
 
 

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