Thursday, June 23, 2011

Cyclodextrin Results in Mice May Help Shape Clinical Trial for NPC


Wall Street Journal Health Blog Article

In an article by Amy Dockser Marcus, the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog reported on a paper recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience on the use of cyclodextrin to treat NPC in mice. The paper's authors, led by Dr. John M. Dietschy of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, report that the treatment not only kept the mice alive, but prevented the cognitive decline of NPC.

From the WSJ blog: " “It will be a very influential paper in the field,” scientist Daniel Ory [Chair of the NNPDF's Scientific Advisory Board] tells the Health Blog. Ory ought to know: he is the principal investigator on an NIH grant focused on getting cyclodextrin from the lab into NPC patients. He’s also working closely with NIH’s Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases program, which selected NPC and cyclodextrin as one of its pilot projects to attempt to repurpose drugs for use in rare diseases."

The NNPDF hosted a conference call on May 2 which addressed plans for an upcoming clinical trial using cyclodextrin in NPC patients. In addition to Dr. Ory, the conference call included information about the clinical trial from Dr. Forbes "Denny" Porter of the National Institutes of Health. To read the text of the conference call, visit this page on NPC research updates.

For a link to the WSJ Health Blog article, visit the NNPDF's NewsLine page.