« Hurricanes & HD | Main | Tetrabenazine Gets 'Fast Track' »
September 15, 2004
First Human Testing For RNAi
Not for Huntington's Disease, but for Macular Degeneration. To me it is amazing how fast research is moving on using RNAi as a therapeutic tool.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...RNAi will probably become one of the biggest medical stories of the last several decades. It offers the biggest hope for to be a truly effective Huntington's Disease effective treatment/'cure' in the near future. Just one of many diseases that may end up being treated with this method.
Oh...Sirna Therapeutics, which is working with the University of Iowa on a treatment for Huntington's Disease, is also applying to the FDA for approval to use RNAi in the treatment of Macular Degeneration. An excerpt from this very interesting article:
Backers, though, say that RNAi appears to be more potent than the earlier techniques because it makes use of the cell's natural mechanism.
"There's no doubt in my mind that this is the clear winner," said Mark A. Kay, a Stanford professor. He hopes to test an RNAi treatment for hepatitis C in cooperation with Benitec, an Australian company that now owns a company he founded.
Some animal tests have demonstrated the technique's potential. According to a paper published in June, scientists at the F.D.A. led by Suzanne L. Epstein used RNAi to partly protect mice from lethal flu viruses, including two strains of avian flu that experts worry could become the basis for a new pandemic.
Beverly L. Davidson and colleagues at the University of Iowa reduced the severity in mice of one type of ataxia, a hereditary brain disease somewhat similar to Huntington's. "It's very exciting,'' she said, "because we finally have a tool to approach therapies" for diseases like Huntington's and ataxia.
Posted by Dave at September 15, 2004 11:53 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.huntingtons.info/MT/mt-tb.cgi/581
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)