$1.5M Grant Given to s Hopkins for Antibiotic Research of ALS

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" That strategy previously worked to identify ceftriaxone, an FDA-approved

antibiotic commonly prescribed to treat pneumonia, bacterial meningitis and

Lyme disease. "

$1.5 Million Cinque Foundation Grant Goes To ALS Drug Research At s

Hopkins Packard Center

_WEBWIRE_ (http://www.webwire.com/) – Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The Packard Center for ALS Research at s Hopkins announced today

that it has received a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the Cinque

Foundation. The money will support the screening of thousands of drugs already

approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and on the market for their

potential value in treating people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive and fatal

neurodegenerative disease marked by gradual and crippling paralysis that

affects

about 30,000 people in the United States. No cure exists, so treatment is

currently limited to palliative care.

A team of researchers at s Hopkins, led by Packard Center Director

Rothstein, M.D., says the value of hunting among already approved drugs

is

that they have already undergone extensive safety testing and can be quickly

used in clinical trials of ALS patients.

That strategy previously worked to identify ceftriaxone, an FDA-approved

antibiotic commonly prescribed to treat pneumonia, bacterial meningitis and

Lyme

disease. Rothstein and his team demonstrated the drug’s effectiveness on

cell cultures or slices of spinal cord from rats that have an ALS-like disease.

The new experiments will add two additional twists to the search for drugs

to treat ALS. First, rather than screening single drugs, the researchers will

be working with millions of combinations of drugs to learn whether some

pharmaceuticals are more potent against ALS when combined. Second, the team

will

be testing these drugs for the first time on human stem cell-derived brain

cells called astrocytes, which are now known to be defective in ALS.

“What we hope is that our search will reveal drugs that already exist in the

vast reservoir of FDA-approved drugs and are just waiting to be unleashed on

ALS,†notes Rothstein.

About the Packard Center for ALS Research. Headquartered in

Baltimore, the Packard Center for ALS Research at s Hopkins is a

collaboration of scientists worldwide who are working to develop new treatments

and a

cure for ALS. The Center’s goal is to speed translational research from the

laboratory bench to the clinic. It was named after a San Francisco investment

banker whose foundation supports the Center. Packard died of ALS in

2000.

About the Cinque Foundation. Established in 2007, the Cinque Foundation is

dedicated to eliminating suffering and death caused by ALS. The Foundation

funds medical research that contributes to understanding this complex disease,

with a particular emphasis on expediting the translation of promising results

to benefit ALS patients.

Coughlan, President

MA Lyme Disease Awareness Assoc.

Mashpee, MA

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