Anyone hear of Ceragenins?

[Ihavehope]

By Daniel Jackson
A compound invented by BYU chemistry professor Paul D. Savage killed multiple strains of the virus that causes AIDS in early laboratory tests, according to statement from Ceragenix Pharmaceuticals on Monday, Feb.6, 2006.

Savage worked with Vanderbilt University professor Derya Unutmaz in developing and testing a family of compounds known as Ceragenins, or CSAs. One compound in particular, CSA-54, was particularly effective in inhibiting HIV infection of human T cells and killing different strains of the virus, Unutmaz said.

The compound apparently works by attacking the viral membrane, preventing it from interacting the T cells that HIV normally targets.

"This is particularly important, as a compound that targets the viral membrane is likely to be effective against all strains of the virus, regardless of mutations," Unutmaz said.

The entire family of CSAs is licensed to Ceragenix Pharmaceuticals, a Denver-based biopharmaceutical company that owns the patent to Barrier Repair Technology for treatment of skin disorders as well as the license for Ceragenins. BYU and Vanderbilt have also jointly filed a patent on Ceragenin technology, according to a Ceragenix press release.

BYU spokesman Grant Madsen cautioned against unrealistic hype concerning the compound, noting that the tests were conducted in test tubes and not in animals or humans. He said the researchers will probably either continue to recreate the original tests or begin testing on animals.

"Although any possible treatment is still a long way off, we're encouraged by these early studies of Dr. Savage's compounds and look forward to more research in this area," Madsen said.

In an interview with Salt Lake Tribune reporter Bob Mims, Savage reiterated Madsen's concerns about misleading publicity.

"We have some preliminary but very exciting results," Savage said. "We would like to formally show this before making any claims that would cause unwanted hype."

Savage further told the Tribune that the potential uses of Ceragenins are much broader than their application in AIDS drugs. He noted the drugs have also shown promise in fighting microbial and bacteria infections.

Savage was not available to speak to The Daily Universe at the time this article was written.

[J220]

Yes, they made a big deal out of this announcement earlier this year, but they really didn't give much specific information, and I don't think their research has been peer-reviewed. If you go to their website ceragenix.com, there is no mention whatsoever about CSA's and hiv, with the exception of the Feb press release, which is what you posted. Bottom line: way too early to tell. But no reason to be discouraged, there are plenty of other promising candidates out there. I am confident great things are on the horizon. I think 2007 is going to be a great year.

[Ihavehope]

J220 I think so too. From what I am reading 2005-2006 has been a very good year fr science in discovering new methods to combat HIV.

I see it this way, if we were able to discover planets in the universe and fly to the moon the cure or at least a better treatment method is on its way. My nurse practitioner who i have a suspicion may be HIV poz says there is no need for us to worry. Most of us who recently got infected will die of old age. Seems a little far fetched but at least he gave me a better outview of what can happen soon.

Let's stay strong

[Central79]

Hey

I've heard of these. I don't know what all the fuss is about - they are just another compound that shows antiviral activity in a test tube. So does bleach! That's a long way away from being able to put it in somebody's body and have a measurable effect against HIV...

I think the most promising developments I've heard of recently is the use of valproic acid to stimulate latent reservoirs of HIV haboring immune cells so they can be destroyed by more intensive ARV, and the use of radioimmunotherapy to kill HIV infected cells in mice, which should now hopefully be trialled in humans.

www.worldcommunitygrid.org is website I'm using that is searching through compounds classified by the NIH and modelling their predicted activity against HIV protease enzyme. Check it out!

Matt.

[NYCguy]

I was excited about these too when I first read about them (hi everyone, by the way, just joined and this is my first post...glad/not glad to be here, if you know what I mean).  I tried to email Derya Unmatz, who was the researcher for CSA-54 at Vanderbilt U, which seemed like where the real action on this was happening.  I never heard from him but then wrote to the person listed on of the PRs as being the contact (can't remember his name at the moment).  He wrote me a nice note saying that Unmatz had left to another Univ in Canada and that as far as he knew, no one was working on this now and it was up to Ceregenix to develop it.  Which, as noted above based on the company's website, means that there is probably nothing happening with it and they don't think it would be profitable to work on.  He also told me that the media had greatly overhyped it (big shock).  That's all I know.  Fortunately, there are many, many other things in development.  Any news on the Ensoli vaccine would be appreciated as would the vaccine from Ontario (Dr. Young Kang) which was hyped bigtime a few months ago as going into trials in 2007 funded by a Korean company.

Sorry to be a newbie, but if anyone knows how to get private messages to work, l would appreciate it.  Can't seem to find the links and 'new messages' just gives an error. thanks!

[J220]

Not to derail this thread, but to answer your questions, the last I heard of the Ensoli trial was a posting of an email she sent to someone at lilachat.it where she conclusively states that the second phase of their anti-tat vaccine is going ahead as planned, albeit a little delayed- she quoted money distribution issues. She also stated that the results of the phase one were very good, or something along those lines.

As far as Dr. Kang's vaccine, they are waiting to receive approval from the FDA to begin their first phase. I wrote to them and they said that the approval is imminent, and it's basically a done deal. I asked about the inclusion parameters for the trial but the person who responded said he didn't really know and gave me Dr. kang's email address (!) so I could ask him directly when he returns from somewhere overeas. Dr. Kang's vaccine seems to have great potential, and I don't think it was really subject to excessive hype as the CSA-54 was. Dr. Kang has been working on his vaccine for some two decades, and apparently the type of vaccine he developed is different than others that have failed. I do know that it succeded in causing an immune response on animals. Anything could happen, of course, but that includes the possibility that it could work. After all, Curocom (the Korean company financing the trials)  seems to have enough faith in it to plunk down fifty million dollars..that's quite a sum. So let's see where this goes! We may yet hear fantastic news sometime this year.

P.S. About Ceragenix again, I am sure they were counting their money all the way to the bank after the media "overhyped" (even though they wrote the press release themselves) their announcement. I remember looking at their stock activity after the press release (CGXP) and you can see the stock jumped almost 350%...how "unfortunate" for them that the media overhyped the announcement....

[NYCguy]

I think you're 100% correct about Ceregenix.  They seem to be more interested in skin products, although they claim to have the answers to resistant bacterial infections.  With I'd made money off them instead of getting false hope.

Continuing the derailment...I was quite excited after reading about Ensoli in the 'old' forums and also took a look at Lilachat's forum, even though I don't speak Italian.  It sounded like the early results were better than expected and there were some on the forum that seemed to think things were going much better than expected and that's why details were being kept under wraps.  I had also thought phase II had started early - too bad they were delayed by funding.

That's great you're going to be in touch with Dr. Kang!  I still haven't seen anything about how this vaccine actually works, other than "3-pronged."  Since you have had some contact there, do you think his comments that "we may be able to cure hiv infection" was perhaps a language thing or did he really mean 'cure' with all it's implications.  I know you probably can't answer that, but of course everyone on here would like to know...

I was very interested in your thoughts on brain infection from another topic and had thought some of the same things myself.  I'll see if I can find that posting and respond to it.