Pentosan

[Guest guest]

Headline: NEW DRUG HOPE FOR AT RISK CJD GROUPS

Wire Service: PA (PA News)

Date: Wed, Nov 25, 1998

Copyright 1998 PA News. Copying, storing, redistribution, retransmission,

publication, transfer or commerical exploitation of this information is

expressly forbidden.

By Suzanna Chambers, PA News

A common drug to protect those thought to be at risk of developing CJD,

the human form of mad cow disease, is being considered by the Government.

Proposals to prescribe Pentosan have been discussed by the Department of

Health and scientists are hopeful that it could benefit people who ate

infected beef at the end of the 1980s.

Dr Dealler, a microbiological at Burnley General Hospital,

Lancashire, told BBC 2's Newsnight that he believed it was worth trying the

drug in high risk groups, including the children of mothers who died from

new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD).

The disclosure comes on the third anniversary of the death of mother of

three Bowen, who died of nvCJD at the age of 29.

Dr Dealler, whose research has been funded by the Government, said the

drug could also be given to people who need blood transfusions.

He said: " It's an amazing drug ... there are some obvious groups that

would benefit from this kind of drug ... Bowen's child -- she had

a Caesarean section -- she died shortly after of nvCJD.

" I would expect her child to have been exposed to the disease, just like

people who may have been inoculated with the disease through blood

transfusions, gammaglobulin or anti-D. It is very difficult now ethically

to avoid it. "

Pentosan has been tested successfully on mice infected with scrapie in

the early 1980s.

" The fantastic thing was you could actually inject just a single

injection of the drug into a mouse that was already infected with scrapie,

in this case, and you'd find that some of those mice did not go down with

the disease ... the infectivity in the mouse had completely gone, it was as

if the mice had been cured, " Dr Dealler said.

" I think we just have to say the evidence is good enough, now we must go

ahead ... that sounds like a very good opportunity I doubt we should miss

this one... " , he told Newsnight.

It is not the first time a proposal to carry out research into Pentosan

has been submitted to the Department of Health, the programme disclosed.

Bostock, director of the Government's Institute of Animal Health

and a member of SEAC, the committee that advises the Government on BSE and

nvCJD, would like to see research into whether Pentosan has the same

effects on mice if given orally instead of injected.

He is also keen to see at what dose the licensed version of the chemical

might work.

" In the 80s ... it was fundamentally a disease of sheep ... I think when

one is now faced with the prospect -- the hypothetical prospect -- of quite

a large number of humans infected with these diseases then that if you like

changes the balance of where you might put your research effort, " he told

Newsnight.

" This is a very clear biological effect that might be translatable into

some form of prophylaxis or some form of treatment. "

But he thinks it is too early to prescribe the drug to people. " I don't

believe that we yet have a good enough idea of how these drugs work to know

how you set about designing a proper clinical trial. "

Philip Comer, of Det Norske Veritas, risk assessment advisors to the

Government, said it was definitely worth investigating further into the

effects of the drug.

" It appears that Pentosan could be a useful risk reduction measure and

certainly is worthwhile investigating further, but I think there's quite a

lot of work that needs to be done to demonstrate that, " he said.