[ RadSafe ] New oral agents may prevent injury after radiationexposure

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

If they do a well designed and impartially run double-blind study, and
it supports their claims, I will be impressed.  Until then, I am
skeptical.

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of ROY HERREN
Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2009 11:44 PM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: [ RadSafe ] New oral agents may prevent injury after
radiationexposure

Public release date: 10-Jul-2009

Contact: Allison Rubin
allison.rubin at gmail.com
617-638-8490
Boston University Medical Center 

New oral agents may prevent injury after radiation exposure
(Boston) - Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM)
and collaborators have discovered and analyzed several new compounds,
collectively called the ''EUK-400 series,'' which could someday be used
to prevent radiation-induced injuries to kidneys, lungs, skin,
intestinal tract and brains of radiological terrorism victims. The
findings, which appear in the June issue of the Journal of Biological
Inorganic Chemistry, describe new agents which can be given orally in
pill form, which would more expedient in an emergency situation.
These agents are novel synthetic "antioxidants" that protect tissues
against the kind of damage caused by agents such as "free radicals."
Free radicals, and similar toxic byproducts formed in the body, are
implicated in many different types of tissue injury, including those
caused by radiation exposure. Often, this kind of injury occurs months
to years after radiation exposure. The BUSM researchers and their
colleagues are developing agents that prevent injury even when given
after the radiation exposure.
This paper describes a newer class of compounds, the ''EUK-400 series,''
that are designed to be given as a pill. According to the researchers,
experiments described in their paper prove that these agents are orally
active. They also show that the new agents have several desirable
"antioxidant" activities, and protect cells in a "cell death" model. 
These same BUSM researchers and collaborators had previously discovered
novel synthetic antioxidants that effectively mitigate radiation
injuries, but had to be given by injection. "We have developed some of
these agents and have studied them for over 15 years beginning with our
work at the local biotechnology company Eukarion," said senior author
Susan Doctrow, PhD, a research associate professor of medicine at BUSM's
Pulmonary Center. "These injectible antioxidants are very effective, but
there has also been a desire to have agents that can be given orally. A
pill would be more feasible than an injection to treat large numbers of
people in an emergency scenario," she adds.
Future studies will focus on the EUK-400 compounds' effects in various
experimental models for radiation injury. Data showing their benefits in
models for radiation injury in blood vessel cells have been presented at
two major scientific conferences and will be the topic of future
publication. More broadly, beyond the potential for treating victims of
radiological terrorism, these compounds could also be useful drugs
against a variety of diseases where an effective antioxidant has
potential benefits, for example, various neurological, pulmonary,
cardiovascular, and autoimmune disorders. Previously, Doctrow's lab and
others have published studies showing that the injectible versions of
these compounds are beneficial in models for several such diseases.
###
Funding for this study was provided by the U.S. Centers for Medical
Countermeasures Against Radiation (CMCR) program, administered by
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The study was
initiated with CMCR "Pilot Grant" funding awarded to Dr. Rosalind
Rosenthal, first author of the paper and currently a research associate
at BUSM. Doctrow's laboratory at BUSM is a member of a five-institution
CMCR program, based at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. 


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