New Discovery May Revolutionize Treatment For Pain Related To Surgery, Illness And

Injury

For those suffering from pain, scientists from UCLA and the University of Cambridge, United
Kingdom, report a revolutionary advance in pain medicine that promises to deliver painkillers
directly to the affected area of the body, in smaller doses and with fewer side effects.

The researchers report the first clinically suitable method using nerves as a means of safely
delivering high doses of painkillers to achieve a therapeutic effect. They announced their
research findings at the Society for Neuroscience conference on Nov. 8 in New Orleans, La.

UCLA neurosurgeon Aaron Filler and his colleagues used a method called "axonal transport" to
deliver a pain drug to the spinal ganglia and spinal cord, using nerves as a conduit, in an animal
model.

Axonal transport works like a "conveyor-belt" process, delivering pain-relieving medication to

Although axonal transport has played a role in thousands of research studies in the past, this is
the first-ever report of a positive clinical effect with a potential human medication. The new
technology uses a novel molecular structure to achieve clinically effective dosing in targeted
groups of nerves, Filler said.

This work marks an important advance, because drug treatment of nervous-system disorders is
often hindered and sometimes precluded when the precise site of the injury or disease cannot be
reached with adequate levels of pain medicine without causing unwanted side effects. Delivery
of painkillers directly to selected target sites can avoid undesired toxicity, as well as
inappropriate side effects in non-target neural tissue.

Filler says that with this new method of delivering pain medication, one shot administered during
surgery could alleviate the pain sensations a patient would normally feel for several days. The
painkillers will go only to the nerves involved in the surgery, eliminating the negative side
effects patients experience from the current method of pain treatment such as nausea, drowsiness
and impaired breathing.

The researchers found that appropriately formulated substances, including drugs, are taken up by
axon nerve endings and transported to the core tissues of the nervous system. Since nerves are
territorial and map out particular segments of the body, this allows the selective delivery of drugs
to relevant parts of the nervous system involved in pain sensation and other disease processes.

The researchers created a complex made up of an axonal transport facilitator (ATF) attached to a
linker molecule bearing up to a hundred reversibly attached drug molecules. This complex was
configured to deliver the drug gabapentin in a rat model of neuropathic pain to selected dorsal-
root ganglia by axonal transport after injection into tissue supplied by the target nerves.
"This very complex design achieves something that, previously, was not thought possible," Filler
said. "The way it works makes this the first truly 21st-century medication. These results are
expected to lead to dozens of new medications that will solve difficult drug delivery problems in
the treatment of conditions as varied as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, shingles and herpes."

"A single injection of the ATF drug complex caused a 50 percent reduction in the
hypersensitivity to pain that lasted up to four days," says Filler. "To achieve a similar effect by
the current drugs would require more than 300 times the amount of painkiller given in multiple
doses."

The current method of pain treatment involves delivering painkillers into the blood stream. The
pain medication then travels throughout a patient's system, affecting all areas of the body, unlike
this new, targeted approach.

Clinical trials using axonal transport to treat neuropathic pain will begin in early 2002.

In addition to Filler, Dr. Andrew Lever, Dr. Raj Munglani and Dr. Garth Whiteside of the
University of Cambridge; and Dr. Mark Bacon, Dr. Jonathan Clark and Dr. Peter Laing of
SynGenix Ltd. all collaborated on this research.

The research was funded by SynGenix Ltd., the UK Department of Trade & Industry, and the
Neuroscience Research Foundation of Atkinson Morley's Hospital.

Filler is a co-founder, consultant and significant shareholder of the pharmaceutical firm

New Discovery Could Make Breast Implants Obsolete

Earth shattering news out of Australia this week could have monumental effects on breast
surgery, both reconstruction after breast cancer and enlargement for cosmetic reasons. The
technique discovered in Australia is called Neopec. So far the process has only been performed
in pigs and was so successful that human trials are scheduled too begin in early 2010. The pigs
grew new breasts in 6 weeks. The surgeon places a scaffold or shell of biodegradable material in
the breast, redirects a small blood vessel from the arm into the shell, places a small amount of the
patient's own fat inside the shell, and a dissolvable gel called Myogel is also placed in the shell.
The Myogel and blood flow from the transferred artery stimulate the fat to grow until it fills the
shell and therefore takes the shape of the shell. This is a direct finding from stem cell research.
After that the biodegradable shell is dissolved by the body. In the future the shell may come with
its own artificial blood vessel.

If this all works out breast implants for cosmetic breast augmentation or breast reconstruction
would become obsolete. Also this procedure is much less taxing on the patient than a transfer of
fat with intact blood supply to the breast from the lower abdomen or other areas of the body. It
could readily available for breast reconstruction within 3 years and for cosmetic breast
augmentation within 10 years.
Breast Cancer

A scientist at the University of Edinburgh has developed a new method to study the effects of
radiotherapy after surgery for breast cancer. New techniques may help doctors decide who
receive radiation therapy as a benefit of monitoring for the surgery. These new techniques
require samples of tissue from the operation of breast cancer doctors opinion to decide who
should receive Strahlentherapie.Ein new test is International Women’s 3700 follow-up to
observe the benefits of radiation therapy in women who have a moderate risk of reoffending. The
study will also follow this group of women to discover if there is a considerable risk of damage
to the base for those who have undergone treatment prior notice. In short, it is important to
determine if radiation does not significantly influence cancer recurrence in the effort to study
innovative Krebspatienten.Die low risk, a molecular signature of breast cancer to determine if
the radiotherapy is necessary to to avoid the repetition can be identified. The tissue of the breast
cancer surgery will be used for further study in the future. Scientists are concerned about the
long-term effect on the heart of the issue and chemotherapy. The brain natriuretic peptide of
proteins is also investigated whether there is an early sign of cardiac injury. Electrocardiography
and echocardiography is also used to want an early sign of heart problems identifizieren.Dieses
study seeking to examine the quality of life for survivors of breast cancer. They examine the
impact of the issue and chemotherapy, breast reconstruction and other areas of life. It will
include women from around the world. More than 120 breast cancer centers worldwide are
already participating in this study angemeldet. Die project could also affect the cost of treating
breast cancer. If we can determine if radiation will not increase the survival rate of patients who
are at low risk, it could save the medical profession and patients thousands of dollars. It is
important to remember that health and survival of patients completed the primary concern of an
experiment or research around the world seeking major emitters can determine if women that
would have been as low risk recurrence of breast cancer radiotherapy profitieren.Diese new
international study sponsored and funded by the University of Edinburgh and Lothian Health
Board and the United Kingdom Medical Research Council. The European Organization for
Research and Treatment of Cancer and the Breast International Group coordinated the efforts of
tests in the world.