(Republished with permission from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This article originally ran in the Business section on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006.)
By Rachel Melcer
Kereos Inc., based in St. Louis, is developing a nanotechnology-enabled process to reduce artery-clogging plaque, a common cause of heart attacks and strokes.
The approach, discovered in the Washington University laboratory of Drs. Samuel Wickline and Gregory Lanza, showed significant positive results in laboratory rabbits, according to a study published in the September issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
Kereos uses particles one-billionth of a meter in size — the approximate size of a single molecule — to deliver a tiny dose of a drug, fumagillin, directly to the site of arterial plaque. The drug, which is toxic in large amounts, cuts off the blood supply that feeds plaque.
In this study, the growth of new blood vessels in plaques was reduced by 60 to 80 percent, which is “significant,” according to Robert “Al” Beardsley, Kereos’ president and chief executive.
The company hopes to one day market the technology as a more rapid treatment for plaque buildup, which can result from a high-cholesterol diet and typically is treated with a long-term course of statin drugs, such as Lipitor and Crestor.
“The difference here is that when someone comes in and presents with chest pains or acute coronary syndrome, (a doctor) can give it right away and see an immediate effect, within a day or two,” Beardsley said.
Developing the treatment, however, will take years.
Kereos can have it ready for pre-clinical, animal-based trials in 2008, Beardsley said. But the startup company will need a big pharmaceutical partner to fund human trials, which can require thousands of patients and hundreds of millions of dollars to complete.
In the meantime, Kereos is developing a cancer diagnostic and treatment using the same nanotechnology approach. It expects to request regulatory approval to begin human clinical trials in cancer early next year, Beardsley said.
rmelcer@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8394
Copyright 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.