SALT LAKE CITY, UT — (MARKET WIRE) — 04/01/2005 — LipidViro Tech, Inc. (OTC BB: LVRO) recently presented research demonstrating inactivation of prions in biological fluids to the FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee. LipidViro’s proprietary technology reduced prion infectivity in bovine serum below the limits of detection in both cell and Western blot assays; two gold standards for prion detection. These data have been submitted for presentation at the Meeting of the International Union of Microbiological Societies, San Francisco, July 2005.
“We are optimistic this study may represent a significant breakthrough in prion research,” commented LipidViro Tech CEO, Ken Hamik. “LipidViro is the first to demonstrate inactivation of infectious prions in sera while maintaining biological activity in the sera. Our success inactivating prions in sera may translate to a technology for producing prion free transfusable blood products, an area of significant need and deep concern presently.”
Prions are more resistant to destruction than any other known pathogen. They are more stable than anthrax spores, cannot be destroyed readily by irradiation and no routine measures exist to detect them in blood. Prions cause deadly brain wasting diseases including variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans and BSE or Mad Cow disease in cattle. Prion diseases are always fatal; they have no vaccine, antidote or cure.
Blood-Borne Transmission of Prions
Recent published research reports prions transmission to humans in two ways; consuming prion contaminated foods and transfusion of contaminated blood products from persons infected with vCJD. Studies suggest vCJD may remain undetected for decades prior to the patient exhibiting disease symptoms. Two recently published reports, (Llewelyn, 2004 and Peden, 2004) support the concern that patients harboring vCJD without clinical symptoms may transmit the infection through blood transfusion.
Risk of vCJD in Transfusable Blood Products
The inability to detect prions in blood and long dormancy period suggest a deadly, hidden disease that can be transmitted unknowingly through blood transfusion and use of human derived tissue and fluids. The potential magnitude and severity of this problem has been quietly recognized by a number of countries. Japan for example bans donations from persons who visited Britain or France for one day or more between 1980 and 1996. In the U.S., the FDA bans blood donation from persons who lived in the UK for more than three months between 1980 and 1996. Britain must import certain blood products due to risk the British blood donor pool is contaminated.
“The results of our prion research while early are highly encouraging,” commented Hamik. “We are actively pursuing a strategic partner to co-investigate our prion inactivation technology for use in the blood fractionate market, where there is an immediate need to purify transfusable blood fractionates of infectious prions.”