SAN DIEGO - June 12, 2012 (Investorideas.com newswire) - Aethlon Medical, Inc. (
OTCBB: AEMD), today released the following note authored by its Chairman and CEO, Jim Joyce.
Last week, Medical News Today reported on a cancer research discovery
that reinforces the potential importance of our therapeutic endeavors.
For more than a century, cancer researchers have understood that certain
forms of cancer only spread to specific, preferred organs. However, the
mechanism underlying the spread of organ specific metastasis (the "soil
and seed" theory of 1889) had remained unknown. Based on new findings
published and now available online in the journal Nature, researchers
have identified that circulating cancer-secreted particles known as
"exosomes" play a significant role in fueling the metastatic invasion of
preferred organs. The paper concludes that exosomes offer promise for
new therapeutic directions in the metastatic process.
We applaud and appreciate this ground breaking research as our
Hemopurifier� has been validated to capture the form of cancer-secreted
exosomes referenced in the publication. The same Hemopurifier� that we
have been advancing with promising results in the treatment of hepatitis
c (HCV) infected individuals.
In the study, researchers were interested to see if exosomes budding
from melanoma actually participated in the course of the cancer. The
answer was yes, and to a great extent. The researchers identified that
melanoma cancer cells released "exosome" vesicles (microscopic particles
like "bubbles" that are filled with many different molecules such as
proteins and nucleic acids) that
travel
to the bone, liver, lung and brain. This cellular material fuses with
targeted organs and establishes the environment to spread tumor cells.
The researchers also reported that cancer-secreted exosomes triggered
inflammation, promoted leaky blood vessels and educated bone marrow
progenitor cells to participate in the metastatic cascade. The
discoveries were led by a team from the Weill Cornell Medical College,
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, with collaborative support from
researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, the National Cancer Institute, and the US National
Institutes of Health.
Dr. Hector Peinado, the lead author of the study was quoted to say:
"If, in the future, we were able to find a way to control the education
of bone marrow cells, as well as the release and content of tumor
exosomes in cancer patients, we would be able to curtail and reduce the
spread of cancer, and improve the patient's quality of life and
survival." At present, I am not aware of another therapeutic strategy
beyond our Hemopurifier� that offers to inhibit or eliminate the
presence of cancer-secreted exosomes.
The Weill-Cornell researchers also identified that exosome protein
levels in circulation predicted disease stage, prognosis, and survival
in subjects with metastatic disease. When they compared circulating
exosomes taken from patients with different stages of melanoma, they
found that stage IV patients displayed much higher exosome protein
levels as compared with earlier stage melanoma patients. If disease had
not yet metastasized, exosomes were not present in circulation. The
researchers also noted that stage IV patients with a lower presence of
exosomes tended to have longer survival than stage IV patients with
higher exosome protein content. Again, reinforcing the therapeutic
potential of a device that could inhibit or eliminate exosomes from
circulation.
Our first research into cancer-secreted exosomes was driven by the
curiosity that exosomes seemed to carry a unique high mannose signature
that is found on the surface of glycoproteins that coat infectious viral
pathogens. This signature happened to be the targeted binding site of
the affinity agent immobilized in our Hemopurifier�, and provides the
basis for our ability to selectively capture HCV, HIV, and a
broad-spectrum of other viruses. In well-studied viruses such as HIV, we
knew that surface glycoproteins can shed to trigger apoptosis or
programmed cell death of immune cells. Therefore, it made sense to us
that exosomes might have these same immunosuppressive properties.
However, at the time we initiated our research, the medical community
consensus was that exosomes were nothing more than cellular trash bags
with no meaningful biologic function. In fact, there were only a handful
of researchers with exosome focused research programs. This is no
longer the case. Many cancer research institutes are now pursuing
exosome driven initiatives as cancer-secreted exosomes have since been
verified to play a significant role in the invasion of the immune system
in cancer patients. Additionally, researchers now understand how
exosomes contribute to the development of tumor angiogenesis as a
mechanism for cancer to survive. The harmful role of exosomes is also
being identified in other life threatening conditions, including sepsis,
a disease we are studying under contract with the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
To date, we have demonstrated the ability to capture exosomes
underlying a variety of cancers. As related to the discoveries by the
Weill Cornell team, we fortuitously disclosed in September of 2010 that
our Aethlon Hemopurifier� was able to capture exosomes derived from
individuals with metastatic melanoma in a pre-clinical study. At
present, we are fully focused on participating in a response to a new
DARPA contract opportunity, expanding our HCV treatment studies, and
preparing the resubmission of a investigational device exemption to FDA.
Once these objectives have been advanced, we plan to discuss a
potential melanoma treatment study that a U.S. based cancer research
institute has proposed to conduct as a result of the Weill Cornell
discoveries.
About Aethlon Medical
The Aethlon Medical mission is to create innovative medical devices
that address unmet medical needs in cancer, infectious disease, and
other life-threatening conditions. Our Aethlon ADAPT™ System is a
revenue-stage
technology
platform that provides the basis for a new class of therapeutics that
target the selective removal of disease enabling particles from the
entire circulatory system. The Aethlon ADAPT™ product pipeline includes
the Aethlon Hemopurifier® to address infectious disease and cancer;
HER2osome™ to target HER2+ breast cancer, and a medical device being
developed under a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) that would reduce the incidence of sepsis in
combat-injured soldiers and civilians. For more information, please
visit
www.aethlonmedical.com.
All
financial
disclosures, anticipated revenue recognition amounts and other
information related to the financial results and operations of the
Company set forth above are unaudited and are subject to year-end audit
adjustments and footnote disclosures.
Certain of the statements herein may be forward-looking and involve
risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements involve
assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors
which may cause the actual results,
performance
or achievements of Aethlon Medical, Inc. to be materially different
from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or
implied by the forward-looking statements. Such potential risks and
uncertainties include, without limitation, the ability for the Company
to derive business partnerships or future revenue streams using the
Aethlon ADAPT™ system including the ability to introduce a targeted
breast cancer therapy known as HER2osome™, there is no assurance that
FDA will approve the initiation of the company's clinical programs or
provide market clearance of the company's products, the ability to
achieve the goals set out in the DARPA contract, future human studies of
the Aethlon Hemopurifier® as an adjunct therapy to improve patient
responsiveness to established cancer therapies, the company's ability to
raise capital when needed, the Company's ability to complete the
development of its planned products, the Company's ability to
manufacture its products either internally or through outside companies
and provide its services, the impact of government regulations, patent
protection on the Company's proprietary technology, product liability
exposure, uncertainty of market acceptance, competition, technological
change, and other risk factors. In such instances, actual results could
differ materially as a result of a variety of factors, including the
risks associated with the effect of changing economic conditions and
other risk factors detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange
Commission filings.
Contacts:
James A. Joyce
Chairman and CEO
858.459.7800 x301
jj@aethlonmedical.com
Jim Frakes
Chief Financial Officer
858.459.7800 x300
jfrakes@aethlonmedical.com
Marc Robins
877.276.2467
mr@aethlonmedical.com
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