The year that was - and will be

From the January 7, 2009 edition of The Journal Record
By Stephen Prescott, M.D.

My New Year’s resolution: Lower my golf handicap and reach Pilates level V.

My New Year’s resolution for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation: Deliver another 52 weeks like the ones we enjoyed in 2008.

Jordan Tang kicked the year off with a bang when, in January, an Alzheimer’s drug based on his discoveries at OMRF successfully completed human clinical trials. The drug (known technically as CTS-21166) was found to be safe and well-tolerated in humans at various dose levels.

Later in the year, the drug – this time administered orally, as opposed to the IV formulation used in the first trial – passed a second safety trial. The drug reduced the levels of plasma beta amyloid, a potential cause of Alzheimer’s progression, by as much as 60 percent.

Based on these results, the drug will begin the second phase of human testing in 2009. With each stage that we reach, the odds become better that this drug will reach the market – and offer the first real hope in battling a disease that robs too many of their memories, minds and, ultimately, their lives.

On the cancer front, OMRF has made significant strides toward developing a treatment for glioblastoma, the deadly brain cancer that took the life of Oklahoma baseball legend Bobby Murcer and now afflicts U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy. Working with an experimental compound, Robert Floyd and Rheal Towner have found that, in rodents, the drug significantly shrinks the tumors.

If the drug works the same way in humans, it would extend lives. And if it works really well, it might suppress the tumors indefinitely.

The compound has already been tested for safety in humans in large-scale clinical trials, and it’s been found to be safe. The next step will be to initiate human trials for efficacy, something we hope to begin later this year.

Working with state-of-the-art imaging technologies, Philip Silverman and Margaret Clarke obtained the first visual evidence of a key piece in the puzzle of how deadly superbugs spread antibiotic resistance in hospitals and throughout the general population. That work will help develop a better understanding of – and, ultimately, tools to combat – a health threat responsible for an estimated 20,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.

OMRF scientists made crucial breakthroughs in finding the genetic roots of autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and type I (juvenile) diabetes. They found new approaches for combating hearing loss. And they developed a novel method for producing disease-fighting antibodies that could be a game-changer in the quest to quickly and effectively create new treatments for influenza, certain types of pneumonia, anthrax and hepatitis C.

Let’s be clear: These discoveries are not cures. But they are major steps forward in the never-ending race against human disease.

As we move ahead, OMRF will continue to probe the mysteries of human disease and to work toward more effective treatments for deadly illnesses.

Although I cannot predict the breakthroughs that lie ahead, I can assure you of one thing: The odds of a life-changing OMRF discovery in 2009 are much greater than my chances of becoming a scratch golfer.

Stephen Prescott is president of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and can be reached at OMRF-President@omrf.org.

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