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CHICAGO, May 18 (UPI) _ It may not be a
cure for the common cold, but a new medicine in a nose spray appears to cut cold
misery by half, say South Carolina scientists.
Despite promising study results, however,
the company developing the cold-fighting drug says it has been shelved indefinitely,
to divert research funding to other projects.
Tests of the genetically engineered medicine,
called tremacamra, showed that it reduced all cold symptoms by 45 percent and runny
noses by about 56 percent, says Dr. Ronald B. Turner, head of the division of pediatric
infectious diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina at Charleston.
"These are the first human trials of
a new technique for fighting colds," Turner said.
Unlike other illness-fighting methods, which
involve attacking the virus or fighting the inflammatory symptoms, the new drug works
like a decoy, drawing the virus away from target molecules in the nose, he says.
The results of the studies, conducted on
177 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 60, are published in Wednesday's issue
of the Journal of the American Medical Association, published in Chicago. The study
was sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Ridgefield, Conn. _
the company that makes the drug. The firm has been studying the drug since 1994.
The volunteers studied at MUSC were first
exposed to the cold virus, and given the drug _ in a wet or dry form _ 12 hours later.
Another group, studied by Turner's colleagues at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville,
were treated seven hours after they were infected with cold viruses. Both groups
were compared to patients who were exposed to the virus but given only a placebo.
Scientists then asked the subjects if they
had any or all of the eight most common cold symptoms, including sneezing, stuffy
nose, sore throat, headache, chilliness and malaise. The volunteers were then asked
to rate how bad they felt.
The investigators also measured nasal secretions
by collecting and weighing all the tissues used by each volunteer. They then subtracted
the weight of unused tissues to those heavy with mucus, he says.
Turner says the studies only looked at patients
before symptoms started, and he says further research would be needed to show if
the medicine works after the suffering begins.
In an editorial accompanying the study,
Kenneth McIntosh of Boston's Harvard Medical School calls Turner's results encouraging.
He says further research is needed to show
if the drug will work as well after symptoms show up. Also, there are about 100 different
strains of rhinovirus, and this study focused on only one of them. It is unknown
whether the drug will work as well on different virus types, and if it will prevent
colds under everyday conditions.
Turner says it is clear that a cure for
the common cold is still not in hand.
Turner also said his group has no immediate
plans for pursuing further work with tremacamra, because Boehringer Ingelheim has
backed off.
He says, "At this point, we're stalled."
A spokeswoman for the company, Pam DeMala,
says that the development of the drug has been put on hold, because other compounds
being developed by the firm showed more potential, and appeared to be more worthy
of research dollars.
She says, "It fell to a lower priority."
In a statement, the company said it hasn't
ruled out continuing development of the molecule in the future.
(Written by Mara Bovsun in New York City)
_-
Copyright 1999 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
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