Like many here, I thought GDNF was owned by Amgen and unavailable for research until the patent expired...but I saw this article on Fox's website that indicates GDNF may not be as unavailable as I thought...here's a quote, the link follows. I'd welcome any info. anyone has about this. BTW, the name of the company doing this trojan horse research is eerily similar to Amgen...

"Building on earlier work funded by MJFF under its Community Fast Track initiative, the ArmaGen team, led by principal investigator Ruben J. Boado, PhD, will work with the trophic factor GDNF. They will try to enable it to cross the blood-brain barrier by re-engineering it using Trojan horse technology. The end goal is to create a safe and effective treatment in which GDNF, fused to a genetically engineered antibody that is naturally capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, can be injected intravenously into the blood. The antibody, “hiding” the GDNF inside itself — as the Trojan horse of Homer’s Iliad hid Greek soldiers, allowing them to enter Troy — would then ferry the attached GDNF across the blood-brain barrier, from the blood to the target site in brain."


http://www.michaeljfox.org/newsEvent...cle.cfm?ID=263

Armagen sounds like amgen doesn't it? There is other gdnf out there, which involves the use of human fetal cells. It could possibly involve embryonic cells as well. I don't know the source of MJFF's GDNF for this delivery and don't want to be quoted as being a source of info on this. But unless there is some secret research going on, amgen's gdnf is not permitted for human research.

The company names are confusing and get your attention...is there a reason for the similarity? I don't know the answer to that, but don't know of any other synthetic gdnf in the United States other than Amgen's . I think the others involve fetal or embryonic cells to develop and/or deliver it. The fetal cell aspect is downplayed and or left out of some of the articles.

Someone please correct this if it is inaccurate.

paula

I believe Paula is right about the GDNF availability. You can even buy the protein on the Web, but it's not approved for use in humans. Amgen has the patent for a recombinant form of GDNF, and supposedly their's is the only one that can be used in humans at this time. The company has made it available for some animal studies only. Otherwise, there is no indication they are doing any further research with GDNF, and seem to have given up on their neurological pipeline. Other forms of GDNF, such as ArmaGen's are being developed, but it will take years for FDA approval and clinical trials.

It was predicted that if the research on infused delivery had been continued, GDNF could have been available for clinical use by 2007! (see "Monkeys in the Middle") by Nick Nelson.

ArmaGen's website describes their GDNF product -- AGT-190 -- which involves GDNF being genetically engineered to be able to cross the blood brain barrier. I've wondered too about the eerie similarity in company names.

http://www.armagen.com/products.php#185

"A neuroprotection drug for stroke or Parkinson's disease

AGT-190 is a genetically engineered fusion protein that is comprised of a human neurotrophin that causes neuroprotection in the brain, and is indicated acutely for the treatment of stroke, and chronically for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD). The neurotrophin forming AGT-190 is a large molecule, which does not cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and cannot enter the brain following peripheral administration. The neurotrophin is fused to another protein that undergoes receptor-mediated transport across the human BBB; the second protein acts as a molecular Trojan horse to ferry the therapeutic neurotrophin across the BBB into brain from blood. The AGT-190 fusion protein is a bi-functional molecule: it both attaches to a receptor on the human BBB, to cause transport into the brain from blood, and it attaches to a specific neurotrophin receptor on brain cells to protect the cells from cellular damage. AGT-190 is the first neurotrophin treatment specifically engineered to cross the BBB for the long-term treatment of PD."