Key found to breakthrough drug for clot victims

Because of WE-thrombin’s specificity and potency, the dosage required to be effective in humans, Gruber said, is expected to be less than 0.5 milligrams, and possibly less than 0.1 milligrams, or 200- to 1,000-fold less than the dosage levels of TPA commonly being administered now in heart attack and stroke.

The current findings were built, in part, on years of work by co-investigator Enrico Di Cera, M.D., Roy and Diana Vagelos Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and professor of medicine at Washington University, on enzyme complexes relevant to the clotting process and protein engineering. Several members of the collaborative team of investigators that also include Stephen R. Hanson, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering at OHSU (who formerly was at Emory University), are among the world’s leaders in thrombin, protein C and thrombosis research. Co-authors of the study, “Thrombin Mutant W215A/E217A Acts as a Platelet GPIb Antagonist,” published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology [2008 Feb: 28 (2): 329-34], also included Michelle A. Berny, Tara C.White, and Erik I. Tucker, all graduate students in biomedical engineering, OHSU School of Medicine; and Leslie A. Bush-Pelc, senior research assistant at Washington University. Berny and White are Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation Scholars.

Funding and other assistance has been provided by the OHSU Springboard Program for new ventures and research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.

Potential conflicts of interest involving OHSU investigators and start-up companies are reviewed by the OSHU Conflict of Interest in Research Committee and the OHSU Integrity Program Oversight Council.

About OHSU

Oregon Health & Science University is the state’s only health and research university, and its only academic health center. It is Portland’s largest employer and the fourth largest in Oregon (excluding government), with more than 12,400 employees. As a leader in research, OHSU earned $307 million in research funding in fiscal year 2007. OHSU serves as a catalyst for the region’s bioscience industry and is an incubator of discovery, averaging one new breakthrough or innovation every 2.7 days, with more than 4,100 research projects currently under way. OHSU disclosed 132 inventions in 2007 alone, and OHSU research has resulted in 33 startup companies since 2000, most of which are based in Oregon.