{"id":13269,"date":"2018-11-06T08:14:03","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T08:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=13269"},"modified":"2018-11-06T08:14:03","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T08:14:03","slug":"zion-medical-announces-results-of-clinical-trial-of-hiv-drug-that-kills-99-per-cent-of-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=13269","title":{"rendered":"Zion Medical announces results of clinical trial of HIV drug that kills 99 per cent of virus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"\">\n<nav class=\"header-mobile navbar navbar-default navbar-fixed-top mm-slideout\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<span class=\"xn-location\">TEL AVIV, Israel<\/span>,\u00a0<span class=\"xn-chron\">Oct. 31, 2018<\/span>\/PRNewswire\/ &#8212;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/zionmedical.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Zion Medical<\/a>, an Israeli biotech company developing HIV and cancer treatments, has announced the results of the first clinical trial of HIV-drug Gammora, eliminating up to 99% of the HIV virus within four weeks of treatment.\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<article class=\"news-release inline-gallery-template\">\n<section class=\"release-body container \">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1\">\nInvestigational Medicinal Product (IMP) Gammora is a synthetic peptide compound derived from the HIV enzyme integrase, which is responsible for inserting the virus&#8217;s genetic material into the DNA of the infected cell. Gammora stimulates the integration of\u00a0<i>multiple<\/i>\u00a0HIV DNA fragments into the host cell&#8217;s genomic DNA, to an extent that triggers the self-destruction of the infected cell, called apoptosis. The peptide, produced by\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">San Diego, California<\/span>\u00a0-based PolyPeptide Labs, has the potential to cure HIV infected patients, by destroying all cells carrying the HIV virus-genome. As opposed to the commercially available retroviral treatments, the so-called &#8220;cocktail,&#8221; which merely suppress the spreading of the virus, but do not cure the infection.<br \/>\nBetween July and\u00a0<span class=\"xn-chron\">August 2018<\/span>, Zion Medical conducted a Phase 1\/2a human clinical trial of Gammora, reaffirming results of prior preclinical tests that had showed the safety and effectiveness of the drug in killing HIV-infected cells. In Part I of this trial, nine HIV-infected patients at the Dr. Ronald Bata Memorial Hospital in Entebbe,\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Uganda<\/span>, were randomly assigned to receive either 0.05-0.2 mg\/kg, or 0.1- 0.3 mg\/kg, or 0.2-0.4 mg\/kg of Gammora for up to 4-5 weeks. Most patients showed a significant reduction of the viral load of up to 90% from the baseline during the first four weeks.<br \/>\nIn Part II of the study, conducted two weeks after the first, patients were given Gammora with additional retroviral treatment combined for another 4-5 weeks. Patients received either commercially available lopinavir 800 mg and ritonavir 200 mg (LPV+r) daily in combination with Gammora 0.2-0.4 mg\/kg given twice a week, or LPV+r only. The results found that combined-treated patients demonstrated sustained viral suppression and achieved HIV-1 RNA &lt;300 copies\/mL, and showed up to 99% reduction in viral load from baseline within four weeks.<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/WvWN9gJ5ZQs<br \/>\nThrough the 10 weeks, patients in both studies demonstrated that Gammora is a safe and well-tolerable drug, exhibiting no side effects. Patients showed a significant increase of the CD4 cell count \u2013 up to 97 % from the baseline. CD4 cells, also referred to a T cells or T helper cells, play an important role in the body&#8217;s immune system and are an indicator of its overall health.<br \/>\n&#8220;These first clinical results were beyond our expectations and promise hope in finding a cure for a disease that&#8217;s been discovered over 35 years,&#8221; says Dr.\u00a0<span class=\"xn-person\">Esmira Naftali<\/span>, head of development at Zion Medical. &#8220;Given the limited nature of this study, we are excited to prove the efficiency of our drug in Phase\u00a0<span class=\"xn-money\">2b<\/span>\u00a0with a greater number of participants over a longer period of time.&#8221;<br \/>\nAbraham Loyter, professor at the\u00a0<span class=\"xn-org\">Hebrew University of Jerusalem<\/span>, first started research on this novelty drug about 10 years ago, having been granted patents for the peptide in 2015 and 2017 (U.S. Patent No. 9163067, 9738878). Zion Medical in-licensed the compound and has been continuing research and development through pre-clinical and clinical stages, building an entire team of researchers around the development of Gammora. On\u00a0<span class=\"xn-chron\">August 31, 2018<\/span>, Zion Medical filed another patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for an updated version of the peptide and final drug composition.\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">New York City&#8217;s<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"xn-location\">Mount Sinai<\/span>\u00a0hospital has collaborated with Zion in earlier stages of development and might partner with the company again in the future.<br \/>\nThe company hopes to start Phase\u00a0<span class=\"xn-money\">2b<\/span>\u00a0in the coming months, involving around 50 patients that are given Gammora over two to three months.<br \/>\n<b>About Zion Medical:<\/b><br \/>\n<span class=\"xn-location\">Israel<\/span>-based Zion Medical was established in 2014 with the mission to develop groundbreaking medical solutions for HIV\/AIDS and cancer. It is known for its patented synthetic peptide Gammora, which is derived from the HIV enzyme integrase, and has been proven to be effective in killing HIV-infected cells, and which has also shown promising results with some types of cancers cells.<br \/>\n<b>Media Contact:\u00a0<br class=\"dnr\" \/><\/b><span class=\"xn-person\">Philipp Jago<\/span>\u00a0<br class=\"dnr\" \/><a href=\"mailto:philipp@spectorpr.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">203841@email4pr.com<\/a>\u00a0<br class=\"dnr\" \/>+1(212)943-5858<br \/>\nSOURCE Zion Medical\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TEL AVIV, Israel,\u00a0Oct. 31, 2018\/PRNewswire\/ &#8212;\u00a0Zion Medical, an Israeli biotech company developing HIV and cancer treatments, has announced the results of the first clinical trial of HIV-drug Gammora, eliminating up to 99% of the HIV virus within four weeks of treatment. Investigational Medicinal Product (IMP) Gammora is a synthetic peptide compound derived from the HIV [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5773,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}