Development of Carboxyfullerene Drugs to Treat ALS

描述(申请人提供)：研究表明，富勒烯为基础的抗氧化剂是极好的神经保护剂，它们在包括关节萎缩性侧索硬化症(ALS)、帕金森病和缺血性中风引起的脑损伤在内的一系列氧化性神经疾病的模型中表现出良好的疗效。这些结果表明，神经保护药物是迄今为止富勒烯最独特、最重要、最具商业可行性的应用之一。 尽管它作为神经保护药物在治疗ALS和帕金森病等迫切需要更好治疗的疾病方面显示出巨大的前景，但衍生化的富勒烯化合物目前过于昂贵，无法生产足够数量的产品用于临床测试或治疗患者。在第一阶段，我们开发了几种新技术，可以有效地生产羧基富勒烯药物化合物。随着不断的发展，我们预计到该项目完成时，将有可能经济地生产足够的富勒烯神经保护剂，以便开始临床试验。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Studies show that fullerene-based antioxidants make excellent neuroprotectants, and they have demonstrated good efficacy in models for a wide array of oxidative neurological disorders including arnyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease and brain injury resulting from ischemic stroke. These results suggest that neuroprotective pharmaceuticals are one of the most unique, yet important and commercially viable applications of fullerenes to date. Although it shows great promise as a neuroprotectant drug useful in treating ailments such as ALS and Parkinson's disease for which better treatments are desperately needed, the derivatized fullerene compounds are currently too expensive and cannot be produced in sufficient quantities for clinical testing or to treat patients. During Phase I, we developed several new techniques that allow efficient production of a carboxyfullerene pharmaceutical compound. With continued development, we anticipate that by the completion of the project, it will be possible to economically manufacture enough of the fullerene- based neuroprotectant for clinical trials to begin.