The leader of the development - Prof. Avraham Nodelman, founder of the Medicinal Chemistry major at Bar Ilan University, in collaboration with researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Felsenstein Institute in Bilinson * The drug, BL1020, combines a first-generation drug and a substance with a calming effect secreted by nerve cells - the neurotransmitter GABA
The revolutionary drug BL1020, intended for the treatment of schizophrenia patients, has successfully passed the initial trial phase in humans and thus opened a breakthrough in the treatment of the severe disease that affects millions of people worldwide. This was announced this morning by Prof. Avraham Nodelman - Head of the Medicinal Chemistry Department at Bar Ilan University, who is leading the development of the drug in collaboration with Dr. Ada Rafali, Dr. Eidit Gilad, and Prof. Avraham Weizman from Tel Aviv University and the Felsenstein Institute in Beilinson. Bioline Rx Ltd., which was issued on the stock exchange following the success of the experiment, helps finance the research.
According to Nodelman; So far, the treatment of the disease has been carried out with the help of "typical" and relatively cheap drugs from the first generation and with "atypical" and more expensive drugs from the second generation. The drugs from both generations are characterized by severe side effects similar to Parkinson's disease, damage to metabolism that causes diabetes and drastic obesity as well as damage to sexual function. As a result, about 50 percent of patients do not take these drugs. The answer to this is found in the new drug, BL1020, which consists half of one of the drugs of the first generation and half of a substance with a calming effect secreted by nerve cells - the neurotransmitter GABA which is missing in the brains of those with the disease.
Prof. Nodelman said that the new drug has a high healing efficiency and reduced side effects compared to the drugs marketed today. This is how she was able to successfully cross the first clinical stage in humans which ended at the end of 2006.
The difficulty the researchers overcame is the introduction of GABA into the brain. This substance does not pass from the body's systems to the brain naturally, so it was necessary to add it to another molecule that would serve as a carrier. Without a suitable carrier GABA could not be used as a medicine. "We hope that our substance is a medicine that will satisfy our medical treatment needs due to its advantages and being based on a well-known anti-schizophrenic drug that by adding GABA its activity is improved and the side effects are reduced" explains Prof. Nodelman.
Schizophrenia - "split mind" - affects millions of patients
Schizophrenia is defined as a "split mind" and its prevalence in the world population reaches about XNUMX%, this means that millions of people suffer from it all over the world. This disease is actually a combination of several phenomena together and it causes damage to the personality structure and the daily functioning of the patient and about ten percent of those affected by it commit suicide. The disease has different forms of expression: active - in which the patient is restless and passive - in which the patient is apathetic and lacks energy. When an attack occurs, it may last for a week, during which the patient is completely disconnected from reality. Those with the disease are not dangerous to their environment.
about the research
Prof. Avraham Nodelman's group has been working on the revolutionary development for about three years. The basis of the development is the idea that among schizophrenia patients there is a serious lack of the calming substance in our body - the neurotransmitter GABA which functions as a nerve conductor, therefore it is necessary to find a way to allow it to be injected into the patient's brain in order to alleviate the symptoms of the disease. As mentioned, this substance cannot be ingested as a medicine due to the fact that it is blocked from passing into the human brain. In addition, the new drugs for schizophrenia available on the market are expensive and not necessarily more effective in terms of the level of side effects, compared to the first generation drugs that were used in the XNUMXs. These facts led Nodelman to the idea of combining two different substances to create one particularly effective medicine. In the first phase of the study, healthy volunteers were tested in order to rule out the toxicity of the drug, and in the second phase of the study, which will take place in the following months, the effectiveness of the drug on patients will be tested.
The major in medicinal chemistry at Bar Ilan University - the enigma of its kind in Israel
The major in medicinal chemistry is the only one of its kind in Israel and has existed for 25 years in the chemistry department of Bar Ilan University. The group of researchers in the laboratory of Prof. Nodelman, the founder of the trend, are currently working on the development of anti-cancer drugs, drugs against Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases and drugs to suppress the AIDS disease. These and other projects are done in collaboration with leading researchers in the world. Nodelman is one of the first graduates of the chemistry department at Bar Ilan University (1957) and he completed his doctorate under the guidance of the American Nobel laureate Prof. Donald Cram from UCLA University.
13 תגובות
I would like to know how to participate in the experiment and what are the criteria.?
Which hospitals use new trauma??
The illusion industry is winking at you and the economic market share and advertising for the drug is greater than the concern for the unfortunate patients, these are a drop of brain if we drop all the chemicals there too, no one knows the brain yet, so stop blooming advertisements for the purpose of money
What is the horrible substance that is addictive and also contradicts the words old generation drugs that make you fat, etc. and in fact you continue to develop only on the old
Until today, since 2007, have no experiments been done on patients? And if so, what are the results?
I would love to hear soon
Hello my father,
I wanted to know if the medicine bl1020 was approved for use and entered the medicine basket?
Shirley.
Bioline is an Israeli company - a public subsidiary of Teva and the Giza venture capital fund. As for the dates - after the holiday I will check with the university or with Noodleman personally.
For now - the medicine does not cure but eliminates the symptoms of the disease or maybe it can be said that it cures - but you have to keep taking it.
To Eitan - the disease, like most psychiatric diseases, is caused by chemical disorders in the brain.
To Michal - I think the experiment is over, but why don't you call Prof. Nodelman - 03-5318314.
Danny - why don't they have anything - there is and there is and it's not a combination of existing drugs - it's an existing drug plus a patent for introducing gaba into the brain.
To Jonathan - this medicine is better than the existing one and with fewer side effects.
To my father - I wonder if the company assisting in the research in Line RX is Israeli - the university did not mention that either.
It says that Nodelman graduated in chemistry from Bar Ilan in 1957. The same is true in the university announcement. It should be much later because the university was founded in 55 and even if it had chemistry from the beginning the first graduates were in 59 and besides Prof. Nodelman was a teenager then - not yet bar mitzvah.
To a container
First try the existing treatments, some of which are very effective, before you volunteer to be a guinea pig.
It's always better to wait a few years after the drug goes on the market, because you never know what the side effects will be.
In short, they don't have anything, just drug combinations to boost the stock in the stock market.
How can I get this medicine or participate in the trial?
How does this disease occur?
She asked Avi Bilovski whether the medicine might cure the disease