Looking through press releases over coffee and a brioche, we stumbled upon one from Aethlon Medical Inc., a San Diego, CA company, manufacturer of the Hemopurifier system. Touted as the first medical device to treat infectious disease (is it?), the Hemopurifier is an extracorporeal device thought to treat “viral conditions that are either resistant or evolve resistance to drug and vaccine therapies.” The company says that in the future the device, that is still not approved by the FDA, should provide a “broad spectrum treatment countermeasure against drug vaccine resistant bioweapons, naturally evolving pandemic threats such as H5N1 Avian Flue, and chronic infectious disease targets including Hepatitis-C (HCV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).”
Here is the technology:
Scientific articles classify the Hemopurifier to be both an immunotherapy and fusion inhibitor treatment. The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) has indicated that the Hemopurifier will be treated as a Class III Medical Device in U.S. regulatory submissions. Pre-clinical human blood studies have documented the effectiveness of the Hemopurifier in capturing HIV (The AIDS Virus), HCV (Hepatitis-C), and Orthopox Viruses related to human Smallpox. The mechanism of capture has been shown to be via the polysaccharide chains that reside on the surface glycoproteins of envelope viruses. Since the polysaccharide portions of the viral glycoproteins are attached via normal host cell (functions not under control of the virus), they are highly invariant. Moreover, the high abundance of polysaccharides allows viruses to escape immune surveillance. Thus, while many viral proteins are highly variable in their primary structure, the polysaccharide chains are nearly invariant, allowing for the capture of all strains and clades of many viruses. In fact, lectin derived affinity agents immobilized within the Hemopurifier have been shown to inhibit the growth of all tested strains of HIV and can capture of inhibit the growth of other envelope viruses including SIV, FIV, HCV, Measles, Mumps, Influenza, Ebola, Marburg, and Orthopox viruses. Recent studies indicate that the Hemopurifier affinity agent is also able to capture Dengue hemorrhagic fever virus. In conclusion, the Hemopurifier has expansive therapeutic capabilities that address: global pandemics (HIV-AIDS); chronic infectious diseases (Hepatitis-C); naturally evolving pathogens; and pathogens weaponized for bioterrorism attacks against U.S. military and civilian populations.
According to the company website, Aethlon also started research on a second generation Hemopurifier(TM) that is aimed at the capture of growth factors inherent in the spread of cancer.
Technology page over at Aethlon…
