Description:
Current
State of the Art:
Gold-based
drugs are currently used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, have
demonstrated efficacy in clinical trials in malaria treatment, and most recently
have significantly reduced the reservoir of viral DNA and the population of
long-lived HIV-infected memory CD4+ cells in pre-clinical studies.
In
addition, chelation therapy is a mainstream treatment used to treat heavy metal
poisoning. However, chelation therapy is also used as an alternative therapy
(and not approved by the FDA) for treatment of heart disease, cancer, and other
conditions. It most often involves the injection of ethylene diamine tetraacetic
acid (EDTA), a chemical that binds, or chelates, heavy metals, including iron,
lead, mercury, cadmium, and zinc.
Disadvantages
with the Current Art:
Gold
compounds, which have therapeutic properties, also have serious systemic side
effects. These compounds do not currently provide local therapy to the target
cells resulting in systemic toxicity and side effects. In addition, there are
challenges in achieving a gradual release of the compounds that would provide a
sustained, local dose.
Current
solid-based chelation therapies (such as charcoal) are relatively nonspecific
and not efficient for metal ions. Organic chelators (such as EDTA) are more
difficult to sequester in a solid phase because they are water-soluble. In
addition, current chelation therapies often have toxic liabilities or result in
derivatives that are toxic.
Advantages
of Invention:
Monosodium
titanate (MST) is a ceramic that strongly binds specific metal ions and has been
used to sequester metal ions of strontium, neptunium, and uranium from aqueous
radioactive waste. Researchers from the Medical College of Georgia have
demonstrated that MST is also effective at binding mercury, gold, and cadmium
ions. The research has demonstrated a potential application of MST as a
scavenger of biometals such as cadmium or mercury, and as a drug delivery source
for gold-based drugs.
MST
has exhibited high affinity for biometals and could provide a significant
advantage in delivery of metal ions to target cells or removal of metal ions
from cells in a more efficient manner. MST is more corrosion resistant when
compared to current therapies and could be delivered as a solid phase for
targeted therapy. In addition, tests for biological toxicity were favorable for
further development of these unique materials. Possible applications for MST
include the delivery of anti-arthritic compounds, such as Auranofin®, delivery
of novel drugs for cancer therapy, delivery of drugs to the periodontal sulcus,
treatment of acute metal toxicity, treatment of metabolic diseases in which
metal accumulation occurs, and MST could even be used for
sequestration of mercury from dental waste water.
Patent
Status: Non-provisional
Filed
Inventors:
John
Wataha, DMD. Ph.D; Regina Messer,
Ph.D; Jill Lewis, Ph.D; David Hobbs, Ph.D;
Case
Number:
GHSU 2007-006