Scientists Develop Antidote For New Class Of Drugs

A new antidote has been developed by scientists which appears to work against a whole new class of drugs called aptamers.The new compound can quickly counteract the action of the drugs, offering a way to reverse the drugs' actions if a patient develops serious side effects.

The compound was designed to work with a new blood-thinner being developed for heart patients undergoing angioplasty to clear out blocked arteries. Such patients need to take blood thinners to prevent blood clots during surgery, but bleeding is a common side effect.

Bruce Sullenger of Duke University Medical Center said that having an antidote on hand would make the treatments safer. His study was published in the journal Nature Medicine.

The antidote agent appears to work against a whole new class of drugs called aptamers.

Sullenger said,"Most drugs target proteins. The type of drugs we're talking about are ribonucleic acids (RNAs) that target proteins.”


"Normally in our body we don't have these types of molecules outside of cells," Sullenger said.

"What we are doing is using agents that will sop up any nucleic acid. It's basically acting like a sponge. We put the sponge in the one compartment where the drug is," he said.

These antidote molecules controlled the activity of eight different aptamer compounds that was tested by the team.

They also tried it in a pig that had been given an aptamer blood thinner compound. "We showed you could rapidly reverse that blood-thinning effect," he said.

Pfizer's Macugen, a treatment for age-related macular degeneration, is the only aptamer drug that has been currently approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sullenger confirmed that several others were undergoing test.

Regado Biosciences in Durham, North Carolina is the company that is testing his blood thinner, called REG1.

Sullenger thinks that an antidote to this emerging class of drugs will make them safe."We predict that this advance will significantly expand the number of diseases that can be more safely treated using antidote-controllable agents," he said.

For more information go to www.maculardegenerationassociation.org