VIENNA, Va., April 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CEL-SCI CORPORATION announces that it has extended its Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) of the U.S. Navy to jointly evaluate CEL-SCI’s patented drug CEL-1000 against several species of malaria causing Plasmodium and as an adjuvant with various malaria vaccines. This extension is the result of recently completed and ongoing studies with CEL-1000 at the NMRC.
CEL-1000 is a patented small peptide that has induced protective responses against malaria, herpes simplex, viral encephalitis and cancer upon challenge in animals. The peptide is a modified version of a human sequence known to bind to both human and mouse immune cells and as such, the results obtained are thought to have direct applicability in man.
CEL-1000 is currently being tested by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institute of Health, for the prevention/treatment of the avian flu virus in animal models. CEL-1000 has also been proposed as a very promising agent for enhancing the activity of avian flu vaccines, thereby “stretching” the avian flu vaccine supply.
It has been previously reported that CEL-1000 peptide induced immune responses which afforded 100% protection against malaria (P. yoelii) infection in the mouse model after the administration of only two doses of CEL-1000 (5 microgram) at 2 to 4 weeks prior to challenge. Even when administered as a single dose or at a dose as low as 1 microgram, significant protection was observed.
Protection was defined as a total lack of malaria parasites in the blood of the animals at several time points for up to two weeks following challenge, a very stringent test. The peptide appears to increase the animal’s ability to fight off challenges via the immune system arm responsible for interferon gamma.
Malaria affects about 300-500 million people per year and is responsible for about 2.7 million deaths annually. It is a parasitic disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes. The emergence of drug resistant strains is a major problem as is the emergence of insecticide resistant strains of mosquitoes. Another problem is the need for a low cost preventive or treatment against malaria since most of the world’s cases are located in the developing world. The U.S. Navy has a particular interest in malaria to protect military personnel and in the humanitarian goal of reducing malaria mortality in areas of the world that carry the risk of malaria infection.
CEL-SCI Corporation is developing new immune system based treatments for cancer and infectious diseases. The Company has operations in Vienna, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland. The Company’s lead product Multikine(R) is cleared to enter Phase III clinical trials with advanced primary head and neck cancer patients.
When used in this report, the words “intends,” “believes,” “anticipated” and “expects” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include an inability to duplicate the clinical results demonstrated in clinical studies, timely development of any potential products that can be shown to be safe and effective, receiving necessary regulatory approvals, difficulties in manufacturing any of the Company’s potential products, inability to raise the necessary capital and the risk factors set forth from time to time in CEL-SCI Corporation’s SEC filings, including but not limited to its report on Form 10- K/A for the year ended September 30, 2004. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revision to these forward- looking statements which may be made to reflect the events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
CEL-SCI Corporation
CONTACT: Gavin de Windt of CEL-SCI Corporation, +1-703-506-9460; or MikeLucci, Investor Relations of Lucci Financial Group, LLC, +1-248-723-3330,for CEL-SCI Corporation
Web site: http://www.cel-sci.com/
