Aethlon Medical, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: AEMD), the pioneer in developing therapeutic filtration devices to address infectious disease and cancer, announced today that it has demonstrated the ability to capture immunosuppressive exosomes derived from individuals with lymphoma and colorectal cancer.
In the lymphoma study, conducted at the City of Hope Cancer Research Hospital in California, exosomes derived from lymphoma patients were circulated through Aethlon Medical's Hemopurifier®. Each sample confirmed significant exosome capture rate validating that the company's Hemopurifier® is a candidate therapy to address lymphoma.
In a separate study, exosomes derived from colorectal cancer patients were also circulated through the company's Hemopurifier®. The results for the colorectal study also confirmed significant exosome capture rate and the prospect of applying the Hemopurifier® as a therapeutic for this type of cancer. The company anticipates providing additional details of these studies in a forthcoming report.
Additionally, as previously announced, Exosome Sciences, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Aethlon Medical, is developing its proprietary ELLSA assay that will allow researchers to detect exosomes in blood and other fluids. These studies further validate the company's detection assay in identifying lymphoma and colorectal cancer derived from cancer-released exosomes. As a result, this diagnostic tool offers the potential to improve lymphoma and colorectal cancer diagnosis and monitor disease progression.
The Hemopurifier® is the first medical device to selectively target the removal of infectious viruses and immunosuppressive proteins from the entire circulatory system. Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic of the immune system and presents as a liquid tumor of lymphoid cells. According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, an estimated 21,530 persons will die of lymphoma in the United States in 2010
Colorectal cancer, also called colon cancer or large bowel cancer, includes cancerous growths in the colon, rectum and appendix. With 655,000 deaths worldwide per year, it is the fourth most common form of cancer in the United States and the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the Western world.
"Our goal is to provide oncologists with an adjunct therapeutic device that will improve treatment of lymphoma and colorectal cancer without adding drug toxicity or interaction risks," stated , Jim Joyce, Aethlon Medical's Chairman and CEO. "The data also provides supporting evidence that our Hemopurifier® has broad-spectrum applications against various forms of cancer." Aethlon previously demonstrated that its Hemopurifier® successfully captured exosomes derived from ovarian, breast and melanoma cancer patients during in vitro studies.
Aethlon believes the Hemopurifier® represents the sole therapeutic strategy to directly inhibit or reverse the deleterious effects associated with exosomes secreted by tumors as a survival mechanism for cancer. Tumor-secreted exosomes have been reported to trigger programmed cell death (apoptosis) of immune cells; interrupt T-cell signaling required to mount an immune response; inhibit the production of anti-cancer cytokines, and have implications in the spread of metastasis and allowing for angiogenesis.
Liver cells effectively serve as immune checkpoint regulating anti-cancer immunity