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A Vaccine for Ordinary Flu?
By Shlomo Maital
Professor Ruth Arnon, Weizmann Institute
With the world’s attention singularly focused on COVID-19 (understandably), another threat waits in the wings – ordinary flu.
Each fall, my wife and I take a number at our HMO and get a flu shot. The flu shot is different each year, because each year the flu virus is different, having mutated over the previous months. The flu vaccine itself is an educated guess, guessing at which flu will be most virulent several months later. Sometimes the guess works, sometimes it is quite wrong.
Every year it is estimated that 5 million people get the common flu, and kills up to 650,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. This fall will be no different. People weakened by common flu may be more susceptible to COVID-19, which will doubtless linger. So we do need to worry about common flu, not just COVID-19.
Weizmann Institute is a leading research university in Rehovot, Israel. Many years ago, Prof. Ruth Arnon discovered copaxone, a drug effective in treating those with multiple sclerosis (MS). The drug was developed and marketed by Teva, an Israeli pharma company.
Ruth Arnon is 86 years old, and continues to work hard in her lab. A headline in the April 28 issue of The Marker, an Israeli business daily, features some startling news: Arnon’s flu vaccine, developed and tested by BiondVax, a startup, is going into Phase 3 clinical trials (the final phase).
What is different about Arnon’s flu shot is this: It works (IF it works, and it seems that it does) against ALL flu viruses. So we will need just one shot, like mumps and measles vaccine, and not new shots every fall.
How does Arnon’s vaccine work? Arnon: “We studied the proteins of the flu virus. We identified four places in flu viruses that are common to every type of flu”. The vaccine Arnon developed and patented, and which is under clinical trials through BiondVax, works to block the parts of the flu proteins common to all varieties.
Arnon notes cautiously that so far it has given flu immunity to mice, genetically engineered to resemble human genes. And the vaccine is approaching the finish line of this long long marathon, Phase 3. If it can be manufactured fast enough, and cheaply enough, perhaps it will save the world many deaths from flu and flu-weakened coronavirus patients.
Now, let’s be clear. COVID-19 is NOT flu. Arnon’s vaccine will not affect coronavirus. But if it saves deaths from common flu, and flu-related COVID-19, it can save many many thousands of lives. So we will track the BiondVax vaccine carefully, as it completes Phase 3.
How to Cure Cancer: Zelig Eshhar and the $12 b. Exit
By Shlomo Maital
Prof. Zelig Eschar
Last year, I blogged about a remarkable breakthrough in research on fighting leukemia and lymphoma.
“Media reports last week [2016] brought exciting news about a new breakthrough in the fight to cure cancer. Cancer patients received genetically modified T-cells that were equipped with synthetic molecules called chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs. Those T-cells were able to target and destroy the tumor cells – specifically the ones that were responsible for the acute lymphoblastic leukemia the patients were suffering from. According to officials at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where the research was carried out, patients in the trial – some of whom were told in 2013 they had barely a few months to live – not only survived, but now, after the therapy, “have no sign of the disease.” One of the pioneers of this approach is Prof. Zelig Eshhar, of Israel’s Weizmann Institute. According to press accounts: “Eshhar has been conducting T-cell research for over a decade, and in 2014 was recognized by leading industry publication Human Gene Therapy for his work, along with Dr. Carl June of the University of Pennsylvania for their work in the field.”
Yesterday brought an interesting postscript, with an Israeli perspective.
Kite Pharma, a US company founded by an Israeli scientist, Dr. Arie Belldegrun, acquired the patent rights to Eschar’s breakthrough, in a very complicated deal. Now, according to the Wall St. Journal, a biotech company called Gilead (“Balm of Gilead”, from the Bible), with $30 b. in annual revenues, has acquired Kite Pharma, for a staggering $12 billion. And that figure is not overpriced.
One reason for the high price is that recently Novartis received FDA approval for a similar drug, based on genetically engineering T-cells to recognize and kill cancer cells, this one for leukemia. Kite and Gilead may soon get FDA approval for their drug aimed at non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Belldegrun is a remarkable individual. He is a Professor at UCLA, a specialist in urological oncology. And at the same time he is a serial, successful entrepreneur, having done several exits (and earned many hundreds of millions of dollars), and is founder of Kite. He recognized the potential of Eschar’s breakthrough and managed a complex deal in which Kite acquired the rights to the patent. Belldegrun studied at Israel’s Weizmann Institute and Hebrew University Medical School, and moved to the US early in his career. He collaborated closely with Dr. Steven Rosenberg, of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The new approach to fighting cancer – teaching T-cells how to spot cancer cells, which are cleverly disguised, tear off their disguise and kill them – is highly promising. Kudos to Professor Eschar, Dr. Belldegrun and to those who were early investors in Kite – and profited.
New Thinking on Alzheimer’s: Time for a Paradigm Shift?
By Shlomo Maital
Scientific breakthroughs come from iconoclastic researchers who are not afraid to smash consensus paradigms. Take, for instance, Prof. Michal Schwarz, of Israel’s Weizmann Institute. Here is what she told this week’s Haaretz (Hebrew) reporter:
The puzzle I pieced together is correct, and now I see the whole picture – how my research approach, for years against the consensus, has become one of the central focal points for research on all degenerative (neural) diseases.
The paradigm shift Schwarz has helped bring about is simple. Many researchers follow the “I dropped a coin” model – they look for it under the corner streetlight, instead of in dark corners, where it fell, because…. “that’s where the light is”. Alzheimer’s? Gooey proteins gumming up the brain and causing death? Look for cures that eliminate or prevent the protein directly, in the brain. Under the light.
But Schwarz? Let’s help the body’s own anti-immune system, outside the brain, fight those plaque accumulations that damage the brain. Last year the Daily Telegraph quoted Dr. Doug Brown, a leading Alzheimer’s researcher: “Repurposing drugs that already work for other conditions could provide us with a shortcut to new dementia treatments, and is a key aspect of our Drug Discovery programme.”
Here ‘s how the Daily Telegraph described Schwarz’s paradigm shift, in 2016: “The drugs, known as PD-1 blockers, effectively prevent the immune system from switching off, allowing a continuous cascade of soldier cells to fight disease and clear out damage in the body. In the case of Alzheimer’s disease sticky amyloid plaques build up which stop brain cells communicating with each other. But when mice, engineered to have Alzheimer’s symptoms, were given injections of the drug the amount of amyloid in their brains halved, and the animals were able to complete a maze task in the same time as control mice. Last year the first PD-1 blocker drug Keytruda was approved for use on the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence so it is already known to be a safe treatment.
“Lead author Prof Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, said that in Alzheimer’s a weakened immune system could be preventing the body from repairing itself. “We are extremely excited about our new study, we believe it is a game changer both conceptually and therapeutically,” she said.
Her research was published in the leading journal Nature Medicine.
Prof. Schwarz added: (in Hebrew): “In contrast to veteran old-time researchers, students have no history of believing dogma (existing paradigms)…they are fresh ears and eyes, without preconceptions. They were especially excited, with me, at our results, and joined my research and contributed to moving it forward, and some of them are continuing in my wake.”
As a (very) senior citizen, I have deep interest in breakthrough research on Alzheimer’s – half of those over 85 have it, at least early versions. Congratulations to Prof. Schwarz for becoming a woman scientist and for leading a paradigm shift that may help millions – including those in countries that despise Israel.
Diabetes: Breakthrough?
By Shlomo Maital
Remember how an Australian researcher discovered the cause of ulcers – bacteria! He did it by injecting himself with the specific bacteria and causing an ulcer, at a time when the medical establishment pooh-poohed his hypothesis.
Now comes news about a breakthrough in diabetes research. Diabetes is a virtual epidemic, as sugar consumption soars (Americans consume 30 kg. per person annually!), Coca Cola pushes sugary drinks and pays scholars to say the problem is lack of exercise….
Scholars at Israel’s Weizmann Institute, one of the world’s greatest universities, led by Dr. Eran Elyaniv, and publishing their findings in Science, have linked diabetes to the masses of microbes that inhabit our intestines. They found that Type 2 diabetes is directly related to the rate at which our intestinal microbes multiply or fail to.
The research included students of computer science, and used a new technique related to computational biology. The breakthrough shows how modern scientific research requires a portfolio of techniques that link nano, bio, computers, software, electronics, and other fields.
The research team found that changes in the microbes in our stomach and intestines can be directly related to onset of Type 2 diabetes.
This could possibly lead to first, much earlier detection of diabetes, bringing effective treatment; or, possibly, second, a medical cure for it (none exists today), based on medication that influences the development of intestinal microbes.
It has long been known that our wellbeing is influenced strongly by the wellbeing of the massive numbers of microbes that live, multiply and reproduce in our intestines. Now research links this directly with diabetes. Congratulations to the researchers.
TIMnovate 