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Huntington's Help May Hit Regulatory Hurdle

Posted on: Thursday, 4 August 2005, 18:01 CDT

Kiwi scientists help develop potential breakthrough using brain cells from Auckland Island pigs.

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NEW ZEALAND'S ban on using animal cells to treat humans could prove a hurdle for a new Huntington's disease therapy derived from Auckland Island pigs.

There is no cure for Huntington's disease, an inherited condition in which brain cells gradually deteriorate and affects one in 15,000 New Zealanders.

In a potential breakthrough, New Zealand scientists have helped develop "biocapsules" from pig brain cells. They are coated in a gel made from seaweed found in the North Sea.

Trials on monkeys showed that injecting the capsules could significantly reduce brain-cell damage. Researchers for biotech company Living Cell Technologies grow the cells in New Zealand but the animal tests were done in the United States.

The company plans to apply to the American Food and Drug Administration for permission for human trials.

Current regulations would ban the therapy in New Zealand because it involves animal to human transplants, or xenotransplantation.

Huntington's disease gene carrier Judy Lyon, of Wellington, said she hoped sufferers in New Zealand would not be prevented from having the treatment.

"I'm delighted to see that it's happening but sad that they've had to go the States to do it because that could put it out of reach for a lot of New Zealanders."

The 64-year-old, who watched her mother die of the disease, said her own daughter, aged in her 30s, recently learnt she also had the gene.

Huntington's causes uncontrollable movements, slowly destroys the ability to walk and talk, and leads to behavioural changes and dementia.

Auckland Huntington's Disease Association spokeswoman Beth Gordon said it was seeking more information on the moratorium on xenotransplantation so it could advise members.

Living Cell Technologies New Zealand managing director Paul Tan said the Government would have to change its position on xenotransplantation for the treatment to become available here. However, if the human trials were successful he expected demand from New Zealanders would grow and "things would move on from there".

Many of the concerns about the risks of animal to human transplantation were not as serious as originally thought, he said.

The pigs used for the new treatment come from the Auckland Islands, 460km south of Bluff, where the animals are free of infectious diseases.

The seaweed from the North Sea used to coat the cells allows the transfer of hormones to damaged areas.

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Source: Dominion Post

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