Hemispherx's Alferon LDO boosts efficacy of flu vaccines, study says

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., March 16 - Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. said its Alferon LDO (low-dose oral) has tremendous potential to slow the spread of avian flu by stimulating genes that induce the production of immune compounds that are key building blocks in the body's defense system.

According to a company news release, research has identified a gene that is believed to cause the immune system to shut down and may have led to the devastating Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which is estimated to have killed 100 million people. The new research included analysis of flu virus specimens recently recovered in the frozen arctic tundra from victims of the 1918 flu epidemic.

These studies have critical implications because some researchers believe the current spread of the H5N1, or avian flu, virus may have similar underlying causes, the company said.

Researchers in this area have recently focused on TNF, a naturally occurring immune substance, as the instigator of the massive tissue damage to lung cells.

These studies suggest that the interferon system, the body's primary line of defense, broke down first, leading to the aberrant and ultimately self-destructive release of TNF, the company said.

In recent healthy human volunteer tests conducted in Hong Kong and Philadelphia, patients were given graded doses of Alferon LDO for two minutes' exposure. Blood samples were then taken to determine which components of the immune system had been activated. It was found that the interferon gene activity normally suppressed or killed by the virus were instead enhanced several times over.

By contrast, the TNF gene battery normally enhanced by viral infection was instead sharply suppressed by the brief Alferon LDO exposure, according to the release.

Hemispherx also reported that the effectiveness of Tamiflu and Relenza, the only two drugs formally recognized for combating bird flu, can be boosted up to 100 times. Lab studies reveal that 50 to 100 times less Tamiflu may be used in conjunction with Ampligen to achieve full inhibition with no multiplication of the virus and no host cell damage, the company said.

"The latest research offers further evidence that we are on the right path to identifying the factors that cause the immune system to break down, which has grave implications in the event of a pandemic," chairman and chief executive officer William A. Carter said in the release.

"We're also encouraged that our experimental immunotherapeutics Ampligen and Alferon offer tremendous potential against the global spread of the H5N1 virus."

Hemispherx is a Philadelphia-based biopharmaceutical company that manufactures and develops new drugs for the treatment of viral and immune-based chronic disorders.

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