A Medical Device Daily

Aethlon Medical (San Diego) reported that researchers at India's National Institute of Virology (NIV; Puhn) have documented that the Aethlon Hemopurifier is efficient in capturing infectious dengue virus. In preliminary studies, the Aethlon Hemopurifier removed 99.6% of live dengue virus from fluids in 30 minutes.

As a result of this discovery, Aethlon said it has filed in the U.S. for a new patent titled: "Device and Method for Purifying Virally Infected Blood."

NIV is the Indian government's infectious disease research center and a collaborating laboratory of the World Health Organization (Geneva).

"The data resulting from the NIV study exceeds expectations," said James Joyce, CEO and chairman of Aethlon. "We will continue to initiate programs that support the commercialization of the Hemopurifier as a potential treatment for dengue and other viral threats resistant to drug and vaccine therapy."

At present, there is no antiviral drug or vaccine therapy to treat dengue. The disease is now endemic in more than 100 countries in Africa, the Americas, Southeast Asia and the western Pacific, according to WHO, with an estimated 50 million to 100 million cases of dengue infection and 500,000 cases of DHF worldwide every year.

The Hemopurifier is designed to mimic the natural immune response of clearing viruses and related toxins before the occurrence of cell and organ infection. Aethlon previously has demonstrated the Hemopurifier is able to capture a broad-spectrum of drug and vaccine resistant viruses, including HIV, Hepatitis-C (HCV), and certain pathogens considered bioterror threats.

In the NIV study, researchers utilized a diagnostic procedure that measured plaque-forming units (PFU), to determine the ability of the Hemopurifier to capture only the live infectious forms of dengue that cause disease progression. When researchers circulated 5 ml of cultured dengue virus solution with a concentration of 28 billion virus copies per ml (as measured by RT-PCR) of both live infectious and non-infectious virus through a small scale Hemopurifier, live virus was captured at a significantly greater rate than non-infectious virus.

The Hemopurifier removed 99.6% of the live virus from culture fluids in 30 minutes. In contrast, 33% of total virus, including both infectious and non-infectious forms, was removed in the same time period. Similarly, after one hour of recirculation, 99.7% of the live virus had been removed vs. 54% of total virus.

Based on these data points, Aethlon said, "It appears the Hemopurifier has a selective affinity to capture infectious virus at a rate up to 170-180 times faster than non-infectious virus. As a result, Aethlon has evidence indicating the Hemopurifier is significantly more effective in capturing infectious virus than previously anticipated. The ability to rapidly clear circulating live virus inhibits the spread of the infection, thus improving the environment for the natural immune response to defeat an infectious viral pathogen before it becomes life threatening."

In other patent news: MedicalCV (Minneapolis) reported receiving three notices of allowances for patent applications covering aspects of its laser-based surgical ablation technology.

MedicalCV currently markets both the Atrilaze and Solar Surgical Ablation Systems.

Adam Berman, VP of R&D for MedicalCV, said, "Moving forward, we will continue to focus on applying novel, flexible, fiber-optic technologies to medicine."

Both the SOLAR and ATRILAZE Surgical Ablation Systems were developed from MedicalCV's laser-based technology to provide a platform for creating lesions in soft and cardiac tissue.

The Solar System recently received FDA 510(K) clearance for soft tissue ablation and the Atrilaze System has obtained three separate clearances for ablation or coagulation of soft tissue, including cardiac tissue. However, the treatment indication for cardiac arrhythmias is specifically excluded for both systems at this time.

MedicalCV develops ablation systems utilizing a laser platform to create precise lesions in soft and cardiac tissue.