Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday that it has receivednotification that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office hasallowed all 35 claims of its patent application to measurespectrin and its breakdown products as a marker for cellulardegeneration.

Spectrin is one of a family of filamentous proteins that formthe framework of nerve cells and other cells. Under certaindegenerative conditions, spectrin breaks down and can be foundin the cerebrospinal fluid. The Irvine, Calif., company isdeveloping a diagnostic to test for these breakdown products.

The test would differentiate patients with actualdeterioration of brain tissue, such as occurs in Alzheimer'sdisease and stroke, from patients suffering memory loss orother symptoms due to depression, multiple drug effects andother causes.

Cortex is also using spectrin in drug development. "We thinkspectrin will be an objective measure of the amount ofdegeneration occurring in stroke, heart attack, head injury andother disorders," said D. Scott Hagen, Cortex's vice presidentof finance and administration. "The disappearance of spectrinshould also be an indication of recovery and the effectivenessof drug therapy."

The company is using spectrin, which is a natural substrate ofcalpain, to screen for calpain inhibitors to limit brain damagefollowing strokes and related disorders. Using spectrin is farquicker than conventional histological analysis of brain tissue,which involves staining cells and examining them under amicroscope, Hagen said.

Privately held Cortex and the University of California are co-inventors of the technology. Cortex has an exclusive license toUC's portion of the technology. The patent will issue within thenext two to three months, Hagen said. -- Karen Bernstein

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