Guilford's Promising "Nerve Regenerators"

Guilford Pharmaceuticals' researchers have reported finding a new classof medicines that may be able to regenerate nerves damaged by injury, or by diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Details were presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

The compounds revived damaged nerves and eliminated most symptoms of disease in laboratory animals with a Parkinson's-like syndrome, and also stimulated the growth of degenerating nerve cells, similar to those found in the Alzheimer's brain, in test-tube experiments.

Rather than being injected directly into the brain, as is the case with the neurotrophic factors in clinical development, Guilford's small-molecule drugs may be taken orally. The Guilford drugs also seem to selectively target damaged nerve cells and so could have fewer side effects than the earlier generation of drugs, according to the Wall Street Journal.