CYTRX ANNOUNCES DATA SHOWING IROXANADINE MAY HELP REDUCE BLOOD VESSEL DAMAGE IN HEART ATTACK AND STROKE

CytRx has announced the publication scientific data showing that its oral drug candidate, iroxanadine, may help to reduce damage to blood vessels that occurs when blood flow is restricted and then restored, such as during and immediately after heart attack and stroke.

The data was published by researchers collaborating with Biorex Research and Development Company (the company from which CytRx purchased iroxanadine) in the December 2004 issue of Cell and Molecular Life Sciences.

The researchers demonstrated that iroxanadine protects human endothelial cells that line the walls of blood vessels in an in vitro cellular model system of ischemia (a period of oxygen deprivation caused by the obstruction of blood flow) followed by reperfusion (restoration of oxygen supply). Normally, when oxygen is restored to oxygen-starved endothelial cells the resulting oxidative cell damage triggers programmed cell death, or apoptosis, resulting in death of the endothelial cells.

However, the published research showed that cells treated with iroxanadine showed significantly less cell death under those conditions, even when the drug was added 20 hours after onset of oxygen deprivation.