Patents

Cerus Corp. of Concord, California, has won a U.S. patent for a technology that can decontaminate viruses, bacteria and pathogens from blood products. The company has just begun clinical tests to prove its technique and win final approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The new technique involves a chemical compound that searches for the genetic properties of DNA and RNA in blood products. Since healthy blood cells do not contain either DNA or RNA, the compound, when combined with blood, recognizes them as contaminants and will bind to either and prevent replication. Dr. Laurence M. Corash, the chief medical officer at Cerus, notes, "Viruses, bacteria, and parasites need to use DNA to replicate and create infection and disease. We use this difference as a discriminatory tool to kill the viruses, bacteria, and parasites, but leave the red blood cells therapeutically functional and safe." The new compound is capable of purifying the blood from contaminants, including those that cause hepatitis B and HIV.

Other CDC News for February 12, 2001
Gates Gives Booster Shot to AIDS Vaccines Brazil May Flout Trade Laws to Keep AIDS Drugs Free for Patients Roche Open to Discuss Patent Rights of AIDS Drug With Brazil Advertisement Charity Pleads for Cheap AIDS Drugs Patents	Undeterred by a Monster; Secrecy and Stigma Keep AIDS Risk High for Gay Black Men Protein in Placentas Said to Block AIDS Vatican to Give $475,000 to Uganda's AIDS Orphans Thousands Petition to Have AIDS-Awareness Classes in Schools