Arriva Presents Interim Results From an ex vivo Human Study Of Alpha 1-Antitrypsin at the 8th International Symposium On Recent Advances in Otitis Media.

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- ALAMEDA, Calif., June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Arriva Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced today interim results from its ex vivo human studies of recombinant alpha 1-antitrypsin (rAAT) in adult and pediatric patients with middle ear disease (otitis media, OM). The work was presented in both a poster session and as an oral presentation at the 8th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Otitis Media, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Alpha 1-antitrypsin is a natural protease inhibitor that is known to be involved in regulating inflammatory responses and chronic tissue degradation in a number of human conditions, including hereditary emphysema, asthma, cystic fibrosis and dermatological disease. The molecular basis for AAT's activity is thought to be primarily in the regulation of neutrophil elastase (NE), a protease with deleterious inflammatory activity when not controlled adequately by its natural inhibitors.

Recent estimates show that the direct healthcare costs including surgery and antibiotic treatment for OM diseases in the U.S. and Canada are in excess of $5 Billion annually. In the present study, Arriva scientists, in collaboration with scientists at the University of Florida, have shown that, in various forms of middle ear disease, there exists a high level of NE in the exudates obtained from affected individuals. Particularly high levels of neutrophil elastase (NE) activity were found in pediatric patients with chronic OM with effusion, and in patients who had recently undergone tympanostomy tube surgery. Furthermore, this excessive NE activity could be neutralized using Arriva's rAAT.

Dr. Philip J. Barr, Arriva's Chief Scientific Officer and an author of the work commented, "Current therapy of OM diseases that involve a non-intact tympanic membrane is problematic because of ototoxicity of many current ...