Founder of MelTec GmbH and Proteomics Researcher, Walter Schubert of Otto-von-Guericke University Awarded U.S. Patents for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

MAGDEBURG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2003

Walter Schubert, university educator, founder and partner of MelTec GmbH today announced that he has been awarded three U.S. patents related to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a devastating neurological disease the cause of which is unknown. It affects the motor neurons of the brain and spinal cord, while leaving the intellect usually completely intact throughout the course of the disease. Apart from a few unconvincing claims of recovery, ALS is a fatal disease, with a mean duration of two to four years. Severe breathing problems occur due to impairment of the respiratory musculature in progressive stages. ALS results in death by choking, posing tremendous disease management problems.

Walter Schubert said that ALS is the cruelest disease he has ever encountered saying, "This is particularly true of the later stages of disease when patients suffer progressively from respiratory insufficiency."

Similarly, in an article on ALS, W.B. Mathiews stated that, "I have never used assisted ventilation by tracheotomy or endotracheal tubes as this only serves in prolonging an intolerable existence. The final stages of which demand the use of morphine (Oxford Textbook of Medicine)." There are no effective therapies capable of stopping the disease available today.

The new patents are based on the already patented MELK technology. Invented by Schubert, this technology allows protein networks to be identified directly in morphologically intact cells and tissues (Schubert, W: Topological proteomics, Toponomics, MELK Technology. In Hecker, M., Mullner, S. (eds). Proteomics of microorganisms: Fundamental aspects and application. Advances of Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology. Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, vol. 83, pp 189-209, 2003). It was while using this technology to investigate the cells of ALS patients that Schubert detected a cell surface protein cluster that is not observed in healthy individuals and that may be involved in abnormal cell-cell contacts between Immune cells and nerve cells. One leading protein within this cluster is the Fcgamma RIII receptor, which is described in the new patents as a target protein for ALS. This receptor mediates the interaction of immune cells with target cells by binding immunoglobulin G1 and G3 subclasses to this cell surface receptor. The patents describe compounds that will block pathogenic interactions between both these cell types and modify or inhibit the abnormal Fcgamma-dependent protein cluster.

Driven by his extensive experience with ALS patients, Schubert's objective has long been to explore ALS, especially using MELK technology. At a meeting of the American ALS Association in Philadelphia two years ago, 30 ALS researchers met to discuss new ways of treating the disease. Considering the dramatic nature of this disease, Schubert used this meeting to inform selected scientists on his findings about the Fcgamma RIII receptor-associated protein cluster in ALS. Meanwhile, American Neurologist Stan Appel (ALS Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA) was carrying out experiments with a mouse (knock-out, KO mouse) that lacked Fcgamma receptors. After a series of experiments, it was concluded that this receptor is obviously essential for the ALS-caused damage of nerve cells: the KO mice lacking this receptor failed to develop any changes in the motor neurons after passive immunotransfer of ALS immunoglobulins. Yet the normal mice that express this receptor developed characteristic changes to these nerve cells after immunoglobulin transfer (J. Neurosci. Res., 2002, 69, 110-116). The motor nerve cells constitute precisely the fraction of nerve cell types that enable the movement of muscles and that are selectively affected in ALS.