RE:RE:RE:New Paper from Dr. McFarland99942Apophis wrote: I would imagine out of Professional courtesy Dr. SHERRI MCFARLAND had a discussion with Theralase. Will be looking at the next Newsletter to see if anything is mentioned and it wouldn't make sense for Theralase to go forward if Dr. McFarland has initiated a move. My gut feeling would be they had a conversation and Theralase will concentrate on Cancer while she tackles the Coronavirus, this Covid-19 has slowed the NMIBC Ph2 study that the revenue from the commercialization is needed for GBM & NSCLC . Too bad but she will be able bring about the help the world needs sooner than Theralase. All in my opinion.
Eoganacht wrote
Theralase definitely doesn't have the rights to this photosenstizer. It is owned by Dr. McFarland's own privately held company - Photodynamic Inc. Eoganacht wrote: Dr. McFarland is having a go at photodynamic inactivation of coronaviruses with the botanical extract PhytoQuin as the photosensitizer. I don't think Theralase has the rights to this one. The full text is available here:
Photodynamic Inactivation of Human Coronaviruses Abstract:
Photodynamic inactivation (PDI) employs a photosensitizer, light, and oxygen to create a local burst of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can inactivate microorganisms. The botanical extract PhytoQuinTM is a powerful photosensitizer with antimicrobial properties. We previously demonstrated that photoactivated PhytoQuin also has antiviral properties against herpes simplex viruses and adenoviruses in a dose-dependent manner across a broad range of sub-cytotoxic concentrations. Here, we report that human coronaviruses (HCoVs) are also susceptible to photodynamic inactivation. Photoactivated-PhytoQuin inhibited the replication of the alphacoronavirus HCoV229E and the betacoronavirus HCoV-OC43 in cultured cells across a range of sub-cytotoxic doses.
This antiviral effect was light-dependent, as we observed minimal antiviral effect of PhytoQuin in the absence of photoactivation. Using RNase protection assays, we observed that PDI disrupted HCoV particle integrity allowing for the digestion of viral RNA by exogenous ribonucleases. Using lentiviruses pseudotyped with the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein, we once again observed a strong, light-dependent antiviral effect of PhytoQuin, which prevented S-mediated entry into human cells. We also observed that PhytoQuin PDI altered S protein electrophoretic mobility. The PhytoQuin constituent emodin displayed equivalent light-dependent antiviral activity to PhytoQuin in matched dose experiments, indicating that it plays a central role in PhytoQuin PDI against CoVs. Together, these findings demonstrate that HCoV lipid envelopes and proteins are damaged by PhytoQuin PDI and expands the list of susceptible viruses.
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I'm still encouraged by TLD-1433's ability to destroy enveloped viruses at safe/non-cytotoxic doses "without" the need for light activation. I think this may separate us from other photosensitizing compounds, including Dr. McFarland's new compound, PhytoQuin.
As stated per Dr. Coombs of U of M:
“From this initial data, Theralase’s PDCs have a very high anti-viral activity at a very low concentration, in the nanomolar range, even when not stimulated. It is also noteworthy that this effect was observed at concentrations well below toxicity levels observed in mammalian cells or mammalian patients; therefore, this approach would provide a very high efficacy-to-safety ratio. Thus, the PDCs effective concentration is comparable to, or better than, many other anti-virals that my lab has tested and this virus killing capacity is further improved when the PDC is light activated, alone or in various formulations.”
I'm hoping with the help of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute this year, we can eventually pursue an antiviral treatment. I think we can get more bang for our buck here...though available funding will certainly dictate the timing/onset of this research. In the meantime, I believe our efforts will continue to be more focused on the development of a vaccine, considering our agreement with PHAC.