System and method for testing the neuroprotective or neuroregenerative effects of drugs
AssigneeThird Millenium Trust
InventorEdward Q. Yavitz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for testing neuroregenerative and neuroprotective effects of specific substances on a human central nervous system. The method utilizes a standard ophthalmological procedure in which measurable but clinically insignificant damage occurs to the nerve fiber layer in a human eye. The method includes comparing the protection or regeneration of the nerve fiber layer in a patient provided with a test treatment versus a placebo treatment. Because the eyes are the only bilateral or duplicated manifestation of the human central nervous system, each human subject can act as his or her own control subject.
Claims19
A method for testing the neuroprotective or neuroregenerative effects of a substance on a human central nervous system without clinically significant damage to neural tissue, comprising:
- creating a vacuum on an external surface of an eye of a human;
- treating the human with a substance;
- measuring the extent of loss to central nervous tissue to determine the effect of the substance;
- and
- comparing the extent of loss to a control.
A method for testing neuroprotective or neuroregenerative effects of a treatment on nerve tissue of a human, comprising:
- causing measurable damage to nerve tissue of a human;
- treating the human;
- and
- measuring the depletion of nerve tissue following a designated period after the causing and the treating steps, wherein said causing measurable damage includes creating a vacuum on an external surface of an eye of the human.
A method for testing neuroregenerative or neuroprotective effects on a human central nervous system, comprising:
- producing measurable but clinically insignificant damage to a human central nervous system in a statistically significant number of human subjects;
- producing measurable but clinically insignificant damage to a control human central nervous system in a statistically significant number of human control subjects;
- treating the statistically significant number of human subjects with a test substance;
- and
- comparing human central nervous system damage in the statistically significant number of human subjects with the statistically significant number of human control subjects to determine the neuroprotective or neuroregenerative effects of the test substance, wherein producing measurable but clinically insignificant damage to a human central nervous system includes raising an intraocular pressure a sufficient amount over a sufficient duration in an eye of each of the human subjects.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.