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US 6,310,093 B1Granted
Method of preventing neuronal death
AssigneeElan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
InventorRobert Newcomb
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a method for preventing neuronal cell death subsequent to an injury to neuronal tissue, particularly central nervous tissue exposed to an ischemic or hypoxic event, to trauma or to a chronic neurodegenerative disorder. The method includes exposing the cells to a glutaminase inhibitor that is relatively impermeant to healthy, intact cell membranes, and which is preferably a specific inhibitor of the form of glutaminase that is widely present in brain tissue.
Claims16
A method of reducing damage to neuronal cells in a neuronal tissue of a subject who has experienced neuronal injury, comprising
- administering to the subject, in an amount effective to reduce such damage, a compound which selectively inhibits extracellular glutaminase relative to glutaminase present in intact cells,
- wherein said compound is impermeable to intact cell membranes, such that said compound does not inhibit glutaminase when contacted with live intact cell cultures of neurons and glia, and inhibits glutaminase when applied to crude membranes derived from said cell cultures.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.