Israeli Firm Sends Tiny Lab Into Space To Test Cancer, Brain Drugs
(MENAFN- Famagusta Gazette) Israel's SpacePharma company has sent a homegrown remote-controlled lab into space to perform medical experiments in a microgravity environment, the Israel Space Agency (ISA) said in a statement. The lab boarded a U.S. space supply rocket that was launched from Virginia, as part of a NASA resupply mission to the International Space Station.
The experiments include preclinical development of some cancer and brain drugs, which are to be performed in the tiny lab that weighs 3.4 kg, with low gravity enabling more in-depth study in pharmacological applications, the statement reads.
One of the experiments aims to identify molecules that may bind to the prion protein and thus prevent its improper folding that causes the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob brain degeneration disease.
It is performed in space because under microgravity conditions the materials are at low density and in a slow crystallization process, therefore could be monitored.
The ISA stated that the success of the test may help the development of drugs also for other degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, both also characterized by proteins that fold abnormally and cause neuron death in the brain.
Another experiment will examine a new Israeli version of the drug Doxil for the treatment of ovarian cancer.
The drug is packed inside liposomes, or tiny lipid vesicles designed to ensure that the drug is released only at the target site in the body.
The experiment will test the stability of the liposome and the medicine inside it over time in microgravity conditions, for the possibility of producing them in space. ■
Author famagusta gazette
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