NanoViricides, Inc. (OTC BB: NNVC.OB) (the "Company"), a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for viral therapy, announced today that the Institutional Review Committee of a major research institute in New York has approved an investigator-initiated in vivo study which will evaluate certain topical nanoviricide™ eye drug candidates.
This approved project is designed to study the effect of different nanoviricide™ drug candidates on herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection of the cornea. The Company will be providing the drug candidates free of charge. The principal investigator is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. She has previously conducted an in vivo study that resulted in the demonstration of a strong clinical effect of certain nanoviricide drug candidates against adenovirus induced keratoconjunctivitis in rabbit eyes.
There are about 50,000 cases of HSV infection of the cornea in the US alone each year. It is generally caused by HSV Type I. Many of these cases lead to substantial scarring of the cornea and significantly reduced vision, which may necessitate corneal transplantation. Current treatment requires intensive monitoring and specialized procedures conducted by an ophthalmologist, often lasting several weeks to months. If the simple eye drops of an anti-herpes nanoviricide candidate produce rapid clinical resolution of the viral infection, as was found previously with adenoviral infection of the eye, such nanoviricide treatment could lead to a significant reduction in the direct health care costs pertaining to treating this disease. In addition, such an effective treatment could lead to a significant reduction in the number of corneal transplants required to treat this number one cause of corneal blindness in the developed world.
NanoViricides's novel nanoviricide™ class of drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus particles and to dismantle them. The Company is developing drugs against a number of viral diseases including H5N1 bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, EKC, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others.