BIOADHESIVE BARRIER FOR THE PREVENTION OF ADHESIONS

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): Adhesive disease is a significant problem in current medical practice. Implantable biomaterials, serving as barriers between healing serosal surfaces and fibrin clots, are considered a viable solution to the problem. Following a research plan incorporating physicochemical and mechanical tests, as well as analytical separation techniques, MedDev Corporation will develop optimized bioadhesive barrier materials. The viscous fluid/gel or membrane materials are blends of carboxymethylcellulose and polyethylene oxide, internally stabilized through hydrogen bonding. Bioadhesiveness will be studied in an in-vitro tissue coating model. Optimized materials will be tested in two standard animal models for adhesions and scar formation in spinal and abdominal surgery. $ = TOTAL AWARD AMTS & NOT LIMITED TO PORTION OF PROJECT RELATED TO SUBJECT OF SEARCH SUBPROJECT $ = TOTAL AWARD AMOUNT DIVIDED BY NUMBER OF SUBPROJECTS SOURCE: CRISP FORMAT F FY 97 LAST UPDATE 04-07-98 1QUERY 1536 ID SEARCH 06/01/98 PAGE 117 --PROJECT NUMBER......2 R44 CA60198-02A1 INVESTIGATOR NAME/ADDRESS FY 97 DIAS, PETER B IRG/INTRAMURAL UNIT..ZRG2 MEDINOX, INC AWARD AMOUNT......... $308,063 SUITE E SAN DIEGO, CA 92121 PERFORMING ORGANIZATION: MEDINOX, INC. TITLE MABS TO MYOD FAMILY PROTEINS IN MYOGENIC TUMOR DIAGNOSIS ABSTRACT: It is difficult to diagnose poorly differentiated rhabdomyosarcomas from other small round cell tumors and to identify subtypes of rhabdomyosarcomas that confer poor prognosis. Through SBIR Phase-I funding we developed and characterized monoclonal antibodies that are highly specific to MyoD, for distinguishing rhabdomyosarcomas from other malignancies. Our preliminary data using a monoclonal antibody to myogenin shows that there is a highly significant difference (p=0.0001) in staining between embryonal and alveolar rhabdomyosarcomas. We have also developed monoclonal antibodies specific to myf5 and myf6. We propose that spatio-temporal patterns of expression of members of the MyoD family (myf5, MyoD, myogenin and myf6) observed during development are reflected in rhabdomyosarcoma and may be responsible for the histologically and clinically distinct subtypes. for the Phase II study we will (1) test the diagnostic utility of monoclonal antibodies to MyoD on a large number of small round, spindle and anaplastic cell, pediatric and adult malignancies. Using the same tumor material we will also test (2) the diagnostic utility of monoclonal antibodies specific to myogenin, myf5 and myf6 for diagnosing rhabdomyosarcomas from other malignancies, (3) for distinguishing between the clinically distinct subtypes of rhabdomyosarcomas and (4) for predicting prognosis.