Platform technology destined to measure and treat hypoxia
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, Oct. 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIOXYTRAN, INC. (OTC: BIXT), is a developmental stage biotechnology company, focused on a pipeline of drugs designed to treat hypoxia, by delivering nanoscale oxygen carriers to affected tissues in the brain, heart, and other vital organs. Bioxytran congratulates the trio of Nobel Laureates in Physiology and Medicine, William Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter Ratcliffe, and Gregg Semenza, for their discovery of how living cells sense oxygen levels and react accordingly.
Oxygen is central for all animal life as it provides a mechanism to convert food into useful energy. This discovery provides a range of explanations of how human bodies cope with physiological situations including high altitude, exercise, fetal development, and immune responses. Hypoxic adaptations have implications for anemia, cancer tumors, strokes, wound healing, and heart attacks.
The Nobel Laureates identified a genetic switch called hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) that determines how cells adapt when oxygen levels drop. When oxygen levels are low and HIF is activated cells reduce their metabolic rates; this is important for short-term survival, but extended anaerobic metabolism can result in cell death and also causes lactic acid accumulation that harms tissues and organs.
Bioxtytran has built its technology based upon the transportation of oxygen through its lead compound BXT-25, a nanoscale oxygen carrier that is 5,000 times smaller than a red blood cell. Accordingly, BXT-25 penetrates deep into hypoxic tissues to deliver the right type of oxygen to the hypoxic tissues, and can potentially reverse the hypoxia of tissue. Diseases including stroke, heart attacks, and cancer are associated with large regions of hypoxic tissue operating at low metabolic levels that need oxygen to switch them back to normal function. In theory, BXT-25 could effectively target these indications.
Bioxytran has exclusive rights to the MDX Viewer, the only FDA-approved device available for measuring tissue oxygenation levels. The MDX viewer can quantify the levels of cell hypoxia, thereby providing a critical measurement capability for future hypoxia research and the therapy of hypoxic and ischemic tissues.
“After seeing news of the Nobel Prize, it underscored the company’s development plans to measure hypoxia, and develop a drug capable of stopping the hypoxic cascade that ultimately leads to cell damage,” said David Platt, CEO of Bioxytran. “Hypoxia is simply the lack of oxygen in the tissue, so my inspiration was to develop the ultimate oxygen delivery vehicle that transports oxygen one molecule at a time. This approach prevents hypoxia and the entire HIF cascade. The Nobel Prize discovery underscores the concept that the restoration of oxygen may trip the HIF genetic switch and allow the hypoxic cell to return to full functionality. In its stroke trials, Bioxytran plans to reverse hypoxia in patients.”
According to Platt, this discovery validates the use of hyperbaric chambers to treat a host of diseases including, cancer, stroke, and heart attacks. The challenge of hyperbaric chamber treatment has been oxidative stress to cell membranes caused by hyperoxia. This explains why hyperbaric treatment is usually limited to just one hour. Hyperbaric chambers typically increase the dissolved oxygen levels in the blood plasma by five to ten times, whereas BXT-25 is designed to gather and release oxygen in the same benign way as hemoglobin transports it, without increasing the solubility of oxygen in the blood plasma. “
Platt continued, “The ability to measure levels of hypoxia in tissues and organs is what places Bioxytran at the forefront of scientific discovery. In order to develop therapeutics to target HIF or other downstream targets, hypoxia must be quantified. Having the only FDA approved device to quantify organ or tissue hypoxia has the potential to lead to a number of collaborative opportunities for Bioxytran.”
“This discovery opens the door to an immense area of research,” said Dr Juan Carlos Lopez Talavera, Consulting Chief Medical Officer. “BXT-25 enjoys the potential to address some of the same targets that these Nobel Laureates envisioned. Their discovery underscores the importance of staying well oxygenated. We can go days without water but only minutes without oxygen. This field of research also highlights the fact that hypoxia contributes to aging. A journal article by Eui-Ju Yeo titled ‘Hypoxia and Aging’ describes the role that HIF plays in the functional decline during the aging process (Eui-Ju Yeo, Experimental & Molecular Medicine volume 51, number 67, 2019) We think it is possible to harness this mechanism, and to use it in organ preservation and transportation. We hope the world now sees how important this discovery is and places it at the pinnacle of future scientific research. I am honored to be part of the team on the frontier of scientific discovery”.
About Bioxytran, Inc.
Bioxytran Inc. is a developmental stage biotechnology company. The company is developing a first-in-class oxygen treatment platform for victims of brain stroke trauma. The first product to proceed to testing is BXT-25, which will be evaluated as a resuscitative agent to treat strokes, especially during the all-critical first hour following a stroke. The product will also be evaluated for its efficacy in treating other brain trauma issues. BXT-25 is based on a new molecule designed to reverse hypoxia in the brain. Hypoxic brain injuries such as ischemic strokes, could be treated with BXT-25 via an intravenous injection that quickly allows the drug molecule to travel to the lungs and bind with the oxygen molecules. From the lungs the molecule mimics a red blood cell traveling to the brain. Since the molecule is 5,000 times smaller than red blood cells it is designed to penetrate the clot and deliver oxygen to the critical areas in the brain blocked by the clot. To learn more, visit our website: http://www.Bioxytraninc.com
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