\"World\'s First\" Gene Treatment Medicine Effect Improved by 10 Fold
Completed publication on SCI Journal and Patent Registration
[Jan 27, 2010]

 
 Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun explains the effects of the newly developed gene treatment medicine

 The effects of \'gene treatment medicine\', which is treated as the up-and-coming bio-engineering for treatment of incurable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, AIDS, rheumatism, and foot ulcers, has been greatly improved by a research team of Korea.

 Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun (42, photo) of Yeungnam University School of Biotechnology developed the methods to greatly improve the delivery efficiency of the existing \'genetic treatment medicine\' and to sharply lower the financial burden while also enhancing the distribution potential, for the first time in the world.

 \'Gene treatment medicine\' is a method for supplying genes that have been lost for effectively treating various diseases caused by damaged or missing DNA. Thus, the key is on how outside genes can be effectively delivered to the inside of the cell. Currently, the most widely used method is gene transfer method using an \'adenovirus\', but because it is unstable in room temperature, it has short distribution periods, and its problem with the gene delivery abilities weakened in the blood makes it an obstacle in treating incurable diseases.

 Thus, Professor Cho used nano bio-technologies to make proteoliposomes with phospholipids and apolipoproteins, covering the adenovirus in order to improve gene delivery efficiency by 10 folds, while doubling the stability, proving it for the first time in the world in vertebrae models. 

 
 The results of this study that was conducted for three years since 2007 receiving support by the Yeungnam University Aging-associated Vascular Disease Research Center (director, Kim, Jae-ryong) and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (Minister Choi, Kyung-hwan) and it was published in the January 2010 volume of <Human Gene Therapy>, which is an SCI-level journal in the gene treatment sector. This journal, which received an impact factor of 4.1 in the biology and medical sector, was selected as \"Top 100 influential journals in medicine and biology for the past 100 years\' by the 2009 World Library Association.

 The results of the research of Professor Cho is expected to greatly contribute to the improved delivery efficiency of adenoviruses, but all other medicine delivery devices and genetic treatment medicines such as RNA inhibitors, plasmid DNA, aptamer, etc. Thus, the research team has registered relevant patents, and is currently negotiating with domestic and foreign gene treatment medicine production companies for technology transfer.

 In particular, this research is expected to be a period of great development in the recently rising \'bio-similar pharmaceutical industry\'. \'Bio-similar\' refers to reproductive medicines related to protein compounds among pharmaceuticals whose patents have expired. When new medicines are developed, international patents usually last 20-25 years. Most original medicines being worth about 1 billion US $ have their patents expired between 2012 and 2013, and thus many companies are preparing in the competition to develop bio-similars, which are a type of reproductive generic medicine. The market scale is estimated at approximately 30 billion US $. Thus, if the results of this study is used for domestic bio-similar pharmaceutical industry, it is expected to provide epochal improvements in its international competitiveness.

 Meanwhile, Professor Cho is furthering his studies on genetic treatment medicine that could be used for not only killing cancer cells, but utilizing it as the atherosclerosis and aging models based on this research results.