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Vicor's Proprietary Fraction (VPF) Stimulates Urea-Recycling in Non-hibernating Animal
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA — September 11, 2002 — VICOR TECHNOLOGIES, INC., announces that they have successfully stimulated urea recycling in a rat through the introduction of a Vicor Proprietary Fraction (VPF).
Medical studies reveal that hibernating animals exhibit reduced kidney function. They do not urinate for months but still do not poison their bodies with waste products such as urea. Urea is somehow broken down and its nitrogen is reused to build protein. The ability to build proteins while fasting allows these animals to maintain their muscle and organ tissue throughout the winter without producing toxic levels of blood urea.
Rats were operated and implanted with jugular catheters for IV injections. A baseline blood sample was drawn (0.5 ml) through the jugular catheter and then the labeled urea was injected. Then at 15 min, 1 hr, 2 hr, 3 hr, and 6 hr additional blood samples were withdrawn (0.5 ml each). For the determination of urea concentration (mmol/L) in plasma, a spectrophotometric analysis of a color reaction between urea and diacetyl monoxime is used. A concentration curve was prepared and analyzed. The concentration of both the controls and the samples were determined directly from the calibration curve. Finally, the result was converted from blood urea nitrogen (mg/dl) to urea concentration (mmol/L). The effect of VPF on the stimulation of the recycling of blood urea in the rat was demonstrated in the figure below. The medical indication here is uremic toxicity, an untoward medical condition that occurs in kidney failure and recovery from anesthesia.
The data below clearly shows (P<0.025) that the hibernation-related albumin fractions stimulate the production of single-labeled urea above the baseline of occurrence of natural single-labeled urea (i.e., some N15 occurs in nature). This can only be explained by the cleavage of the double-labeled urea nitrogen's and their re-incorporation into single-labeled urea. As time goes on after the original injection (1 mg) of double-labeled urea, some of it is excreted. This also occurs for some of the single-labeled material. The double-labeled pool by 6 hours is only 1/9th (average across all subjects) that at the time of injection. Thus the recycling rate is actually 9-fold higher at 6 hours than that indicated in the figure by the 5- to 6-fold increase above the controls.
Effects on the recycling rate of blood urea in the rat produced by the IV injection of VPF (20mg/kg) or an albumin control (xeno 20 mg/kg). Each animal was injected at time zero with 1 mg of double-labeled urea (less than 1% of total urea). The presence of single-labeled urea above the native background level can only be explained by the cleavage of the two labeled nitrogen's and their recycling back to form the additional single-labeled urea.
Vicor believes that this represents another disease state that can be addressed by Vicor's proprietary technology.
Certain statements contained herein are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because such statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Vicor Technologies, Inc., prepared this Update and is solely responsible for its content.