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Investing.com -- Aethlon Medical Inc (NASDAQ:AEMD) stock rose 3.3% Tuesday following the publication of a pre-clinical study suggesting its Hemopurifier device could potentially treat Long COVID.
The study, published November 20 in the bioRxiv online archive, showed the company’s investigational device successfully removed extracellular vesicles (EVs) from plasma samples of Long COVID patients. These EVs, small particles involved in cell communication, have been implicated in Long COVID pathogenesis.
Aethlon’s Hemopurifier is designed to bind and remove harmful EVs from blood through a combination of plasma separation, size exclusion, and binding to a proprietary affinity resin containing plant lectin Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA).
The research, conducted in collaboration with the University of California San Francisco Medical Center Long COVID clinic, found that plasma from Long COVID patients contained elevated levels of both large and small EVs compared to recovered controls. Importantly, the study showed that the GNA affinity resin in the Hemopurifier removed microRNAs associated with inflammatory pathways.
"The data from this ex vivo study is exciting because it demonstrated for the first time that the GNA affinity resin in our device removes extracellular vesicles in Long COVID patient samples and removes microRNAs associated with the JAK-STAT pathway which is a therapeutic target in current Long COVID clinical trials," said Steven P. LaRosa, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Aethlon Medical.
Long COVID affects an estimated 44-48 million people in the United States alone with a projected economic burden of $2 billion for those with symptoms lasting a year. Despite significant research funding, no effective treatments have been established.
While oncology remains Aethlon’s lead clinical indication, the company views this research as evidence that the Hemopurifier could potentially address multiple conditions beyond cancer.
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