COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY RECORD  April 22, 1994  Vol. 19 No. 25

              LANDRY RECEIVES $1.8 MILLION FOR DRUG STUDY

      The Columbia scientist who last year developed an artificial 
      enzyme that may lead to a treatment for cocaine addiction will 
      receive $1.8 million over the next five years from the federal 
      government to refine the enzyme.

      The grant, awarded by the White House Office of National Drug 
      Control Policy (NDCP), comes at an opportune time for Donald 
      Landry, assistant professor of clinical medicine at Columbia's 
      College of Physicians and Surgeons.

      Landry has been without formal funding for this work, despite the 
      excitement generated when news of the enzyme was published in 
      "Science" last year. Years of further studies in animals and 
      humans are necessary to determine if the enzyme is as effective in 
      people addicted to cocaine as it is in laboratory studies.

      The grant was announced Apr. 15 by Lee Brown, director of the 
      White House Office of NDCP, during a press briefing at Columbia-
      Presbyterian Medical Center with Congressman Charles Rangel of the 
      15th Congressional District of New York. Rangel is chairman of the 
      Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control.

      "I am extremely grateful that the White House Office of National 
      Drug Control Policy has seen the long-term promise of this enzyme, 
      which could become a major tool to fight cocaine addiction," said 
      Landry. "Without this new grant, it would have continued to be 
      difficult to move this work forward so that it might become useful 
      for people."

      The enzyme is known as a catalytic monoclonal antibody (MAb), 
      which has the potential to break down cocaine or "crack" cocaine 
      in the blood and reduce its addictive effects.

      Engineered by scientists in vitro to recognize and bind to a 
      specific antigen, in this case cocaine, the MAbs created by 
      Landry's team actually degrade the drug into two inert byproducts.

      Since the antibodies are not used up and are free to bind to 
      additional cocaine molecules, the antibodies are true catalysts.

      By destroying cocaine in the bloodstream, the MAb is expected to 
      prevent the drug's addictive action in the brain.

      The addictive potential of cocaine is related not only to how 
      much, but also how fast it gets to the brain, and these parameters 
      are determined by the rise and rate of the rise of its serum 
      concentration.

      The faster and higher cocaine levels rise in the serum, the faster 
      and higher it rises in the brain and the more addictive it is. The 
      less cocaine there is, the slower it goes to the brain, and the 
      less addictive it is.

      Columbia has licensed certain aspects of Landry's technology to 
      Pharmalytics Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. If follow-up research is 
      successful, the antibody will supplement the limited treatment 
      options available for cocaine and crack addiction and will be one 
      of the first medical applications for catalytic MAbs.