7-25-05,9:04am

DURING the second semester of this year, third-phase clinical trials are to begin for a Cuban injection that is the only current alternative for the treatment and prevention of amputation in patients with advanced diabetic foot ulcers, according to experts at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) in Havana.

Called Citoprot-P, the new medication contains recombinant Human Epidermic Growth Factor (FCE Hu-r), a potent agent that stimulates the growth of useful tissue, enabling wounds to close alone or through skin-grafting.

According to Doctor Jorge Berlanga, of CIGB’s Department of Biomedical Research, a multidisciplinary team studied the protective effect of FCE Hu-r when administered locally in liquid form into damaged tissue in order to stimulate the formation of scar tissue, something that has hardly been addressed by pharmacology.

Experts agreed that there is no product equivalent to this one on the market, which has proven to be effective for large and deep ulcers (third- and fourth-stage), which affect the tendons and bones of ischemic patients who up until now had no other option than the loss of the affected member.

Doctor Calixto Valdés, a researcher at the National Institute of Angiology and Vascular Surgery, affirmed that 85% of participants in previous stages of clinical trials achieved effective regeneration of epithelial tissue where ulcers were present.

Miguel Sobrino, 67 years old and a worker at CIGB who suffered an amputation that would not heal, is now back at work after being treated with Citoprot-P, according to statements to the press.

So-called Diabetic Foot is the cause of 50% of amputations in Cuba, which total more 3,000 per year. Worldwide, some 15% of the 90 million diagnosed patients of diabetes suffer amputations, with an average life expectancy of only five years after the operation.

From Granma