ISRAEL BEYOND POLITICS: October 2003

October 2003

Israeli gold medal windsurfer Lee Korsitz, center, poses with the runner ups in the 2003 World Mistral Championship

Oct. 12, 2003 - For the first time ever, Israelis welcomed two world champions home from triumph twice in the same week, raising national hopes as the country looks ahead to the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.

First, windsurfer Lee Korsitz, 19, sailed to a gold medal in the 2003 World Mistral Championship, part of the Olympic Sailing World Championships in Cadiz, Spain. In doing so, she not only qualified for the 2004 Olympic Games, but also became the first Israeli woman to ever win a World Championship in any sport. At just under 19 and half years of age, she was also the youngest woman to ever win a Mistral windsurfing championship.

Edging out experienced New Zealander, Barbara Kendall, a three-time Olympic medalist and defending world champion - Korsitz stunned the sailing world and guaranteed her spot on the Olympic team that will represent Israel in Athens.

Then, just a week later, Gocha Tzitziashvili became the world champion in his class in Greco-Roman Wrestling winning the gold medal in Creteil, France, at the 2003 World Championships, also guaranteeing an Olympic spot.

The dramatic overtime victory took place in overtime after a nine-minute bout, in the 84-kilogram final of the Greco-Roman world championships, taking down two-time world champion Aza Abrahamian of Sweden. In Greco-Roman wrestling, combatants are not allowed to use their legs to take down an opponent and no holds may be taken below the waist.

Both of the new champions were excited and thrilled to represent Israel in their victories.

Describing his moment of victory, Tzitziashvili said, "I felt like the strongest man in the world. I wouldn't trade that moment, where I showed the world that our country is strong, for a million dollars."

"My dream was to hear my national anthem," Korsitz said. The windsurfer, who lives on the shore of the Mediterranean on Moshav Michmoret, was visibly stunned by her win. She has only been sailing at the senior level for just over one year, and came into the event ranked No. 29 in the world. She started out as a 470 class sailor but moved to the solo Mistral event after she was left without a partner in the other event.

Following her win, Korsitz paid tribute to her mentor, Gal Friedman, outgoing men's world champion, who was somewhat disappointed himself in taking only the bronze medal in the men's event. "I knew she could do it," he said of Korsitz's surprise victory. "Lee was incredible in this championship and proved she has a lot of ability and maturity. She was a rightful winner."

Friedman "has taught me everything," Korsitz said.

Korsitz led the Mistral event in Spain from day one. She won the first race, and finished the next three in fourth, third, and sixth place before winning the fifth race to add to her lead. After her worst performance (32nd) in the sixth race, back-to-back second place finishes made her the clear favorite.

In her last race, which was delayed for four hours by a lack of wind, Korsitz finished in 17th place, which was just enough to take the competition.

"I still can't believe it," said Korsitz following the race. "That I should be world champion? I came here to get a ticket to Athens, to finish among the first 15 windsurfers so that I would get to the Olympics, and I found royalty - world champion!"

Until a year ago Korsitz had been a relative unknown, even within Israel. But things began to change after Korsitz won the 2002 Israeli Championship. Korsitz, who meanwhile began training with Gal Friedman, then went on to take top ten spots in major European competitions and earned herself a place at the pre-Olympic meet in Athens two months ago, where she finished fourth, raising hopes that she could manage to finish in the top ten and make it through to the Athens Olympics.

This, too, was the primary goal of Gocha Tzitziashvili as he headed to his competition, and he, too, was surprised to find himself world champion. He had come close in the past. In 1994, the year he emigrated from Tbilisi, Georgia, Tzitziashvili won a silver medal at the European Championships. Then, at the 1995 competition, he took home a silver medal for Israel, which was the first-ever Israeli medal at that international wrestling competition. In 1996, at the European Championships, Tzitziashvili won the bronze. He has also competed in two Olympiads for Israel, the 1996 Atlanta Games and Sydney in 2000.

Upon his return to Israel, the 30-year-old wrestler received a warm welcome by Israel's Olympic committee, his family and members of Israel's Georgian immigrant community. The World Congress of Georgian Jews awarded Gocha NIS 100,000 (about $20,000) in honor of his win.

In reaction to the hugs, kisses and cheers, Tzitziashvili quipped, "If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have won the medal years ago."

He is certain that it won't be the last medal he brings home, promising the crowd that he would deliver in 2004, "a gold one, God willing." In the two previous Olympic Games he competed in, in 1996 in Atlanta and in Sydney in 200, he finished fifth and sixth respectively.

Courtesy http://www.israel21c.org/

Israeli research behind new cancer-fighting drug

Professor Avraham Hershko (left) and Dr. Aaron Ciechanover led the Technion team that discovered the system that degrades proteins - the ubiquitin system.

Oct. 12, 2003 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug to fight cancer, which is the result of 30 years of research by Israeli scientists.

Velcade, developed by Millennium Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the result of work headed by Prof. Avram Hershko of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa on ubiquitin - a small protein involved in protein degradation.

Velcade "shows a significant effect on patients with multiple myeloma that have not responded to other treatments," said FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan. Velcade was in the FDA's accelerated approval program that speeds up approval of promising drugs for life-threatening diseases.

Multiple myeloma is the second most prevalent blood cancer after non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to the FDA. Some 45,000 people in the U.S. alone have multiple myeloma, and an estimated 14,600 new cases are diagnosed each year.

Velcade is the first in a new class of anti-cancer agents known as proteasome inhibitors. Five years after he began researching the subject, Hershko and his Technion team, including former student Dr. Aaron Ciechanover, discovered the system that degrades proteins - the ubiquitin system.

"It uses a small protein called ubiquitin to mark the proteins that have to be degraded at the right time and the right place in the cell," Hershko told The Jerusalem Post. "If proteins are not degraded at the right time, the cell continues to divide unchecked. This is what happens in many cancer cells; something has gone wrong in the ubiquitin system so there is no control over cell division."

"The FDA approval of Velcade represents a major advance in our fight against multiple myeloma," said Ken Anderson, M.D., director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Mass. and the lead investigator in the preclinical development and clinical trials of Velcade. "With its new and unique mechanism of action of inhibiting the proteasome, Velcade is different from traditional chemotherapies and represents a new treatment option for patients."

Velcade is just the "first drug to be developed based on this basic research done in my lab," said Hershko, who is also an Israel Prize laureate. "I am sure that many other new drugs will be discovered which are targeted against specific things that go wrong in the ubiquitin system in different types of cancer. These include cancer of the colon, breast, prostate and melanomas." Hershko's research was partially supported by the Israel Cancer Research Fund.

Hershko and Ciechanover have received numerous awards for their pioneering medical research, including the Wolf Prize in Israel and the Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (considered a precursor to the Nobel Prize).

More than 20 years ago, Hershko and Ciechanover became intrigued by the way in which proteins are degraded. Through rigorous biochemical experimentation, the researchers showed how ubiquitin - a small protein named for its ubiquitous distribution in nature - is attached to other proteins, thus marking them for destruction.

"Many people knew how the body produces proteins, but not how they were destroyed," Hershko said. "Without an engine, a car cannot run; without brakes, it runs without control. Proteins provide ways to moderate the body's machinery."

The ubiquitin system has become central to the understanding of the emergence and progression of cancer, as well as other diseases. In the Lasker Award Jury citation in 1999, Chairman Dr. Joseph Goldstein, the Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine and Physiology, notes the significance of the researchers' work. He lauded their discovery and recognition of the significance of the ubiquitin system of regulated protein degradation, which he termed a "fundamental process that influences vital cellular events, including the cell cycle, malignant transformation, and responses to inflammation and immunity."

Upon receiving the Lasker award, Hershko expressed gratification that his work is having a strong impact on cancer research. "I don't think we will find a cure for all kinds of cancer, but I hope that through what we have done, some cure will be found for certain types," he said. "I am especially hopeful for cancers such as colon cancer, cervix cancer and melonomas, as well as some other cancers known to be commonly caused by abnormalities in protein degradation."

According to the Millenium Pharmaceuticals, Velcade and proteasome inhibition represent a completely new approach to treating multiple myeloma. The development of this product is based on the company's deep understanding of cancer disease pathways and the effect of proteasome inhibition on those pathways. The proteasome is an enzyme complex that exists in all cells and plays an important role in degrading proteins that control the cell cycle and cellular processes. By blocking the proteasome, Velcade disrupts numerous biologic pathways, including those related to the growth and survival of cancer cells.

"Today, the thousands of people living with multiple myeloma in the United States have been given a new treatment option," said Kathy Giusti, president, Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), and a myeloma patient. "The MMRF has been committed to helping accelerate the search for a cure for multiple myeloma and we are proud to have been able to work with Millennium in bringing this important new therapy to patients."

"Velcade is the kind of cutting-edge treatment for which we have been advocating, and provides a new treatment option for the thousands of patients with this disease," said Susie Novis, president, International Myeloma Foundation (IMF). "The approval of Velcade represents a major milestone in our quest to see new treatments made available to patients with multiple myeloma."

Courtesy http://www.israel21c.org/

Antiepileptic drug developed at Hebrew University to undergo phase three clinical trials under new agreement

Oct. 1, 2003 - The new antiepileptic drug valrocemide, developed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by Meir Bialer, the David Eisenberg Professor of Pharmacy, will undergo phase three clinical trials in the U.S. under a new agreement between Teva Pharmaceutical Industries of Israel and Acorda Therapeutics of the U.S.

Teva acquired the rights to the drug from the Hebrew University's Yissum Research Development Company for the production of a treatment for epilepsy and other neurological and psychiatric diseases.

Epilepsy is a widespread neurological disease. Approximately one percent of the world's population suffers from it, and annual sales of antiepileptic drugs in the U.S. amount to more than $2 billion per year.

There are several existing drugs on the market for patients with epilepsy. However, some one-third of the patients do not react positively to these treatments, and as a result they continue to suffer periodic epileptic seizures. There is a need, therefore, to develop new drugs that will provide relief to patients who are not seizure-free or who suffer serious side effects from existing drugs.

The brain contains amino acids that serve as neurotransmitters, either activating or inhibiting neural transmissions within the central nervous system. Epilepsy is caused, among other reasons, by disturbances in the balance between these two functions: a rise in the level of the activating (excitatory) amino acids or a reduction in the level of the inhibitory acids.

Glycine is one of the inhibitory acids, and increasing its concentration in the brain has an antiepileptic effect. However, it is impossible to administer it to patients in its natural state, because it cannot penetrate the blood-brain barrier that prevents medications from reaching their target sites.

Prof. Bialer's research team, which included his former doctoral student, Dr. Salim Hadad, worked to develop a glycine derivative which would penetrate the blood-brain barrier and would subsequently be cleared out of the body by a pre-designed elimination pathway in order to avoid undesirable side effects which may be caused by toxic metabolic substances (metabolites).

The new drug, valrocemide, is a combination of a known antiepileptic drug, valproic acid, and a glycine derivative, glycinamide. Valrocemide has been shown to be one of the most effective drugs among a large, analogous series of molecules which are being developed in Prof. Bialer's laboratory.

The drug's patent is owned by the Hebrew University's Yissum Research Development Company, which awarded the production rights to Teva Pharmaceuticals.

The drug has successfully passed the first phase of clinical trials, and Teva has completed a 13-week, phase two clinical trial in Europe with therapy-resistant epileptic patients, in which valrocemide was administered together with other medications.

The agreement signed between Teva and Acorda Therapeutics will permit the initiation of large-scale clinical testing (phase three clinical trials) involving hundreds of epileptic patients. Additionally, the drug is also to be tested for its possible beneficial effects on patients suffering from manic-depression, as well as for treatment of neuropathic pain.

For further information:
Jerry Barach, Dept. of Media Relations, the Hebrew University,
Tel: 972-2-588-2904.
Orit Sulitzeanu, Hebrew University spokesperson, Tel: 972-52-608016.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. -
Dan Suesskind, Tel: 972-2-589-2840 or: Dorit Meltzer, 972-3-9267554
Teva North America - Bill Fletcher, Tel: 215-591-8800