TAIPEI: A Taiwanese research team has patented a new treatment for immune deficiencies, that uses drugs and vitamins to change the structure of unhealthy white blood cells, academic sources said yesterday.

Shieh Chi-Chang, a Harvard-educated pediatrician at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Hospital who heads the project, said the new therapy could one day be used to treat various immune cell-related diseases such as chronic granulomatous disease (CGD).

The research has won recognition from the prestigious US-based journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine, which will publish the team's research paper on the new therapy, Shieh said. He added that his team has acquired the Taiwan patent rights to the new therapy.

Of all the research around the world in the field, Shieh went on, only NCKU has succeeded in developing the therapy on white blood cells.

He acknowledged the treatment regimen is still at the animal testing stage and that human clinical trials have not begun.

According to Shieh, his research team targeted molecular quality control machinery in leukocytes as its research base.

Researchers isolated immunodeficient white blood cells and treated them with drugs and a vitamin, before injecting them back into laboratory animals.

The treatment enables mutant proteins to salvage their original immune activity.

"By doing this, the immune functions of the subject's white blood cells can be enhanced under conditions that present the least risk," Shieh explained.

Noting that immunodeficiency is primarily caused by genetic mutations or heredity, Shieh said early diagnosis of a person with the condition can be observed through susceptibility to frequent, serious infections such as pneumonia, meningitis, osteomyelitis and retarded growth.

"With early diagnosis and effective treatment, children with immunodeficiency can enjoy a normal school life and grow up," he said.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 07/24/2009 page2)