Aethlon Medical (AEMD) CEO Note: Cancer Therapy Publication References Aethlon Medical

SAN DIEGO, April 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Aethlon Medical, Inc. (OTCQB: AEMD), today released the following note authored by its Chairman and CEO, Jim Joyce.

When we initiated our first exosome research program, the medical community generally viewed these particles as nothing more than cellular debris with no biological function.  In contrast, we believed that exosomes, also known as microvesicles or extracellular vesicles, suppressed the immune system of cancer patients and that stage of cancer progression correlated directly with quantity of exosomes in circulation. We envisioned the possibility that a medical device could eliminate circulating exosomes and combine to improve the benefit of established cancer therapies without adding drug toxicity.

Today, I am pleased to inform you that a team of researchers from Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and University of Oxford have published a review article that validates the original rationale of our exosome research and further reinforces our future plan to submit an investigational device exemption (IDE) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that requests permission to initiate Hemopurifier® studies in cancer patients. 

The article entitled: "Extracellular Vesicles: Emerging Targets for Cancer Therapy" is published in the current issue of the journal "Trends in Molecular Medicine".   

The article reviews recent discoveries that have increased the understanding of extracellular vesicles (EV's) role in tumor development and progression, including immune suppression, angiogenesis, and metastasis. On the basis of this understanding, EV's have emerged to be targets for anticancer therapy. The article then discusses novel therapeutic strategies to target EVs to prevent tumor growth and spread.  In this regard, Aethlon Medical is the only organization referenced based on our extracorporeal device strategy to target the elimination of exosomes from circulation of cancer patients.

The authors presented the following knowledge of EV's role is cancer progression:

1. EV's suppress the immune response of cancer patients and also seem to display a multitude of actions that collectively function to suppress immune surveillance.
2. The number of circulating EV's in cancer patients seems to be higher than in healthy individuals and has been found to correlate with poorF prognosis.
3. EV's contribute to drug resistance during chemotherapy and strikingly, tumor-derived EV's seem capable of spreading drug resistance.
4. EVs transport deleterious proteins and RNAs that are known to contribute to cancer development and progression. 
5. EV's promote angiogenesis, which allow tumors to create new blood vessels for survival.
6. A striking feature of tumor-derived EVs is their potential to facilitate formation of the pre-metastatic niche at distant organ sites in preparation for future tumor metastasis.

The abstract of the article can be found online at:  www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24703619

The authors acknowledged that their work was supported by funding from The University of Oxford John Fell OUP Research Fund (M.J.A.W.) and The National Institutes of Health - National Cancer Institute (NIH-NCI).

About Aethlon Medical, Inc.
Aethlon Medical creates innovative medical devices to address life-threatening diseases. The Aethlon ADAPT™ (Adaptive Dialysis-like Affinity Platform Technology) establishes the basis for a new class of therapeutics that target the rapid elimination of disease enabling particles from the circulatory system of treated patients.  The lead Aethlon ADAPT™ product is the Hemopurifier®, a device that addresses a broad-spectrum of viral pathogens as well as tumor-secreted exosomes that suppress the immune system of cancer patients.  Aethlon is also operating under two government contracts with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) related the development of a medical device to reduce the incidence of sepsis. Exosome Sciences, Inc. is a majority owned Aethlon subsidiary that is advancing exosome-based strategies to diagnose and monitor cancer and infectious disease progression.  Additional information can be found at www.AethlonMedical.com

Certain statements herein may be forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties.  Such forward-looking statements involve assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Aethlon Medical, Inc. to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, that the FDA will not approve the initiation of the Company's clinical programs or provide market clearance of the company's products, future human studies whether revenue or non-revenue generating of the Aethlon ADAPT™ system or the Aethlon Hemopurifier® as an adjunct therapy to improve patient responsiveness to established cancer or hepatitis C therapies or as a standalone cancer or hepatitis C therapy, the Company's ability to raise capital when needed, the Company's ability to complete the development of its planned products, the Company's ability to manufacture its products either internally or through outside companies and provide its services, the impact of government regulations, patent protection on the Company's proprietary technology, the ability of the Company to meet the milestones contemplated in the DARPA contract, product liability exposure, uncertainty of market acceptance, competition, technological change, and other risk factors. In such instances, actual results could differ materially as a result of a variety of factors, including the risks associated with the effect of changing economic conditions and other risk factors detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contacts:

James A. Joyce
Chairman and CEO
858.459.7800 x301
[email protected]

Jim Frakes
Chief Financial Officer
858.459.7800 x300
[email protected]

Marc Robins
877.276.2467
[email protected]

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SOURCE Aethlon Medical, Inc.