Director of the Alzheimer's Research Center at Regions Hospital in Saint Paul, MN
Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Minnesota
Consultant to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.
Research Interests
Dr. Frey's patents, owned by Chiron Corporation and the HealthPartners
Research Foundation, target noninvasive delivery of therapeutic and diagnostic
agents to the brain and spinal cord for treating neurologic and psychiatric
disorders and the use of antioxidants to treat and prevent disease. Dr.
Frey has been interviewed on Walter Cronkite's "Universe," the
"Today Show, " "Good Morning America," "20/20,"
"All Things Considered," and on many other shows in the US and
abroad. Articles about Dr. Frey's research have appeared in the Wall Street
Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, US News and World Report, the New
Scientist and numerous other magazines and newspapers. Dr. Frey earned
his BA in Chemistry at Washington University and PhD in Biochemistry at
Case Western Reserve University.
Dr. Frey has discovered a novel, noninvasive, intranasal method of delivering therapeutic agents, including neurotrophic factors, to the brain along the olfactory and trigeminal neural pathways. US patents have been granted for this method of delivery, which bypasses the blood-brain barrier and should improve the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, head and spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders. We have shown that noninvasive intranasal delivery of insulin-like growth factor or the antioxidant myricetin to the brains of animals with stroke can dramatically reduce brain damage and improve neurologic function. We are now collaborating with interested pharmaceutical companies to use this new method of drug delivery to treat central nervous system disorders.
An endogenous irreversible inhibitor of agonist and antagonist binding to the muscarinic receptor in human brain has been discovered. This inhibitor is elevated three-fold in Alzheimer's brain. Loss of receptor function in aging and Alzheimer's disease is thought to contribute to loss of memory and cognitive fucnction and to iinterfere with cholinergic therapies. We have demonstrated that pyrophosphate analogs and natural bioflavonoid antioxidants can prevent this inactivation and receptor loss. This research utilizes our human brain tissue depositorym, which contains over 2000 specimens.
Contact Information
Alzheimer's Research Center
Regions Hospital
640 Jackson Street
St. Paul, MN 55101-2595
_____
Office: 651-254-2393, or 800-229-2872
FAX: 651-254-3661
Toll Free Number: 800-229-2872
E-mail:alzheimr@umn.edu
Website: www.alzheimersinfo.org
1. Liu XF; Fawcett JR; Thorne RG, and *Frey WH 2nd. Intranasal IGF-1 protects against transient focal cerebral ischemia in rats following middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Presented at the International Stroke Conference (26th). 2001 Feb.
1. *Ala TA; Beh GO,
and *Frey WH 2nd.
Pure hippocampal sclerosis: a rare cause of dementia mimicking Alzheimer's
disease. Neurology. 2000 Feb;54(4):843-8.
2. *Ala TA; Yang KH; Sung JH, and *Frey
WH 2nd. Inconsistency between severe substantia nigra degeneration
with Lewy bodies and clinical parkinsonism in dementia patients: a cliniconeuropathological
study. Acta Neuropathol (Berl). 2000 May;99(5):511-6.
3. Fawcett JR; Chern XQ; Rahman YE, and *Frey
WH 2nd. Previously reported nerve growth factor levels are underestimated
due to an incomplete release from receptors and interaction with standard
curve media. Brain Res. 1999 Sep 18;842(1):206-10.
4. Kumbale R; *Frey
WH 2nd; *Wilson S, and Rahman YE. GM1delivery to the CSF via the olfactory
pathway. Drug Delivery. 1999 Jan-1999 Mar 31;6(1):23-30.
5. Lagalwar S; Bordayo EZ; Fawcett JR, and *Frey
WH 2nd. Anandamides inhibit binding to the muscarinic acetylcholine
receptor. J Mol Neurosci. 1999 Aug-Oct;13(1-2):55-61.
6. Liu XF; Fawcett JR; Thorne RG; *DeFor TA, and *Frey
WH 2nd. Intranasal administration of insulin-like growth factor-I
bypasses the blood-brain barrier and protects against focal cerebral ischemic
damage. J Neurol Sci. 2001 Jun 15;187(1-2):91-7.
7. Liu XF; Fawcett JR; Thorne RG, and *Frey
WH 2nd. Non-invasive intranasal insulin-like growth factor-I reduces
infarct volume and improves neurologic function in rats following middle
cerebral artery occlusion. Neurosci Lett. 2001 Aug;308(2):91-4.
8. Thorne RG; Pronk G, and *Frey
WH 2nd. Delivery of insulin-like growth factor to the brain and spinal
cord along olfactory and trigeminal pathways following intranasal administration:
a noninvasive method for bypassing the blood-brain barrier. Society for
Neuroscience Abstracts. 2000;26(Part 2):1365.
* indicates HealthPartners employee
Copyright 2001 HealthPartners Research Foundation. All rights reserved.