Dog Nutraceutical Wins Grant To Apply Research to Human Cancer

Functional Nutriments, the makers of Apocaps®, the world's first dietary apoptogens for dogs, announced it was awarded a $244,479 federal grant to research the application of its apoptosis-inducing formula for human cancers.

The grant is part of the U.S. government's $1 Billion Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project, overseen by the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The QTDP program offers funding to small companies creating medical therapies with the potential to reduce health care costs, create jobs, improve U.S. competitiveness, or significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within the next 30 years.

Apoptosis is a form of cell death in which a programmed sequence of events leads to the elimination of cells without releasing harmful substances into the surrounding area. Apoptosis plays a crucial role in developing and maintaining health by eliminating old cells, unnecessary cells, and unhealthy cells. The human body replaces perhaps a million cells a second. Too little or too much apoptosis plays a role in many diseases. When programmed cell death does not work correctly, cells that should be eliminated may hang around and become immortal. For example, in cancers like leukemia. When apoptosis works overly well, it kills too many cells and inflicts grave tissue damage. This is the case in strokes and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer, Huntington, and Parkinson diseases. Apoptosis is also called programmed cell death or PCD.

It was a competitive awards process with applications being reviewed by the National Institutes of Health. The program was oversubscribed with about $10 Billion in requests. The projects that won the federal grants and tax credits were seen as the most promising by the NIH review committee. The cash grant was the highest amount a single project could receive.

"We are pleased for the recognition and to receive this grant to further our research and development in the use of apoptogens to combat cancer," said James Jacobson, Functional Nutriment's Chief Executive Officer. "We believe that this grant is further validation that our research may one day extend beyond dogs and help people who are fighting cancer."

Chief Medical Officer and company co-founder Dr. Demian Dressler, DVM, said, "Apoptosis is a such a fundamental biological process and the ability to induce it in cancer cells using natural apoptogens suggests enormous potential for human cancer patients."