OXIS International Designs Worldwide Oxidative-Stress Biomarker Program

OXIS International, Inc. (OTCBB:OXIS) (Nouveau Marche:OXIS) today announced that it intends to conduct collaborative research with selective scientists and university laboratories to design an oxidative stress paradigm to diagnose the early onset of potentially fatal human and animal diseases. The initial focus of this study should include the following diseases: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE; Mad Cow Disease); Creutzfeld Jacob Disease (CJD; human variant of BSE); Type II Diabetes with associated cardiovascular mortality; atherosclerosis and cardiac morbidity; hepatitis with liver failure; and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease and stroke.

OXIS intends to develop diagnostic biomarkers that can identify at an early stage the presence of a disease state, distinguish which patients are most suited for a particular drug, and provide feedback to the physician on how well the drug is working. The recent mortality concerns raised regarding drug treatment, and their possible association with anti-inflammatory drugs such as Vioxx (Merck: (NYSE:MRK)) and Celebrex (Pfizer: (NYSE:PFE)), underscore the need for biologic markers to help the physician make better-informed decisions on timing, quantity, type of drugs, and choice of treatment procedure based on information provided by these tests. Predictive and personalized medicine with drug dosages tailored to a treatment response could potentially have avoided the toxic side effects and associated mortality of this class of anti-inflammatory drugs.

"We believe an important part of the diagnostic puzzle is the role of oxidative stress in causing tissue damage, whether in the heart, brain, liver or gastrointestinal tract," stated Dr. Marvin S. Hausman, OXIS chairman of the board of directors. "Scientists worldwide have recently focused on oxidative damage as a possible early step in the development of diabetes, heart disease, brain disease, as well as premature cell aging."

To launch its specialized Oxidative-Stress Biomarker Program, OXIS has entered into discussions with the following well known scientists and organizations with a focus on the above enumerated disease states: Claudio Soto (PhD, Professor and Director of Research Unit on Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston) whose focus is on CJD, BSE and Alzheimer's disease; Jacek Rozga (MD, President, CSO, Arbios Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:ABOS.OB), Los Angeles, CA) whose focus is on liver failure and chronic kidney/liver dialysis; Manfred Windisch (PhD, CEO, JSW Research, Inc., Graz, Austria) whose focus is on neurodegenerative disorders, Alzheimer's disease and stroke; Noah Berkowitz (MD/PhD; CEO, Haptoguard, Inc.) whose focus is on Type II Diabetes and associated cardiovascular mortality, and Jay Heinecke, M.D., (Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle) whose focus is on protein oxidation and inflammatory disease.

"There is compelling evidence that oxidative stress plays a crucial role in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease and prion-related disorders," stated Dr. Claudio Soto. "I believe that analysis of oxidative stress biomarkers in biological fluids of individuals affected by these diseases may result in a new, early, non-invasive diagnostic approach."

"Metabolic disturbances resulting in decreased defence against oxidative stress, or directly resulting in an elevated production of reactive oxygen species, seem to be an underlying mechanism in different diseases, particularly in age related disorders," stated Dr. Manfred Windisch. "We believe oxygen-free radicals play an important role in the degenerative process and specific patterns of scavenging enzymes and/or oxidative-stress end products might offer a reliable diagnostic for different diseases."