How to Raise EnteroMedics Shares Up 10 Times?
Prof. Dr. Mohamed Elhashemy
October 02, 2009
Shares of Roseville-based EnteroMedics were trading down more than 70 percent in October, 2nd, 2009. This plunge occurred after the company released disappointing results from a study of its device: VBLOC, which was designed to block impulses of the vagus nerve.
The company's Maestro device is a neuro-modulation implant that was designed to help people lose weight by blocking the transmission of vagal nerve signals between the brain and the stomach, on the assumption that vagus transmits the hunger sensation signals.
The company said it will analyze results from its EMPOWER study of 294 patients and then "Determine the most appropriate path forward", said CEO Mark Knudson in a statement. Many centers including the Mayo Clinic were involved in the clinical trial.
Knudson said, "The data do appear to show a high placebo effect." The results were largely indistinguishable between the: On and Off groups, both groups had an average excess weight loss from such implant.
VBLOC Therapy is implanted via laparoscopy on the assumption that it may leads to intermittently blocking the vagus nerves using high-frequency, low-energy electrical impulses.
It is a less invasive and less risky alternative to existing surgical weight loss operations. Follow up data show loss of around 30% of excess body weight after 12 months.
I think that researchers at EnteroMedics took the weight losing effect of surgical vagotomy as a guide to develop the VBLOCK device and procedure.
It may be that vagotomy causes weight loss due to delaying stomach contractions, delaying emptying of the stomach contents, and decreasing gastric acidity. Implanting VBLOCK-leads in the gastric muscles may have affected these physiological actions on both: On and Off groups with indistinguishable difference. This minimal difference might be attributed to the absence of high condensation of the afferent vagal fibers except at the gastric fundus mucosa.
The only thing researchers neglected is that vagal stimulation most probably causes satiety not hunger, so we have to boost its activity instead of blocking it. Vagal activity could be boosted at its maximally dense afferent arborisations i.e. at gastric fundus. My opinion is supported by a research done by Prof. G. P. Smith, and colleagues (published in AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 1985), that proved that afferent axons in abdominal vagus mediate satiety effect of cholecystokinin in rats.
Stimulation of such area, as I noticed since June 2008, usually gives maximum satiety effect, hence major weight loss results.
I developed a hypothesis in June 2008, stipulating that there is a satiety spot at gastric fundus, which I named Elhashemy´s Stomach Satiety Spot "ESSS". This spot is known anatomically to be supplied with afferent vagal fibers, so when it is stimulated physically several times within short periods using solid food (as almonds, in small numbers) it leads to high satiety sensation. This theory proved effective with several hundreds of obese patients who succeeded in losing high percentage of their body fat (around 44 Kg. in 12 months).
I think that, if researchers at EnteroMedics study the application of the VBLOCK-leads to gastric fundus mucosa at ESSS for a study group (On group) and the VBLOCK-leads to the body of the stomach for a control group (Off group), the wires at the study group may create continuous stimulation of "ESSS". This will lead to continuous stomach satiety sensation, which in turns leads to lower food intake and consequently a very significant loss of weight of those volunteers in comparison to the placebo group.
The results may be translated into promoting VBLOCK device, hence raising EnteroMedics shares 10 times.
The company's Maestro device is a neuro-modulation implant that was designed to help people lose weight by blocking the transmission of vagal nerve signals between the brain and the stomach, on the assumption that vagus transmits the hunger sensation signals.
The company said it will analyze results from its EMPOWER study of 294 patients and then "Determine the most appropriate path forward", said CEO Mark Knudson in a statement. Many centers including the Mayo Clinic were involved in the clinical trial.
Knudson said, "The data do appear to show a high placebo effect." The results were largely indistinguishable between the: On and Off groups, both groups had an average excess weight loss from such implant.
VBLOC Therapy is implanted via laparoscopy on the assumption that it may leads to intermittently blocking the vagus nerves using high-frequency, low-energy electrical impulses.
It is a less invasive and less risky alternative to existing surgical weight loss operations. Follow up data show loss of around 30% of excess body weight after 12 months.
I think that researchers at EnteroMedics took the weight losing effect of surgical vagotomy as a guide to develop the VBLOCK device and procedure.
It may be that vagotomy causes weight loss due to delaying stomach contractions, delaying emptying of the stomach contents, and decreasing gastric acidity. Implanting VBLOCK-leads in the gastric muscles may have affected these physiological actions on both: On and Off groups with indistinguishable difference. This minimal difference might be attributed to the absence of high condensation of the afferent vagal fibers except at the gastric fundus mucosa.
The only thing researchers neglected is that vagal stimulation most probably causes satiety not hunger, so we have to boost its activity instead of blocking it. Vagal activity could be boosted at its maximally dense afferent arborisations i.e. at gastric fundus. My opinion is supported by a research done by Prof. G. P. Smith, and colleagues (published in AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 1985), that proved that afferent axons in abdominal vagus mediate satiety effect of cholecystokinin in rats.
Stimulation of such area, as I noticed since June 2008, usually gives maximum satiety effect, hence major weight loss results.
I developed a hypothesis in June 2008, stipulating that there is a satiety spot at gastric fundus, which I named Elhashemy´s Stomach Satiety Spot "ESSS". This spot is known anatomically to be supplied with afferent vagal fibers, so when it is stimulated physically several times within short periods using solid food (as almonds, in small numbers) it leads to high satiety sensation. This theory proved effective with several hundreds of obese patients who succeeded in losing high percentage of their body fat (around 44 Kg. in 12 months).
I think that, if researchers at EnteroMedics study the application of the VBLOCK-leads to gastric fundus mucosa at ESSS for a study group (On group) and the VBLOCK-leads to the body of the stomach for a control group (Off group), the wires at the study group may create continuous stimulation of "ESSS". This will lead to continuous stomach satiety sensation, which in turns leads to lower food intake and consequently a very significant loss of weight of those volunteers in comparison to the placebo group.
The results may be translated into promoting VBLOCK device, hence raising EnteroMedics shares 10 times.
Print
Email
