Aethlon Medical Announces Collaboration To Identify Brain Trauma Biomarkers

San Diego, CA /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Aethlon Medical, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: AEMD) announced today that it has initiated a collaborative biomarker discovery program with the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) at Boston University School of Medicine and the Sports Legacy Institute (SLI). In the collaboration, Aethlon will analyze brain tissue of professional athletes who suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) at the time of their death and from individuals without any evidence of brain disease. CTE is a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by brain trauma but with unclear environmental and genetic risk factors. The research goal is to discover common biomarkers, including dormant viruses that might lead to a diagnostic product able to identify athletes with an increased susceptibility to suffer from CTE. Such a test could help distinguish those who should be precluded from participating in football and other activities with a high risk for head trauma. CTE has recently been identified in ten former NFL players, most of whom died before the age of 50 from complications of the disease, including Andre Waters, John Grimsley, Lou Creekmur, Mike Webster, and Tom McHale.

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"This collaboration is near and dear to my heart as CTE was identified in Tom McHale, (Click Here for NY Times Story) a friend and former high school and college teammate who died at the age of 45 last year," stated Aethlon Chairman and CEO, Jim Joyce. "Additionally, we have the opportunity to showcase that the scientific advancements underlying our infectious disease and cancer treatment devices provide the basis for new products to discover the presence of biomarkers associated with various medical conditions," concluded Joyce. Aethlon Medical also disclosed it will provide SLI with a $25,000 unrestricted educational grant to support educational outreach.

"Aethlon Medical has presented a wonderful opportunity to advance CTE research," said SLI co-founder Chris Nowinski, who is also a Co-Director at the CSTE. "Historically, a small number of viruses have been found to lead to later life neurodegeneration characterized by tau protein deposition, including encephalitis lethargica (also known as von Economo encephalitis and the "sleeping sickness"), and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), caused by a defective measles virus. We also appreciate Aethlon's support in helping us continue our educational and prevention efforts."

Most recently, CTE research advanced by CSTE and SLI researchers has been broadly covered in the media, including; 60 Minutes, CNN, The New York Times, New Yorker Magazine, USA Today, HBO, and ESPN. Last week, four CSTE and SLI representatives testified before a congressional judiciary committee investigating the impact of head injuries sustained by NFL players.

About The Sports Legacy Institute
Sports Legacy Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation founded in 2007 to solve the sports concussion crisis. SLI is dedicated to education, prevention, treatment, and research on the effects of concussions and other brain injuries in athletes and the military. SLI partnered with Boston University School of Medicine to form the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy in 2008. Additional information can be accessed at: www.sportslegacy.org

About The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE)
The CSTE was created in 2008 as a collaborative venture between Boston University School of Medicine and Sports Legacy Institute (SLI). The mission of the CSTE is to conduct state-of-the-art research of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, including its neuropathology and pathogenesis, the clinical presentation and course, the genetics and other risk factors for CTE, and ways of preventing this cause of dementia. Additional information can be accessed online at: www.bu.edu/alzresearch/research/encephalopathy/

About Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive concussions. CTE has been known to affect boxers since the 1920s. However, recent reports have been published of neuropathologically confirmed CTE in retired professional football players and wrestlers who have a history of head trauma. This trauma, which includes multiple concussions and subconcussive blows to the head, triggers progressive degeneration of the brain tissue, including the build-up of an abnormal protein called tau. These changes in the brain can begin months, years, or even decades after the last concussion or end of active athletic involvement. The brain degeneration is associated with memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, paranoia, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia.

About Aethlon Medical
Aethlon Medical creates diagnostic and therapeutic device solutions for infectious disease and cancer. Our Hemopurifier® represents the first-in-class medical device to selectively adsorb viruses and immunosuppressive toxins from the bloodstream. The Hemopurifier® seeks to improve Hepatitis-C treatment outcomes and serves as a broad-spectrum treatment countermeasure against bioterror and pandemic threats. Additional information regarding Aethlon Medical can be accessed online at www.aethlonmedical.com.

Certain of the 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, the capability of the Hemopurifier® to reduce viral loads and other disease conditions or to identify disease conditions such as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, including the ability to capture exosomes and the impact that potential ability may have on disease conditions, the Company's ability to raise capital when needed, the Company's ability to complete the development of its planned products, the ability of the Company to obtain FDA and other regulatory approvals permitting the sale of its products, the Company's ability to manufacture its products and provide its services, the impact of government regulations, patent protection on the Company's proprietary technology, 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.

SOURCE Aethlon Medical, Inc.