Harry Demopoulos

Harry B. Demopoulos, MD, is an important pioneer in the medical aspects of free radicals, especially in the areas of ischaemic injury, the toxicity of anticancer drugs, and in spinal cord injury. He has also been a film actor and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees, from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Free Radical Research

Ischaemic injury (injury to cells due to oxygen deprivation) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in humans. For example, most deaths in stroke and heart attack are secondary to ischaemic injury, a consequence of the ischemic cascade. Thus, much research has been done into the causes and treatment of ischaemic injury. One important thread involves the essential role of free radicals (reactive oxygen species and the like) as modulators of ischaemic injury. This has resulted in important therapeutic advances, such as the radical-scavenging neuroprotective agent [http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/354/6/588 NXY-059] .NXY-059 is currently under development for the treatment of stroke.

Harry B. Demopoulos and his coworkers played a key role this research. The opening sentence of J.Cell. Mol.Med. Vol 5, No 2, 2001 pp. 163-170 "Oxidative damage following cerebral ischemia depends on reperfusion" D. Al. Nita, et al [ [http://www.jcmm.org/en/pdf/5/2/jcmm005.002.05.pdf PDF] ] states:

Works

* Flamm ES, Demopoulos HB, Seligman ML, Poser RG, Ransohoff J., Free radicals in cerebral ischemia, "Stroke". 1978 Sep-Oct;9(5):445-7. [http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/9/5/445] :"Generally-acknowledged as the first experimental demonstration of a role for reactive oxygen species in stroke. [http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=link:http%3A%2F%2Fstroke.ahajournals.org%2Fcgi%2Fcontent%2Fabstract%2F9%2F5%2F445] [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Display&itool=abstractplus&dopt=pubmed_pubmed&from_uid=705824] "
* Demopoulos, H. B,, Flamm, E. S., Pietronegro, D. D., and Seligman, M. L., The free radical pathology and the microcirculation in the major central nervous system disorders, Acta Physiol. Scand. Suppl., 492, 91, 1980.:This paper first suggests that free radical pathogenesis in stroke may be at least partially-mediated through damage to the microcirculation. The neuroprotective antistroke agents NXY-059, Tirilazad, Superoxide dismutase/Catalase, and uric acid all likely work at this level, rather than interneuronally.
* Demopoulos, H., Flamm, E., Seligman, M. L., Power, R., Pietronegro, D., and Ransohoff, J., Molecular pathology of lipids in CNS membranes, in "Oxygen and Physiological Function", Volsis, F. F., Ed., Professional Information Library, Dallas, Tex., 1977, 491.
* Demopoulos, H. B., Flamm, E., Seligman, M,, and Pietronigro, D. D., Oxygen free radicals in central nervous system ischaemia and trauma, in "Pathology of Oxygen", Autor, A. P., Ed., Academic Press, New York, 1982, 127.:"Large doses of methohexital protect the microcirculation in regional cerebral ischaemia models"." This is the first well-defined example of an antistroke neuroprotective agent working outside the blood-brain barrier. NXY-059, Superoxide dismutase, catalase, uric acid, and Tirilazad are others.
* John McGinness, Proctor, P.H., Demopoulos, H.B., Hokansen, J.A. and Kirkpatrick, D. S. Amelioration of cis-platinum nephrotoxicity by orgotein (superoxide dismutase). Physiol. Chem. and Phys. 10: 267-277, 1978.
* John McGinness, Proctor, P.H., Demopoulos, H.B., Hokansen, J.A. and Van, N.T. "In vivo" evidence for superoxide and peroxide production by adriamycin and cis-platinum. In: Pathology of Oxygen. A. Autor, (Ed.). Academic Press, New York, 1982, pp. 191-202.

Filmography

* "The Dead Pool" (1988)
* "Cobra" (1986)
* "City Heat" (1984)
* "Sudden Impact" (1983) (as Dr Barton)

Has worked with:
Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone, Liam Neeson, Jim Carrey, Sondra Locke, Anthony Charnota, George Orrison, Irene Cara, George Fisher

Doris Duke Estate

Harry Demopoulos is a trustee of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, founded upon the death of the billionaire tobacco heiress. When Duke died in 1993 at the age of 80, legal documents revealed she had previously assigned Demopoulos - a longtime friend - coexecutor of her estate. However, a controversial change to her will near her death put her vast fortune in the control of her Irish-born butler, Bernard Lafferty, who Demopoulos described in a subsequent lawsuit as "an illiterate, unstable and even dangerous person."

Arguably, "the butler did it"-- "But the real bombshell came when the litigants produced an affidavit from Tammy Payette, 28, a nurse who had attended to Duke in her final weeks. Payette maintained that Kivowitz (one of Duke's doctors) and Lafferty had conspired to murder Duke through the use of "massive sedation", including morphine and Demerol." [http://www.howarth-smith.com/News/news-62.htm] This lawsuit resulted in Lafferty's being discharged. [http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/search/display.html?terms=will%20and%20probate&url=/nyctap/I96_0004.htm]

External Links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0218647/ Internet Movie Database Entry on Harry Demopoulos]
* [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1809005021] ,
* [http://www.ddcf.org/page.asp?pageId=333 Doris Duke Charitable Foundation homepage]

References