Peter DeMarco

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File:Peter T DeMarco c.1975.jpg
Peter T. DeMarco

Peter Thomas DeMarco (March 6, 1932 – October 26, 2005) was an American physician who graduated from Albright College in Pennsylvania and achieved his doctor of medicine degree in 1957 from Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A resident of Pine Hill, New Jersey, he had a research laboratory and medical practice there.[1][2]

Professional distinction

DeMarco received professional distinction[3] by advancing scientific research on diabetic complication reversal, chronic wound healing, human cell regeneration and scar tissue reduction by combining procaine with polyvinylpyrrolidone to produce a cell regeneration treatment therapy. He received two patents for his work, the first was titled: Treatment of arteriosclerotic diseases.[4] and the second was: Method of treatment of animal and human tissues damaged by burns and frank visible gangrene.[5] DeMarco was inducted into the Italian-American National Hall of Fame on September 9, 1984 for his scientific and humanitarian work.

History

File:Italian American Hall of Fame.jpg
DeMarco receives the Italian American Hall of Fame honor.

Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Research Laboratory wrote that case histories of his therapy, "were quite remarkable and your concepts most intriguing" and ICN Pharmaceuticals replied, "The results you have obtained with this drug in the treatment of gangrene have been most spectacular",[6] but DeMarco was never able to commercialize the therapy beyond his own medical practice. Swiss pharmaceutical company Debiopharm S.A. replied, "Drug induced cell regeneration appears to be a revolutionary new form of treatment which is bound to be perceived as highly controversial by several regulatory agencies. We are not in a position to take the considerable time and risk involved in convincing the bureaucrats."[7] Thus although intrigued, the pharmaceutical companies never showed a serious interest in developing his product. Regenerative medicine was a new field at the time and DeMarco likened the companies' antipathy of his discovery to the history of penicillin; although discovered in 1928, penicillin was not mass-produced until 1941 when production became a top priority World War II project to reduce the infection casualty rate.[8]

DeMarco's clinical use of a drug not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration came to the attention of regulators in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania, leading to the suspension of his license to practice and the seizure of his supply of "Procaine-PVP".[9] DeMarco's patients organized a patient advocacy group called S.O.S. (Save Our Shots) and filed suit to restore his license and regain access to his formula. Unswayed by the patients' pleadings, the regulators denied the motion and all subsequent legal attempts.[10]

Theory and proof

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. DeMarco's regenerative medicine theory was that procaine enables protein de novo synthesis by acting on cellular DNA activity the same as in simpler life forms. Equal to salamanders, starfish and similar life-forms, human regeneration would be possible by selective DNA gene expression.[11] His evidence was his human gangrene case study photographs. Although he had made hundreds of animal heart, liver and skin studies, he would always display his patients' results as validation, believing that, "Theory is good, but in the end you have to produce patient results in a clinical setting." He would use time-lapse photography to demonstrate coordinated and accelerated healing while using his procaine-PVP formula. In the photo studies, certain wound healing processes appear visibly delayed while others look to be selectively accelerated in contrast to untreated wounds. Procaine's ability to retard certain wound healing processes has been well researched.[12] He hypothesized that these processes were DNA controlled with procaine interaction. DeMarco believed his chemically induced partial limb regeneration, scar tissue repression and coordinated tissue repair was a significant step forward in human regenerative medicine.[13]

Coordinated healing

DeMarco’s animal studies[5] showed a healing phenomenon he termed "coordinated healing". Observing that animal wounds would heal differently when treated with his formula, he tried to explain his observations: after excising a square inch of skin from a rabbit’s shaved back, he would allow it to heal normally while documenting its progress with time lapse photography. DeMarco than performed the same experiment while treating the rabbit with his formula. He observed that the untreated wound healed haphazardly; closing in a non-circular pattern with uneven levels and with infiltrating hair growth before wound closure. In contrast, the treated rabbit shows healing in a smooth circular pattern with even levels and only after wound closure would the hair begin to regrow.

  • 1st Control.jpg

    1st photo of untreated rabbit wound

  • 2nd Control.jpg

    2nd photo of untreated rabbit wound

  • 3rd Control.jpg

    3rd photo of untreated rabbit wound

  • 4th Control.jpg

    4th photo of untreated rabbit wound


  • 1st Treated.jpg

    1st photo of treated rabbit wound

  • 2nd Treated.jpg

    2nd photo of treated rabbit wound

  • 3rd Treated.jpg

    3rd photo of treated rabbit wound

  • 4th Treated.jpg

    4th photo of treated rabbit wound


DeMarco also observed this coordinated healing in humans with his gangrene patients.[5] Despite being diabetic, the treated wound would heal correctly with minimal scar tissue. Even the toe’s print pattern would return. Hair growth and scar tissue were suppressed while select de novo protein synthesis appeared to accelerate. He deduced that this coordinated healing pattern was a result of procaine-DNA interaction since procaine has been documented to influence DNA synthesis in simpler life forms (DNA activation in sea urchin eggs)[11] as well as humans (restores silenced gene expression).[14] He had great hopes of treating head trauma and spinal cord injuries to observe if the same coordinated healing effect would alter those patients’ prognosis as well as his gangrene patients. [15]

  • Foot with advanced gangrene.JPG

    85 year old male patient's foot with advanced gangrene on 1st visit.

  • Gangrenous foot healing after 29 injections.JPG

    Patient's foot healing after 29 treatments.

  • Gangrenous foot healed.JPG

    Patient's foot healed without scarring.

  • 55 year old female with advanced Buerger's disease.jpg

    55 year old female with advanced Buerger's disease on first visit.

  • Healing progress at 29th treatment.jpg

    Patient's foot healing after 29 treatments.

  • Almost healed.jpg

    Healing.

  • Healed.jpg

    Healed.

    • Intractable leg ulcer above the ankle..jpg

      Intractable leg ulcer above the ankle on first visit.

    • Intractable leg ulcer above the ankle after 42 DeMarco formula treatments.png

      Healing progress after 42 treatments.

    • Intractable leg ulcer healed after 102 DeMarco formula treatments.png

      Healed after 102 treatments.

    Notes

    1. ↑ "Once more, in search of miracles." The Philadelphia Inquirer - March 8, 1979.
    2. ↑ via Associated Press. "DeMarco Using Cure-All Again", Reading Eagle, March 2, 1979. Accessed July 10, 2015. "'The year I was closed down in Pennsylvania 15 people died because they didn't get the drug,' DeMarco said in a telephone interview from his Pine Hill, N.J., home."
    3. ↑ September 9, 1984. Italian-American Hall of Fame Induction.
    4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    6. ↑ Rinaldi, Ann. The Trentonian. (January 4, 1977)
    7. ↑ Business correspondence, March 15, 1984
    8. ↑ Pfizer Inc: Exploring Our History, 1900–1950
    9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    10. ↑ "Physician's patients want him reinstated" The New York Times. November 9, 1976
    11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    12. ↑ Experimental Studies on the Effect of Lidocaine on Wound Healing. World Journal of Surgery 22(4):394-7; discussion 397-8 · April 1998. PMID 9523522
    13. ↑ DeMarco PT, -- "Cell Regeneration in Man." Townsend Letter for Doctors #23, p.4
    14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    15. ↑ Personal correspondence

    References

    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Mahia Vilas M, Hernández Carretero J, García Mesa M, Álvarez Duarte H, Valdés Pérez C, De Marco LG. (2010) "Microalbuminuria and immune system in patients with infected ischemic diabetic foot treated with De Marco Formula." Span. J. Surg. Res, Vol. XIII, Num. 1, (12-16), Año 2010.
    • Miriam Mahía Vilas; Héctor T. Álvarez Duarte; José G. Hernández Carretero; Milagros García Mesa; María Eugenia Triana Mantilla; Alicia Rodríguez Pérez. "Utilidad de la fórmula De Marco en pacientes diabéticos con complicaciones vasculares y su acción inmunomoduladora sobre la función de los linfocitos T. (Usefulness of De Marco formula in diabetic patients suffering vascular complications and its immunomodulating action on the T lymphocyte function.)" [1] Revista Cubana de Angiología y Cirugía Vascular. 2008; 9(1)
    • Duarte HA, Fernández Montequín JI, Fors López MM, Carretero JH, Vilas MM, Mesa MG. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • DeMarco Peter. "Treatment of Macular Degeneration." United States Patent Application, US 20040180090.
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