PEP2BRAIN · Selected peptides as drug candidates directed to pain and neurodegeneration
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2009-03-01 → 2013-02-28
- EU contribution
- €659,895
- Participants
- 5
- Scheme
- MC-IAPP
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Results in brief
Periodic Report Summary - PEP2BRAIN (Selected peptides as drug candidates directed to pain and neurodegeneration)
The final goal of the project was to identify at least one molecule that is suitable to proceed to clinical tests and eventually become a new drug, contributing to the well-being of patients suffering pain and/or neurodegenerative disorders. The project has started with a peptide drug lead that has to be modified and optimised in order to have the stability, low toxicity and efficacy needed to be used in humans. This is the core of the project. The researchers involved are working towards creating variants of the starting drug lead and finding the optimal variant, with the highest efficacy and lowest toxicity. Finding new analgesic and/or neuroprotective drugs is of major importance as ageing and long-term diseases such as AIDS, some cancers and diabetes contribute to make pain and neurodegeneration problems of increasing importance. The project is programmed to last for 4 years, during which all the pre-clinical studies for selected variants of the drug lead will be carried out. So far, the project completed its first 24 months-term with success. Efficacy of the starting drug lead was reasonable, albeit not optimal, and the toxicity profile was very encouraging. Yet, stability had to be improved. New derivatives have been synthesised and tested for efficacy and stability. These results set an optimistic scenario for the future development of the project. There were five inter-sectorial secondments since the beginning of the project, four of them being international. One academic researcher spent six months working abroad for a company and four biotech researchers of a company spent sixmonths-periods in academia, three of them abroad. IAPP projects, such as PEP2BRAIN, exist to promote and encourage transfer of knowledge, which has been fulfilled. Two researchers have been recruited, as predicted, and the recruitment of a third one is underway. Nevertheless, administrative difficulties have seriously delayed the starting of the recruited fellows. The project team has been active in the dissemination and promotion of the project. A web site was made available for non-technical audiences, explaining the molecular and physiological basis of pain, with a sub-section devoted to the project itself. This site was recently up-graded to a web portal specifically devoted to the project. Special attention was devoted to journalists and the press; news on the project have been diffused transnationally, for instance (Radio Paris International; broadcasted 15 September 2009). Seminars devoted to the development of the project were delivered in several universities in meetings in Europe and dissemination outreaching activities have taken place in high schools in Portugal. URL: http://www.dor.biochemistry-imm.org and http://www.imm.fm.ul.pt/web/imm/pep2brain
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
BLV200703/4 is a small molecule discovered jointly by groups from the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and Girona (Spain) that proved its efficacy in analgesia from behavioural tests in rats. The same molecule was tested in a platform that screens potential pharmacological molecules/compounds for neurodegenerative diseases with positive results. The platform is owned by Bioalvo, SA (Portugal). The preliminary results so far obtained regarding efficacy and toxicology of the molecule are encouraging and the academic inventors and the industrial developers are committed to take it into preclinical tests. However, a previous phase of lead optimisation is needed where a well devised strategy will make use of medicinal chemistry methodologies combined with robust in vitro and in vivo assays, in order to achieve the best pharmacological and ADME/toxicity characteristics for our lead molecule. This requires technology, knowledge and innovation transfer since the inventors and Bioalvo are unable to perform this endeavour on their own. Synovo, a German company expert in ADME/tox tests and the University of Tuebingen, with a group expert in Medicinal Chemistry, joined Bioalvo and the Universities of Lisbon and Girona to transfer all knowledge, technology and innovation necessary to make possible that BLV200703 or one of its future derivatives reaches pre-clinical stage. This project fits the ""Developability Assessment Logic Plan"" of BLV200703 as established with a consulting company expert in drug development. Not only all the participants are committed to the success of this product development, they are also committed to two-ways exchange of information and technology that strength their activity in the future. For instance, in the end of this project Bioalvo SA will have a MedChem unit that will strength future development of new products and the Universities of Lisbon and Girona will be able to carry out basic early toxicology tests as part of their research.""
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union