Expanding the virtual biotech portfolio
We find out about the latest Parkinson’s UK Virtual Biotech project that aims to both improve symptoms and slow progression.
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Current Parkinson’s drugs aren’t good enough. They don’t stop, slow down or reverse the condition — they just mask it for a time. And they can have distressing side effects.
People need medications that manage their symptoms better with fewer side effects and which, more importantly, slow the progression of the condition — and they need them now! In this post we find out what we’re doing about that, and discover more about our latest research project.
How we’re speeding up research
Developing a new treatment from scratch takes time. Fortunately, huge scientific progress in Parkinson’s in recent years means we now have the knowledge that could provide the key to developing new treatments.
We believe people shouldn’t have to wait so we’ve made developing new and better treatments in years, not decades, a priority. One of the ways we are speeding up research is through a new drug development arm of Parkinson’s UK. It aims to fast track the most promising scientific discoveries to rapidly develop and test promising Parkinson’s treatments.
Our Parkinson’s UK Virtual Biotech is named after the virtual approach that sets it apart from other biotech companies. It has no lab space or specialist drug development equipment, which would be costly to set up and maintain. Instead, we rely on collaborations with world leading research organisations that are best placed to deliver on the aims of each individual project.
Unlike our traditional research grants, projects supported within the Virtual Biotech are managed and developed in partnership with Parkinson’s UK. This approach means we can work flexibly and creatively with different organisations, including clinical and academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies and biotechs worldwide, in a results-focused, efficient way to develop and commercialise new treatments for Parkinson’s.
Building a portfolio of research projects
Last year we launched the virtual biotech and funded our first project, worth over £1million, which aims to protect brain cells from damaging oxidative stress. You can read more about this in a previous blog.
And we have much bigger ambitions, we aim to raise and invest £22million by the end of 2021 to create a pipeline of projects to support projects and companies that are driving towards important new treatments with the potential to transform the lives of people with Parkinson’s.
This year we’ve already added two more projects to the vitual biotech portfolio. Back in January we launched our second project that aims to accelerate the development of a new treatment for the uncontrolled movements called dyskinesia that are a side effect of current Parkinson’s medication. You can read more about the dyskinesia research projects here, or find out about the impact dyskinesia can have on someones life with this my life story from Matt Eagles.
And now we have another new project to share…
Project 3: Multitasking molecules that improve symptoms and slow progression
This week Parkinson’s UK have announced a new £1.2million collaboration with contract innovation and research organisation, Selcia, and computational chemistry software and services provider, Cresset.
This project aims to develop molecules that increase the activity of a wide range of genes that have could have two key beneficial therapeutic effects:
Boosting dopamine production
Current drugs help to artificially top up dopamine levels, but become less effective over time and can cause significant side effects. Increasing the activity of genes that help remaining brain cells make more of their own dopamine could significantly improve control of symptoms with fewer side effects.
Protecting brain cells
Many processes may contribute to the damage and loss of brain cells — from problems with energy production and processing waste, to the build-up of toxic iron and other chemicals. Increasing the activity of genes that protect against several of these damaging processes simultaneously may provide the best hope for slowing, stopping or even reversing the condition. Like a switch, these vital genes can be turned on by one protein and off by another.
The protein that turns these genes off has been found to be overactive inside dopamine producing cells in studies using post mortem brain tissue from people with Parkinson’s.
This project aims to develop drugs that target and reduce the activity of the protein that turns the system off. By doing so, we hope to keep the switch turned ‘on’ and to boost the activity of these genes to enhance their beneficial and protective effects on brain cells affected in Parkinson’s.
There are already potential drug molecules that work by boosting the activity of these beneficial genes that are being tested in clinical trials for other conditions. However, these molecules would not be effective in Parkinson’s because they are not able to cross from the bloodstream into the brain. Therefore, in this project we will attempt to use the findings from these existing potential drugs to create completely new drug-like molecules that work in the same way, but can enter the brain.
If successful, this project will produce candidate molecules that can be rapidly progressed into pre-clinical testing, and ultimately towards clinical trials.
Help us drive new treatments forwards
Research can’t happen without your support. There’s many ways to get involved and help us find a cure for Parkinson’s.
