Funxional Therapeutics support BSCI research
Following the successful sub-licensing of our BSCI technology platform from the french pharmaceutical company Ipsen to a newly formed Cambridge biotechnology company, Funxional Therapeutics (FXT), in October of 2006, FXT have today announced their continued support for our BSCI research programme.
The company has agreed to spend £150,000 over the next year on research into the mechanism of action of the BSCI class of anti-inflammatory drugs. In parallel, the company expects to select its lead compound for clinical development during 2007, and to begin phase I clinical trials in 2008. Further work in preclinical models is currently underway to identify the best indication in which to develop a new drug based on broad-spectrum chemokine inhibition.
Broad-spectrum chemokine inhibitors (BSCIs) are a fascinating new class of compounds which block the migration of leukocytes in response to a wide range of pro-migratory cues from different chemokines, but leave migration in response to other signals (such as C5a or TGF-beta) untouched. Some cells of the immune system (such as macrophages) are exquisitely sensitive to BSCIs, while others (such as B cells) seem much less affected. The reason for this difference has recently been traced to a single G-protein coupled receptor in the cell surface, which is the target for BSCI binding.
The new funding is to continue our work in this area, to confirm the identity of this target receptor, and to better understand why engaging this particular receptor leads to the wide array of beneficial effects on the immune system which have previously been reported. In particular, we aim to understand just how BSCIs are able to "re-balance" the T-helper cell axis during inflammation. Many inflammatory diseases are characterised by a persistent imbalance in the T-helper cell cytokine profile (with either Th1 or Th2 cells dominating). Treatment with BSCIs (even for just a few days) normalises that balance irrespective of whether the original bias was in favour of Th1 or of Th2. To date, BSCIs are the only compounds yet described with such a "re-balancing" effect.
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Much more information about our BSCI rseaerch program, and in particular the use of BSCIs as anti-inflammatory drugs, can be found elsewhere on this website.The Chemotide family of BSCIs, invented in the IRTL, Cambridge University, are currently licensed to the Cambridge-based biotechnology company Funxional.Therapeutics
Free full text access to a publication in Retrovirology, desxcribing an unexpected effect of BSCIs on HIV replication, can be found here.
We recently published a manuscript describing the nanomolar potency aminocaprolactam BSCIs, which might be the most useful for development a potential new HIV therapeutics, in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.