Spanish version: http://sl.ugr.es/nueva_insulina
Researchers at the University of Granada and the Spanish National Reseach Council have patented a new technology that allows to develop more effective drugs from therapeutic proteins previously transformed in hydrogels
The therapeutic proteins used by the scientists, transforming them into a crystalline state in a gelled medium, have a greater stability and longer effect than those currently used in the pharmaceutical industry, and they allow the production of new and more effective pharmaceutical formulations
Researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) and the Spanish National Reseach Council (CSIC, from its abbreviation in Spanish) have patented a new technology that allows the development of more effective drugs from therapeutic proteins previously transformed into hydrogels. Through this technique, the researchers have obtained a new formulation of insulin with greater stability and half-life than the one that is currently used. Additionally, it is more effective for the treatment of diabetes.
The therapeutic proteins used by the scientists, having been converted into crystals, have a longer half-life than those currently used in the pharmaceutical industry, and they allow the production of new and more effective pharmaceutical formulations, thus improving the quality of the patient’s life.
As explained by UGR researchers Luis Álvarez de Cienfuegos and Juan José Díaz Mochón, authors of this work, the number of therapeutic proteins that are used for the treatment of different diseases has greatly increased in the last years thanks to the advances in Biotechnology, which has modified the pharmaceutical industry.
1. The researchers who have carried out this work. From left to right, José Antonio Gavira, Luis Álvarez de Cienfuegos and Juan José Díaz Mochón
The use of proteins for therapeutic purposes presents a number of advantages in terms of specificity and potency of action against synthesis compounds. However, the complex structure of proteins makes these compounds very difficult to stabilize and administer, limiting their half-life and, therefore, the therapeutic effect thereof.
In order to overcome these stability problems there are two different techniques which require the modification of the therapeutic protein. Although both are effective, they are not easy to carry out and, in some cases, said modifications may cause a reduction of the protein’s activity and even make it toxic.
The researchers from the UGR, in collaboration with José Antonio Gavira Gallardo, from the Laboratory for Crystallographic Studies at the CSIC, have sought an alternative solution to this problem of protein stability and short half-life, in order to solve these problems and achieve that a greater number of proteins may be used in therapy.
The technology developed by the UGR scientists does not focus on genetically or chemically modifying the protein (which would alter its activity and safety), but it makes a change in its state by transforming it into crystals.
Financing from the European Institute of Technology
With the financial support of La Caixa through its Caixa Impulse program, and with collaboration of the teams of professors Fermín Sánchez de Medina, Pharmacology Department, and Olga Martínez Augustin, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology II (both of them belonging to the Faculty of Pharmacy), the researchers have carried out the first in vivo studies which have shown that the new insulin formulation presents greater stability and half-life than the control insulin.
In the light of these promising results, the technology has been protected by the application of a Spanish patent (Pharmaceutically active protein crystals grown in-situ within a hydrogel, P201630584) through the participating entities, UGR and CSIC.
In November, the project received new support through the granting of assistance from the European Institute of Technology (EIT) within the EIT Health Spain Head Start and Proof of Concept Programme 2016.
The EIT is part of Horizon 2020, the EU’s Framework Program for Research and Innovation, whose mission is to contribute to Europe’s competitiveness, sustainable economic growth and job creation through the promotion and reinforcement of synergies and cooperation between enterprises, educational institutions and research organizations.
The aid, consisting of 25,000 euros, will allow to accelerate in vivo studies as well as promote and facilitate the transfer of this technology to the market through the creation of a biotechnological spin-off.
Bibliographic references:
Protein crystallization in short-peptide supramolecular hydrogels. A versatile strategy towards biotechnological composite materials.
Mayte Conejero-Muriel, Rafael Contreras-Montoya, Juan J. Díaz-Mochón, Luis Álvarez de Cienfuegos, José A. Gavira.
CrystEngComm 2015, 17, 8072-8078. DOI: 10.1039/C5CE00850F
Contact:
Juan José Díaz Mochón
Departamento de Química Farmacéutica y Orgánica de la UGR
Telephone: (+34) 958 715 500
E-mail: juandiaz@ugr.es
Luis Álvarez Cienfuegos Rodríguez
Departamento de Química Farmacéutica y Orgánica de la UGR
Telephone: (+34) 958 248 099
E-mail: lac@ugr.es
José A. Gavira Gallardo
Laboratorio de Estudios Cristalográficos, IACT, (CSIC-UGR)
Telephone: (+34) 958 230 000 Ext. 190205
E-mail: jgavira@iact.ugr-csic.es
