ThromboGenics gets to the heart of thrombosis
Cardiovascular diseases such as thrombosis claim one life every 30 seconds. Instead of curing, current drugs often kill through fatal bleeding. ThromboGenics are on the verge of eradicating this problem having devised an anti-thrombotic strategy that does not cause hemorrhage.
(PRWEB) October 28, 2001
ThromboGenics gets to the heart of thrombosis
Cardiovascular diseases have been the most common cause of death in the US since 1918. Claiming one life every 30 seconds, more people die from cardiovascular disease than the next six leading causes of death combined. If cardiovascular disease were to be eliminated, the average life expectancy would rise by 7 years. However with current treatment options this goal remains wishful thinking.
Recent medical advances have seen the emergence of new clinical tools such as the GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors and recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA). Unfortunately treatments can be expensive, limiting their use and perhaps more seriously, they also carry a high risk of fatal bleeding.
Safer and cheaper drugs are therefore required to reduce cardiovascular mortality and healthcare costs which currently stands at almost 500,000 lives and over 100 billion dollars each year in the US alone. The current challenge facing the drug development sector is to separate beneficial anti-thrombotic effects from the potentially disastrous risk of hemorrhage.
According to a DiscoveryDossier published this week by the pharmaceutical consultants, LeadDiscovery, this challenge may soon be met. This report describes the activities of the cutting edge drug development company, ThromboGenics. Along with their field-leading collaborators at the University of Leuven, ThromboGenics have developed a genetically modified mouse lacking a protein known as Gas6. This protein is related to the well known anti-coagulant, vitamin K. Incredibly a number of procedures known to cause fatal thromboses in normal mice were almost completely without effect in their genetically modified counterparts.
Despite this dramatic resistance to thrombosis, these animals displayed near normal bleeding times suggesting that disruption of Gas6 failed to increase the risk of hemorrhage.
According to LeadDiscovery consultants "The concept of developing blockers of Gas6 as antithrombotic treatments is well supported. Furthermore, for the first time, a drug discovery target has been identified that can reduce thrombosis but which does not appear to carry a risk of hemorrhage. If blockers can be identified they are likely to display significant advantages over the existing market".
The University of Leuven, where this research was developed is not a stranger to the identification of cutting edge cardiovascular therapies. This center of excellence was responsible for the early development of t-PA, which is currently the most effective thrombolytic drug on the market for acute myocardial infarction. ThromboGenics and their collaborators therefore stand an excellent chance of advancing from this conceptual phase towards the identification and development of Gas6 blockers.
So is there light at the end of the tunnel for the millions suffering from cardiovascular disease? Dr Jon Goldhill chief consultant at LeadDiscovery believes that the early signs are encouraging. Says Dr Goldhill "The proof of concept for Gas6 is excellent and ThromboGenics alongside their collaborators has consistently proved their ability in the field. I believe that if a chemical development program can be built upon this wealth of expertise and the robust screening architecture already in place, the future should be bright."
Having recognized that now is the time to advance towards the identification of therapeutic candidates ThromboGenics is keen to form partnerships with companies able to offer chemistry support. The potential of such a partnership should be the source of hope for patients and excitement for all involved in the drug development community.
For information on in-depth analyses of this and related work visit the LeadDiscovery website at http://www. leaddiscovery. co. uk/welcome/discoverydossiers. html (http://www. leaddiscovery. co. uk/welcome/discoverydossiers. html)
LeadDiscovery is a leading Sussex based firm of drug discovery, development and commercialization consultants whose aim is to combine a background in the pharmaceutical industry with an internet platform to help academic and biotech based research groups to exploit their technology.
