The UAB and Pharmacelera sign an agreement to research into new drugs for Parkinson's disease

28/05/2019

The Protein Folding and Conformational Diseases research group at the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (IBB), led by Salvador Ventura, has analysed over 14,000 molecules in search of one which can act against the alpha-synucleic protein. This led them a few months ago to identify a molecule known as SynuClean-D, which inhibits protein clumping and breaks up already formed amyloids, thus preventing the onset of the process leading to the neurodegenerative Parkinson's disease. To find this molecule, researchers conducted an in vitro biophysical characterisation of its inhibitor action and a trial of its behaviour with human neuronal cell cultures, before testing its behaviour in animal models of the disease (the Caenorhabdiis elegans worm).

Now thanks to the agreement signed with Pharmacelera the group will develop an in silico clinical trial (computer simulation) of molecules derived from SynuClean-D with the aim of obtaining more suitable candidates to be used to treat Parkinson's disease. The group will use the company's emblematic software PharmScreen® in order to conduct selection campaigns in large virtual libraries and find these new candidate molecules.

"The in silico selection technologies will be a key complement to our experimental approach", Salvador Ventura points out. "Pharmacelera has the technology needed to discover drugs which will help guide our next steps in improving the quality of new candidates, given that it will make its identification more efficient and save us time and efforts", he adds.

"Pharmacelera, as a specialist in drug design software, has broad experience in similar drug discovery projects, and we are sure that PharmScreen® will play a key role in proposing new candidates for the treatment of Parkinson's disease”, states Pharmacelera's CEO Enric Gibert.