The  School of Pharmacy is allowing EctoPharma to use nano-technology it has developed that could be used to deliver genes direct to (right) pancreatic cancer cells. The deal with MRC allows EctoPharma to use gene technology which regulates levels of the p73 protein. EctoPharma says this plays a key role in increasing the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemotherapy.

EctoPharma believes it will be able to achieve a feat that has defeated some of the world’s best pharmaceutical brains with a drug that should boost the body’s ability to fight the cancer.

“The way is now open for us to accelerate the development programme of a product which could transform the lives of millions of cancer patients around the world,” said Alan Walker, (right) the pharmaceutical industry veteran CEO of Selkirk-based EctoPharma.

Noting that only 13% of people with cancer of the pancreas survive more than one year, Walker said the illness did not respond to treatments like chemotherapy. These can help cure other cancers by encouraging the production of aprotein that lets the body kill cancerous cells.

Building on and combining existing technologies Walker is confident EctoPharma should be able to complete the testing and regulatory approval process quickly.

The company hopes to be able to be conducting in vivo studies ‘ during 2011 with a product ready for launch in 2014 and expects to be able to agree a deal under which a big pharmaceutical company would manufacture and market the product.

As 80,000 people die annually in the US and Europe from the cancer the market for an effective product would be huge. Walker believes it could generate sales of $500m annually – to be shared by EctoPharma with MRC, PSP, and companies involved in production and marketing.

Neat new way to beat bacteria

The antibiotic molecule slots into pockets in the surface of a bacterial enzyme, DNA gyrase, and inhibits its activity. Gyrase is essential for bacteria to survive and grow. However, it is not present in humans so is an ideal, and already established, target for antibiotics. “If you can knock out this enzyme, you have a potential new drug,” says Professor Tony Maxwell.

“A completely new way to beat bacteria is an exciting find at a time when resistance to existing antibiotics is growing,” said Professor Tony Maxwell from the John Innes Centre, lead author on the research to be published in Science. JIC is an institute of The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council BBSRC.

The molecule has two heads that dock into separate pockets in DNA gyrase, and together they are 100 times more powerful than when working individually. Neither pocket has previously been exploited by antibacterial drugs that target this enzyme. Although bacteria could develop resistance to this mode of action, it might be occur less readily than with other antibiotics.

“The fact that there are two pockets means that it might require simultaneous mutations in both pockets for the bacteria to acquire full resistance to the drug, which is much less likely,” explains Professor Maxwell (right) “You could say that this is a case of two heads being better than one.”

The antibiotic molecule, simocyclinone D8 (SD8), is a currently unexploited natural product made by (left) soil bacteria. SD8 itself does not easily penetrate bacterial cells, but it raises the possibility of finding other molecules that fit into the binding pockets, or designing molecules that work by this mechanism but that penetrate cells more easily.

The current method of antibiotic drug discovery is to screen protein targets or bacteria against vast libraries of compounds. Any hits are investigated in more detail. The research reported in Science is a big advance as the scientists already know in detail how the molecule works. It can now be modified, or new compounds developed, to design new drugs.