Issue: April 2004
Research in Action
In sight: the holy grail of pharmaceuticals?
LA TROBE UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY FOR ORAL PEPTIDE DRUGS
La Trobe University chemists have developed technology which they believe could lead to orally delivered peptide drugs.
Currently peptide and protein drugs of natural origin - the best known being insulin for which there is a $US6 billion world industry - are mostly delivered by injection, limiting their convenience and use.
A 'spin-out' company from La Trobe University's School of Molecular Sciences, Peptide Solutions Pty Ltd, located in the Technology Enterprise Centre on the La Trobe University Research and Development Park, Bundoora, has developed and patented what it claims is a unique 'technology platform'.
According to Peptide Solutions' managing director, Dr Philip McDonough, 'the platform has significant advantages in terms of cost and ability to achieve a peptide oral drug delivery system.'
Dr McDonough described the development of an insulin pill as the 'holy grail' of the pharmaceutical industry.
He said that within 12 to 18 months, Peptide Solutions planned to demonstrate the first application of its drug modification technology. He believed this would put the La Trobe team ahead of other researchers around the world seeking to develop oral peptide drugs using a range of other technologies.
'It is an initiative that is tremendously exciting for drug development and delivery systems and the Australian biotechnology industry,' Dr McDonough said.
Two chemists in Peptide Solutions' team, Lou Aurelio and Tash Polyzos, are still PhD candidates in the La Trobe University School of Molecular Sciences. Both now work full time for Peptide Solutions while completing their theses.
Mr Aurelio developed the technology while researching his PhD thesis - supervised by Dr Andrew Hughes and Associate Professor Robert Brownlee - which he will submit shortly. He explained that research has resulted in a surge in the use and development of new peptide drugs. However, the problem with peptide drugs stems from the fact that they are naturally occurring, coming from plant or animal sources and are frequently unstable in the human body.
'Because of this, their use in humans has been limited. They cannot be taken orally as a pill because the human body accepts them as protein and breaks them down,' Mr Aurelio said.
Dr McDonough said the new technology enabled Peptide Solutions to re-engineer peptides to stabilise them to limit or prevent their biological breakdown in the body - making them both easier to administer and potentially more efficient.
'This enhances both their therapeutic value and their ability to be taken as a pill. Our technology will enable the development of oral peptide drugs for treatment of a range of chronic diseases including diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's disease,' Dr McDonough added.
Dr McDonough has been associated with La Trobe University since he began his science degree there in 1967 - the University's inaugural year. He later became the first PhD from the University's then Department of Chemistry. His son, Wade McDonough, a La Trobe Biomedical Engineering graduate who spent eight years in the US biotechnology market, is also assisting to commercially adapt the technology with Lou Aurelio and Tash Polyzos.
Dr Philip McDonough joined the company, which received a Federal Government Commercialising Emerging Technologies (COMET) grant in December 2003, to provide managerial experience and direction.
La Trobe University's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Fred Smith, the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering, Professor David Finlay, and the Head of the Department of Chemistry, Associate Professor Robert Brownlee, have all supported the research and its commercialisation. •
The company's website is www.peptidesolutions.com
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