MU researchers launch company
Startup focuses on cancer drug.
Two University of Missouri researchers and the director of an India-based pharmaceutical company today announced a business partnership that they say holds the promise of improved cancer therapies.
Called Shasun Nanoparticle Biochem Inc., the new startup is based at the MU Life Science Business Incubator at Monsanto Place. The company was formed to commercialize a prostate cancer treatment using gold nanoparticles.
MU nanotechnology researchers Kattesh Katti and Raghuraman Kannan have been studying the new therapy for treating late-stage prostate cancer in mice for more than five years.
“When we injected the nanoparticles” into tumors, “they did not leak out,” Katti said. “We noticed about an 85 percent reduction in tumor volume. We’re excited, but we’re also cautious.”
The two researchers will be assisted by Shasun Pharmaceuticals Ltd., which has the capacity to manufacture the drug. The company has plants in Chennai, India, and the United Kingdom.
“Shasun believes nanotechnology is going to be the future of medicine,” said Abhaya Kumar, company director.
Katti and Kannan plan to seek permission from the Food and Drug Administration in the next 12 to 18 months. The therapy will advance toward human testing with support from a $1.5 million initial investment by Shasun.
Katti and Kannan work with particles so tiny they are 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The two men have created a catalog of about 100 nanoparticles with which to work.
Ultimately, they decided to use gold because it has been used in medical research for decades and it is the only element that remains un-oxidized when reduced in size, Katti said.
Nanoparticles tend to be “extremely reactive” and are prone to clumping, Kannan said. That problem led the researchers to study ways to coat the particles with a benign substance.
They also knew cancer cells have receptors that are capable of attracting certain proteins and peptides.
“By attaching a protein or peptide with a pre-established affinity” for the tumor cells, “we provide these nanoparticles a sense of direction,” Katti said.
Finally, the two men made sure their particles wouldn’t bind to normal cells, only cancerous ones.
By irradiating the gold nanoparticles at the MU research reactor, the two researchers have learned how to deliver small doses of radiation directly into a tumor. No additional chemotherapy or radiation is needed.
Katti said the role of the reactor was pivotal to his research, but so was the MU School of Veterinary Medicine’s oncology program, which tested the therapy on dogs suffering late-stage prostate cancer.
He agreed it was “karma” the right ingredients existed together on the MU campus.
“All the components are aligned in a way that offers a surer shot for success,” Katti said.
1 comment:
Hello,
This is a really good read for me, Must admit that you are one of the best bloggers I ever saw.Thanks for posting this informative article.
Custom Peptide Synthesis Services India
Post a Comment