Aurora to Work on Huntington's Disease Treatment
Last updated: 12 Sep 2000 16:36 GMT (Reuters)
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Aurora Biosciences Corp.
ABSC.O , helped by a glowing chemical found in
some jellyfish, on Tuesday said it will collaborate
with the Hereditary Disease Foundation in
developing tests to help researchers find
treatments for Huntington's disease.
Aurora, the San Diego-based maker of drug
discovery equipment and systems, said it would
develop high-speed, industrial-scale tests for
thousands of potential drug compounds by using
its green fluorescent protein (GFP) technology.
The protein is used by a species of U.S. West
Coast jellyfish to evade attackers by giving off a
green fluorescent flash. Aurora would fuse a new
gene with a brighter version of the flash to portions
of the defective gene causing Huntington's in the
search for a treatment.
The company's research would involve an alliance
with the foundation, a nonprofit group which led
the long period of research that culminated in the
identification and cloning of the gene behind
Huntington's in 1993. The group has launched a
Cure Huntington's Initiative to speed up the hunt
for a cure.
Using GFP and other drug discovery technology,
Aurora would help identify compounds with the
potential to modify the protein involved in
Huntington's disease, a genetic, so far incurable
disorder afflicting about 35,000 to 50,000 people in
the United States.
The inherited disease, which typically appears in
adulthood, causes the death of vital nerve cells in
a part of the brain, resulting in involuntary
movements of the body, coordination loss and
cognitive difficulties.
After culling chemicals with potential as drugs,
Aurora would figure out their medicinal properties
and collaborate with academic researchers to test
their efficacy in animal studies, the company said.
"We are confident in Aurora's ability to explore new
avenues that could lead to an effective treatment in
the area of Huntington's disease," said Ethan
Signer, executive director of the foundation's Cure
Huntington's Disease Initiative.
"It is our hope that Aurora's cutting-edge
technologies and expertise will further our scientific
knowledge not only of this disease, but of other
related genetic and neurological disorders," he
said.
Aurora said that while the genetics underlying
Huntington's disease and related disorders were
well-documented, the cellular and molecular
biology of these diseases was just beginning to be
grasped.
Aurora said that any potential compounds effective
against the protein involved in Huntington's were
"quite likely to be effective in treating illnesses
such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease,
schizophrenia and Lou Gehrig's disease." |
