Hope for preserving cells
MELBOURNE researchers developed a proof-of-concept drug that can keep cells alive and thriving in situations where they would otherwise have died.
The world-first finding in mice, led by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, opens the door for new ways of treating diseases at the mercy of cell death; such as heart attack, protecting organs destined for transplant, stroke and glaucoma.
Billions of cells in the human body are programmed to die every day, in a healthy process designed to get rid of damaged cells and make way for new ones.
While many medical treatments focus on correcting the imbalance of too little cell death, such a targeting rogue cancer cells, for the past 11 years the WEHI team has set its sights on the elusive task of blocking cell death, to allow cells to function in the face of stress. Co-lead researcher Professor Guillaume Lessene said until now potential treatments had not been able to get in early enough to prevent damage and keep cells functioning.
“There have already been some strategies to block cell death, but they’re very late in the process when key components of cells are already damaged,” Prof Lessene said.
“The cell is almost in a zombie state; kind of dead.
“But we push these cells to the brink of cell death and our compound can rescue them very early in the process, so the cell can continue growing, replicating and dividing even in the presence of stress signals.”
Working with colleagues from Monash University and University of Melbourne, they first screened about 250,000 candidates in the drug library at WEHI’s National Drug Discovery Centre for their potential to block cell death.
These were narrowed down to 49 potentials, with a team of chemists making ongoing tweaks to improve the performance of the compound.
In their latest series of experiments, published today in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, they showed the compound could stop cell death in mice before irreversible damage occurred
Co-lead researcher Professor David Huang said the ability to preserve healthy cells had many potential applications for a wide range of diseases.
“It’s the first step, but it’s an exciting first step.
“Finding the right molecule to do the job has been like finding the needle in a hay stack. By having these chemicals this gives us the tools to develop better drugs to treat patients who are losing too many healthy cells.”
The researchers are now developing a version of the drug for human use in diseases where early treatment — before cell death has occurred — was realistic in the health care setting.