Nature drugs net ARC Discovery dollars

Drug discovery at Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies will benefit from more than $700,000 in ARC Discovery grants secured by researchers Sally-Ann Poulsen and Mark Coster for two separate drug discovery projects.

Dr Poulsen is working to discover new molecules that will deliver targeted drug therapies with fewer side-effects to sufferers of cancer, glaucoma and potentially malaria.

"We are targeting a Carbonic Anhydrase (CA) enzyme which acts as a catalyst driving the cell function of many diseases. We aim to discover molecules that will inhibit, or slow, this function."

She said the difficulty arose because CA also catalyses reactions necessary for growth of healthy cells.

"If the drug inhibits the function of healthy cells, the patient can experience unpleasant side effects," she said.

"There's also 15 known forms of the CA enzyme in humans. All are slightly different and expressed in different ways, so we have to be very specific about which ones our inhibitor targets.

"For example if we can develop a molecule to inhibit the CA function in glaucoma, we can develop a topical drug such as eye-drops that target that disease without impacting healthy cells.

"Our goal is develop some new inhibitors and hopefully contribute some promising compounds to the drug development pipeline."

Dr Coster said his project would focus on tailor-making 'designer' catalysts that will drive the formation of useful new drug compounds derived from natural products.

"Our target compound is derived from a Carribbean sea sponge, and could potentially be used to treat pancreatic cancer, a particularly difficult disease to treat," Dr Coster said.

"If we can design a catalyst to help form the specific compound we need from the sponge, this process would be made more efficient, more selective and cheaper."

Dr Coster said the catalyst would also be organic and more environmentally-friendly than many existing human-made catalysts.

"Many human-made catalysts use heavy metals such as chromium, a known carcinogen."

"When you're producing drugs on a large scale, this adds up to a lot of toxic metal that must be disposed of. There's also a possibility of it leaching into the compound, causing quality control issues.

"Our aim is to create cheap, non-toxic organic catalysts, based on hydrogen bonding similar to the body's own natural catalysts - enzymes."