Create toxins largest bank to develop new drugs – Trade

The Venomics European project has managed to create the largest database of toxins in history after analyzing 203 species of animals poisonous, which will help to develop new drug .

The scientists of the center will focus on developing treatments and drug against cardiovascular disease, obesity or diabetes, the project managers in Paris.

The initiative, funded by the European Commission, brought together a consortium of several companies and international research centers, which aim to accelerate the development of drug using omic technologies and high performance. One such company is the Spanish Genome Systems, who led the development of the database.

To create it, the poison of several species was removed and the samples were analyzed, to then get small toxins from the animals and verify their potential use.

The species were found in two expeditions in 2012 and 2013, in places like Guyana French, Mayotte or Polynesia, where snakes, tarantulas, wasps, sea anemones or a type of very poisonous blue octopus were examined.

“The analysis has been challenging because smaller species was very difficult achieve extraction of poison. We have adjusted the methods with new technology, “said the director of R & D that company, Rebeca Miñambres.

The company, a leader in the generation of new sequences and their bioinformatic analysis, developed the database containing all the information from different areas of the project that will serve for future research.

“The main achievement has been to demonstrate that the use of these new omics technologies can greatly reduce the complexity of the process and time, as in the classical way would have taken several years, “said Miñambres, adding that” the technology used may be valid for more than the pharmaceutical industry. “

Within research, Genome Systems has been busy studying gene expression is in the venom gland, which produces toxins to identify the molecules produced.

A set

project

Venomics is a project which has a budget of six million euros (6.8 million dollars), with the participation of institutions such as the University of Liege (Belgium), the Portuguese company NZYTech leading molecular biology, or Danish pharmaceutical Zealand Pharma.

For four years, as reported by their promoters in a statement, has created this unique database with over 25,000 sequences of toxins, of which 4,000 have been produced in vitro .

So far, as explained, there were two important databases toxins. Conoserver with data from about 1,500 snails and poisonous toxins, and Aracnoserver, arachnids, with 6,000

In the history of pharmacology and there were examples of drug approved and used therapeutically for the treatment of diseases which are based on poisons, and this new study has laid the groundwork for further contribute to the extension of those therapies.

The complexity of developing such methods, said Miñambres makes it tends to create large corporations with powerful research partners, so that “collaboration between companies and centers must be the key to both national and European level “

Source:. EFE