The Venomics European project has managed to create the largest database of toxins in history after analyzing 203 species of poisonous animals, which will serve for the development of new drugs.
The pharmacological applications where they are working mainly focus on cardiovascular disease, obesity or diabetes, according They pointed out those responsible for the project at a press conference in Paris.
The initiative, funded by the European Commission, brought together a consortium of several companies and international research centers, which aimed to accelerate the development of drugs using omic technologies and high performance.
One such company is the Spanish Genome Systems, which has been the one that has led the development of the database.
To create poison species extracted and analyzed, to then get small toxins from the test animals and verify their potential use.
The species were found in two expeditions in 2012 and 2013 in places like French Guyana, Mayotte or Polynesia, where snakes were examined, tarantulas , wasps, sea anemones or a type of very poisonous blue octopus.
“The analysis has been challenging because smaller species was very difficult to extract the poison. We adjusted the methods with new technology, “he said at the press conference the director of R + D of the Spanish company, Rebeca Miñambres.
That company, leader in the generation of new sequences and in the 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 allows 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. “
Inside Research, Genome Systems has been busy studying gene expression is in the venom gland, which produces toxins to identify the molecules produced.
Venomics is funded by the European Commission with a budget of six million euros (6.8 million dollars), and participated by institutions such as the University of Liege (Belgium), the Portuguese company NZYTech leading molecular biology, or the Danish pharmaceutical Zealand Pharma.
For four years, as reported today its promoters said in a statement, it has created this unique database with over 25,000 sequences of toxins, of which 4,000 have been produced in vitro.
So far, as he explained, he had two databases of major toxins. Conoserver with data from poisonous snails and 1,500 toxins and Aracnoserver, arachnids, with 6,000
In the history of pharmacology and there were examples of approved and used therapeutically for the treatment of diseases which are based on poisons drugs, and this new study has laid the groundwork for further contribute to the expansion of these therapies.
complexity of developing such methods, as he told Efe Miñambres makes it tends to create large corporations with powerful research partners, so that “the cooperation between enterprises and must be the key to both national and European level “.
In presenting Venomics addition to its leaders, the Ambassador of Costa Rica in France, Gabriel Macaya, who advanced to Efe that his country proposes to undertake research projects with poisonous animals was, that can be applied to combat autoimmune diseases and tumor. EFE
(Caracol.com.co)
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