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New target promises better asthma and allergy drugs
By Ben Hirschler
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists said on Friday they were a step closer to developing a new class of easy-to-take asthma and allergy drug, capable of tackling the underlying cause of disease rather than just the symptoms.
By targeting a protein called p110delta, researchers believe they can block allergic reactions before symptoms occur, yet avoid a widespread shut-down of the body's immune system.
Bart Vanhaesebroeck from Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry said new research had proved the role of the protein in allergic reactions in mice, which would encourage drug firms to accelerate development of treatments.
Vanhaesebroeck and colleagues worked alongside Merck-Serono on the project, the results of which were published on Friday in the Journal of Immunology.
Other drugmakers -- including Pfizer Inc, Genentech Inc, Boehringer Ingelheim and biotech firms Piramed Pharma of Britain and U.S.-based Calistoga Pharmaceuticals -- were also interested in the area, Vanhaesebroeck said in a telephone interview.
\"We are very hopeful that a drug for human patients can be developed in the very near future. This approach offers the potential for therapies for asthma and allergies that target the real causes, not just symptoms,\" he said.
Preclinical testing of experimental drugs for human use are expected to start in the near future, although it will still be several years before any product reaches the market.
Most existing treatments for asthma and allergies focus on reducing symptoms, like inflamed airways or a runny nose, which are caused by the immune system's over-reaction to allergens such as dust, insect bites or peanuts.
Treating the body's underlying immune response is possible but such therapies can leave a person vulnerable to infection and they tend to be reserved for the most extreme cases.
More recently, Genentech and Novartis AG have introduced a new medicine for severe asthma called Xolair that blocks a immune system substance called immunoglobulin E, but this still needs to be given as an injection.
A new drug targeting p110delta, by contrast, could be made as a capsule or be adapted for inhalation or topical use, in the case of eczema.
If all goes well, the result could be a therapy that is available for widespread use against allergies and, potentially, other inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
P110delta is a member of a family of eight proteins called PI3Ks that have been implicated in many different diseases, including cancer. Drugs that act on all PI3Ks tend to be toxic, so the British team had to use genetic techniques to find out which individual proteins were linked to specific diseases.
伦敦（路透社）- 周五科学家声称他们发现一种被称为 P110δ的蛋白质，可以使过敏反应阻断于症状出现之前，有望开发出一种新的方便服用的抗哮喘及过敏药物
Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry 的Bart Vanhaesebroeck 说新的研究已经证实小鼠的过敏反应中这种蛋白质所起的作用。用于人的实验性临床前测试将在不久的将来开始，然而有产品投入市场可能仍然是几年之后的事。
Vanhaesebroeck和他的同事们在这一项目上和Merck-Serono公司合作，研究的结果发表在了周五的《免疫学杂志》上。
Vanhaesebroeck在一次电话采访中表示，其他的制药公司，包括辉瑞，Genentech Inc，柏林格殷格翰以及英国的生物技术公司Piramed Pharma，美国本土的Calistoga制药，都在这一领域很有兴趣。
目前大多数对哮喘和过敏的治疗都是针对减轻症状，例如呼吸道发炎，鼻漏这些由于免疫系统对于过敏原（如灰尘，昆虫叮咬，花生）的过敏反应引起的症状。抑制人体内在的免疫应答反应是可行的，但这些治疗方法可能使人体容易受到感染，因而倾向于用于一些最极端的病例。
最近，Genentech and Novartis AG 引入了一种新的用于严重哮喘的药物Xolair，这种药物可以阻断免疫系统一种叫做免疫球蛋白E的物质，但是这种药物也是注射给药的。相比之下，靶点为P110δ的药物可以做成胶囊或吸入制剂，或者在用于湿疹的时候还可以局部用药。如果进展顺利，该研究的结果可以作为一种广泛应用于过敏性疾病的治疗，并且有可能用于其他的炎症例如类风湿性关节炎。
P110δ 是被称为PI3Ks的八种蛋白质之一，PI3Ks和包括癌症的多种疾病有关，所有作用于PI3Ks的药物都有毒性，因此一个英国研究团队曾用基因工程试图寻找每种蛋白质分别和那种特殊的疾病有关。
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发表于 2008-3-2 11:18:01