Melbourne Uni teams up with US company for Alzheimer's drugs

Looking to develop new methods to test Alzhiemer's drugs, US-based company Axonyx has signed an agreement with University of Melbourne's Dr David Small.

The agreement covers a process targeted at identifying early biochemical events associated with beta amyloid toxicity.

Beta amyloid accumulation is thought to be one of the major causes of the development of Alzheimer's disease. Small's research group has demonstrated a strong correlation between binding of the beta amyloid protein to membranes and nerve cell damage.

Small said that Axonyx was planning to use the technology to develop new high-throughput screening methods for testing Alzheimer's drug candidates.

"This process is based on a technique known as 'Surface Plasmon Resonance'. Using this approach, it should be possible to quickly show that certain drugs or platform technologies have a specific action on the damage caused by amyloid and may become candidates for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease," Small said.

Small said that his lab had been involved with Axonyx for more than three years. The company originally acquired some biomarkers discovered by the research team that had potential use in diagnostic applications for Alzheimer's. However, with the company's increased focus on developing therapeutics, it is now considering out-licensing the markers.

According to Axonyx CEO Marvin Hausman, the company plans to develop high-throughput screening process for pharmaceutical companies to use for screening libraries for drug candidates for various neurodegenerative diseases.

"They are aiming now to develop this technology for other related amyloid diseases," explained Small. "They can use this principle to study these diseases." Amyloid diseases include a number of rare inherited conditions, as well as prion diseases including mad cow disease, he said.

"In all of these diseases, there is a common theme of abnormal interactions between the amyloid protein and membranes," Small noted.

Small said that his research group would be working closely with Axonyx to develop the technology for these other diseases.