Progen, Griffith team up in heparanase project

Queensland private sector and academic researchers will share an Australian Research Council grant to probe an enyzme that plays a role in cancer and inflammatory diseases.

The $67,375 grant has been awarded to Brisbane biotech Progen Industries and Griffith University's Centre for Biomolecular Science and Drug Discovery.

Allied with $30,000 from Progen, the three-year grant will fund research directed by centre director Prof Mark von Itzstein - an Australia Prize winner for his role in developing the influenza drug Relenza - and Progen's chief scientist, Dr Vito Ferro.

The research will help develop an assay for the enzyme heparanase to examine precisely how it works and which potential drugs may inhibit its action.

Heparanase is a naturally-occurring enzyme that plays a part in cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

"In the case of diseases such as arthritis, we believe that inhibiting heparanase and restricting the amount of white blood cells that travel to and invade the disease site may relieve painful inflammation," von Itzstein said.

Pre-clinical tests show that inhibiting the action of heparanase may help arrest the spread of cancer, he said. Progen has collaborated with one of the discoverers of the clone of heparanase, Chris Parish of the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU.

The company's interest in the enzyme lies outside its main technology platform, which involves inhibitors of carbohydrate-protein interactions. Progen's lead drug candidate in that area, PI-88, is currently undergoing clinical trials as a potential treatment for cancer and other diseases.