Stem Cell Sciences Alzheimer's test

Melbourne's Stem Cell Sciences has begun providing pharmaceutical company Aventis with its new test to detect potential Alzheimer's drugs.

The assay uses mouse embryonic stem cells to produce pure neurons that are engineered to "suffer" the human form of Alzheimer's disease.

The nerve cells are modified to produce human amyloid precursor protein (APP).

When fragments of this protein build up in the brain they can affect brain function, causing dementia.

Stem Cell Sciences chief executive officer Dr Peter Mountford said the assay would help drug companies test and identify molecules that could block the disease process in humans.

He said that because many of the test compounds were already human drugs, the assay had the potential to fast-track treatments to market.

"The beauty of this is you can go directly to screening large numbers of compounds not only in terms of efficacy but their ability to enter and not kill cells," Mountford said.

"So it gives more valuable data than a standard binding assay, especially when you don't know what the drug target is.

"This is one example of where you can screen for drugs in the absence of detailed information about the disease."

While Aventis has been the first drug company to make use of the assay, the test was now being released onto the market for wider use.

Mountford would not say whether Aventis had as yet identified any potential drug candidates, saying only that the company's experience with the test had confirmed its validity.

"Defined cell systems such as this one should permit faster, more reliable screening of compounds to generate new drug candidates with a greater likelihood of progressing through the drug development process," he said, adding that the launch of the test was a significant step for the company commercially and scientifically.

"We have invested a considerable research effort in developing a renewable resource of well characterised neuronal cells that are suitable for a wide range of high throughput drug screening assays."

He said an added benefit of the assay was that it reduced the need for animal testing, with the potentially unlimited source of neuron cells at the centre of the company's patented test derived from a single mouse.

Mountford said the assay was not expected to be a big money spinner for the company as it was forecast to bring in revenues in the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.