The Neurodegenerative Diseases group will assess a group of
pharmacological compounds that induce autophagy in the lab and in animal
models.
Barcelona. The Neurodegenerative Diseases Group of Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR) has signed an agreement with Prous Institute for Biomedical Research to assess in in vivo and in vitro models of Parkinson’s disease a group of drugs that induce autophagy, the process of the cells to dispose intracellular waste.
Five years ago, VHIR researchers found a defect in the waste disposal
system of patients with Parkinson’s disease. In particular, they
determined that the neuronal cells of these patients present fewer
lysosomes for intracellular degradation. This causes the accumulation of
toxic proteins, called Lewy bodies, which can induce the neuronal
death.
In this collaboration, VHIR researchers, led by Dr. Miquel Vila and Dr. Marta Martínez-Vicente,
aim to assess the potential neuroprotective effects of novel
autophagy-inducing pharmacological compounds developed and patented by
Prous Institute. “If we try to reactivate the mechanisms of
intracellular waste disposal, we could remove the toxic proteins that
neurons accumulate over the years in neurodegenerative diseases and thus
maintain neuronal function and prevent or delay the death of these
cells”, explains Dr. Vila.
On the other side, the president of Prous Institute for Biomedical
Research, Dr. J. R. Prous, is very pleased to have signed this
agreement. “Thanks to the combination of our bioinformatics
systems and the experimental validations that will be carried out at
VHIR, we will be able to advance the research into more effective and
safer treatments in the field of Parkinson’s disease and to extend them
to other pathologies of the central nervous system”.
The drugs that VHIR will test have been obtained through the Symmetry
platform, developed by Prous. This system integrates computational
tools and methods aiming to replicate in silico the processes through
which new drugs are discovered, developed and approved. Symmetry is used
by major pharmaceutical companies and enables the generation of new
research hypotheses and elucidates the pharmacological and safety
profile of small molecules through a wide range of predictive models.
About Prous Institute
Prous Institute for Biomedical Research was founded as a spin-off
from the leading scientific information provider Prous Science (creator
of brands such as Integrity, MDDR, Drugs of the Future, Drug Data
Report, Drugs of Today, Drug News and Perspectives, Methods and Findings
in Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Timely Topics in
Medicine), acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2007, in order to put into
practice innovative in silico approaches to accelerate drug discovery.
About VHIR
Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) was founded in 1994 and is
part of the Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron and the Institut Català
de la Salut. It is a center CERCA of the Department of Economia i
Coneixement of the Generalitat, and a university research institute
attached to the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona.