Drug Discovery Collaboration for Huntington's Disease

A collaboration to identify compounds that may be useful for treating Huntington's disease has been announced by Provid Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Piscataway, NJ, USA) and the Duke University Medical Center division of neurology (Durham, NC, USA).

Duke scientists have studied the genetic features of Huntington's and other diseases in which the DNA sequence "CAG” is repeated multiple times in certain genes in affected individuals. This produces stretches of sticky polyglutamines (poly-Q) attached to cellular proteins. The poly-Q repeats lead to the formation of aggregates that are highly toxic to nerve cells in the brain, producing the progressive neurologic and cognitive deterioration characteristic of Huntington's disease.

Provid Pharmaceuticals is a drug discovery company that works collaboratively with academic and biotech firms that have discovered new therapeutic targets but need medicinal chemistry expertise to translate that research into drug candidates. Provid has programs in autoimmune and infectious diseases and allergic asthma.

"We identified small peptides that inhibit the aggregation and toxicity of poly-Q molecules. Provid's expertise in peptide mimetics led us to select Provid to transform our lead peptides into bioavailable small molecules for evaluation in cellular and animal models,” explained James R. Burke, M.D., Ph.D., of the Deane Laboratory in Duke's division of neurology.




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