Kiwi, UK researchers funded to pursue Alzheimer's treatment

Locally developed synthetic compounds showing good results in slowing the progress of Alzheimer's disease have got an $857,000 injection aimed at formulating a treatment and ultimately bringing it to market.

Victoria University scientists Peter Tyler, Olga Zubkova and Ralf Schworer have been working with the University of Liverpool's Jerry Turnbull since 2008 to use complex sugars known as heparan sulphates to control the degradation of proteins in the brain associated with memory loss. They've made those sugars synthetically and found some of them are able to target an enzyme believed to be the cause of Alzheimer's.

"We've managed to synthesise a small discrete compound of the natural material that acts as a natural inhibitor," Tyler told BusinessDesk.

The Victoria University scientists' skill is in developing the compound, while Liverpool University's Turnbull focuses on the biology.

The research has attracted $392,000 of funding from KiwiNet's pre-seed accelerator fund, a 260,000 British pound grant from the UK Alzheimer's Society, and a $15,000 research grant from the New Zealand Federation of Women's Institutes.

The UK grant funds Turnbull's work, while the KiwiNet money will pay for animal trials which will then be compared with another Kiwi-made compound that's currently in clinical trials, Tyler said.

The funding "will cover the animal model, it will cover some preliminary toxicology, and some analytical development," Tyler said. "It's covering a lot of basics of what you need to have an investor ready package to go to the clinic."

Last year the Kiwi researchers also won a $790,000 grant from the Marsden Fund to investigate whether those synthetic compounds can be used more widely.

"It's looking at different targets, which would be to do with cancer and a number of things to do with cell signalling, taking that skill and using it on different targets," Tyler said. "So we're going to be making different molecules, so using that skill of how to synthesise different things."

(BusinessDesk)

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