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Cambridge,
UK. September 29th 2003:
TheraSci Limited announced today that it has made a breakthrough in
the identification of new chemotypes that act as potent inhibitors of
catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT). Inhibitors of COMT have clinical
utility as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease,
and potential in other diseases like depression and schizophrenia, but the
existing compounds have significant deficiencies because of their chemical
structure. TheraSci has designed a proprietary high through-put COMT assay
which has permitted a rapid survey of a large number of chemotypes in
order to identify novel new inhibitors. This coupled with the internal
chemical design programme has allowed TheraSci to breakaway from the
existing nitrocatechol class and it has nominated two new chemotypes to be
advanced into lead optimisation. Commenting,
Gary Tilbrook, TheraSci’s Chemistry Director said “This is an exciting
milestone for our drug discovery programmes. Until now only low
through-put assays have been available which has limited the ability to
identify new inhibitors. Our technology has permitted for the first time
novel chemotypes to be discovered by applying high through-put screening
against this enzyme. Working in collaboration with Professor James Yager
(Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA) we have
also been able to confirm the activity of our novel inhibitors which are
active against the soluble recombinant human form of this enzyme.
Parkinson’s disease is a key focus for TheraSci and we are reviewing
further opportunities in this area.’’ About
TheraSci TheraSci
Limited, a privately-held company based in Cambridge, UK, is an emerging
product-focused drug discovery and development company. The company is
addressing a number of unmet medical needs of the central and peripheral
nervous system drug markets. TheraSci exploits a low risk, accelerated
approach to drug discovery by pursuing superior compounds for clinically
validated drug targets. The Company has five CNS programmes including one
compound entering Phase I. For
further information please contact: Simon
Kerr, CEO TheraSci
Limited Phone:
+44(0)1223 266 789 E-mail:
simon.kerr@therasci.com Website: www.therasci.com |
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