About the lecture
Motor enzymes are the direct effector proteins responsible for movement and force production of the cells and organs i.e., contraction of different muscle types, cellular movements, cytokinesis and several other processes. Recently, these motor enzymes as potential drug targets have become the focus of drug discovery.
Related to muscle contraction one of the major medical issues is chronic muscle spasticity that disables self-supporting life management of 60 million patients with various nervous system injuries including stroke, multiplex sclerosis, traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries and cerebral palsy. The socio-economical cost of chronic muscle spasticity is comparable with that of cerebrovascular diseases. There is a high unmet medical need for an efficient antispastic drug because current muscle relaxants have as little as 37% efficacy and cause severe neurological and cardiovascular side effects due to targeting the central or peripheral nervous system.
We developed the first new-generation anti-spastic oral drug candidate, MPH-220, that specifically targets skeletal muscle myosin, the direct effector enzyme of muscle contraction. Due to its mechanism of action, MPH-220 has 100 % efficacy and no neurological or cardiovascular side effects. One of the major scientific challenges of the development was to create a highly specific compound because myosins responsible for the skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscle contraction are sequentially a structurally highly similar. In my talk I will present the story of the development of this drug candidate from the design of the compound to the clinical development. Also, I will briefly talk about economic and business strategies and the structures of my laboratory and Motorpharma our spin-off company that developed MPH-220.
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