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Industry and science combine to combat neurodegenerative diseases
THIS IS THE FOCUS OF THE POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH AT THE INSTITUTE OF MICROBIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND METAGENOMICS (IMBM) at the University of Western Cape (UWC). However, to bring the leads from these studies to the market requires a concerted effort between academia and industry, says microbiologist Professor Marla Trindade, Director of the IMBM.
“As a university institute, we have an obligation to focus on projects that meet the minimum criteria for postgraduate studies, the nature of which is not always suitable for industry to formally engage with us,” says Prof Trindade, who is also the DST/NRF SARChI Research Chair in Microbial Genomics.
To address this, Dr Anita Burger was appointed as the Research and Innovation Manager of IMBM to promote industry partnerships by identifying points of
intersection between industry interests and the IMBM’s research. A partnership between the IMBM and Mauritian biopharmaceutical company Axonova is a good example of the success of this approach. Axonova explores the discovery and development of drugs from the natural resources of Mauritius and other islands in the Indian Ocean, including pioneering novel drug discovery for neurodegenerative applications. Its partnership with the IMBM focuses on the development of novel, natural drug modulators for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The IMBM collection of 3 000 marine invertebrate-associated bacteria collected from the oceans along the South African coast represent the source of the bioactive compounds for this project.
“Because many marine invertebrates live sedentary lifestyles in unique, fl uctuating and competitive environments, they have evolved a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that provide chemical defence mechanisms representing unique and complex biochemical structures. These often also have activities against other diseases, such as neuroprotective activities relevant to this project,” explains Prof Trindade.
The IMBM is screening this collection for bioactive compounds that can modify or control the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)/Tropomyosin Receptor Kinase B (TrkB) signalling pathway.
“TrkB is a very promising therapeutic target for brain diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s as it mediates neurotrophic and neuroprotective eff ects when activated. We prepare chemical extracts from the selected strains which are tested by Axonova for neuroprotective properties,” says Dr Burger.
Explaining her company’s decision to partner with the IMBM, Axonova’s Scientifi c Director and Head of Drug Discovery, Dr Shameem Fawdar-Bahadoor, says, “We launched this project as part of a grant application call from the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council. We set up a consortium to include the IMBM, given their expertise in marine-derived natural products, which closely complements our laboratory activities, and their unique collection.”
