Could fungal collection hold the key to new life-saving drugs?

CABI houses one of the world’s largest genetic resource collections of fungi, numbered at over 28,000 strains, including Fleming’s original penicillin producing isolate. They will be supplying the University of Strathclyde’s Institute for Drug Research (SIDR) with extracts from filamentous fungi which will be screened to identify pharmaceutically active compounds, which could potentially be developed into drugs.

Joan Kelley, Executive Director Bioservices, CABI said:

“This is a really exciting collaboration and we are looking forward to working with the expertise of the scientists at SIDR. We are hopeful that our partnership will prove the winning formula for discovering new pharmaceutical drugs to fight cancers, diseases and resistant strains of infections such as MRSA.”

SIDR brings together scientists from different disciplines to focus on drug discovery. They have developed test systems to detect biological activity in samples of natural products that could lead to new medicinal products. Previous work at SIDR found activities from plant extracts against diabetes, obesity and psoriasis.

Professor Alan Harvey, Director of SIDR said:

“We are delighted to be working with CABI and to have access to their fantastic source of fungal samples. We hope that this novel source of chemical diversity will contain new compounds that can be used to point the way to new drugs for serious diseases.”

CABI currently uses its fungal collection, along with the expertise of its scientists to offer a range of services to businesses, including fungal identification, sales, preservations, patenting, training and consultancy. The partnership with SIDR will see CABI’s collection taken one step further, with the fungi being exploited for natural products.

Although using biotechnology to develop new drugs is by no means simple, the industry has seen steady success over the past few years. Between 2000 and 2005, over 20 new drugs were released onto the market originating from natural sources. And although this is the first time SIDR has worked with fungal cultures, there are a number of prescription drugs deriving from metabolites produced by fungi that have been on the market for many years. These include immunosuppressive agents, antibiotics such as penicillin, lipid lowering agents and anti-fungal drugs.

Source: CABI

Key to virulence protein entry into host cells discovered
Researchers from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech have identified the region of a large family of virulence proteins in oomycete plant pathogens that enables the proteins to enter the cells of their hosts. The protein region contains the amino acid sequence motifs RXLR and dEER and has the ability to carry the virulence proteins across the membrane surrounding plant cells without any additional machinery from the pathogen.
Can you hear me now?
When it comes to cellular communication networks, a primitive single-celled microbe that answers to the name of Monosiga brevicollis has a leg up on animals composed of billions of cells. It commands a signaling network more elaborate and diverse than found in any multicellular organism higher up on the evolutionary tree, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered.
Nano-sized technology has super-sized effect on tumors
Anyone facing chemotherapy would welcome an advance promising to dramatically reduce their dose of these often harsh drugs. Using nanotechnology, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have taken a step closer to that goal.
Study identifies mechanism underlying multidrug resistance in fungi
A team of researchers led by Anders Näär, PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center has identified a mechanism controlling multidrug resistance in fungi. This discovery could help advance treatments for opportunistic fungal infections that frequently plague individuals with compromised immunity, such as patients receiving chemotherapy, transplant recipients treated with immunosuppressive drugs, and AIDS patients. The findings appear in the April 3 issue of Nature.
Plant gene clusters for natural products
John Innes Centre scientists have found that plants may cluster the genes needed to make defence chemicals. Their findings may provide a way to discover new natural plant products of use as drugs, herbicides or crop protectants. Using a gene cluster that makes an antifungal compound in oats as a template, they uncovered a previously unknown gene cluster making a related compound in a very different species, and now want to extend the search to other plants.
New approach may render disease-causing staph harmless
Researchers at the University of Illinois helped lead a collaborative effort to uncover a completely new treatment strategy for serious Staphylococcus aureus (“Staph”) infections. The research, published Feb. 14 in Science Express comes at a time when strains of antibiotic-resistant Staph (known as MRSA, for methicillin-resistant S. aureus) are spreading in epidemic proportions in hospital and community settings.
The key to survival and virulence for a fungal pathogen is autophagy
Autophagy is a process whereby cells recycle material during stress situations, such as when nutrients are scarce. Some cells also use this process as an immune defense mechanism to eliminate pathogens. However, new data, generated in mice by Peter Williamson and colleagues, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has identified autophagy as a new virulence-associated trait and survival mechanism for Cryptococcus neoformans — a fungal pathogen that commonly infects immunocompromised individuals, such as those with HIV.
Plant pathogen yields substance to fight neuroblastoma
Drug treatment of neuroblastoma, a tumor of the nervous system in children, poses major problems. Therefore, scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have been searching for substances that are suitable as a basis for developing better drugs. Now they have found a candidate: HC-toxin, which is isolated from a fungal plant pathogen. The substance from the maize pathogen reprograms neuroblastoma cells in such a way that they behave almost like healthy cells again.

Could fungal collection hold the key to new life-saving drugs?

Related stories:

News discussion: