2023-07-06 22:55:14
ETEC platform, access to various disease treatment technologies
▲ Dr. Seonghwan Kim’s research team (Photo = provided by Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology)
[메디컬투데이=이한희 기자] A platform technology that can treat cancer that cannot be treated with anticancer drugs has been developed.
Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology announced on the 5th that it has developed ATTEC (AuTophagosome-TEthering Compound) platform technology to treat cancer that cannot be treated with existing targeted anticancer drugs.
Among various proteins related to the induction and activation of diseases such as cancer, the proportion of disease proteins that cannot be treated with existing targeted anti-cancer drugs or treatments is high. Therefore, the need for a new technology for treating this is widely known, and related research is being actively conducted.
Among them, ‘TPD (Targeted Protein Degradation) technology,’ a target protein degradation technology, is attracting attention worldwide.
Humans are composed of approximately 30 to 60 trillion cells, and within these cells, proteins with various functions interact and continue life. Proteins in cells are constantly created and destroyed, and when useless proteins are generated, the human body disassembles them through various systems.
These proteolytic systems in the human body can be largely divided into ‘proteasome’ and ‘lysosome’ mechanisms, and developing therapeutics using them is called ‘TPD technology’. TPD technology includes ‘PROTAC (Proteolysis Targeting Chimera) technology using the proteasome mechanism and Etek technology using the lysosomal mechanism.
Protak technology has a limitation in that it cannot degrade large-sized proteins, although many therapeutic agents are in clinical trials. The technology using the ‘lysosome-autophagy’ system is emerging as a technology that can complement Protak as it can decompose large substances that Protak cannot degrade.
Dr. Seong-Hwan Kim’s research team at the Research Institute of Chemistry paid attention to the value and potential of E-Tech technology, a type of technology using the lysosomal-autophagy system, and started researching E-Tech technology from 2020, and developed a new E-Tech platform technology in 2023.
Most of the anti-cancer target compounds using the previously known ETEC technology are decomposed in the liver, and only 3.81% of them survive as drugs, which is very low in metabolic stability. This is a level that can only be demonstrated in cells, and it was difficult to lead to drugs through in vivo experiments. Therefore, it was important to develop a technology that can perform in vivo experiments while maximizing metabolic stability.
Accordingly, the research team developed a new ETEC platform technology to increase metabolic stability. By utilizing the ETEC platform developed by the research team, it is possible to develop substances that can act as drugs in the body with metabolic stability approaching 90%.
The ETEC platform consists of ‘Warhead’, a part that binds to disease-causing proteins, ‘LC3 binder’, a part that binds to proteins inside the proteolysis-inducing membrane, and ‘Linker’ that connects the two. ‘.
Of these, LC3 binders are difficult to develop, and only a few are currently known. The research team secured a unique LC3 binder and built a new ETEC platform for the first time in Korea. Through this, a compound with an anticancer effect and improved metabolic stability to a level that can be tested in vivo was derived.
When the therapeutic agent synthesized by the Etech platform technology enters the body, the disease protein and the warhead part of the drug are combined, and the LC3 protein and LC3 binder constituting the degradation induction membrane are combined to insert the disease protein into the degradation induction membrane of the lysosome-autophagy mechanism. .
In the case of patients, disease proteins do not disappear naturally, so EOans use drugs that can utilize the lysosome-autophagy system in the body to decompose disease proteins.
This platform technology can be applied to the development of treatments for various diseases. Depending on the type of disease, only the warhead part needs to be changed and synthesized. The research team has currently used this platform to derive an effective substance for prostate cancer treatment, and plans to develop it as a treatment for various diseases, including rare disease treatments, in addition to anticancer drugs following applying for a patent.
Lee Young-guk, director of the Korea Research Institute of Chemistry, said, “This achievement is the result of a study that was introduced for the first time in Korea by preemptively identifying the possibility of lysosome-autophagy-utilizing ETEC technology, which was first reported in a paper in 2019. I look forward to developing a cure for the disease,” he said.
The results of this research were introduced on the 5th at the ‘Interbiz Bio Partnering & Investment Forum’.
Medical Today Reporter Lee Han-hee (hnhn0414@mdtoday.co.kr)
[저작권자ⓒ 메디컬투데이. 무단전재-재배포 금지]
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