[e-drug] New database for neglected diseases' medicines development

["E-Drug" <e-drug@healthnet.org>]

E-DRUG: New database for neglected diseases' medicines development
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http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2007/pr14/en/index.html

New open access database to spur development of medicines for infectious
diseases of the developing world

16 APRIL 2007 | GENEVA -- An international network of researchers announced
today the release of a new web-based resource designed to facilitate the
development of medicines to fight infectious diseases afflicting the
developing world. The Drug Target Prioritization Database may be accessed at


http://TDRtargets.org.

"This is the first time that any group has assembled such a comprehensive
set of information pertinent to drug target discovery, for such a diverse
array of parasitic and bacterial diseases," says Dr. Wesley Van Voorhis from
the University of Washington in Seattle, who coordinates the Drug Target
Prioritization Network, established in 2005 by the Special Programme for
Research and Training in Tropical diseases (TDR) of WHO. The consortium
includes a global team of academic laboratories, research centres and
industry scientists, focusing on the pathogens responsible for malaria,
tuberculosis, African sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and
worm infections such as schistosomiasis and filariasis -- all of which are
in desperate need of new treatments.

Together, these diseases are responsible for billions of infections in the
developing world and more than six million deaths per year. Since poor
countries often don't have the funding or infrastructure to support health
research and drug development, new collaborations like this one are working
to improve the situation, providing a resource that brings together
scientists from all over the world.

New avenues for drug discovery

The network's goal is to identify and prioritize drug targets against
diseases that predominantly affect developing countries. The database is
unique in that it allows any researcher -- in both developed and developing
countries -- to have access to this kind of information. Dr. Fernan Aguero,
a member of the network from Argentina, who has been responsible for
engineering much of the database architecture says, "I am very excited about
the impact that this resource will have on the opening of new avenues for
drug discovery. Through this collaborative effort we have an opportunity to
develop new treatments for our citizens and others around the world."

The network "provides an outstanding example of how WHO can bring together
multiple groups to develop joint solutions," says Dr Robert Ridley, Director
of TDR. ?We help to convene appropriate individuals and develop expertise
within the countries that need it, leveraging global research resources to
develop new treatments."

The database is building on a decade of intensive international investment
that has already resulted in the complete genome sequences for organisms
responsible for five tropical diseases, with more anticipated for the
parasitic worms known as helminths. Pharmaceutical firms have extensive
libraries of chemicals that might act against the disease pathogens. The
missing step, which this initiative takes, is to make available a list of
proposed and validated drug targets, in addition to allowing users to define
their own search criteria.

Dr. David Roos of the University of Pennsylvania Genomics Institute, who has
been primarily responsible for the database design, says, "This web site
allows researchers to prioritize drug targets by defining criteria tailored
to the capabilities of their particular programme. For example, a university
laboratory that excels in studies on one class of drug targets can identify
those enzymes that look most promising as drug targets, while a
pharmaceutical company may select candidates tailored to their particular
drug compound collections or expertise in assay development."

Comprehensive list of validated targets

Dr. Solomon Nwaka, who leads drug discovery activities at WHO/TDR, says that
this resource should expedite the time-consuming and high-risk early stages
of drug development. ?There is a growing awareness of the need for new
therapeutic targets for these diseases. Pharmaceutical firms are
increasingly interested in screening their chemical libraries against
parasite targets, but a comprehensive list of validated drug targets for
these organisms has not been readily available. The original intent of this
project was to develop a ?top 10 list? of validated targets for each
pathogen, but it quickly became apparent that enabling researchers to
customize criteria for target selection in the database will provide added
benefits, including the flexibility to continuously update the database.?

The TDRtargets.org web site combines available genomic and bioinformatic
data for each priority organism with automatically extracted and manually
curated information from the research literature and other databases
relevant to each putative drug target. The network has invested substantial
effort in annotation to assist scientists in the identification of
high-value drug targets. The database also permits comments from experts in
the field.

User-defined weightings permit potential drug targets to be ranked according
to their desirability, providing prioritized, customized lists. While this
network was developed to facilitate drug target identification, it is highly
likely to be useful for the identification of vaccine and diagnostic targets
as well, and could spur fundamental research into areas such as target
validation, assay development, biomarkers and drug resistance.

The network includes investigators from the Universidad Nacional de General
San Martín (Argentina), the Sanger Institute (UK), the University of
Melbourne (Australia), the University of Pennsylvania Genomics Institute
(USA), and the University of Washington Seattle (USA). In kind support and
information relevant to target structure, essentiality, and druggability has
been provided by Pfizer, Inpharmatica, the University of California, San
Francisco and New England Biolabs. The database also takes advantage of
genomic-scale datasets made publicly available by genome sequencing centres
and other researchers around the world.

The database is accessible at http://TDRtargets.org, and the network
encourages the international community to take advantage of this resource,
contribute additional data, and make suggestions for further improvement.

Press Officer Contacts:

WHO/TDR
Jamie Guth
Communications Manager
Geneva, Switzerland
Tel.: +41 22 791 1538
Mobile: +41 79 441 2289
E-mail: guthj@who.int

University of Washington
Justin Reedy
Science Writer and Editor
Seattle, Washington, USA
Tel.: +1 206 685 0382
Fax: +1 206 543 4677
E-mail: jreedy@u.washington.edu