University of Queensland researchers have developed a drug that activates a hard-to-target immune receptor — a breakthrough which could lead to new treatments for neurodegenerative conditions like Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
In an international collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, The University of Tokyo and Sungkyunkwan University, the researchers were able to uncover the molecular make-up of a receptor found on the surface of many immune cells called C5aR2.
Professor Trent Woodruff from UQ's School of Biomedical Sciences said the new drug provides a unique tool to study C5aR2 in detail, opening new possibilities for anti-inflammatory therapies.
'With this knowledge, it's possible we could have an anti-inflammatory drug treatment for testing in MND patients within 5 years, possibly turning the disease into a long-term chronic condition rather than an acute terminal illness,' Professor Woodruff said.
The drug developed as part of this study, called R8Y, is a molecule that specifically binds to C5aR2. This allowed the team to see the structure and function of the receptor, leading to the discovery that C5aR2 does not behave like most other receptors. It is unable to couple to G proteins — a rare and important distinction which explains why it has been so difficult to target and why its role in inflammation has been so elusive.
Using this knowledge, the UQ team is now working to develop even better anti-inflammatory drugs for hard-to-treat neurodegenerative diseases like MND, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Associate Professor Richard Clark said the achievement was only possible through the combined expertise at UQ and its international partners, describing the breakthrough as a demonstration of 'the power of cross-disciplinary and cross-border collaboration in tackling complex biomedical challenges.'
The research was funded by FightMND and a National Health and Medical Research Council grant, and published in the journal Molecular Cell.
