Researchers prolong the half-life of biopharmaceutica...(ted in PASylated form. In first trials...)

Date:9/18/2009

ted in "PASylated" form. In first trials with animals, TUM scientists established that PASyated interferon has a half-life in the blood that is prolonged by a factor of 60, which should allow a significant extension of dosing intervals during medicinal therapy.

A further advantage is the simplified biotechnological production: The DNA segments carrying the information for the PAS amino acid sequence and for the interferon can simply be attached to each other and then, for instance, used for transforming bacteria. The bacteria then produce the PASylated interferon in one piece, thus making much fewer production steps necessary in comparison with the chemical coupling of PEG. According to Skerra, "this will lead to a significant drop in production cost."

In principle all small proteins currently used as medication or in development in pharmaceutical companies for example, growth factors or functional antibody fragments can be PASylated. Thus there could be a huge market for the new technology. Consequently, Prof. Skerra and his team initiated the founding of a new biotech company, XL-Protein GmbH (http://www.xl-protein.com), which started its operations last spring. "Our technology has the potential to give birth to a whole new generation of blockbuster medications," the TUM biochemist is convinced. Several of the new drugs are already at an advanced stage of preclinical development.

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Contact: Patrick Regan presse@zv.tum.de 49-892-892-2743 Technische Universitaet Muenchen Source:Eurekalert

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