UK biotechnology company MolecularNature has forged a drug discovery partnership with USA and Israel-based biotech company Zetiq Technologies that has already yielded a number of novel cancer regulatory compounds.
The compounds have been screened from MolecularNature's plant-derived compound libraries using Zetiq's CamaRx platform, a system that precisely detects therapeutically relevant changes to malignant cells caused by drug candidates. CamaRx leads are cancer-regulatory, changing cancer cells' behaviour rather than killing them. "This makes the treatment more tolerable for patients," according to Zetiq chief executive Dan Gelvan.
The companies noted that CamaRx enabled the detection of compounds that had not been picked up using other cancer screens because it detected therapeutic activity in unsuspected chemical classes.
"Some of the world's best-selling chemotherapies are plant derived compounds, such as Taxol and Camptosar. The present effort is proving that plants can yield cancer regulatory compounds in addition to traditional toxic chemotherapies," said Hadyn St P Parry, MolecularNature's chief executive.
The companies are now investigating the leads that are effective against cancer and will co-develop candidates and jointly decide future drug development projects.