Leicester University to develop designer molecules to fight heart disease

Researchers at the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Leicester are developing a new way of making protein-based drugs with potential applications in stroke, vascular inflammation, blood vessel formation, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.

The research carried out by doctoral student Shikha Sharma in Dr Nick Brindle's group in the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences aims to allow researchers rapidly to make "designer proteins" that can bind to disease-causing molecules in the body.

Sharma said: "Generating designer proteins in test tubes we can produce molecules that have specific actions to control processes in the body. These proteins can be used to make drugs as a treatment for heart disease and cancer.

"While most drugs in current use are synthetic, these designer molecules are developed from natural proteins and are likely to have fewer side effects. Proteins perform a well defined but complex set of functions in the body and protein therapeutic drugs can perform better when compared with some synthetic small molecule drugs that may have unwanted interactions within the body."

The team at the University of Leicester has developed a novel method to revolutionise the way in which designer protein drugs are produced. In principle this method mimics natural evolution to make new proteins but over a shorter timescale.

"The fact that this new method utilises a similar mechanism by which antibodies are generated, suggests the output from this method will be as robust and dynamic as the wide range of antibodies produced in our bodies to fight the rapidly evolving viruses in the environment," added Sharma.

In addition to medicine, the method holds promise for applications in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and agricultural industries, such as generating protein molecules to prevent uptake of toxins in crops or protein molecules for detection of environmental pollutants.