Market: Some form of vascular disease effects one in four
Americans, and costs for treatment reach into the billions. Prostanoids are an
important, and emerging, therapeutic target in the campaign against vascular
disease.
Competitors and Current Problems: The prostanoid synthesis
pathway is complicated, difficult to direct, and can have multiple end results,
not all of them favorable. For example, some of the recent issues in the media
and scientific community surrounding COX-2 inhibitors (such as increased
potential of heart attacks among patients on COX-2 inhibitors) may involve
unintended consequences of altering this pathway. On the other hand, therapeutic
benefits may result from directing the prostanoid pathway in other directions.
One promising direction of interest involves increasing Prostaglandin I2 (PGI2)
production, an important anti-thrombotic and vasodilative agent which could have
therapeutic benefits for a wide array of diseases associated with these
conditions. Compositions and methods which increase the efficiency of this
pathway will be of increasing interest for the foreseeable future.
The Technology: A faculty member
at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston has developed novel
hybrid proteins which may be used for the treatment and prevention of vascular
diseases. More particularly, this invention outlines hybrid proteins that
convert arachadonic acid into a prostanoid of choice. The present invention
describes hybrid proteins which combine a cyclooxygenase and an eicosanoid
synthesizing enzyme. Both enzymes act to convert arachadonic acid into various
prostanoids. The hybrid protein’s benefit is twofold. First, the composition
provides for greater speed and efficiency, as it eliminates a rate limiting step
in the reaction with both enzymes housed in the same protein. Second, the
composition may have improved therapeutic performance, in that it directs the
pathway to a more beneficial result. Given the developing area of prostanoid
function, this flexibility may be a useful tool to those in the medical
community in the present as well as well into the future.
NON-CONFIDENTIAL TECHNOLOGY DESCRIPTION
The preceding is intended to be a non-confidential summary of a
novel technology created at the University of Texas Health Science Center at
Houston (UTHealth), for which the University has obtained patent protection.
UTHealth Ref. No.: 2005-0011
Inventor: Dr. Ke-He Ruan
Patent Status: Pending; WO
2007/104000 and WO/2007/104019
License Available: world-wide; exclusive or non-exclusive