{"id":15486,"date":"2013-09-18T16:24:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T20:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=15486"},"modified":"2013-09-18T16:24:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T20:24:11","slug":"biotech-start-up-finds-std-treatment-in-anti-cancer-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=15486","title":{"rendered":"Biotech Start-Up Finds STD Treatment in Anti-Cancer Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Electron<\/a>
Electron micrograph of Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NIH.gov)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Researchers with the biotechnology company TherapyX Inc.<\/a> in Buffalo, New York found a potential treatment for the sexually transmitted disease (STD) gonorrhea in a therapy the company is developing for cancer. The team from TherapyX, a spin-off company of the University at Buffalo<\/a> medical school, published its findings today online in the Journal of Infectious Diseases<\/em><\/a> (paid subscription required).<\/p>\n

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>, some 700,000 new infections from the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae <\/em>occur each year, making it the second most commonly reported bacterial STD.\u00a0 The CDC reported last year<\/a> increasing resistance of \u00a0N. gonorrhoeae<\/em> to a broad range of antimicrobial treatments.<\/p>\n

Michael Russell<\/a>, an immunologist at Buffalo and the paper’s senior author, says the research focused on a property of\u00a0gonococcal infection that seems to inhibit specific adaptive immune responses. “It turns out that gonococcal infection very cleverly controls the immune system,” says Russell in a university statement, “inducing responses the bacterium can fight and suppressing the responses that it cannot fight.” Russell is also a scientific advisor toTherapyX.<\/p>\n

Immunology colleague Nejat Egilmez<\/a>, a co-author of the paper and a founder of TherapyX, developed a drug-delivery technology called NanoCap that harnesses nanoscale particles of the protein Interleukin-12 in a sustained-release formulation to stimulate an immune response against cancerous tumors that normally suppress that response. With Yingru Liu<\/a>, a Buffalo immunology colleague and first author of the paper, Russell and Egilmez tested the NanoCap technology against gonococcal infections in female mice.<\/p>\n

The paper describes the intravaginal administration of Interleukin-12<\/a> in microencapsulated form similar to NanoCap in mice with gonococcal infections. The mice, say the researchers, developed antobodies specific to N. gonorrhoeae<\/em> and were able to clear the infections in a matter of days. After a month, the immunized mice were also able to fight off further gonococcal infections, indicating Interleukin-12 continued to work.<\/p>\n

TherapyX, which Egilmez and colleagues started originally to commercialize NanoCap as a cancer therapy, expanded the the company’s focus to include genital tract infections. In February, the company received a Small Business Innovation Research<\/a> grant from National Institutes of Health for further preclinical development of the technology to treat and prevent genital tract infections. Liu is the principal investigator for TherapyX on the $300,000 project. The university’s technology transfer office filed for a patent on the technology.<\/p>\n

Russell believes this immunotherapy approach could have benefits against other infections where bacterial resistance is a problem. “If we can use this method to teach the immune system to generate the right kind of response to other recalcitrant infections,” says Russell, “then we could have a new approach to treat a range of infectious diseases without stimulating drug resistance.”<\/p>\n

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