Chemist's new process fast-tracks drug treatments for viral infections
and cancer

Date:
August 8, 2020
Source:
Simon Fraser University
Summary:
Discovering antiviral and anticancer drugs will soon be faster
and cheaper thanks to new research.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Discovering antiviral and anticancer drugs will soon be faster and
cheaper thanks to new research from Simon Fraser University chemist
Robert Britton and his international team.


==========================================================================
For the past 50 years, scientists have used humanmade, synthetic
and nucleoside analogues to create drug therapies for diseases that
involve the cellular division and/or the viral reproduction of infected
cells. These diseases include hepatitis, herpes simplex, HIV and cancer.

But, says Britton, "That process has been intensive and challenging,
limiting and preventing the discovery of new drug therapies." Now,
using the new process, scientists can create new nucleoside analogues
months earlier than with the previous method, paving the way for quicker
drug discoveries. A paper on this research was published today in the
journal Science.

"The reduction in time and cost of synthesis will vary, depending on
the individual nucleoside analogue, but we have examples where we cut a
20-plus step synthesis, which takes several months to complete at the
very least, down to three or four steps, which would only take a week
or so," says Britton.

"This is clearly a critical factor when it comes to treating newly
evolved viruses like SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)." The team shortened the
process by replacing naturally occurring carbohydrates typically used
for synthesising these types of drugs.

"This entirely new approach builds in opportunities to diversify these
drug scaffolds and should inspire new and unusual nucleoside analogue
drug discoveries," says Britton.

The team also replaced naturally derived chiral materials with achiral materials since they are generally cheaper and more versatile.

L.-C. Campeau, Merck's head of process chemistry and discovery process chemistry says, "One of our priorities is identifying problems limiting
the speed of drug discovery and development, especially regarding
synthesizing custom nucleoside analogues. We are very excited to
collaborate with Professor Britton in establishing new methods to access
this therapeutically important class of molecules." Britton is also an investigator with GlycoNet, a Canada-wide network of researchers working
to further our understanding of the biological roles of sugars.

The three-year project was funded by GlycoNet and Merck, patent pending.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Simon_Fraser_University. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Michael Meanwell, Steven M. Silverman, Johannes Lehmann,
Bharanishashank
Adluri, Yang Wang, Ryan Cohen, Louis-Charles Campeau, Robert
Britton. A short de novo synthesis of nucleoside analogs. Science,
2020 DOI: 10.1126/science.abb3231 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200808085756.htm

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