Professor uses virus structure
to aid drug development
By Ian Clift
Summer Reporter
The common cold may be a thing of the past.
Michael Rossmann, professor of biological sciences,
has been working with ViroPharma Inc. to develop drugs that bind better
to rhinoviruses such as the cold virus.
Rhinoviruses are a large group of RNA based viruses
responsible for a broad range of human diseases.
Rossmann, a member of ViroPharma's Scientific advisory
board, discovered the structure of the cold virus in 1985, and he and
his lab have been instrumental in determining how well specific drugs
interact with the virus.
Rossmann said "Lots of people are trying to discover
drugs, they are certainly helped by the knowledge gained by structural
biology."
Sharon Wilder, technical research assistant in
Rossmann's lab, said, "There are a lot of companies that do a hit or
miss type of procedure. It is very useful to have a structure to work
with so that you know how to make (a drug) fit better."
ViroPharma developed a panel in their chemical
labs. Rossmann and his associates were asked to grow the virus and soak
it with the various drug compounds to form virus-drug complexes. "We
were able to see where the drug attached to the virus," said Wilder.
The structural information gained through Rossmann's
lab allowed ViroPharma to develop drugs that had a higher affinity for
the virus.
In studies, pleconaril, a drug that is well into
phase III of the Food and Drug Administration trials, has inhibited
96% of rhinoviruses isolated in 332 human patients.
Rossmann, who began his career as a postdoc at
Cambridge, England in 1956, developed many of the computer tools that
have been used to analyze crystallized molecular data.
His work focuses on deriving viral structures from
x-ray diffraction. He said, "Trying to change the course of biological
events is a minor part of what we do."
The drug may be approved for marketing by the end
of this year.
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