Biotech R & D



NEUROTOXINS FOR NOVEL THERAPEUTICS

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Research & Development Overview

Syntaxin's biotech products are based on exploitation of the natural pharmacology inherent in bacterial toxins.

The best known of these, the Clostridium botulinum neurotoxins, have four highly specific pharmacological properties which are listed below:

Botulinum Neurotoxin Properties:

  • Binding to cholinergic nerve cells
  • Entry into the interior of the cells
  • Blockage of vesicle-mediated cell secretion
  • Long-lasting action for weeks or months

These properties give the toxins their potent and long-lasting effects on motor neuron transmission, which cause flaccid paralysis (botulism). They are also the basis for the biotech and medical uses of the toxin in a range of neuro-muscular and autonomic hyperactivity disorders. Botulinum neurotoxin is a well recognised and established licensed pharmaceutical product, sales of which have grown rapidly in recent years as new indications are approved.

Chronic diseases involving neurotransmitter release can be treated using botulinum neurotoxins and in the future novel proteins to inhibit the neuron cells.

The prolonged activity of the botulinum neurotoxins makes them ideally suited to the treatment of chronic diseases that involve neurotransmitter release. The clinical utility of the neurotoxins is, however, restricted by the limited range of susceptible cell types and, being the most potent acute lethal toxins known, by the extreme toxicity of the neurotoxins. Syntaxin's biotech research and product pipeline is based on engineering recombinant genes that encode novel recombinant proteins that combine desired aspects of the pharmacology of the botulinum toxins with novel binding domains to provide a target cell specificity of choice. By designing in modified cell binding specificity the recombinant proteins produced by Syntaxin also lack the inherent toxicity of the native neurotoxins.

Through this biotech research & development model Syntaxin aims to develop a family of medicines for chronic disorders where cell secretion is a major contributor to their pathology.