A consortium of Tucumán researchers developed a new molecule in the fight against Parkinson’s disease and it was patented in the United States. The Minister of Health of Tucumán accompanied the event of this study born in Tucumán.
The doctor Luis Medina Ruiz He expressed his joy for the work carried out by the Tucumán scientists from Conicet, UNT and UBA. «This is a historic moment. The discovery and patenting of the medicine, the molecule, that is effective for Parkinson’s disease, is something new, that does not exist in the world and that has emerged from Tucumán, which together with the entire Academy, the Tucumán researchers, the researchers from Buenos Aires, with the contribution of a French engineer, the truth is that it is something for which one has to be proud. “This is the conjunction of great teams working together, for a common goal, which is to find a molecule that can save lives, to help the disease.”
Comforted by the researchers’ achievement, the Minister indicated that “these professionals are scientists who have been trained at the National University of Tucumán. All Tucumans have to feel proud of the researchers we have, who have been able to develop and work here, who together with Public Health and many people who have contributed to us reaching this moment. We have lived a moment, through a videoconference with the United States, this situation has been put in place and disseminated »he highlighted.
THE Rector of the National University of Tucumán, Sergio Pagani expressed: «We want to highlight this patenting of the National University of Tucumán, which has its participation in the INCAC, which is the Triple Detention Institute of the University, the CONICET and the Ministry of Health of the Province, where this research was born and later the application, due to the monetary contribution of a private French company based in Argentina, which had confidence in our researchers and detected the potential of this research that led us to these circumstances. The University of Buenos Aires joined this basic team as well as researchers from the United States who are going to continue with the clinical phase in animals and then in humans, so that we finally have a medicine that can effectively address this disease that today does not exist. “It has only a palliative possibility.”
Pagani commented that “researchers would be encouraged to continue working.” Basic research is hard, it is sacrificed and many times it does not have the expected result. Regarding this research, I highlighted that it can wait dozens of years until it can be applied, which is what every researcher dreams of, for his work to come to fruition. But without basic research, there is no applied research, so basic research must be sustained. We must sustain research in Argentina, continue betting, because we have the most difficult part, the most expensive, which is human capital.”
The director of Conicet Noa-Sur, Dr. Augusto Bellomío expressed “We are happy with what has been achieved so far, which is a molecule that has been intelligently designed and that has been able to be synthesized entirely in Argentina, carrying out all the basic studies. That is a very important achievement that we scientists achieved here in our country and that is the result of dozens of years of investment and research sustained over time. For these types of achievements to continue, we need Argentina to continue researching and the government to continue contributing to the financing of research projects. It is a great goal, in cultural terms, it is a great goal and we have to celebrate it. This does not happen every day and it will happen on a sustained basis if we continue to invest because we have all the human capital and we know how to do it.
Dr. Benjamín Socías, from Conicet, also stated: «We have been working on this for a long time. EDES is precisely to develop a hybrid molecule that has a dual function, on the one hand being a dopamine agonist that can be used in replacement therapies and also having a neuroprotective function. In this case derived from tetracyclines, which are the molecules with which we have been working for quite some time. Well, there are very few drugs to, in some way, alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s, levodopa is one. The idea is that it acts as a pharmacological alternative. It is a quite complicated process that greatly limits therapeutic approaches to many brain pathologies, not just Parkinson’s. We have indirect evidence that in principle it would, which is what we have to do in clinical trials and really confirm it. The idea is, the earlier the diagnosis and the faster the treatments begin, the higher the success rate is likely to be. That is what we are trying to demonstrate in the laboratory. The idea is that the next step is to achieve approval from the FDA, the United States Food and Drug Administration, which is what will make clinical trials possible. “Once these clinical tests are underway, depending on the result, if we see that it is positive, it would be the first step towards the development of a drug that can reach the patient directly,” he concluded.
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