Biological/Pharmacological Research

Opportunities for Collaboration

Flexible levels of collaboration:

Bio Balance (www.bio-balance.com) is an early stage biotechnology company that has developed  the only optimal method to prevent drug desensitization at the receptor level. This phenomenon occurs with a large number of very commonly used drugs. Notably, desensitization cannot be remedied by taking larger dosages. With larger doses drug efficacy diminishes and essentially stops working (see Figure 1, below).

The main philosophy behind Bio Balance is that accurate descriptions of drug-receptor interactions will lead to the development of better pharmaceuticals. By this approach, Bio Balance has developed the proprietary technology to prevent receptor desensitization or fade. This should lead to the development of improved pharmaceuticals and be an attractive and alternative route to drug development in the future.

 

Fig. 1A

 

 

 Fig. 1B

 

 

 

 

Figure 1  - Responses of individual rats to the isoproterenol (Iso) agonist only (Fig. 1A) and isoproterenol/metoprolol Iso/Met agonist/antagonist combination (Fig. 1B):

 

1A) Plots of the dP/dt responses in mmHg sec-1 of three animals that served as their own controls. With the higher IV infusion levels of the Iso solution the desensitization is evident as a shape decline in responses for all of the animals.

 

1B) The same animals as in Figure 1A except that they received the Iso/Met IV solution. The dP/dt responses are significantly different from those for the Iso solution at the infusion levels of 10 mg kg-1min-1 and above (P<0.05 significant at the 95% confidence interval - paired Student's t-test.

 

For further information see "Preventing Rapid Receptor Desensitization at the beta-1-Adrenergic Receptor with Agonist/Antagonist Combinations " in the Bio Balance Reference section - Reference Section - Bio Balance

 

Bio Balance offers a unique opportunity to partner into a ground-breaking  process to create and develop improved drug compositions that can be used to create new patented drugs or to salvage older drugs that have expired or expiring patents. Bio Balance is seeking collaborative partners to take these potential drug products to the next level of development. Other areas of potential development include enhancing the drugs that treat Parkinson's disease, memory loss, asthma, heart failure, or other diseases that require new or improved drugs.

 

The role of drug-receptor desensitization (tolerance, fade, tachyphylaxis or down-regulation)  for future drug development.

Richard Lanzara, Ph.D. Bio Balance, Inc. 30 W. 86th St. NY, NY USA 10024-3600

e-mail: rlanzara@bio-balance.com

One of the perils of drug development is the occurrence of desensitization, which is also called tolerance, fade, tachyphylaxis or down-regulation.  Many in the industry believe that by selecting the proper dosage regime drug-receptor desensitization can be minimized or prevented.  Rightly or wrongly, they create a tight-rope that patients and doctors must walk when utilizing these types of medications.  This may affect anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of all pharmaceuticals and be a fertile area for drug development and improvement in the future.  Given some of the disturbing reports that shown upwards of 90,000 cases per year of reported medical errors, the production of safer drugs should be a top priority in the pharmaceutical field.  Yet why haven't the major companies done more to produce safer drugs?  A partial explanation would be that it is much more expensive to ensure safer drugs, but an alternative explanation may be that they lack the technology to understand and correct the problem. Certainly, the major companies would want the safest product on the market.  This would not only make sense from a medical standpoint, but  a marketing one as well. Safer drugs require that all of the variables of drug development be evaluated and adjusted for the greatest number of people using these medications.  Surprisingly, the safest drugs may come from using agonist/antagonist combinations in ways to prevent, diminish or control drug-receptor desensitization.  This would be analogous to creating designer partial agonists in ways that have been previously overlooked, but would offer a new technology for enhancing the safety and efficacy of many pharmaceuticals.

Construction of 3D Models of Proteins (Computational Structural Biology)

  1. Homology Modeling
  2. De novo Structure Building

Macromolecular Modeling

  1. Receptor Activation Models
  2. Design of software to predict the activity of ligands
  3. Identification of molecular properties important for receptor activation

A list of companies and individuals that have collaborated with Bio Balance:

  1. Gwathmey, Inc. - www.gwathmey.com/
  2. CEREP - http://www.cerep.fr/
  3. DSS Infotech International - http://www.dssinfotech.com/
  4. Dr. Peter Cherry, CCNY - http://med.cuny.edu/
  5. Dr. Lester Rubenstein, MSSM, Dept. of Physiology and Biophysics - http://www.mssm.edu/physbio/
  6. Fred Morelle, Esq.
  7. NYBA - New York Biotechnology Association
  8. Schmeiser, Olsen & Watts - PATENT LAW
  9. Efficacy Corp.

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