Discovering the cure for heart disease and diabetes
Madison, WI – Today heart-related illness is America’s number one killer. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention over 610,000 Americans die each year due to heart disease, many of which are a result of diabetes. That is 1 in 4 people – and for diabetes researcher, Nicholas Bhagroo, one too many.
Nicholas Bhagroo has worked 25 years in diabetic and metabolic disease research. Between his time at the University of Minnesota, and AstraZeneca’s Medimmune, a branch of an international pharmaceutic drug development chain, he’s an expert on this killer. Taking us behind the scenes, Bhagroo describes his lab’s revolutionary development of drugs and the process it takes for these drugs to reach the shelf.
“Considering the fact that I am pre-diabetic, working on drugs that prevent chronic heart conditions becomes very personal,” Bhagroo says. “Since diabetes runs in the family, I take a hard interest in making sure we develop the best treatment so that others may not suffer.”
Diabetes is known to be the body having a high blood glucose (sugar) level. Yet Bhagroo argues that this only a symptom of diabetes, “Diabetes afflicts people in a much larger sense.” Diabetes can be defined as a metabolic disease, or the body’s inability to effectively break down and store the carbs, fat, protein and sugar needed for energy.
The body may signal an individual to eat more, even if the body doesn’t require more energy, or even when the individual is not hungry. Since a metabolic disease like diabetes cannot accurately process what is going into your body, it is a direct segue into obesity related heart disease.
Bhagroo confirms saying, “When your body tries to compensate for one nutrient there is an imbalance that happens. To correct that imbalance your body sends a signal for another source of energy. It is a vicious cycle that eventually leads to high cholesterol, heightened glucose levels and the continual defeat of your body.”
Unfortunately, many practitioners treat diabetic patients based on the old impression of diabetes, instead of holistically looking at the metabolic condition. However, there isn’t much out in the market to treat these patients.
Bhagroo and his team of 20 are part of a new division specifically selected to change this. “There are some new trends within the medical community, one being developing large molecule biologic therapeutics, which is just a mouthful for drugs that are long acting and have larger effects.”
Bhagroo demonstrates that perhaps instead of doing insulin injections after every meal, discovering a drug that a diabetic could take once a week or once a month would be ideal.
Another aspect Bhagroo finds particularly fascinating about to large molecule therapeutics is that they serve as combination drugs, meaning they can treat multiple symptoms at once. As if you were to take two drugs that are already on the market and them combine them.
For example, while on a large molecule therapeutic those suffering from heart disease may find reduced levels of cholesterol, blood sugar and increased metabolism and blood/oxygen circulation.
“Because large molecules are artificial, a single molecule can create 2-3 different pathways, or different modes of action, simultaneously.” Bhagroo explains.
Large molecule therapeutics are artificial constructs of real medicine that stay around in the body a long time while doing large amounts of work compared to the energy used. But it’s more expensive than using the alternative: small molecule therapeutics, or natural compounds that have minimal longevity. These are currently the most accessible drug for treating chronic metabolic diseases.
“Our company has invested a lot of money into this new trend. The matter of fact is that small molecule therapeutics won’t cut it much longer for our increasing population of chronic health disease patients.” Bhagroo reveals.
His main role at Medimmune is to test the different drug formulas for their potency and to evaluate the degree at which they’re successful in curing the symptom, or problem.
To test the effects, Bhagroo uses a variety of animal cells in order to stimulate different results. He looks at where the drugs go in the body, what chemical reactions are happening, and what should be improved in order to streamline the process.
At the center of Bhagroo’s attention is a new drug he is working on. For company confidentiality, he cannot reveal its purpose in full detail. However he assures this will have a dramatic impact for diabetic patients if Medimmune can uncover the perfect formula.
This drug, which showed to be extremely effective in treating mice cells, was immediately sent into clinical studies where the okay was given to begin testing on human cells (the drug was safe for human use). However, results revealed that the drug was 10,000 times less potent in human cells than what was predicted.
With the drug’s insignificant affects, Medimmune chemists must go back to the drawing board and rebalance the formula. This is a difficult task since the product has already launched into clinical trials, but this is no time to give up.
“Small molecule therapeutics will only prevent the onset of metabolic disease, not fix it. I believe the cure lies within the large molecule biologics that we are currently investigating.” Bhagroo says.
The goal of Bhagroo and his team has always been to devise a drug based on their research and ideas, guide it through development and get the product on the shelves in order to help patients.
“The hope is that in 50 years we will have found the real cure to diabetes and metabolic dysfunction. The problem of metabolic imbalance will be fixed. Which means the number of diseases that are out there and their symptoms – heart attacks, high cholesterol, and obesity related illness – will all be reduced.” Bhagroo explains.
Although knowing this dream is extremely difficult to achieve, he believes fellow researchers are working hard to find the answer. Whether it’s his small team or the millions that work for pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca, every scientist contributes a small piece to the puzzle.
“It’s funny that we work so hard to put ourselves out of business,” Bhagroo jokes. “But if we are able to save lives that’s all that matters.”
