27 September 2007

MRC Award To Develop Drug to Combat Eczema

The Medical Research Council has awarded a grant of £1.3 million to professors from the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews to develop new drugs to combat eczema.

The three year grant has been given to Prof Irwin McLean, (College of Medicine, Nursing and Dentistry, University of Dundee), Prof Julie Frearson (College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee) and Prof Nick Westwood (University of St Andrews). It will fund three new research posts which will be divided between the three units

The early stage drug development will centre around a gene, filaggrin, which was discovered by Prof Irwin McLean and colleagues last year. Almost half of all children with severe eczema have a fault in their filaggrin gene which leads to inflammation of the skin. The grant will help the three experts look for new drugs to boost skin barrier function.

There are several different pathways that will be explored to uncover the best possible treatments. Unlike existing drugs for eczema, which target the immune system, for the first time this new drug development programme is aimed at the skin barrier defect which is the root cause of the disease.

Filaggrin is an abundant protein found in the outermost protective layers of the skin. People with a genetic defect in the filaggrin gene have "leaky" skin that allows foreign material to enter the body and trigger inflammation.

The research will take advantage of Prof Frearson's Drug Discovery Unit which was opened last year in the £20 million Sir James Black Centre at the School of Life Sciences.

The unit allows for screening of drugs to discover which will be most effective in combating a disease. It is expected that drug screening will start in the new year.

Prof Irwin McLean says, "One in five children in the UK and other developed countries get eczema and many go on to develop a range of allergies and a form of asthma related to eczema. This is a really exciting opportunity to develop new treatments aimed directly at the first major gene known to be involved in eczema and related conditions. Although this early stage research may not lead to human trials for a few years, it gives hope for tens of millions of people who carry this gene defect and are predisposed to developing these debilitating diseases."

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