A new type of medicine, custom-made with tiny proteins | Christopher Bahl

Translator: Emma Toft Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

I'm a protein designer.

Jeg er en proteindesigner.

And I'd like to discuss a new type of medicine.

Og jeg vil gerne diskutere en ny type medicin.

It's made from a molecule called a constrained peptide.

Den er lavet af et molekyle kaldet et begrænset peptid.

There are only a few constrained peptide drugs available today,

Der er kun få begrænset peptid mediciner tilgængelige i dag,

but there are a lot that will hit the market in the coming decade.

men der er mange som vil ramme markedet i det kommende årti.

Let's explore what these new medicines are made of,

Lad os udforske hvad de nye mediciner er lavet af

how they're different and what's causing this incoming tidal wave

hvordan de er anderledes and hvad skyldes denne voksende bølge

of new and exciting medicines.

af nye og spændende mediciner.

Constrained peptides are very small proteins.

Begrænset peptider er meget små proteiner.

They've got extra chemical bonds that constrain the shape of the molecule,

De har ekstra kemiske forbindelser som begrænser formen af molekylet,

and this makes them incredibly stable

og dette gør dem utrolig stabile

as well as highly potent.

lige så vel som meget stærke.

They're naturally occurring, our bodies actually produce a few of these

De opstår naturligt, vores kroppe producerer faktisk enkelte

that help us to combat bacterial, fungal and viral infections.

som hjælper med at angribe bakterier,

svamp og virus sygdom

And animals like snakes and scorpions

Og dyr ligesom slanger og skorpioner

use constrained peptides in their venom.

bruger begrænset peptider i deres gift.

Drugs that are made of protein are called biologic drugs.

Medicin som er lavet af protein bliver kaldt biologisk medicin.

So this includes constrained peptides,

Så dette inkluderer begrænset peptider,

as well as medicines like insulin

og medicin som insulin

or antibody drugs like Humira or Enbrel.

og antistof medicin som Humira eller Enbrel.

And in general, biologics are great,

Overordnet, biologiske lægemiddler er fantastiske,

because they avoid several ways that drugs can cause side effects.

fordi de undgår flere veje hvor medicin kan skabe bivirkninger.

First, protein.

Først, protein.

It's a totally natural, nontoxic material in our bodies.

Det er et totalt neutralt, giftfrit materiale i vores krop.

Our cells produce tens of thousands of different proteins,

Vores celler producerer tusinde af forskellige proteiner,

and basically, all of our food has protein in it.

og, praktisk talt, alt vores mad har proteiner i det.

And second, sometimes drugs interact with molecules in your body

Og anden, nogle mediciner interagerer med molekyler i din krop

that you don't want them to.

som du ikke vil have dem til.

Compared to small molecule drugs,

Sammenlignet med

små-molekyle medicin,

and by this I mean regular drugs, like aspirin,

Og her mener jeg, normal medicin, som aspirin,

biologics are quite large.

biologisk medicin er ret stort.

Molecules interact when they adopt shapes that fit together perfectly.

Molekyler interagerer når de påtager forme som passer sammen perfekt

Much like a lock and key.

Ligesom en nøgle og en lås.

Well, a larger key has more grooves,

Altså, en stor nøgle har mange riller,

so it's more likely to fit into a single lock.

så det er mere sandsynligt at den passer i en enkelt lås.

But most biologics also have a flaw.

Men de fleste biologiske mediciner har også en fejl.

They're fragile.

De er skrøbelige

So they're usually administered by injection,

Så de er normalt givet med en indsprøjtning,

because our stomach acid would destroy the medicine

da vores mavesyre ville ødelægge medicinen

if we tried to swallow it.

hvis vi slugte den.

Constrained peptides are the opposite.

Begrænset peptider er modsat.

They're really durable, like regular drugs.

De er stærke ligesom normal medicin

So it's possible to administer them using pills, inhalers, ointments.

Så det er muligt at administrer dem med piller, inhalere, og creme.

This is what makes constrained peptides so desirable for drug development.

Det er dette som gør begrænset peptider så eftertragtet i medicinsk fremstilling.

They combine some of the best features

De kombinerer de bedste funktioner

of small-molecule and biologic drugs into one.

fra små-molekylær og biologisk medicin inden i en.

But unfortunately, it's incredibly difficult

Men desværre er det utrolig svært

to reengineer the constrained peptides that we find in nature

at ombygge de begrænset peptider som vi finder i naturen

to become new drugs.

til at blive nyt medicin.

So this is where I come in.

Det er her jeg kommer ind.

Creating a new drug is a lot like crafting a key

At skabe et nyt medicin er meget ligesom at få en nøgle

to fit a particular lock.

til at passe i en specifik lås.

We need to get the shape just right.

Vi skal have formen helt rigtig.

But if we change the shape of a constrained peptide by too much,

Men hvis vi ændrer formen af et begrænset peptid for meget

those extra chemical bonds are unable to form

kan de kemiske bindinger

ikke forbinde

and the whole molecule falls apart.

og molekylet

går i stykker.

So we needed to figure out how to gain control over their shape.

Så vi bliver nødt til at finde ud af hvordan vi kan kontrollerer formen.

I was part of a collaborative scientific effort

Jeg var en del af en videnskabs indsats

that spanned a dozen institutions across three continents

spredt over et dusin institutioner fra tre kontinenter

that came together and solved this problem.

som kom sammen og løste dette problem.

We took a radically different approach from previous efforts.

Vi tog en radikalt anderledes vinkle fra tidligere forsøg.

Instead of making changes to the constrained peptides

I stedet for at ændre de begrænset peptider

that we find in nature,

som vi finder i naturen,

we figured out how to build new ones totally from scratch.

lærte vi at bygge nogle nye fra bunden.

To help us do this,

For at hjælpe med dette,

we developed freely available open-source peptide-design software

udviklede vi gratis kildekode peptid-design software

that anyone can use to do this, too.

som alle kan bruge til dette også.

To test our method out,

For at teste vores metode,

we generated a series of constrained peptides

vi skabte et udvalg af begrænset peptider

that have a wide variety of different shapes.

som har en variation af forskellige forme.

Many of these had never been seen in nature before.

Mange af disse havde aldrig været set i naturen før.

Then we went into the laboratory and produced these peptides.

Så vi gik i laboratoriet og producerede disse peptider.

Next, we determined their molecular structures,

Derefter fandt vi deres molekylære struktur,

using experiments.

ved hjæp af eksperimenter.

When we compared our designed models

Da vi sammenlignede vores modeller

with the real molecular structures,

med rigtige molekylære strukturer,

we found that our software can position individual atoms

fandt vi ud af at vores software kan placere individualle atomer

with an accuracy that's at the limit of what's possible to measure.

med en præcision som er på grænsen af hvad der er muligt at måle.

Three years ago, this couldn't be done.

For tre år siden, dette var ikke muligt.

But today, we have the ability to create designer peptides

Men i dag har vi evnerne til at skabe designer peptider

with shapes that are custom-tailored for drug development.

med forme der er skræddersyet til medicinudvikling.

So where is this technology taking us?

Så hvor tager den her teknologi os hen?

Well, recently,

Altså, for nyligt,

my colleagues and I designed constrained peptides

mine kollegaer og jeg har designet begrænset peptider

that neutralize influenza virus,

som neutralisere influenzavirus,

protect against botulism poisoning

beskytter mod botulisme-forgiftning

and block cancer cells from growing.

og blokerer kræft celler fra at vokse.

Some of these new drugs

Nogle af de nye mediciner

have been tested in preclinical trials with laboratory animals.

er blevet testet i prækliniske forsøg med forsøgsdyr.

And so far, they're all safe and highly effective.

Og indtil videre er de alle sikre og yderst effektive.

Constrained peptide design is a cutting-edge technology,

Begrænset peptid design er banebrydende teknologi,

and the drug development pipeline is slow and cautious.

og medicinal udvikling er langsomt og forsigtigt.

So we're still three to five years out from human trials.

Så vi er stadig tre til fem år væk fra menneske forsøg.

But during that time,

Gennem den tid,

more constrained peptide drugs

flere begrænset

peptid mediciner

are going to be entering the drug development pipeline.

kommer til at dukke op i medicinal udvikling.

And ultimately, I believe that designed peptide drugs

Og jeg tror, at til sidste vil designet peptid mediciner

are going to enable us all to break free

gøre det muligt for os at bryde fri

from the constraints of our diseases.

fra begrænsninger af vores sygdomme.

Thank you.

Mange tak.

(Applause)

(Bifald)