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How a Swiss lab is finding new cures in old drugs

Researchers at the University of Geneva are scouring libraries of approved drugs in search of new treatments for rare diseases – with some success. The approach is now gaining traction globally as pharmaceutical companies’ interest in rare disease drug development wanes. Five years ago Vladimir Katanaev’s lab at the University of Geneva made a startling discovery. They found that widely available zinc salts – which were approved in the US in 1997 to treat a metabolic disorder called Wilson Disease – could also treat a rare, life-threatening disorder caused by a mutation in the GNAO1 gene. The GNAO1 gene encodes the G protein called Gαo, which is one of the brain’s main signal regulators. It acts like a molecular switch, turning on and off to prevent neurons from becoming either too active or too quiet. Mutations in the GNAO1 gene, which affect about 400 people in the world, lead to seizures, developmental delays and movement problems. The first GNAO1 mutations were identified only ... Full story here Are you the author?
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