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Help Find-a-Drug fight CJD!
Monday 7 March 2005
Find-a-Drug is pleased to announce the start of its CJD project which aims to find molecules which have the potential to be used in the treatment of CJD. The success of this project depends on members of the public volunteering their computer's free time. By harnessing the power of thousands of home PCs connected to the Internet, distributed computing software has the potential to significantly accelerate drug research: many more molecules can be evaluated in shorter periods of time than other approaches.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare but fatal neurodegenerative disease for which there is no effective treatment. New variant CJD is associated with eating beef from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The number of cases and reported deaths in the UK is still fortunately less than 200 but has grown significantly since 1990. The 2003 annual report of the CJD Surveillance Unit in the UK suggests that the number of cases has passed its peak although there are still concerns that the number of cases may reach epidemic proportions. Our understanding of the disease is still incomplete and the incubation period is largely a matter for speculation.
Find-a-Drug is collaborating with Dr Beining Chen of Sheffield University Chemistry Department. Her research group uses computer modelling to help decide which molecules to make and test. Dr Chen comments "Our main focus now is to develop novel drugs for prion disease to cure Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs), especially for vCJD in humans". The research at Sheffield benefits from funding by the Department of Health and the Find-a-Drug project is expected to identify many more molecules to consider making and testing.
"The THINK software allows hundreds of millions of molecules to be evaluated as potential new drug molecules", comments Keith Davies, Scientific Director of Find-a-Drug. PCs participating in the project process sets of 10,000 molecules downloaded from the Internet. When the PC is not being used by its owner, the software evaluates each molecule in turn and explores possible interactions with a protein target. Molecules which are predicted to inhibit the target protein are returned to Find-a-Drug as "hits".
PC owners may participate in the project by downloading the THINK software and molecules from http://www.find-a-drug.net. The information about protein and molecule data as well are encrypted to ensure that it is securely transmitted between the PCs and Find-a-Drug Internet servers. This is a necessary and valuable precaution in order to prevent the introduction of a harmful agent such as a virus on to the computers. Once installed, the software does not require any interaction by the owner, nor does it impact on normal use of the PC because it runs in the background.
To participate visit www.find-a-drug.net
For further information please contact:
Tel: Keith Davies +44 1386 870153 or 07879 495105
E-mail: Keith.Davies@find-a-drug.org
About Find-a-Drug
Find-a-Drug was set up in 2002 by Treweren Consultants (Evesham, UK) as a non-profit organisation using Internet-based computing for drug discovery. In addition to CJD, Find-a-Drug is pursuing some cancer research targets, continuing some work started in collaboration with United Devices (Austin, Texas) and Oxford University. The software also has the potential to be used for finding new drugs for other diseases including HIV, Respiratory Diseases (including TB), SARS, Malaria and Multiple Sclerosis. Initial experimental validations of the computer predictions are very promising. At present, over 40,000 PCs from nearly 70 countries have registered with Find-a-Drug and evaluated nearly 40 billion molecules as inhibitors to various proteins.
Sheffield University is well regarded in the UK and internationally with a grade 5 rating chemistry department. It has a well established tradition in Chemical Research, Chemical Biology and chemical information.
Keith Davies has worked in the field of computational chemistry for over 20 years. He founded Chemical Design in 1983, where he was Technical Director and CEO. Chemical Design gained the Queens Award for Export in 1988 and was listed on the London Stock Market (AIM) in 1996. In 1998, Keith sold his remaining shares in the company to Oxford Molecular Plc.
译文如下：
Find-a-Drug, Evesham, UK
星期一2005年3月7日起，帮助Find-a-Drug跟CJD作战！
Find-a-Drug，Evesham，英国
Find-a-Drug非常高兴的宣布CJD子项目的开始，目的是寻找潜在的可以用于治疗CJD的分子。这项工程的成功与否取决于公众志愿者愿不愿意献出他们的计算机的空闲时间。通过利用数千台连入因特网的PC的力量，分布计算软件有加速药研究的潜能：与其他方法相比较，在最短的时间内可以测试更多的分子。
Creutzfeldt-Jakob(CJD克雅氏症)疾病是一种无法治疗的罕见致命的神经变性疾病。新的CJD变异型与食用感染了疯牛病的牛的肉有关。很幸运病例和死亡报告的数量在英国仍少于200，但是从1990年起已经已显著增长了。英国CJD监测部门的2003年度报告建议病例数已经过了它的顶峰，虽然仍有人担心病例数可能到达流行病比例。我们认为疾病仍然没有结束，病毒的潜伏期也是无法忽略的。
Find-a-Drug正与设菲尔德大学化学系的陈贝宁医生合作。她的科研小组使用计算机模拟来帮助决定研究和测试哪些分子。陈医生说"我们现在的主要工作是开发治疗蛋白病毒症的新药，来治愈Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies(TSEs传染性脑组织海绵化症)，特别是可传染给人的vCJD"。菲尔德大学的研究由卫生部门提供资金，Find-a-Drug项目期望能找到更多的分子来研究和测试。
Find-a-Drug的科学主管基思·戴维斯说"THINK软件可以测试数百万个潜在的新药分子"。参加项目的PC机处理从因特网下载的10，000个分子。当PC空闲时，软件依次测试每个分子并且寻找可能与一个蛋白质目标相互作用的分子。那些预言能抑制目标蛋白质的分子即"hits"会返回到Find-a-Drug。
拥有PC机的人可以通过从http://www.find-a-drug.net下载THINK软件和分子参加项目。与蛋白质和分子相关的数据信息会被加密，以保证它在PC机和Find-a-Drug的因特网服务器之间传送时的可靠性。以防有害程序的破坏，例如计算机病毒，这是必要和有效的预防措施。一旦安装，软件不需要任何操作，也不会对PC的正常的使用产生影响，因为它在后台自动运行。
欲参加，请到www.find-a-drug.net
欲知详情请联系：
电话: Keith Davies +44 1386 870153 或 07879 495105
电邮: Keith.Davies@find-a-drug.org
关于Find-a-Drug
Find-a-Drug作为一个使用基于因特网计算的药物搜寻的非赢利性组织由Treweren咨询公司(Evesham，英国)于2002年创建。除CJD之外，Find-a-Drug追踪一些癌症研究目标，继续一些与United Devices(奥斯汀，得克萨斯)和牛津大学合作时就开始工作。软件也有用于寻找其他疾病的新药的潜能包括HIV，呼吸道疾病(包括肺结核)，非典型性肺炎，疟疾和多发性硬化症。计算机预言的分子的初期实验效果非常好。目前，超过来自差不多70个国家的40，000台PC已经向Find-a-Drug登记并且把差不多400亿个分子当作各种各样的蛋白质的抑制剂进行了测试。
设菲尔德大学的甲5级化学系在英国和国际上被看好。在化学研究，化学生物学和化学信息方面有很深的建树。
基思·戴维斯已经在计算化学领域工作超过20年。他在1983年创立化学设计公司，他是技术负责人和首席执行官。在1988化学设计获得出口皇后奖，并且在1996年在伦敦股票交易市场(AIM)上挂牌。在1998年，基思出售了他剩下的全部公司股票，转到了牛津分子股份公司。
翻译BY VMZY
[ Last edited by vmzy on 2005-3-7 at 04:55 PM ] |
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发表于 2005-3-7 16:54:43
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