EU - FP 6: NORMOLIFE - Development of new therapeutic substances and strategies for treatment of pain in patients with advanced stages of cancer
Funding period: 01.12.2006 - 30.11.2009
Participant Organisations: 11
Project funding: 2.180.000 Euro
EU-Project: Cordis
The EU research project included the development of new drugs for the treatment of pain of cancer patients in palliative care. 11 partners from 6 EU countries (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland and Hungary) were involved. The EU funded the project with about two million Euros through nearly 3 years.
Goal of the research was to find new drugs that patients in the last stage of cancer can live pain free without any unpleasant side effects. Previously, mainly opiates or over the skin effect taking pain patches were used in practice, which inhibit pain, but were often not well tolerated. The already weakened patients mostly suffered from breathing problems, sweating, digestive or loss of consciousness.
The project was based on the latest findings in neurobiological research. In doing so, the knowledge was considered that the receptor molecules are altered in inflammation or tumours, via which the affected organs guide the perception of pain to the spinal cord and then to the brain. The blockade of these altered pain receptors by a new class of "smart drugs" that specifically attack not only on the modified receptors, but also block the transmission of pain signals to the brain on several levels at the same time, promised a better effect than the use of traditional medicines with only one site of action.
The new active pharmaceutical ingredients are tested with a newly developed sensor system with multichannel recordings from multi-electrode arrays. In this neuro-chip technology networks of living neurons are cultivated on a silicon chip, which is provided with contact electrodes to measure the electrical signals. After the addition of drugs, changes occur to the electrical communication within the network. These recorded data will be collected in a computer and analyzed using the pattern recognition algorithms of Pattern Expert. This method gives information about the actual potency of the substances. The search for new drugs was explicit improved, because the results are more significant than those that can be obtained in animal experiments.
With this research project Pattern Expert was able to build on its experiences in pattern recognition and obtained valid classification results. This project is another reference therefore that Pattern Expert has developed an ideal technology platform with modules for the evaluation of drug screening and that the company is an internationally recognized partner in this field. The results of this project have been published in several publications.
The project was led by the Medical Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.
Partners:
- Medical Research Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland (Coordinator)
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Catania, Italy
- Department of Natural Sciences, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Chemistry, Warsaw University, Poland
- Biological Research Centre, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
- Institute of Biology, National Centre of Scientific Research "Demokritos", Greece
- Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
- Industrial Chemistry Research Institute, Poland
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rostock, Germany
- Pattern Expert, Germany
- Steinbeis-Forschungs- und Entwicklungszentrum GmbH, Germany
