DRUGS FROM BUGS

 

Will the Insects revolutionize medical research?

 

The biological diversity of plants and microorganisms has been extensively harnessed by the pharmaceutical industry. In contrast, the use of the immense diversity of the world of insects and arthropods in order to develop new drugs is still its infancy. Entomed, a company founded in 1999 in Strasbourg (eastern France) was the first to be launched out in the adventure and today it remains leader in the field.

Insects have roamed the Earth for the past 500 million years and represent no less than 90% of the known animal species. They have developed a multitude of chemical systems to protect themselves from predators, resist infections and communicate. Meadows of a million species are currently identified and those that remain to be discovered are estimateds at four to six million those which remain to be discovered. Their chemistry is of an amazing richness and a variety offering of the innovative medicinal prospects. Their therapeutic potential, although recognized by many traditional pharmacopeias, had been until a recent past under estimated by pharmaceutical research.

Entomed, was the first company to have undertaken a systematic study of the pharmacological effect of the molecules founded in insects. The prospects for applications of these molecules cover several therapeutic fields, in particular the treatment of the infections and cancer.

To get its famous small bugs, the company of Strasbourg hired the services of a specialist: Roland Lupoli, the single entomologist engaged in France in 2001. He had to set up a network of suppliers of insects, baptized EntowebTM, and already prospected many countries. "Entoweb is one of our priorities. We have correspondents in the whole world because we seek to obtain the greatest possible diversity ".

In order to unearth new suppliers or new territories of harvest, Roland Lupoli often leaves on the ground and thus shares his time between Strasbourg and the tropical and equatorial forests of the whole world. It even frequently sometimes happens to him to go to collect itself the insects. Its favorite hunting ground is then French Guyana, where Entomed established a permanent desk at Petit Jump close to Kourou and in which it goes on average every three months.

To capture insects, all the means are good: butterfly net, net to fauchoir, beating, captures at sight... but the must remains the luminous piègage of night. A whole ceremonial: to choose one night without the moon, to count two to four hours to insert you in the rain forest, to arrive at the twilight, to install a camp for the night, to tighten a large enlightened white cloth by three strong lamps supplied with a power generating unit and, finally, to await the first guests. Throughout the night, the insects, attracted by this luminous spot lost in darkness of the forest, will succèderont themselves on cloth in a well defined order: initially the worms luisants, then butterflies, locusts, let us charançons, of the grasshoppers... The harlequin of Guyana, large red and black coleopter, shows himself only before midnight; enormous Titan measuring nearly 20 cm appears only at the point of the day. It does not remain any more in Roland but to make his choice. "the most interesting varieties are aposematic: in the event of danger, they seek to be seen. A way of announcing to their predator which they have of the toxic substances and can be defended."

And toxic substances are precisely what is interesting Entomed...

At the time of its creation, Entomed worked on the anti-microbial peptides produced by the insects and responsible of the remarkable resistance of these animals to any type of infection. These peptides offered in particular original prospects to develop effective treatments against serious infections such as the multiresistants nosocomiales infections, crucial problem in the hospitals. Assessment: 5 world patents relating to new anti-microbial peptides. Unfortunatly, peptides have a disadvantage: their production cost remains high what is limiting their prospects for application. This report led in 2002 Entomed, which had become a true company meanwhile employing 39 people, including 34 researchers, to start on another track even more promising: the discovery and the development of the small molecules secreted by the insects and other arthropods. "Those are less difficult to develop, less expensive to produce and, therefore, more competitive", declares Jean Combalbert, the Chairman and Managing Director of Entomed. "Since we work in this new direction we have already deposited several patents relating to theinfectious ones in particular and the anti-cancer ones but it will still take us a few years before arriving from there at the clinical testing stage at the man."

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TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS © CHRISTOPHE LEPETIT