Putting Tamiflu to the test

The efficiency of influenza virus drugs, such as Tamiflu, can now be tested thanks to equipment at the University of Canterbury.

The research will be carried out in the University’s world-class Biomolecular Interaction Centre (BIC) laboratory in collaboration with Environmental Science & Research (ESR) and the National Centre for Biosecurity and Infectious Disease.

This research project is possible thanks to specialist state-of-the-art equipment and new BioRad certification as a reference lab.

“Central to our equipment is the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) that we got from BioRad,” said BIC Co-director Professor Conan Fee (Chemical and Process Engineering).

UC was the first in the southern hemisphere to buy a BioRad SPR ProteOn XPR 36 which is used to determine the specificity, affinity and kinetics of the interactions of biomolecules. The SPR also enables researchers to focus on testing scientific hypothesis rather than driving the instrument.

Professor Fee said that it had some “nice features, essentially it allows us to do a lot of research, get many results and very quickly”.

Using the SPR, anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu will be tested for efficiency in combating strains of influenza.

“Where the influenza virus mutates and becomes resistant to medication, we are developing new methods by which we can explore those mechanisms – this is a project that has come to us directly because of SPR,” Professor Fee said.

“ We aim to test this in our instrument to see if anti-viral drugs work or the viruses have developed resistance.”

Another collaboration includes research with the Wakefield Gastroenterology Centre in Wellington.

The Wakefield Gastroenterology Centre approached BIC directly as a result of having the SPR and since has developed a collaboration looking at type 2 diabetes. The research is looking at the relationship between gastric bypass surgery and the disappearance of insulin resistance in diabetic patients.

“Professor Richard Stubbs [gastric by-pass surgeon and Adjunct Professor at Otago University’s Wellington Clinical School of Medicine] came to visit UC to offer a library of blood and serum samples from gastric bypass patients,” said Professor Fee.

“They are going to provide the samples and we will look at the reactions between insulin and its receptor using the SPR — looking for factors and the mechanism of why diabetics’ symptoms switch off after gastric bypass surgery.”

BIC also has collaborations with Plant and Food, Lincoln University, the University of Otago Christchurch School of Medicine, AgResearch and more recently Industrial Research Ltd and Fonterra.

“BIC is working well with new collaborations, even in its early stage, and we are all very enthusiastic,” said Professor Fee.


Note to editors:

The Biomolecular Interaction Centre researches molecular interactions critical to biological function. Understanding biomolecular interactions is central to a range of fundamental sciences, new treatments for disease, and a wide range of highly functional products. BIC is co-directed by Professors Juliet Gerrard and Conan Fee and involves researchers from the Colleges of Science and Engineering, as well as Education and Arts.