Have you ever thought that the sea surrounding us can sustainably benefit our economy other than through bunkering, yacht marinas and fish farms? It can, massively. Novel Antibiotic Synthesis and Development for Agriculture and Cancer Therapy (NASDAC) aims to prove that.
I decided to apply for this grant as global warming will likely be a severe problem affecting my children. The sea, a vast and largely untapped resource, plays a crucial role in this innovative project.
The China-Malta collaboration is developing and optimising a microalgal production system to produce complex “biologics”, in this first instance, a peptide antibiotic. It could then be further developed to produce any biological medication in Malta, including anti-cancer drugs like pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and ulcerative colitis medication like adalimumab (Humira) using our abundant sun and sea, and simultaneously reducing carbon dioxide.
With the shift in medications worldwide to biologics, the various generic pharmaceuticals in Malta will slowly lose more and more market share and jobs. This is one of the ways NASDAC may immediately help our economy, possibly allowing the set-up of bio-generic pharmaceuticals.
The China-Malta collaboration is developing and optimising a microalgal production system to produce complex “biologics”, in this first instance, a peptide antibiotic
Our Chinese partner, Zhenhui Liu, developed the antibiotic peptide from a zebrafish egg yolk protein, optimising its antibiotic activity. Regrettably, antibiotic resistance is developing towards most classes of antibiotics. Luckily, microbes develop resistance much less to peptide antibiotics, some of which are already in clinical trials.
Once we produce a method using the Dunaliella microalga (found naturally in our waters) to produce this antibiotic, it will be shipped to our Chinese partners to scale up for use in animal husbandry. The genetically modified microalga will be designed with essential safety features to prevent it from surviving outside the laboratory. This ensures that should the microalga ever be accidentally released into the environment, it will die off.
Marton Szloboszlay, the senior post-doctoral researcher doing the Dunaliella work, also had the opportunity to present our research to Maltese children at ‘Kurżita Jiem’ organised at Esplora Science Centre with another of our researchers, Melissa Formosa.
The originator protein had bone-inducing effects on mammalian cells, so Formosa will be studying this peptide’s effect on bone formation in zebrafish, possibly helping osteoporosis. Our partners also requested our expertise to test it for anti-cancer effects, which Lucienne Vassallo Gatt is doing with some early positive effects.
Project NASDAC (SINO-MALTA-2022-08) received funding from XjenzaMalta and the ministry for science and technology of the People’s Republic of China (MOST), through the Sino-Malta Fund 2022 (Science and Technology Cooperation).
Pierre Schembri-Wismayer is a doctor, biologist and inventor.
Sound Bites
• Microalgae are presently used in a wide range of applications, which include human and animal foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, bioenergy production, carbon dioxide mitigation, nitrogen-fixing and wastewater treatment. Among several microalgae species, the ones having higher commercial importance are Spirulina, Chlorella, Haematococcus and Dunaliella, the former of which is a blue-green alga or cyanobacterium, a prokaryote, while the others are plants.
• The annual costs of biologic treatments in the US can be above $500,000 per patient. Biologics are revolutionising the treatment of cancer, a wide range of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and enzyme deficiencies.
Biosimilars – the same medication made by biogeneric pharmaceutical companies – have shown to be equally effective and can save the UK NHS about $300 million yearly.
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DID YOU KNOW?
• Between 1998 and 1999, 60 per cent of the Masters of Science candidates at the University of Malta were female.
• The butter’s yellow colouration often comes from Dunaliella microalgae.
• Biologics were involved in around 48 per cent of new drug application approvals by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023.
• The best areas to grow algae in are those that have adequate sunlight year-round.
• In Europe, Spain and Germany are the biggest producers of microalgae.
• The 2019 Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report indicated more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur in the US each year, resulting in more than 35,000 deaths.
For more trivia, see: www.um.edu.mt/think