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Scientific Discoveries
Since the Nobel prize-winning discovery of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in the 1930s, researchers around the world have been fascinated by the promise of this “mother hormone”. While the scientific literature contains thousands of scientific publications showing impressive activity of this steroid in rodent models of immune-mediated and other diseases, scientists have been puzzled by the fact that the steroid demonstrated only limited activity in humans.
Unfortunately, almost all of the early research with DHEA was conducted in rodent models of disease. In these animal models this steroid demonstrated profound results, even demonstrating that the effects of aging could be reversed. Many of the scientific findings suggested that levels of this steroid decline with age and are correlated with severe disease conditions associated with the immune, nervous, metabolic and endocrine systems.
Familiar with and intrigued by this steroid’s biological properties and potential, Harbor BioSciences set up collaborations during the 1990s with most of the thought leaders in the field of steroid hormone research and in many instances acquired the exclusive rights to their issued patents.
Through its research, Harbor BioSciences has determined that animals metabolize DHEA differently than humans, explaining in part why data generated in mice treated with DHEA are not predictive of how the benefits of this steroid may translate in man. Only when the metabolites found in animals are the same molecules used in man are their properties possibly translatable to humans.
Furthermore, the Company has discovered that DHEA is not the active molecule driving many of its associated biological properties; rather the steroid is the building block material that the body metabolizes into biochemical signaling molecules that regulate many of the body’s biological functions. Without these signalers on board, optimal human health may not be possible.
Harbor BioSciences also has made major advances in understanding the pharmacology of its compounds and how the pharmacology differs between species. This is very important in understanding how to best use its compounds in humans in order to enhance their potency and efficacy as pharmaceuticals. Habor BioSciences scientists are utilizing this knowledge to improve the performance of the Company’s existing compounds as well as to design second-generation candidates with improved pharmaceutical attributes. To further improve the therapeutic value of its compounds, the Company also is identifying novel ways of modifying their bioavailability, as well as novel ways to formulate them so as to better preserve the appropriate immunological activities in primates.
These discoveries give Habor BioSciences a much better understanding of how its class of molecules may be harnessed to provide benefit in a wide variety of disease conditions. Habor BioSciences believes that by applying the latest tools of pharmaceutical drug development technologies, it has the potential to translate the great promise of steroid hormones that was seen in so many animal models of disease into real clinical benefit in a wide variety of indications in humans.