Professor Angela Russell
Winner: 2024 Chemistry Biology Interface mid-career prize: Jeremy Knowles Award
University of Oxford
For innovation in medicinal chemistry leading to the identification of first in class utrophin modulators for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Celebrate Professor Angela Russell
Professor Russell’s work seeks to develop an effective drug to treat children with the fatal muscle-wasting disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) by increasing the levels of a muscle protein called utrophin.
Utrophin is a protein related to dystrophin, the protein that is absent in DMD. It has the potential to act as a substitute for dystrophin and restore muscle function in patients. Ezutromid was developed from work in Professor Russell’s labs and is the first drug designed to treat DMD by increasing the amount of utrophin in muscle cells.
Summit Therapeutics began a clinical trial to test whether ezutromid would be a beneficial treatment for children with DMD. The clinical trial showed promising results after 24 weeks of treatment. However, the drug wasn’t effective over a longer period, and in 2018, Summit discontinued its development. As a result, Professor Russell’s group investigated how ezutromid works to uncover new opportunities for alternative drugs that might act in a similar yet more effective way. They demonstrated that ezutromid binds to a protein called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), leading to more utrophin production.
The group have found new alternative molecules that bind to the AHR and increase utrophin production, which overcomes the problems with ezutromid. They are currently trying to develop these new molecules into a new drug to give lasting benefits to all patients with DMD.
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