Treating Short Gut Syndrome and Preventing Necrotizing Enterocolitis Using Synthesized FA-EGF

SLU ID 17-015 | Fatty Acid Conjugated Epidermal Growth Factor Variants

Background

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulates cell growth and differentiation by binding to its receptor. Fatty acid EGF (FA-EGF) conjugates have the potential to be developed as drugs for the treatment of short gut syndrome (SGS) and preventing necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). While human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) has shown promise as a potential treatment for SGS, it is impractical because of the very short in vivo half life of hEGF.

Overview

Researchers at Saint Louis University have synthesized and designed fatty acids (FA) conjugates of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and an EGF mutant. They have demonstrated that these FA-EGF conjugates activate the EGF receptor (EGFR) in vitro with potency similar to native EGF. Based on literature precedent for other FA-conjugates of small proteins, these FA-EGF conjugates are expected to have dramatically longer half-lives in vivo than native EGF.

Benefits

The potential benefits of this technology include:

• Minimizing the expense of EGF-based treatments

• Increasing the in vivo half-life of EGF-based compounds

Applications

The potential applications of this technology include:

• Treating short gut syndrome (SGS)

• Preventing necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC)

• Healing skin wounds

• Skin cell regeneration

Opportunity

Saint Louis University is seeking a partner to further develop and commercialize this technology.