Itching to fight deadly fungus

[Guest guest]

Itching to fight deadly fungus

MSUB researchers apply for school's 1st patent

Billings Gazette - MT*

By MARY PICKETT

Of The Gazette staff

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/10/04/news/local/18-

fungus.txt

Two Montana State University Billings biologists are making history

while tackling a nasty fungus that can kill people.

Their research into the Candida albicans fungus has led to the

university's application for its first patent to protect

intellectual-property rights.

, 46, an associate professor of biology, was working on

the C. albicans fungus before Kurt Toenjes, 42, came to MSU Billings

two years ago.

Toenjes, 42, had been studying the same fungus at the University of

Vermont, where he primarily was a researcher. The fact that

also was researching the fungus was one reason Toenjes took the job

in Billings.

Everybody has the C. albicans fungus in their gastrointestinal

tracts. In healthy people, the fungus usually is no problem, but it

can cause thrush - a yeast infection of the mouth, tongue and

esophagus - in babies, the elderly and AIDS patients, among others.

It also causes yeast infections in women and toenail infections.

While those conditions can be uncomfortable and painful, they

usually aren't life-threatening.

But if a person's immune system is compromised by chemotherapy,

radiation therapy, steroids or AIDS, the fungus can cause a systemic

infection that attacks major organs.

Being in a hospital intensive care unit is another risk factor.

Toenjes' wife's elderly grandfather died from the infection after

contracting it through a catheter.

When C. albicans spreads through the body, mortality can be has high

as 30 to 40 percent. Be-tween 5,000 and 7,000 people die from it

every year in the United States.

Some drugs will kill the fungus, but they have side effects.

Research that Toenjes and did at MSU Billings focused on

interfering with a process that is thought to enable C. albicans to

spread into the body.

The fungus grows two ways. One is by a bulge forming on the side the

cell. The bulge eventually breaks off and forms a new cell.

In the second way, an elongated filament forms to the side of the

cell, and new cells break off from the filament.

There's a theory that C. albicans invades the body when it goes back

and forth between those two types of growth.

Research by Toenjes and focuses on blocking the fungus from

that transition.

They discovered a molecule - BH3I-1 - that inhibits the transition

in the lab, although it's not known if it will do that in mice or

humans.

MSU Billings' patent is for a method to use BH3I-1 as a broad anti-

fungal drug or as a lab reagent to study the fungus. It also might

be used as an anti-cancer drug.

Now that a patent has been filed, that molecule is available for

other researchers to come up with applications for it.

Because of many hurdles, including the difficulty of getting

approval from the Food and Drug Administration, chances are slim -

on par with winning the lottery - that the molecule would become

part of a drug to treat people anytime soon.

But it could be tested in mice to see if it would protect the

animals from C. albicans and other fungi.

The research was supported by the Montana IDeA Network for

Biomedical Research Excellence from the National Institutes of

Health. The grant bought equipment, hired technicians and provided

money to hire Toenjes as a half-time researcher and half-time

teacher.

MSU Billings undergrads, who were hired as technicians, contributed

to the basic science of the research.

The grant and the research it funds are " pretty novel for MSU

Billings, " Toenjes said.

" It'd be nice if it could happen again, " he said.

The project also is supported by the Centers of Biomedical Research

Excellence, another NIH program.

Billings attorney Toni Tease handled the legal work required to file

the patent. Tease is one of only a few patent attorneys in the state.

This is Toenjes' third patent. He found this one was much easier to

complete because of the support that he received from MSU Billings

Chancellor Ron Sexton, Provost White and Tease's law firm.

Because of the backlog of work at the federal patent office, it will

be at least four years before they know if MSU Billings' application

has been approved.

Even though action on the patent is years away, now that the patent

application has been filed, anyone can buy licensing rights from the

university to start research.

Any revenue resulting from the patent would be split among MSU

Billings, Toenjes and after the university recoups its

expenses.

Toenjes and 's next project is to collaborate with and

Don Stierle, two Montana Tech researchers who are studying microbes

from the Berkeley Pit that not only have survived the pit's toxic

soup but also have other interesting characteristics.

When people talk about scientific research in Montana, they think of

MSU in Bozeman, UM in Missoula and maybe Montana Tech, Toenjes said.

Proposals to start research on other campuses usually raise concerns

that money will be spread too thin.

Toenjes answers that criticism by saying good work is being done in

Billings and that MSU Billings can train undergrads in different

ways than larger campuses.

Billings has smaller classes and professors dedicated to teaching,

he said, and that attracts dedicated students, some of whom are

passionate about research.

Contact Pickett at mpickett@... or 657-1262.