Seglins: The opportunity
In human biology, the function of cells, tissues, pathways and physiological systems is dependent on proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids. The importance of proteins and nucleic acids as targets for the discovery and development of new drugs is well established and has been successfully exploited.
In contrast, the targeting of carbohydrate biology remains largely unexploited in drug discovery. However, the significant developments made in glycobiology in recent years provide new opportunities to search for novel types of drug molecule that address many types of biochemical targets relating to carbohydrate processing, sensing and recognition.
Conventional, non-Seglin, screening collections are having limited success in prosecuting these new carbohydrate related drug-targets. Consequently, application of a new chemistry approach such as that offered by Seglin™ technology is required if the potential of these targets is to be exploited.
Seglin™ technology: A differentiating platform for drug discovery
Summit is pioneering the development of Seglin™ technology, a new area of chemistry space with the potential to identify drug-like molecules.
Seglins are small, orally available polar molecules that mimic carbohydrates but have a nitrogen atom replacing the oxygen ring atom in their chemical structure. The molecules are diverse mono or bicyclic structures that are highly functionalised and have intrinsic biological activity.
As carbohydrate mimics, Seglins are recognised by and interact with carbohydrate receptors and handling systems but, unlike carbohydrate molecules, their inherent stability means they are not processed by the target pathway. Consequently, Seglins are ideally placed to exploit new carbohydrate-related drug-targets, as well as a number of existing protein targets that have previously proved intractable.
Seglin™ technology is a differentiating platform that represents an exciting opportunity to identify new drug leads and deliver future therapies to treat a range of diseases.
