University researchers have developed a prototype drug that may positively impact the future of bone marrow transplants and the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

The collaborative research of Gary Glick, the Werner E. Bachmann Collegiate Professor of Chemistry at the University, and James Ferrara, director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, focuses on the metabolism of cells and aims to stop the development of graft-versus-host disease known as GVHD.

GVHD can be a major complication during bone marrow transplant procedures, Ferrara said. According to a Jan. 26 University press release, the new findings could potentially create new ways to fight immune diseases.

Glick and Ferrara, among others, recently co-wrote a study on the effectiveness of the prototype drug Bz-423 in stopping the onset of GVHD, according to the press release. The findings of the study, which was performed on mice, was published in Science Translational Medicine magazine on Jan. 26.

Ferrara explained that the research on Bz-423 initially began with Glick’s “long-standing interest in the bioenergetics or the metabolism of cells.”

According to Ferrara, Glick first discovered Bz-423 through the screening process of compounds and also found it could “get activated cells to die in a test tube,” preventing the contraction of GVHD in the test animals.

“The drug affects activated lymphocytes, and it drove them to suicide,” Ferrara said. “These are the cells that are continuously activated and attacking the tissues of the animal or the patient, and so this is able to arrest this disease … called graft-versus-host disease.”

Bone marrow transplantations are currently reserved for the most life-threatening hematologic malignancies, or cancers that affect blood and bone marrow, according to Ferrara.

Ferrara said though Glick has been working with research on Bz-423 for about five years, it wasn’t until about three years ago that they began their collaborative research.

Drawing on his extensive experience with bone marrow transplants, Ferrara assisted Glick in devising an experimental system that would track the effects the drug has on the individual cells.

The findings of the study “show that only the activated ones that were causing disease were the ones that this drug killed, whereas other normal cells would not be killed,” Ferrara said.

He said he believes it will be at least one year before clinical trials of the drug will be released to patients. According to Ferrara, the drug will provide a treatment different from others currently on the market because it’s being tested on mice instead of in a test tube.

Rackham student Daniel Wahl, a third-year medical student and one of the co-authors of the recently published paper, echoed Ferrara’s sentiments about the significance of the new drug and wrote in an e-mail interview that the drug will provide more effective treatment for patients.

“This research is very exciting for the future of bone marrow transplantation,” Wahl wrote. “If the beneficial effects we have observed in animal models can be translated into the clinic, this new drug could be an important new tool to treat the side effects of bone marrow transplantation.”