MetSPlat (An in vivo platform for pre-clinical drug trials against Metabolic Syndrome)

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is one of the greatest challenges to global health today. It consists of a combination of various cardiometabolic risk factors, such as abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, hypertension, and hyperglycemia, which carries a high risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease, among others. In the Canary Islands, it affects 30-40% of the population, and in Tenerife, 40-50% of those over 65 years of age. There are no specific medications for the treatment of MetS, nor are there readily available animal models that fully exhibit its characteristics for study and the evaluation of potential treatments. Therefore, we have generated a transgenic mouse, B6.Tg.SGK1, with increased activity of the SGK1 enzyme. After a short period on a high-fat diet, it develops all the characteristics of MetS. We propose the B6.Tg.SGK1 mouse as a unique platform (MetSPlat) for conducting in vivo preclinical trials of both existing drugs and novel molecules for the treatment of this syndrome and/or some of its characteristics, such as the organ damage that leads to Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. This simplifies the preclinical screening phase and accelerates the transfer of compounds to the next stage of pharmaceutical validation. This project is supported by the following pharmaceutical companies: Boehringer Ingelheim SA, Amgen SA, and Ferrer Internacional SA. The intended technology transfer milestone is the creation of an in vivo preclinical drug testing platform for metabolic diseases. The development of this platform may lead to a patent for the platform itself, as well as the generation of patents related to the drugs/molecules tested.

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ULL Team

• Silvia Ascensión Velázquez García
• Diego Álvarez de la Rosa Rodríguez