Engineering saffron plant cell culture to produce neuroprotective bioactives
Ended Project Grant Awarded Last action
- Award ID
- R43AT012848
- Recipient
-
Ayana Bio LLC UEI N68DC1YWCMU9
- Awarding agency
-
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services
- Obligated
- $907,175
Award facts
- Assistance listing
- 93.213 Research and Training in Complementary and Integrative Health
- Completion date
- Place of performance
- Boston, MA 02210, USA
Award details come from USAspending.gov.
Description
- Abstract
- The saffron plant (crocus sativa l.) contains a variety of bioactive compounds with demonstrated clinical benefit, including the terpenoids crocin, crocetin, safranal, and picrocrocin. The clinical benefits of these molecules have been demonstrated in depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ischemic stroke, multiple sclerosis, alzheimer's disease, parkinson's disease, and huntington's disease. Data from randomized controlled clinical trials in individuals with neurocognitive disorders provide compelling evidence to further develop pharmaceutical, supplement, and food-based treatments. These approaches hold commercial and therapeutic promise. And customer demand is high. For example, saffron supplements comprise a current market of more than $1 billion (2022), which is expected to grow (reaching nearly $1.7 billion by 2029). But the paucity of high-quality supplies limits market access to saffron bioactives. Ayana BIO is developing a platform approach called ascent (analyze to scale cellular enhancement technology) to realize the power of plant cell culture technology for scalable, consistent, and cost-effective commercial scale production of plant-specific bioactives. In this proposal, we will demonstrate proof-of-concept for ascent by generating the first-ever bioactive-enriched saffron cell line and demonstrate preliminary safety and efficacy in a c. Elegans model of huntington's disease. In aim 1, top-of-the-line screening, sequencing, and metabolomics approaches will be used to simultaneously optimize cell culture growth, increase production of crocus sativa l. Bioactives, and elucidate the genes, enzymes, and pathways that can be targeted to further optimize the strain. In aim 2, lead lines will be engineered to overexpress key biosynthetic enzymes that drive saffron bioactive production. In aim 3, we will determine toxicology and efficacy of an engineered crocus sativa l. Cell culture extract in a c. Elegans model of huntington's disease. Our preliminary data using a large-scale microfluidics approach to screen the c. Elegans poly-glutamine (polyq) aggregation model discovered four compounds that significantly reduced protein aggregation and mitigated disease phenotypes. These results demonstrate the utility of c. Elegans as a model of polyq disease.
Transactions
| Action | Obligated | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Amendment | -$1 | |
| Amendment | $302,392 | |
| Amendment | $302,392 | |
| Original award | $302,392 |
Quick answers
Who received award R43AT012848?
R43AT012848 was awarded to Ayana Bio LLC by National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (National Institutes of Health) on April 5, 2024.
How much is award R43AT012848 worth?
$907,175 has been obligated on R43AT012848.
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