When experienced researcher Renato Aguilera happened across the chemical structure of a tried-and-true antimalarial drug one day, he thought it might effectively fight cancer. He was right, and he has the research, the patent, and the pharma company to prove it.
When Renato Aguilera moved to the United States from Mexico at age 15, he spoke virtually no English. Determined, he learned the language and went on to graduate with not only a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in microbiology from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), but also a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Now, he’s Dr Renato Aguilera. He even has his own Wikipedia page.
Since those humble beginnings, Aguilera has gained extensive knowledge and experience, particularly in immunology, molecular and cell biology, and cancer research. In 2017, that knowledge was quite serendipitously put to good use when he attended a UTEP seminar about an antimalarial drug called pyronaridine (PND).
“Louis Pasteur said, ‘Chance favors the prepared mind,’” Aguilera said about what turned out to be a pivotal moment in his career. “When I looked closely at the structure of the drug, I saw that it could be used to attack cancer cells. Several years later, the granting of the patent is getting us closer to actually using this drug for patient care.”
After Aguilera had spotted pyronaridine’s potential, he and then-doctoral student, now PhD holder, Paulina Villaneuva, joined with other researchers to examine the drug’s effect on cancer cells. They found that, in lab tests, pyronaridine slowed cancer growth and triggered the programmed death (apoptosis) pathway in different cancer cells, including lung, breast, ovarian, lymphoma, melanoma, and multiple myeloma. Importantly, it left non-cancerous cells pretty much untouched. Their work was published in PLOS One in 2018.
“With pyronaridine, we have the trifecta: slowed growth of cells, programmed cell death, and minimal impact to healthy cells,” Aguilera said. “In the future, this drug could potentially be used in combination with immunotherapy to speed up the process of killing cancer cells.”
As the Director of the Border Biomedical Research Center’s (BBRC) Cellular Characterization and Biorepository (CCB), part of UTEP’s College of Science, Aguilera facilitated high-throughput screening for drugs that kill off cancer cells. But why the focus on cancer? In a 2023 interview with Dr Keith Pannell and Miguel Morales on KTEP, UTEP’s radio station, Aguilera candidly explained his reasons:
“And the question that people ask me, ‘Why would you want to do that?,’” he said. “And I go, ‘Because I think that’s probably what I’m going to die from, and I would like to at least contribute to finding drugs that can cure me or cure my friends.'”
To that end, Aguilera applied for and was granted a patent for the repurposed pyronaridine. The application was made in partnership with Armaceutica, Inc., a company focused on developing cancer drugs, for which Aguilera is the Chief Scientific Officer. Villaneuva, his former research partner, who is now a postdoctoral scholar at the NanoScience Technology Center at the University of Central Florida, is proud of her contribution to the work and helping Aguilera get to this point.
“It’s incredible to witness the hard work invested in this research come to fruition,” Villanueva said. “Research opens the door to countless possibilities, and although personalized medicine isn’t one-size-fits-all, the drug pyronaridine could be a breakthrough for some. The journey isn’t over yet – there’s still much to be done – but securing the drug’s patent is a significant milestone that will drive future progress.”
Source: UTEP
