Nereus Pharmaceuticals was a

pharmaceutical company The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate sympto ...

focused on the development of

natural product A natural product is a natural compound or substance produced by a living organism—that is, found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life. Natural products can also be prepared by chemical syn ...

s from marine microbial and other natural sources into

small molecule Within the fields of molecular biology and pharmacology, a small molecule or micromolecule is a low molecular weight (≤ 1000 daltons) organic compound that may regulate a biological process, with a size on the order of 1 nm. Many drugs ar ...

human therapeutics. The major disease area addressed by Nereus is

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. Nereus was purchased by Triphase Research and Development in 2012.

Drug discovery

Until 2004, Nereus used methods licensed from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

to retrieve and cultivate marine microorganisms, particularly bacteria in the

Actinomycetia The Actinomycetia are a class of bacteria. Taxonomy The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). * Acidothermales Sen et ...

class and organisms belonging to Kingdom

Fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

. Since 2004, the company has focused on commercializing identified bioactive natural products. As of mid-2007, two compounds were being examined in Phase I clinical trials: NPI-2358 and NPI-0052. *

Plinabulin Plinabulin (provisional name BPI-2358, formerly NPI-2358) is a small molecule under development by BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals, and is in a world-wide Phase 3 clinical trial for non-small cell lung cancer. Plinabulin is being investigated for th ...

(NPI-2358) is a halimide derivative, halimide itself having been isolated from a member of genus ''

Aspergillus ' () is a genus consisting of several hundred mold species found in various climates worldwide. ''Aspergillus'' was first catalogued in 1729 by the Italian priest and biologist Pier Antonio Micheli. Viewing the fungi under a microscope, Miche ...

''. This compound appears to selectively disrupt tumour vasculature through interaction with

microtubule Microtubules are polymers of tubulin that form part of the cytoskeleton and provide structure and shape to eukaryotic cells. Microtubules can be as long as 50 micrometres, as wide as 23 to 27 nm and have an inner diameter between 11 an ...

s. * NPI-1342 (Acanthoic Acid analog, NPI-1302a-3) is a plant derived orally active small molecule that targets the NF_kB transcript factor pathway. It is significantly active against cancer and inflammatory diseases and is being developed for clinical testing in multiple myeloma and glioblastoma. *

Salinosporamide A Salinosporamide A (Marizomib) is a potent proteasome inhibitor being studied as a potential anticancer agent. It entered phase I human clinical trials for the treatment of multiple myeloma, only three years after its discovery in 2003. This marin ...

(NPI-0052) is a natural product of ''

Salinispora tropica ''Salinispora tropica'' is an obligate marine actinomycete bacterium species. It produces salinosporamide A and salinosporamide B, potential anti-cancer agents, as well as the polycyclic macrolides The Macrolides are a class of natural pr ...

'', a member of the bacterial family ''

Micromonosporaceae Micromonosporaceae is a family of bacteria of the class ''Actinomycetia''. They are gram-positive, spore-forming soil organisms that form a true mycelium. Genera Micromonosporaceae comprises the following genera: * ''Actinocatenispora'' Thawa ...

'' that was first isolated in 2002 and taxonomically identified genetically in 2005. NPI-0052 acts as a

proteasome inhibitor Proteasome inhibitors are drugs that block the action of proteasomes, cellular complexes that break down proteins. They are being studied in the treatment of cancer; and three are approved for use in treating multiple myeloma. Mechanism Multipl ...

References

{{Pharmaceutical companies of the United States Companies based in San Diego Defunct pharmaceutical companies of the United States American companies established in 1988 Privately held companies based in California Pharmaceutical companies established in 1988 Pharmaceutical companies disestablished in 2012