Sister of St. Joseph makes scientific breakthrough

When Sister Pat Grasso professed vows as a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, she embraced the religious order's charism of love and service to "the dear neighbor."

Decades later, her breakthrough in a potential treatment for obesity and type-2 diabetes could impact neighbors far beyond geographical or professional borders.

"If this goes the way we pray it will go, my 'dear neighbor' is the entire population of people who need it," remarked the sister, a member of her order's Albany province. "My 'dear neighbor' is all over the world."

An associate professor of medicine at Albany Medical Center and a "protein chemist by trade," Sister Pat reported that she and her research team recently discovered the OB-3 peptide, a hormone with a role in regulating food intake and body weight.

"Through a series of studies in mice and rats, we have developed a synthetic fragment of leptin that decreases appetite and increases metabolism, resulting in significant weight loss and lower blood glucose levels in animal models," she explained. "Now, we hope to demonstrate that OB-3 peptide can be similarly effective in humans."

On their way
Under a recent agreement between AMC and Aegis Therapeutics, clinical trials are forthcoming. If successful, commercialization would be the next step.

Sister Pat, who lives in Connecticut and commutes to Albany, has been researching diabetes for nearly 20 years, beginning with a doctorate in anatomy from Georgetown University. She chose endo-crinology as her field of research and later came to Albany Medical Center to continue her research and to teach gross anatomy to first-year medical students.

"In the mid-1990s, leptin was a hot topic," Sister Pat explained. "They thought it would solve problems regarding weight gain and food intake. When you use everything you consume, there is no excess to build up as fat. Intake and output are balanced. Leptin helps do that."

But leptin was not the panacea that scientists first anticipated.

"It lost its fervor," Sister Pat said - but, rather than letting go of the research, she picked up the pieces.

"I asked what part of that molecule, what fragment peptide made leptin work. I used my expertise to take fragments and figure out what leptin was doing, and found the active fragment."

Although reduction in weight and glucose levels were demonstrated in mice, efficacy in humans is not certain.

"We don't know if clinical trials will fail but we have to see," Sister Pat said, noting that such trials require a great deal of funding.

The solution, she said, "came from out of the blue: The president and CEO of Aegis Therapeutics [Dr. Edward Maggio] called me at home about licensing our peptide and buying the rights to use it."

Dr. Maggio proposed the OB-3 peptide be combined with Intravail, an Aegis product that enhances absorption of protein peptides. Further experiments on mice showed that an oral form of the Intravail/OB-3 peptide compound was absorbed by the body as readily as forms administered by injections or nose drops.

"I'm primarily excited that we can give this peptide orally and make it a lot easier and safer on people," said Sister Pat. "There will be no needles or syringes that are a problem in our society today. [Some diabetics] may not need insulin injections any more. We hope to get this into the clinic and try it on people.

"Aegis will market it to pharmaceutical companies to fund the trials in humans," she continued. "It's the first and only anti-obesity [treatment] they are trying to market. Obesity is pandemic in nature, and what's on the market [to treat it] is very minimal."

Faith at work
Sister Pat said there is no separation between her work as a scientist and teacher and her vocation as a Sister of St. Joseph.

"It's a ministry, not a job," she said. "I'm introduced as 'Sister Pat.' I'm the only sister on faculty and have been the only one since I've been here.

"People who know I'm a sister come and talk," she added, noting that three adults have joined the Church during her time at AMC.

"Ministry flows out of what I do as I teach," she explained. "There is no dichotomy. It's all one ministry. My life is submerged in the 'dear neighbor.'"

If the OB-3 peptide can help those suffering from obesity and diabetes, she concluded, "it will extend globally. There will be hundreds of millions of dear neighbors all over the world."

(11-19-09)