Alan Harvey is a professor of pharmacology in SIPBS and also Vice-Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Science. He studied pharmacy and then pharmacology, and has been an independent researcher since 1974. He works on the physiology and pharmacology of synaptic signalling, with particular interests in drugs and toxins affecting receptors and ion channels. He discovered the dendrotoxins, small proteins from mamba snake venoms that selectively block some types of potassium ion channels in neurons; these toxins have become standard pharmacological tools for investigating the role of particular ion channel sub-types in cellular physiology. In an extension to that work, he and collaborators in Sweden, Cuba, Argentina and Uruguay went on to discover other novel toxins with unusual chemical and pharmacological features: the fasciculins (the most potent and selective inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase), muscarinic toxins (the most sub-type specific compounds for studying muscarinic acetylcholine receptors), and the potassium ion channel blocking BgK and ShK; the last of these has formed the basis of an immunosuppressant drug that is in clinical trials. Currently, toxin-related research continues through involvement in a European consortium (“CONCO” - http://www.conco.eu/index.html) that is exploring the pharmaceutical potential of novel peptides from marine cone snails, particularly for treating patients with drug-resistant pain. He is President-Elect of the International Society on Toxinology (http://www.toxinology.org/) and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Toxicon (http://ees.elsevier.com/toxcon/).
Together with colleagues in phytochemistry at Strathclyde, Alan Harvey has developed the use of natural products in drug discovery. This has been based on developing a facility for the rapid screening of chemicals on cell-based and molecular assays and on building up a world-wide network of natural product collaborators. The network involves groups in 20 different countries; it pioneered access and benefit-sharing arrangements for natural products that are compatible with the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity; and it created one of the most biodiverse screening collections available (http://www.sidr.org/).
Alan Harvey has given many invited lectures at international conferences on toxins and venoms, natural products and drug discovery, and the academic-industrial interface. He has published extensively, with over 250 publications. On-going research activities include:
discovery of new toxins that can be used as experimental tools to help understand the control of the excitability of nerve cells and the chemical signalling between nerves and muscles; and development of specific inhibitors of neuronal sodium ion channels as potential analgesics
linking with clinicians to study the underlying pharmacological effects responsible for currently unexplained symptoms of victims of envenoming by snakes
use of natural products in screening campaigns for potential leads for new medicines for cancer, inflammatory diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, and metabolic diseases and as antimicrobials and anti-parasitics
cell-based and molecular based drug discovery for prostate cancer
development of new assays for drug discovery projects
use of leads from traditional medicines in drug discovery projects for diabetes and trypanosomiasis
"Small Molecule Discovery Programme: A comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to target the inhibitory kappa B kinase pathway to discover novel therapies in prostate cancer" Cancer Research UK
"Histone acetyl transferase inhibitors in COPD/asthma" Medical Research Council
"CONCO - Marine Drug Discovery " European Commission, FP6
Publications
R. L. Clark, B. F. Johnston, S. P. Mackay, C. J. Breslin, M. N. Robertson and A. L. Harvey (2010) The Drug Discovery Portal: a resource to enhance drug discovery from academia. Drug Discovery Today15, 679-683
I.A. Cree, S. Glaysher and A.L. Harvey (2010) Efficacy of anti-cancer agents in cell lines vs human primary tumor tissue. Current Opinion in Pharmacology10, 375-379
Coxon GD, Furman BL, Harvey AL, McTavish J, Mooney MH, Arastoo M, Kennedy AR, Tettey JM, Waigh RD. (2009) Benzylguanidines and other galegine analogues inducing weight loss in mice. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry52, 3457-3463 [DOI: 10.1021/jm8011933]
R. L. Clark, B. F. Johnston, S. P. Mackay, C. J. Breslin, M. N. Robertson, O. B. Sutcliffe, M. J. Dufton and A. L. Harvey (2010) The drug discovery portal: a computational platform for identifying drug leads from academia.. Current Pharmaceutical Design16, 1697-1702
C.L. Gibson, J.K. Huggan, A. Kennedy, L. Kiefer, J.H. Lee, C.J. Suckling, C.J. Clements, A.L. Harvey, W.N. Hunter and L.B. Tulloch (2009) Diversity oriented syntheses of fused pyrimidines designed as potential antifolates. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry7, 1829-1842 [DOI: 10.1039/b818339b]
Harvey, A.L. (2010) Plant natural products in anti-diabetic drug discovery. Current Organic Chemistry14, 1670-1677 Published (review)
R. L. Clark, B. F. Johnston, S. P. Mackay, C. J. Breslin, M. N. Robertson and A. L. Harvey (2010) The Drug Discovery Portal: a resource to enhance drug discovery from academia. Drug Discovery Today15, 679-683
I.A. Cree, S. Glaysher and A.L. Harvey (2010) Efficacy of anti-cancer agents in cell lines vs human primary tumor tissue. Current Opinion in Pharmacology10, 375-379
Coxon GD, Furman BL, Harvey AL, McTavish J, Mooney MH, Arastoo M, Kennedy AR, Tettey JM, Waigh RD. (2009) Benzylguanidines and other galegine analogues inducing weight loss in mice. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry52, 3457-3463 [DOI: 10.1021/jm8011933]
R. L. Clark, B. F. Johnston, S. P. Mackay, C. J. Breslin, M. N. Robertson, O. B. Sutcliffe, M. J. Dufton and A. L. Harvey (2010) The drug discovery portal: a computational platform for identifying drug leads from academia.. Current Pharmaceutical Design16, 1697-1702
C.L. Gibson, J.K. Huggan, A. Kennedy, L. Kiefer, J.H. Lee, C.J. Suckling, C.J. Clements, A.L. Harvey, W.N. Hunter and L.B. Tulloch (2009) Diversity oriented syntheses of fused pyrimidines designed as potential antifolates. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry7, 1829-1842 [DOI: 10.1039/b818339b]
Harvey, A.L. (2010) Plant natural products in anti-diabetic drug discovery. Current Organic Chemistry14, 1670-1677 Published (review)
J. Spencer, R.P. Rathnam, A.L. Harvey, C.J. Clements, R.L. Clark, M. Barrett, P.E. Wong, L. Male, S.J. Coles and S.P. Mackay (2011) Synthesis and biological activity of 1,4-benzodiazepin-2-ones with antitrypanosomal activity. BIOORGANIC & MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY19, 1802-1815
Makiyi, E.F., Frade, R.F.M., Lebl, T., Jaffray, E.G., Cobb, S., Harvey, A.L., Slawin, A.M.Z., Hay, R.T. and Westwood, N.J (2009) Iso-secoi-tanapartholides: isolation, synthesis and biological evaluation. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY33, 5711-5715 [DOI: 10.1002/ejoc.200901016]
R. Bansal, G. Kumar, D. Gandhi, L.C. Young and A.L. Harvey (2009) Synthesis of a series of 8-(substituted-phenyl)xanthines and a study on the effects of substitution pattern of phenyl substituents on affinity for adenosine receptors. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry44, 2122-2127
J.S. Forbey , A.L. Harvey , M.A. Huffman ,F. Provenza , R. Sullivan and D. Tasdemir (2009) Exploitation of secondary metabolites by animals - evolutionary foundations and lessons for human applications. Integrative and Comparative Biology49, 314-328
O. Castañeda and A.L. Harvey (2009) Discovery and characterization of cnidarian peptide toxins that affect neuronal potassium ion channels. Toxicon54, 1119-1124 Published (review)
Harvey, A. L., Young, L. C., Viljoen, A. M. & Gericke, N. P. (2011) Pharmacological actions of the South African medicinal and functional food plant Sceletium tortuosum and its principal alkaloids. Journal of Ethnopharmacology , [DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2011.07.035] Published (Epub)
A.L. Harvey and I.A. Cree (2010) High throughput screening of natural products for cancer therapy. Planta Medica76, 1080-1086 Published (review)
Bansal, R., Kumar, G., Gandhi, D., Young, L. C. & Harvey, A. L. (2011) Synthesis of a new series of 1H-imidazol-1-yl substituted 8-phenylxanthines as adenosine receptor ligands. Chemistry and Biodiversity8, 1290-1300 [DOI: 10.1002/cbdv.201000141]
A. L. Harvey, R. L. Clark, S. P. Mackay and B. F. Johnston (2010) Current strategies for drug discovery through natural products. Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery5, 559-568
R. Bansal, G. Kumar, D. Gandhi, R. Yadav, L.C. Young and A.L. Harvey (2010) Synthesis of 8-(cyclopentyloxy)phenyl substituted xanthine derivatives as adenosine A2A ligands. Arzneimittel-Forschung-Drug Research60, 131-136
A.L.Harvey (2011) Screening methods for drug discovery from plants. In ”Plant Bioactives and Drug Discovery: Principles, Practice and Perspectives”, ed. V.C. Filho, Wileys. Book Chapter , In Press
A.L.Harvey and N. Gericke (2011) Bioprospecting: creating a value for biodiversity. In ”Biodiversity”, ed. I Pavlinov, Intech. Book Chapter , In Press
B. Fathi, A.L. Harvey and E.G. Rowan (2011) Suramin inhibits the early effects of PLA2 neurotoxins at mouse neuromuscular junctions: a twitch tension study. Journal of Venom Research2, 6-10
E. Kornisiuk, M. Snitcofsky, C. Blanco, A.L. Harvey, T.W. Stone and D. Jerusalinsky (2011) Memory impairment in rats by hippocampal administration of the serine protease subtilisin. Behavioural Brain Research219, 63-67
R. Bansal, S. Guleria, L.C. Young and A.L. Harvey (2011) Synthesis of quaternary ammonium salts of 16E-[4-(2-alkylaminoethoxy)-3-methoxybenzylidene]androstene derivatives as skeletal muscle relaxants. Steroids76, 254-260
A.L. Harvey (2009) Fasciculins: toxins from mamba venoms that inhibit acetylcholinesterase activity. In “Reptile Venoms and Toxins”, ed. S.P. Mackessy, CRC Press. Book Chapter , 317-324
A.L. Harvey (2009) Dendrotoxins from mamba venoms: tools to study voltage-activated potassium ion channels. In “Animal Toxins: State of the Art. Perspectives on Health and Biotechnology”, eds. M.E. De Lima, A.M.C. Pimenta, M.F. Martin-Eauclaire and R. Zingale. Book Chapter , 473-480
A.L. Harvey (2009) Overview: animal toxins, state of the art. In “Animal Toxins: State of the Art. Perspectives on Health and Biotechnology”, eds. M.E. De Lima, A.M.C. Pimenta, M.F. Martin-Eauclaire and R. Zingale. Book Chapter , 19-22
A.L. Harvey (2009) Bridging the gap: using natural products in drug discovery research in academia and industry. In “Novel Therapeutic Agents from Plants”, ed. C. Carpinella and M Rai, Science Publishers, Enfield, NH, USA. Book Chapter , 167-165
