Ayana Bio receives NIH grant to unlock saffron’s neuroprotective potential

01 May 2024 --- Plant cell technology company Ayana Bio will use the US$300,000 grant to support its research into the neuroprotective benefits of saffron for Huntington’s disease and other neurological and age-related diseases.

Specifically, the grant from the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will fund the company’s research to identify which complex of saffron bioactives can consistently demonstrate the highest neuroprotective benefits for the disease. 

Ayana Bio will also conduct a preclinical study on a model of Huntington’s disease to determine how plant cell cultivation can enhance the production of the plant’s bioactives. 

Nutrition Insight discusses the grant and its implications for unlocking saffron’s benefits with Frank Jaksch, CEO of Ayana Bio. Currently, the botanical’s exorbitant costs limit its applications in health products. 

“The world of botanical ingredients is still largely untapped for its health and wellness benefits and ripe for innovation. While we focus on one application area of Huntington’s disease, this grant speaks to the possibility of using standardized plant ingredients for various conditions, from sustainably producing health and wellness supplements to enhancing the nutritional content of processed foods.”

“Plant cell cultivation can excel in providing affordable, sustainable and potent botanical ingredients for a range of consumer products.” 

Unlocking saffron’s potential 
Traditional saffron production requires up to 170,000 flowers for 1 kg of saffron, making it a prohibitively expensive health and wellness ingredient. In addition, climate change amplifies challenges to grow the botanical, driving crop failures in a constrained supply chain. 

Instead, Ayana Bio will employ plant cell cultivation, which creates plant material without growing plants in the ground. The company will grow saffron cells in temperature-controlled, stainless steel tanks to establish a reliable and consistent source of saffron and its beneficial bioactive complex. 

Ayana Bio is designing saffron plant cell line, medium and process groupings to boost the content of select beneficial molecules.Using the NIH grant, Ayana Bio will use its high-throughput synthetic biology capabilities of sequencing, multi-omics technology and analytical chemistry to explore and select the best plant cell lines. 

Jaksch explains: “We’re designing saffron plant cell line, medium and process groupings to boost the content of select beneficial molecules. We will test phyto complexes derived from this work on a model of Huntington’s disease.” 

Once this process is completed and optimized, Ayana Bio “will scale the production of plant cell-derived saffron, complete our preclinical studies and find customers to continue building the market.” 

“The grant is for this year’s budget period,” he continues. “The recommended future year total cost support (for the same amount next year) is subject to the availability of funds and satisfactory progress of the project. In total, we expect this project to last approximately two years.”   

Boosting brain health 
Clinical trials demonstrate saffron’s benefits in neurological and age-related diseases, such as depression, anxiety and Alzheimer’s disease. 

“The brain is the most complex known object in the universe. There’s much to be discovered,” underscores Jaksch. “Saffron has been widely understudied because obtaining standardized biomass is difficult and prohibitively expensive due to its agricultural supply chain constraints. This plant could harbor many interconnected benefits, especially for the brain.” 

“We will run a series of tests with a model of Huntington’s disease in C. elegans. These experiments will allow us to compare our cell line, medium and process grouping (i.e., early versions of our product) against other saffron products on the market.” 

The preclinical study will identify a standardized complex of bioactives that can be produced consistently, allowing researchers to study the botanical’s health benefits more effectively. 

Jaksch hopes the work will open future areas of study for other neurological diseases.Jaksch emphasizes that there is no cure for Huntington’s disease. Due to saffron’s limited access and high costs, driven by the plant’s labor-intensive harvesting needs and exacerbated by climate change, there has been limited research on the botanical as a source of pharmaceuticals. 

“This work will ideally open future areas of study for other neurological diseases.” 

Plant cell promise 
Saffron’s neurological effects have also been shown to aid in weight loss by increasing satiety. Earlier this year, Ayana Bio signed an agreement with Wooree Bio to develop plant cell-derived saffron for health and wellness products in South Korea. 

“We look forward to testing the impact of our saffron products on models of Huntington’s disease while we also explore the satiety effects of this plant through our new partnership with Wooree Bio,” highlights Jaksch. 

“Ayana Bio is not a pharmaceutical company, but an ingredient company. Securing this NIH grant is a strong validator of plant cell cultivation’s promise and a milestone in introducing beneficial plant-cell-derived ingredients to important health and wellness products.”  

He concludes: “It’s an exciting time for the field — one where we can demonstrate the power and sustainability impact of standardized botanical ingredients (like Saffron Plant Cell Advantage) made through plant cell cultivation.”   

By Jolanda van Hal