{"id":5605,"date":"2008-01-23T17:42:11","date_gmt":"2008-01-23T17:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/?p=5605"},"modified":"2008-01-23T17:42:11","modified_gmt":"2008-01-23T17:42:11","slug":"uri-pharmacy-professor-hunting-killer-diseases-with-novel-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/2008\/01\/23\/uri-pharmacy-professor-hunting-killer-diseases-with-novel-research\/","title":{"rendered":"URI pharmacy professor hunting killer diseases with novel research"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Kingstown\u2019s Keykavous Parang, an associate professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences in URI\u2019s College of Pharmacy, sits at his desk in front of two, three-dimensional images of the Src protein, a cell protein linked closely to the development of breast, colon, lung, ovarian, gastric and pancreatic cancers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

South Kingstown resident doing nationally recognized HIV, cancer studies<\/h3>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 23, 2008 \u2013 A University of Rhode Island pharmacy professor is developing compounds that could play a major role in the fight against certain cancers, discovering novel compounds to fight the virus that causes AIDS and finalizing development of a cream that could be used by women during intercourse to prevent Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) transmission.
\nKeykavous Parang<\/a>, an associate professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences in the College of Pharmacy, has been awarded more than $1.2 million during the last year for his promising cell- and chemistry-based research on two of the world\u2019s major killers—cancer and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
\nThe American Cancer Society has awarded Parang a four-year, $627,000 grant to continue his studies on Src, a cell protein linked closely to the development of breast, colon, lung, ovarian, gastric and pancreatic cancers.
\n\u201cConsiderable evidence implicates elevated expression and\/or activity of Src in cancer development,\u201d Parang said. \u201cIn 80 percent of women with breast cancer, there is an over-expression of Src.\u201d
\nWith more than 500 protein kinases in the human body, Parang is focusing his attention on Src protein kinase. This enzyme is involved in regulation of different cellular processes and signaling pathways. In cancer, cell regulation breaks down and cells grow uncontrollably.
\n\u201cThe American Cancer Society wants my research team to develop new inhibitors that act on Src exclusively,\u201d Parang said. \u201cThe goal is to develop an inhibitor that simultaneously targets two binding pockets of the enzyme in the cancer cells, so that the inhibitor is more potent and more selective. We expect to identify compounds that exhibit significantly greater affinities and selectivity than conventional inhibitors that target only one binding pocket of the enzyme.\u201d
\nParang already discovered several potent compounds against the enzyme, but now he is working to make them more effective in cells. \u201cI want to make them more drug-like, so pharmaceutical companies will take an interest. The compounds are optimized by further structure modifications, such as reducing size, to improve their cellular uptake in cancer cells. A drug company will hopefully then further optimize the compound for drug development.\u201d
\n$300,000 National Science Foundation grant<\/strong>
\nThe National Science Foundation has given preliminary approval to a three-year, $300,000 grant to synthesize organophosphorus compounds, some of which could lead to anti-viral medicines effective against HIV.
\nParang said several organophosphorus are important precursors for producing biological activities of several anti-viral and anti-cancer drugs.
\nPatients with AIDS must now take extensive drug cocktails continuously for the rest of their lives. Several of these drugs are intrinsically inactive and become active in the cells after conversion to organophosphorus compounds. If patients stop taking them, disease and symptoms return by proliferation of resistant HIV-infected cells.
\n\u201cWe are working on compounds that would go into HIV-infected cells, release two or three active anti-HIV agents, and block replication,\u201d Parang said. \u201cThe compounds would enter the nucleic acid of the cell, prevent replication and then lead to the death of the virus. The compounds are expected to be more potent, less toxic and more effective in killing resistant viruses than current available drugs.\u201d
\nParang said most of the strategies for synthesis of organophosphorus compounds have been hampered by the absence of selectivity and low overall yields. He added that pure compounds cannot be prepared in sufficient quantities and the current methods cannot be generalized for synthesis of diverse and large numbers of compounds.
\n\u201cWe have already developed methods for synthesis that have been published in 11 papers,\u201d Parang said. \u201cWe can make hundreds of compounds, but now we want to focus our research to develop more novel compounds that cannot be created by conventional methods. We are already testing several organophosphorus compounds against HIV.\u201d
\n

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South Kingstown\u2019s Keykavous Parang, an associate professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences in URI\u2019s College of Pharmacy, third from left, joins other members of a research team studying compounds that could inhibit proteins linked to cancer and AIDS. From left are: Guofeng Ye, a doctoral student, Yousef Ahmadibeni, a post doctoral fellow, Paranag and Gongqin Sun, an associate professor in the URI Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, the co-principal investigator.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nGongqin Sun, an associate professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, is the co-principal investigator for both grants. The two researchers have collaborated during the last seven years, which has resulted in four, multi-year grants from the American Cancer Society, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
\n$288,000 from the Contraceptive Research and Development Program
\nin Collaboration with Eastern Virginia Medical School\u2019s Clinical Research Center
\nSupported by two-year funds from the contraceptive research program, Parang and his team are developing a topical cream that could be used by woman during intercourse to stop the spread of HIV. Parang said the need is great with 42 million people living with HIV\/AIDS today.
\n\u201cWomen face a greater risk of acquiring HIV and are 4 to 17 times more likely to contract HIV because of economic, social and biological factors,\u201d Parang said. \u201cSo there is an urgent need to develop a safe over-the-counter intravaginal\/intrarectal microbicide for prevention of HIV transmission in women.\u201d
\nHe said the goal of the project is to develop anti-HIV-1 microbicides with or without spermicidal activity by combining agents having different mechanisms of action. Some of these microbicides are in pre-clinical studies, Parang said. In addition to this two-year project, Parang has already received $274,000 through the same program since 2003.
\n\u201cI get excited by doing work in these areas because they are new interdisciplinary strategies to fight killer diseases,\u201d Parang said. \u201cI am looking at research that is original and creative. I have always been open to the big picture and not a narrow field, so I work with many biologists. We are advancing chemistry by solving biological problems.\u201d
\n 
\nMedia Contact: Dave Lavallee<\/a>, 401-874-5862
\nURI Department of Communications & Marketing photos by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Kingstown resident doing nationally recognized HIV, cancer studies KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 23, 2008 \u2013 A University of Rhode Island pharmacy professor is developing compounds that could play a major role in the fight against certain cancers, discovering novel compounds to fight the virus that causes AIDS and finalizing development of a cream that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":639,"featured_media":5606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[161,251,35,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-bps","category-news-grants","category-news","category-news-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/639"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}