Inventors: Drs. Kenneth Ain and Wei Lei (Internal Medicine)
Technical Description: The present invention relates to the fields of oncology
and drug discovery. Specifically, this invention relates to methods of treating
cancer, methods of screening compounds for anti-cancer activity, and methods of
identifying anti-cancer target proteins.
Summary: Thyroid cancers are treated with radioiodide. Unfortunately, some
thyroid cancers do not concentrate radioiodide, making them resistant to
treatment. The inventors have discovered nucleic acid sequences of the protein
responsible for concentrating radioiodide. This sequence can be used to design
methods of identifying compounds that induce radioiodide concentration in
treatment-resistant thyroid cancers.
4.         U.S. Patent Application Serial Number: (to be assigned) Filed: February 14, 2007
Title: "Withanolides, Probes and Binding Targets and Methods of Use Thereof Inventors: Drs. Royce Mohan, Paola Bargagna Mohan, and Kyung Bo Kim (Ophthalmology)
Technical Description: The present invention relates to 1) compounds for targeting human or animal disease states characterized by aberrant expression of the intermediate filament type III proteins, such as vimentin, 2) methods for detecting such intermediate filament type III proteins and 3) compounds for screening small molecules that target intermediate filament proteins. Summary: Withaferin A is a natural compound that has antitumor activity. Withaferin acts by binding to intermediate filament type III proteins. The inventors have developed molecular probes by binding reporter molecules to Withaferin A. These probes can be used to identify other antitumor molecules by screening for molecules that exclude Withaferin A binding to intermediate filament type III proteins in competition assays.
5.         U.S. Patent Application Serial Number: (to be assigned)
Filed: January 24, 2007
Title: "Modeling of mPGES-1 Three-Dimensional Structures: Applications in Drug Discovery"
Inventors: Dr. Chang-Guo Zhan (Pharmaceutical Sciences) Technical Description: Computational methods for determining the three-dimensional structure of one or more polypeptides are provided. Also provided are three-dimensional models of a microsomal prostaglandin synthase molecule and computer-implemented methods for identifying compounds that interact with the molecule.
Summary: The enzyme mPGES-1 is involved in a number of disease states, including arthritis, pain, atherosis, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. The inventors have developed a computer model of the structure of mPGES-1.   The computer model is useful in identifying compounds that bind mPGES-1. These compounds therefore are candidates for drug treatment of the aforementioned disease states.