A Cross Riverian, Vincent Collins Ofuka Njar, Professor and Head, Medicinal Chemistry Section, Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics, CBT; Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, IBBR, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore in the USA, has made a significant scientific breakthrough in the fight against cancer and its treatment, www.calitown.com can reveal.
On the University of Maryland School of Medicine website, Njar, who is said to have “a long standing interest in the rational discovery and development of small molecules as anti-cancer agents” has “made significant discoveries in the development of novel small molecules with potential for the treatments of a variety of cancers, especially breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers.”
The leading medicinal chemist and oncopharmacologist’s invention by far the most scientifically potent inhibitors of breast and prostate cancer tumors, inhibits novel reactions that lead to the combination (or novel inhibitors) of all-trans retinoic acid. (Retinoids are important biological molecules that participate in cell growth and maturation, apoptosis, and immunologic function. Retinoic acid is vital in embryonic life for organ development, as well as visual function.)
“In ongoing studies, we have discovered that our novel RAMBA retinamides, now called novel retinamides (NRs) also antagonize transactivation of the androgen receptor (AR), degrade the full-length and splice variant ARs in human prostate cancer cell lines. Altogether, these effects of NRs in breast and prostate cancer cell lines promotes apoptosis, impede cell growth, cell proliferation and matrix invasion in these cell lines, making the NRs strong candidates for development as novel anti-breast/prostate cancer therapeutics… In collaboration with Angela Brodie, Ph.D., internationally renowned breast cancer researcher, we developed some of the most potent inhibitors of CYP17 known”, the site also said. Their effort is gladdening as it registered toleration “with promising clinical activity in men with castration resistant prostate cancer”, we gathered.
His work, “Discovery and Development of Galeterone (TOK-001 or VN/124-1) for the Treatment of All Stages of Prostate Cancer”, has been published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and cited 126 times.
Born November 16, 1953, this Ikom native is listed as a “note worthy Chemistry Educator and Researcher” by the Marquis Who’s Who, an authoritative American publication of a number of directories containing short biographies, started by Albert Nelson Marquis and first published in 1899.
