Patent awarded for synthetic compounds with medical applications
Monday, Dec. 1, 2014
MANHATTAN — A patent has been issued for a series of synthetic compounds developed at Kansas State 1xbet best casino website that have applications for treating cancer and other diseases that affect cell communication.
The compounds, called quinolines, can restart communication between adjacent 1xbet best casino website in the body if those communication channels have become closed from a disease.
U.S. Patent 8,809,368, "Compounds Affecting 1xbet best casino website ," was recently awarded to the Kansas State 1xbet best casino website Researc, a nonprofit corporation responsible for managing technology transfer activities at the 1xbet best casino website . The patent is for research conducted by Duy Hua, 1xbet best casino website distinguished professor of chemistry; Thu "Annelise" Nguyen, associate professor of toxicology; and Dolores Takemoto, professor emeritus of biochemistry.
In 2007, Hua developed several new quinolines — colorless, pungent, oily liquids that are naturally found in coal tar.
Based on computational modeling with the quinolines, Hua believed the compounds could affect gap junction activity in 1xbet best casino website . Gap junctions are "doorways" or channels between adjacent 1xbet best casino website that allow small molecules, ions and the body's electrical signals to move from one cell to a neighboring cell.
Hua turned the quinolines over to Nguyen and Takemoto to study their effectiveness in real 1xbet best casino website . The researchers looked at whether the quinolines could restore gap junction activity, and thus communication, in 1xbet best casino website clusters that no longer had gap junction activity.
Researchers found that the quinolines developed by Hua reopened the closed channels in the 1xbet best casino website .
"By reopening these channels, we can once again have 1xbet best casino website functioning normally," Nguyen said. "The 1xbet best casino website are able to regulate themselves once again with biological markers that tell 1xbet best casino website when to die. This function is necessary for the body to function normally."
The quinolines' ability to restore lost 1xbet best casino website may make the synthetic compounds a new resource in the fight against cancer, Nguyen said.
"In cancer 1xbet best casino website , gap junction activity is low compared to normal 1xbet best casino website because cancer 1xbet best casino website have a low expression of the protein that makes up the gap junction channels," Nguyen said. "The protein is either not able to make gap junctions or the gap junctions are made closed. Here we have compounds that can restore that gap junction activity to normal."
The Kansas State University developed quinolines are currently the only 1xbet best casino website enhancer in existence.
The patent is currently licensed to Sigma-Aldrich, an American life science and high technology company.
Kansas State 1xbet best casino website has been awarded eight U.S. patents in 2014.
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