Mysore University faculty develops breast cancer medicine

Mysuru: Mysore University Department of Studies in Organic Chemistry and also a Deputy Registrar-Administration, Dr Basappa has developed new breast cancer drug-like compounds in his laboratory.

Dr Basappa's lab discovered oxadiazole-based PARP inhibitor, which inhibited the viability of human breast cancer cells with an IC50 value of 1.4 micromolar when compared to Olaparib (3.2 micromolar).

The laboratory experimental data in collaboration with Prof Peter E Lobie, Tsinghua Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, China revealed that the newly discovered (5u) PARP inhibitor may serve as exemplars for the development of new therapeutics in breast cancer. This work was accepted in the 'Molecules' MDPI Journal.

Presently, Dr Basappa lab is dedicated to commercialise two international patents, where he had designed, synthesized, characterized, and studied in vitro, in vivo pharmacological effects of drug-like compounds that target trefoil factor 3 and Bcl2 antagonist of cell death On December 24 last Indian Patent Office has granted a Patent on Bcl2 antagonist of cell death application .Last week, Dr Basappa also received an email from Mauro Piacentini, Editors-in-Chief, Nature Cell Death & Disease Journal that accepted an article entitled "Trefoil factor 3 promotes pancreatic carcinoma progression via WNT pathway activation mediated by enhanced WNT ligand expression" allowing him to be narrowed in taking these drug-candidates for clinical trials.

This work was partly supported by Centres of Excellence in Science, Engineering and Medicine, Vision Group on Science and Technology and Government of Karnataka.

Dr Basappa's lab has published around 145 research papers in national and international peer-reviewed journals which include Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, USA, Nature Scientific Reports, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society and Oxford Journals.