Design and Evaluation of Novel Histone Deacetylase 6 Inhibitors for Therapeutic Applications in Medulloblastoma and Glioblastoma

Brain cancers represent one of the most aggressive tumors that are especially challenging to treat through drugs, partially due to the inherent protection by the blood-brain barrier. Therefore, developing drugs that have specific chemical properties that allow them to cross the blood-brain-barrier, while simultaneously retaining their drug-like features is a heavily sought-after approach in treating brain cancers. One of the current approaches, is to target a protein called HDAC, a protein crucial in disease progression. Although there are 4 FDA-approved drugs that target HDAC6 on the market, they suffer challenges such as limited potency, selectivity, and brain penetration, resulting in limited therapeutic response while eliciting severe toxicities in patients. Herein, we aim to optimize our current molecules to enhance drug-like properties and evaluate their efficacy in relevant animal models to design better treatments

Faculty Supervisor:

Patrick Gunning

Student:

Partner:

HDAX Therapeutics

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture; Education; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Toronto

Program: