CUSP Dean of Research is Co-Author on prestigious “SCIENCE” Journal Paper

 
Dr. Keykavous Parang

, Professor and Associate Dean of Research at
Chapman University School of Pharmacy
(CUSP) is an internationally respected anti-HIV, anti-Cancer medicinal chemist and biochemist researcher leading CUSP’s research programs. He is now
co-author on a paper
just published in ”
Science
,” one of the most prestigious scientific journal publications in the world. The paper is about the anti-inflammatory activities of nucleoside-based anti-HIV drugs Dr. Parang studies in his laboratories. This work has placed Chapman University School of Pharmacy (CUSP) as one of the major contributing institutions to this collaborative work carried out with colleagues from such notable institutions as the University of Kentucky, the National Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health, Cardiff University, UK, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Please join us in congratulating him on this scholarly career highlight that is a significant first step as we strive toward a global reputation in health research at Chapman and CUSP .

The work involves Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) which are inexpensive FDA-approved drugs that stop HIV by blocking a critical step in HIV life cycle called reverse transcription, a process critical for HIV to replicate its genome. This collaborative research shows that NRTIs also block the activity of a biological pathway responsible for activating inflammatory processes in the body caused by a large protein complex called the NLRP3 inflammasome. According to this collaborative work, repurposing of NRTIs could be used for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), as well as other inflammatory disorders.