Under the auspices of the college dean, Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Kherfy, the pharmacy college organized a lecture Title: Targeting Cancer Metabolism: A Fragment Based Approach towards Bi-Functional Inhibitors of the Key Glycolytic Enzyme hLDH-A. presented by Dr. Ahmed Afeefy on 18th Nov. 2014.
In his lecture, Dr. Alafeefy talked about this cross-disciplinary project, where he will design and synthesize small targeted library of hLDH-A inhibitors, which are supposed to be specific for binding to both the enzyme substrate and co-factor binding sites. He will use complimentary techniques for lead discovery, including high-throughput syntheses, in addition to a target guide/template approach by soaking fragments into crystals of the hLDH-A enzyme apo-structure. In the near future, all lead structures, which will best fit the target binding sites, will be evaluated for their ability to specifically inhibit cancer cell proliferation and induce apoptosis in vitro and in vivo, under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions.
This was in the context of the unity of development activities and quality of the faculty, headed by the Vice Dean for Development and Quality Dr Abdulla bin Ali Al-Qahtani in the first semester of the academic year 1435/1436 H.
