{"id":138,"date":"2016-07-07T16:18:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T20:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/?page_id=138"},"modified":"2023-06-14T13:38:16","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T17:38:16","slug":"medicinal-chemistry","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/medicinal-chemistry\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicinal Chemistry Research Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Development of New Drug-Like Molecules to Treat Cystic Fibrosis: \u00a0<\/strong>Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a devastating genetic disease with those afflicted possessing an average life expectancy of only 40 years. \u00a0\u00a0CF is characterized by thick mucus in the lungs and eventual respiratory failure. \u00a0Most of the available treatments for CF focus only on the symptoms of the disease (chronic bacterial lung infections); however recent breakthroughs have discovered the first drugs (Ivacaftor and Orkambi) that treat the underlying cause of CF.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-125 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2016\/07\/cf-structures.jpg\" alt=\"cf structures\" width=\"557\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2016\/07\/cf-structures.jpg 557w, https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2016\/07\/cf-structures-300x96.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2016\/07\/cf-structures-260x84.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 557px) 100vw, 557px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>CF is caused by mutations to the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) ion channel.\u00a0 Located in epithelial cells of the lungs and other organs, CFTR mediates chloride secretion.\u00a0Deletion of phenylalanine 508 (delF508-CFTR) is the most prominent CFTR mutation, occurring in greater than 70% of CF patients.\u00a0 delF508-CFTR exhibits impaired protein folding, leading degradation of the mutated protein and low levels of expression of expression in the lungs.\u00a0 As a result, delF508-CFTR mediated chloride secretion is ~3% of that observed in non-CF lung epithelia. \u00a0Low chloride secretion is associated with the build-up of thick mucus on the lungs and this mucus harbors harmful bacteria. \u00a0Over time these chronic bacterial infections lead to lung failure and death.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-124 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2016\/07\/CF.jpg\" alt=\"CF\" width=\"721\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2016\/07\/CF.jpg 721w, https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2016\/07\/CF-300x154.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/2016\/07\/CF-260x133.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 721px) 100vw, 721px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Small molecule modulators of delF508-CFTR are a promising strategy to combat CF.\u00a0 These compounds are designed to correct the folding deficiency (i.e. \u201ccorrectors\u201d) and\/or increase chloride transport (i.e. \u201cpotentiators\u201d). \u00a0In collaboration with Professor Stephen Aller (University of Alabama, Birmingham), our lab is working to discover\u00a0new corrector and potentiator compounds to help combat CF.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Development of New Drug-Like Molecules to Treat Cystic Fibrosis: \u00a0Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a devastating genetic disease with those afflicted possessing an average life expectancy of only 40 years. \u00a0\u00a0CF [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-138","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":787,"href":"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138\/revisions\/787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.berry.edu\/mturlington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}