Restricted Research - Award List, Note/Discussion Page
Fiscal Year: 2023
1829 The University of Texas at El Paso (143717)
Principal Investigator: Al-Hilal,Taslim A
Total Amount of Contract, Award, or Gift (Annual before 2011): $ 413,840
Exceeds $250,000 (Is it flagged?): Yes
Start and End Dates: 9/1/22 - 8/31/24
Restricted Research: YES
Academic Discipline: Pharmaceutical Science
Department, Center, School, or Institute: Pharmaceutical Science
Title of Contract, Award, or Gift: R21: The role of tumor endothelium-specific prion-gene PRND in epithelial ovarian cancer
Name of Granting or Contracting Agency/Entity:
NIH - NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
CFDA Link: HHS
93.396
Program Title:
Cancer Biology Research
CFDA Linked: Cancer Biology Research
Note:
Among all of the gynecological cancers, ovarian cancer shows high clinical challenge because it is difficult to be detected in the early stage and it has the highest mortality rate. Despite advances and the development of diagnostic tools such as biomarkers and detection techniques, ovarian cancer remains a fatal cancer with high progression. There are different types of ovarian cancer based on histological classification; Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC) is the most common. EOC is identified in over 80% of women at late-stage with complications include the spread of tumor implants throughout the peritoneal cavity. Thus, it is necessary to find new biomarkers with high specificity and sensitivity to detect ovarian cancer in the early stages of disease. Recently, we identified a highly conserved membrane-associated prion-like protein doppel that express only in tumors and regulate the functions of VEGF in tumors. Furthermore, we demonstrated that doppel interacts and collaborates with VEGFR2 to stimulate tumor angiogenesis. Previous studies thus confirmed our conjecture that doppel is a TEC-specific marker and an optimal target for anti-tumor therapy. We hypothesize that doppel drives ovarian cancer progression. The ultimate goals of this proposal are to evaluate whether doppel expression could be utilized as an EOC-specific serum biomarker and to develop a novel therapeutic strategy by targeting doppel against both platinum-sensitive and platinum-resistant EOCs.
Discussion: No discussion notes