Dr. Golden's Research General Meeting

Heterocyclic scaffolds

• Use many different scaffolds to form different molecules that have different purposes and biological activities

• Alpha Virus Program

• Alpha viruses can cause arthritis/ bone degradation or brain inflammation

• The viruses come from a bite from an infected mosquito

• VEEV, WEEV, and EEEV are all different forms of the alpha virus that causes brain inflammation

• EEEV is the most fatal

• There’s no FDA approved drug for any human alphavirus infection

• If you’re lucky enough to survive one of these infections you will still have many neurological problems after

• There have been 13 deaths from the EEEV virus this year already

• Dr. Golden and her research team have stepped in to try and find different compounds that can help with these problems

• They have made many different modifications to find something that could work

• Came up with a compound called BDGR-49 that is:

• Non toxic

• About 80% reaches the brain

• Plasma stability: ~65%

• They found that if they give the compound to mice before infecting them with the virus, the mice have the best chance of survival

• They eventually came up with a new compound called BDGR-164

• It is very potent

• All of the compound reaches the brain

• Many mice that were treated with the drug after they were infected were surviving

• They are hopeful to keep improving upon this compound

• Antiparasitic Agent Development

• Dr. Golden and her research team are working to interrupt the metabolism of the parasites

• They are trying to to find a compound that would do this (to do this you would need to interfere within the glycosome)

• One particular parasite they are trying to combat is a brain eating ameba

• They have started experimenting with receptors that interfere with glucose

• Dr. Golden and her different research teams use synthetic chemistry and medicinal biology to find different compounds to combat different types of viruses