Mentoring Minority Cancer Researchers of Tomorrow: Comparison of the Face-to-Face, Virtual, and Hybrid Training Methods of the CaRE Summer Cancer Research Education and Training Program.

In our previous publication, we reported a framework to develop an undergraduate cancer research training program at Florida A&M University (FAMU) under the umbrella of the Florida-California Cancer Research, Education, and Engagement (CaRE) Health Equity Center activity by harnessing the resources available at FAMU, the University of Florida (UF), and the University of Southern California (USC) Cancer Centers. The implementation of the CaRE face-to-face training platform was dramatically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic during the summer of 2020 and 2021 training periods. However, a concerted effort was made to restructure the face-to-face training model into virtual and hybrid training methods to maintain the continuity of the program during the pandemic.

Thymoquinone Inhibition of Chemokines in TNF-α-Induced Inflammatory and Metastatic Effects in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells.

The lack of identifiable molecular targets or biomarkers hinders the development of treatment options in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, natural products offer a promising alternative by targeting inflammatory chemokines in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Chemokines are crucial in promoting breast cancer growth and metastasis and correlate to the altered inflammatory process.

Research Infrastructure Core Facilities at Research Centers in Minority Institutions: Part I-Research Resources Management, Operation, and Best Practices.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program fosters the development and implementation of innovative research aimed at improving minority health and reducing or eliminating health disparities. Currently, there are 21 RCMI Specialized (U54) Centers that share the same framework, comprising four required core components, namely the Administrative, Research Infrastructure, Investigator Development, and Community Engagement Cores. The Research Infrastructure Core (RIC) is fundamentally important for biomedical and health disparities research as a critical function domain.

Transcriptome Profile Analysis of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells in Response to a Novel Cytostatic Tetrahydroisoquinoline Compared to Paclitaxel.

The absence of chemotherapeutic target hormone receptors in breast cancer is descriptive of the commonly known triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtype. TNBC remains one of the most aggressive invasive breast cancers, with the highest mortality rates in African American women. Therefore, new drug therapies are continually being explored.

Design and Synthesis of Tetrahydroisoquinoline Derivatives as Anti-Angiogenesis and Anti-Cancer Agents.

Aim: The aim of our research work is the synthesis of tetrahydroisoquinoline derivatives as anti-Angiogenesis and anti-cancer agents.

Background: Cancer is the second leading cause of deaths in the United States. The current recovery rate from the advanced treatment for the cancer is excessively low.

Developing a Novel Framework for an Undergraduate Cancer Research Education and Engagement Program for Underrepresented Minority Students: the Florida-California CaRE Research Education Core (REC) Training Program.

Lack of substantive research experiences and technical skills mentoring during undergraduate studies leaves many underrepresented minority (URM) students unprepared to apply to competitive graduate programs. As a part of our ongoing effort to increase the pipeline for the development and training of successful URM scientists in biomedical sciences with focus on reducing cancer health disparities, the Florida-California Cancer Research Education and Engagement (CaRE) Health Equity Center was launched in 2018. Funded through an NIH/NCI U54 grant mechanism, the CaRE Center is a triad partnership among Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), a minority-serving institution, University of Florida (UF), and University of Southern California (USC) Cancer Center.

The Antiproliferative Effects of Flavonoid MAO Inhibitors on Prostate Cancer Cells.

Prostate cancer (PCa) patients commonly experience clinical depression. Recent reports indicated that monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A) levels elevate in PCa, and antidepressant MAO-Is show anti-PCa properties. In this work, we aimed to find potential drugs for PCa patients suffering from depression by establishing novel anti-PCa reversible monoamine oxidase-A inhibitors (MAO-AIs/RIMA); with an endeavor to understand their mechanism of action.

Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel N-Substituted-[Benzoylamino]-5-Ethyl-1,2,3,6-Tetrahydropyridines as Potential Anti-Cancer Agents.

Background And Objective: Inflammation is believed to incite carcinogenesis by causing cell and genome damage. Tetrahydropyridines have gained significant synthetic interest because they constitute biologically active features of pharmaceutical agents. Previous tetrahydropyridines developed by our research group were effective in inhibiting inflammation.

Synthesis and Biological Evaluations of Ring Substituted Tetrahydroisoquinolines (THIQs) as Anti-Breast Cancer Agents.

Breast cancer is a leading cause of mortality among women, resulting in more than half a million deaths worldwide every year. Although chemotherapeutic drugs remain the main stay of cancer treatment, it is observed that toxicity to normal cells poses a limitation to their therapeutic values. Moreover, the patient recovery rate from advanced breast cancer by chemotherapy is still unacceptably low.

Functional evaluation of synthetic flavonoids and chalcones for potential antiviral and anticancer properties.

Flavonoids, stilbenes, and chalcones are plant secondary metabolites that often possess diverse biological activities including anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-viral activities. The wide range of bioactivities poses a challenge to identify their targets. Here, we studied a set of synthetically generated flavonoids and chalcones to evaluate for their biological activity, and compared similarly substituted flavonoids and chalcones.

Synthesis and Cytotoxic Evaluation of Pyrrole Hetarylazoles Containing Benzimidazole/Pyrazolone/1,3,4-Oxadiazole Motifs.

Azomethine linked pyrrole bishetarylazoles containing benzimidazole/pyrazolone/1,3,4-oxadiazole were synthesized in satisfactory yields. Their structures were confirmed by IR, H-NMR, C-NMR and elemental analysis. Evaluation for the cytotoxic activities against a panel of breast cancer cell lines (MDA-AB-231, BT-474 and Ishikawa cells) revealed that the pyrrole-benzimidazole hybrids are more potent than the pyrazolone and 1,3,4-oxadiazole hybrids in all cell lines.

Substituted Tetrahydroisoquinolines as Microtubule-destabilizing Agents in Triple Negative Human Breast Cancer Cells.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) occurs at greater frequency amongst African-Americans, being characterized by the absence of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal receptor 2 (HER2). TNBC is often invasive and typically treated with cytostatic agents such as taxanes in combination with anthracyclines or platinum-based drugs. In this study, we synthesized a number of tetrahydroisoquinoline moieties by N-amination of substituted isoquinolines by O-mesytelene sulfonylhydroxylamine followed by ylide formation and reduction, which yielded the desired, substituted tetrahydroisoquinolines (THIQs) in moderate to good yield.

Biological evaluation of synthetic chalcone and flavone derivatives as anti-inflammatory agents.

Flavonoids and chalcones are natural plant derived compounds with inherent therapeutic value for a range of human pathologies. In this study, a series of 24 substituted chalcones and flavones were synthesized and subsequently screened for anti-inflammatory effects on lipopolysaccharide (1 µg/ml)-activated BV-2 microglial cells by assessing initial production/release of nitric oxide (NO). The data obtained eliminate the majority of compounds as weak or non-effective, whereas 2'-hydroxy-3,4,5,3',4'-pentamethoxychalcone () and 2'-hydroxy-3,4,5-trimethoxychalcone () were potent, having an IC of 1.

Synthesis and Pharmacological Evolution of Tetrahydroisoquinolines as Anti Breast Cancer Agents.

Breast cancer is leading cause of mortality among women, resulting in more than half a million deaths worldwide each year. Unfortunately, the recovery rate of advanced breast cancer by current available drug treatment is till unacceptably low. Chemotherapy is the main stay of cancer treatment and most of the drugs cause general toxicity to any non-proliferating cells, which can severely limit the therapeutic values of these drugs.

In-vitro Antiproliferative Activity of New Tetrahydroisoquinolines (THIQs) on Ishikawa Cells and their 3D Pharmacophore Models.

The antiproliferative activities of new substituted tetrahydroisoquinolines (THIQs) are described. Their cytotoxicities against Ishikawa human endometrial cell line were determined after 72 h drug expose employing Celtiter-Glo assay at concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 100,000 nM.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of substituted N-[3-(1H-pyrrol-1-yl)methyl]-1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridin-1-yl]benzamide/benzene sulfonamides as anti-inflammatory agents.

The pharmacological activities of tetrahydropyridine (THP) derivatives are dependent on the substituent ring moiety. In this study, we investigate the anti-inflammatory activities of 12 newly synthesized substituted N-[3-(1H-pyrrol-1-yl)methyl]-1,2,5,6-tetrahydrobenzamide/benzene sulfonamides (9a-l) in murine BV-2 microglial cells. All compounds were initially screened for attenuation of nitric oxide (NO) production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (1 µg/mL)-activated microglial cells.

N-(4-amino-7-nitrobenzaoxa-1,3-diazole)-substituted aza crown ethers: complexation with alkali, alkaline earth metal ions and ammonium.

Three novel aza-crown ether derivatives incorporating 4-amino-7-nitrobenzaoxa-1,3-diazole (NBD) chromophore were synthesized and their structure confirmed by (1)H-NMR, IR and elemental analysis. The influence of the solvent polarity and protonation on the photophysical properties of NBD-15-crown-5 was studied by UV/Vis and fluorescence methods. The influence of the investigated cations on the absorption spectra of the ligands was negligible, however emission was strongly affected.

Synthesis of 2-(N-Benzylpyrrolyl)-benzimidazoles Using Polyphosphoric Acid Prompted Cyclocondensation.

Synthesis of a series of 2-substituted benzimidazoles was carried out for screening anti-inflammatory activities. 2-(N-benzylpyrrolyl)-benzimidazoles 9a-k were synthesized from N-benzyl-2-pyrrole carboxylic acids 8a-d and 4-substituted-1,2-phenylenediamines by cyclocondensation utilizing polyphosphoric acid (PPA) as condensing agent. The N-benzyl-2-pyrrole carboxylic acids were prepared by standard method of N-benzylation of 2-pyrrole carboxylate using NaH/DMF and appropriately substituted benzyl halides followed by alkaline hydrolysis.

SYNTHESIS OF N-SUBSTITUTED CARBONYLAMINO-1,2,3,6-TETRAHYDROPYRIDINES AS POTENTIAL ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AGENTS.

Several N-substituted carbonyl/sulfonylamino-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridines (5a-i and 9a, b) were synthesized via sodium borohydride reduction of the corresponding N-substitutedimino-pyridinium ylides (4a-i and 8a, b) in absolute ethanol.

Synthesis of Substituted N-[4(5-Methyl/phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)-3,6-dihydropyridin-1(2H)-yl]benzamide/benzene Sulfonamides as Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Cancer Agents.

Fourteen novel substituted N-[4(5-methyl/phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)-3,6-dihydropyridin-1(2H)-y1] benzamide/benzene sulfonamides (11a-n) were synthesized in fair to good yields via sodium borohydride reduction of the corresponding substituted N-(benzoylimino)-4-(5-methyl/5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2yl) pyridinium ylide (10a-n) in absolute ethanol.

Synthesis of 1-(Substituted Phenylcarbonyl/sulfonylamino)-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-5-carboxylic acid diethylamides as Potential Anti-inflammatory Agents.

Fifteen novel 1-(substituted phenylcarbonyl/sulfonylamino)-1,2,3,6-tetrahydro- pyridine-5-carboxylic acid diethylamide (7, 15) were synthesized in fair to good yields via sodium borohydride reduction of the corresponding 1-(substituted phenylcarbonyl/ sulfonylimino)-3-diethylcarbamoyl pyridinium ylides (6, 14) in absolute ethanol.

Conformational analysis and molecular properties of N-(substituted phenyl-carbonylamino)-4-(1-hydroxymethylphenyl)-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridines.

The three-dimensional structures of active derivatives of N-(substitutedphenylcarbonylamino)-4-(1-hydroxymethylphenyl)-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyri-dines, which have previously been shown to possess anti-inflammatory activities, were built using BIOMEDCAche 5.0 software program. In addition, the three dimensional structures of some of the inactive ones were similarly generated.