2016 Lung Cancer Research Foundation Annual Grant Program
Rachid Skouta, PhD
University of Texas at El Paso
Research Project:
Identification of promising novel drug candidates for non-small cell lung cancer
Summary:
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents more than 85% of lung cancer cases. The predicted 5 year survival rate of the NSCLC case is around 16% due to a lack of understanding of the dynamic interactions between the tumor microenvironment and drug resistance. Therefore, there is still a need to discover anti-NSCLC drug candidates acting through new complementary mechanisms of cell death and therapeutic targets. Such candidates targeting new proteins may have efficacy against difficult-to-treat NSCLC. The proposed studies are designed to discover novel specific ferroptosis inducers of well-defined cell death and uncover their target for disease treatments. In addition, these studies will improve possible resistance that increases towards agents activating a known apoptosis cell death. Thus, completion of these studies may provide knowledge that can be used to increase drug efficiency against NSCLC.