This Cooperative Agreement, awarded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Cancer Cause and Prevention Research program (CFDA 93.393), provides $303,875 in funding to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center to discover and develop natural products for the interception and prevention of colorectal cancer.
The key objectives are to: 1) establish high-throughput screening assays to identify natural product fractions that selectively inhibit the cancer-related targets microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES-1), 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX), and ornithine decarboxylase (ODC); 2) conduct large-scale screening of natural product libraries to identify lead compounds; and 3) evaluate the ex-vivo and in-vivo efficacy of the identified natural product inhibitors of mPGES-1, 5-LOX, and ODC for colorectal cancer interception. This research aims to develop highly selective natural agents that can target these clinically relevant pathways without the cardiovascular risks associated with some existing approaches.