Helwan Structural Biology Research (HSBR) is a center for scientific excellence in Egypt funded by STDF. HSBR was created to combine research from different disciplines for development of novel drugs for therapeutic applications, such as HIV, cancer, neurological diseases and many other diseases. HSBR combines the best of academic qualifications along with an expectation of innovation and independence, and provides significant value for our Egyptian academic and research community. The mission of HSBR is to unravel the basic relationships between macromolecular sequence, structure and function, and to understand and treat diseases. The center will provide state-of-the-art infrastructure and education for scientists in all relevant disciplines in Egypt. The Center is interested in many research topics related to drug screening and development.
Retinoids research
As a unique branch of research in Egypt, we are interested in screening and understanding the biological activity of different retinoids analogues of ATRA (natural parent and active compound of vitamin A). We are collaborating with different research groups in Biology, genomics, structural biology to understnad in details the molecular mechanisms of action of retinoids in different biological systems (In-vitro and In-vivo).
Our group led by Ass. Prof. Hesham Haffez has been granted fund for biochemical screening and assessment of EC-synthetic retinoids (Fig.1) as potential anti-cancer agents in clinical applications. The role of our research team is to initiate detailed mechanistic study about the role of these molecules in diminishing cancer resistance and metastasis by understanding their role on molecular level on (DNA damage, ABC transporters, ATPases, miRNA level ).The information are enriching the literature and our knowledge about the possible use of these molecules in cancer treatment and development of new scaffolds for treatment of one of the most resistant cancer type such as colorectal cancer.
Fig.1: Chemical structures of EC-synthetic retinoids
Additionally, our experience in protein expression and purification with the unique infrastructure of proteomics in HSBR has been implemented currently to study the binding interactions between RARs proteins: the cognate targets expected for EC-synthetic retinoids activity as anticancer agents. Understanding the binding interactions of RARs with synthetic retinoids and their binding affinity parameters will be useful for validation of previously studied bio simulation and molecular dynamics and modeling studies (Fig.2). This will guide the future studies for further optimization of new synthetic retinoid scaffolds for drug screening and applications.
Fig.2: Binding interaction of RAR with EC-synthetic retinoids