1. Anticancer drugs
DNA minor groove-binding anticancer drugs. CC-1065, a natural product, is one of the most potent anticancer drugs ever discovered. It selectively binds to the AT-rich sequence in the DNA minor groove, and alkylates DNA to cause DNA breaks, leading to cancer cell death. Over the last 20 years, we have synthesized many CC-1065 analogs and study their structure-activity relationship. YW-391 is our latest discovery, which reacts with albumin in the blood forming a conjugate. The latter is selectively taken up by cancer cells, leading to a higher therapeutic efficacy.
Topoisomerase Inhibitors. Camptothecins is a relatively new class of anticancer drugs. Over the last several years, we have synthesized tumor-targeted new camptothecin derivatives. One of such compounds is DHA-HCPT, which is a conjugate of 10-hydroxycamptothecin and DHA. DHA-HCPT is selectively accumulated by tumor, and for this reason, DHA-HCPT has a high therapeutic efficacy than its free drug 10-hydroxycamptothecin.
2. Cerebral and cardiovascular system drugs
The improving economic standard makes people live longer and healthier. Unfortunately, the aging population also suffers more cardio- and cerebro- vascular diseases. Professor Wang Yuqiang and his US team had previously successfully developed a blockbuster Alzheimer’s drug memantine. Now, we are working on new drugs based on traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of cardio- and cerebro- vascular diseases. Such as traditional Chinese medicine includes Dan shen and Chuan xiong.
3. Antibacterial and antiviral drugs
Infectious diseases prove to be tough to eradicate and remain to be a major threat to human health. Deadly new species such as HIV, SARS and bird flu viruses continue to appear. Thus, finding new and effective anti-infectious disease treatment is an urgent task. We have been pursuing research in this area based on traditional Chinese medicine such as Chuan Xinlian. We have synthesized new compounds and found them to have novel biological properties. Our clinical candidate is currently under formal preclinical studies.
