Dr. Pawan Kumar Gupta, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lovely Professional University, was awarded the International Travel Grant from DST-SERB Scheme for attending the 30th International Symposium on The Chemistry of Natural Products in Athens, Greece. Under this grant, air fare and visa processing fees were covered. The Conference was held from 25th to 29th November 2018.
During the conference, Dr Pawan Kumar Gupta presented a paper titled Exploring CADD strategies for identification of natural agonists against PPAR-gamma for breast cancer
Abstract: Recent studies have demonstrated that PPAR gamma is over-expressed in many tumour types, including breast cancer, suggesting a possible role in tumour development and/or progression and a putative prognostic value [1]. The synthetic agonists (Troglitazone, Efastumab, Pioglitazone and Rosiglitazone) are not only used initially for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes but also used for treating breast cancer [2, 3]. These agonists are associated with serious side effects. Natural products are always an excellent source for identification of new drug leads as it possesses a high chemical scaffold diversity, different biological functions and high drug-likeness [4]. In order to identify the novel scaffolds from natural origin, computer aided drug design [Similarity searching, Pharmacophore, QSAR, Docking] strategies are used. Similarity searching is performed in different natural databases using pharmacophore and shape-based methods. Structural activity relationship is established to understand the important structural features required for PPAR-gamma activity. Selection of the novel screened molecules is achieved by matching of the important structural features required for the activity. Binding mode analysis is exhibited that some of the molecules are having same binding potential as true PPAR gamma agonist. These novel scaffolds can be further exploited for the drug design and discovery.
