Improving Drug Therapy — The NIH has awarded $1.1 million over three years to Dr. Thomas Leyh to study human sulfotransferases (SULTs)— a 13-member family of enzymes that modulate interactions between hundreds of small molecules and their respective receptors. Dr. Leyh and colleagues will try to better understand the role of this enzyme family in biology and disease. SULTs inactivate hundreds of FDA-approved drugs through a process called sulfation. One aim of the research is to prevent sulfation by inserting side chains into FDA-approved drugs that will increase the concentration and half-lives of the active forms of these drugs in vivo. Ideally, this strategy will prevent sulfation without inhibiting the SULTs or reducing the drugs’ effectiveness. Dr. Leyh is professor of microbiology & immunology.
Posted on: Monday, February 09, 2015