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Aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes (ALDHs) have a broad spectrum of biological activities through the oxidation of both endogenous and exogenous aldehydes. Unbalanced expression levels of ALDHs have been associated with a variety of disease states such as alcoholic liver disease, Parkinson’s disease, obesity, and multiple types of cancers. ALDH1A1 also plays a major role in preserving the tumor microenvironment via differentiation, self-protection, and proliferation of cancer stem cells.

In the last decade, prescription opioid abuse and misuse has been a major contributor to mortality in the United States, resulting in a serious national public health crisis. Nearly 12 million Americans used prescription opioids nonmedically in 2018, with >67,000 people dying from an opioid overdose.

This technology includes a strategy to generate antibodies of rabbit origin, both polyclonal and monoclonal, which have strong affinity to the TAT sequence and which enable specific immunocapture or immunodetection of TAT containing frataxin and analogs for quantitative or qualitative assays. In addition, antibodies that react with the FXN region have also been generated with this strategy. The HIV virus encoded a translational activator protein containing a 12 amino acid domain which permits transmembrane delivery of any therapeutic protein containing the sequence.

This technology includes the use of JTV-519 and oxidized form of JTV-519, as a novel treatment for Wolfram syndrome and other diseases associated with endoplasmic reticulum (ER). JTV-519 can prevent the leakage of ER calcium to the cytosol and abnormal activation of a pro-apoptotic enzyme, calpain 2, in cell models of Wolfram syndrome. Further, these compounds can prevent cell death in beta cell models of these diseases.

This technology includes a series of novel benzene-1,4-disulfonamides that activate TRPML1 receptor. The TRPML1 receptor is a lysosomal Ca2+ channel that has been shown to be involved in controlling lysosome functions, among then the maintenance of the integrity of the plasma membrane and the modulation of autophagosome-lysosome fusion. The improved ability of the receptor to deliver Ca2+ ions to the cytosol had been correlated with its capacity to modulate autophagy and lysosome exocytosis.

This technology includes an assay capable of monitoring glycosome formation for use in high throughput screening (HTS). The reversible assembly and disassembly of a multi-enzyme complex, known as the glycosome, visualized by GFP-labeled human phosphofructokinase-1 (PFK1), is employed as an intracellular marker in human cells to screen small molecule libraries under high-content imaging in a high-throughput fashion. The glycolytic enzymes have been proposed to form a multi-enzyme complex in the cell.

This technology includes selective inhibitors of the human enzyme galactokinase (EC 2.7.1.6), which may be useful for the treatment of Galactosemia and other diseases caused by aberrant galactose metabolism, including cancer. These compounds inhibit the first step in galactose metabolism, thereby eliminating the build-up of toxic metabolites during the aberrant metabolism of galactose, as well as inhibitor the entry of galactose into glycolysis and other downstream assays.

This technology includes compounds that improve endoplasmic reticulum-lysosomal trafficking and normalizes the Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) phenotype in assays using NPC1 patient cells, which can be used for the treatment of NPC, other lysosomal storage disorders, and potentially other neurodegenerative disorders. NPC is a rare neurodegenerative lipidosis caused by mutations in NPC1 or NPC2 genes, and characterized by the accumulation of cholesterol and glycolipids in the late endosomes and lysosomes. Currently there is no FDA-approved treatment for this devastating neurodegenerative disease.

This technology includes a method of analyzing the potency of membrane transporter protein-based drugs acting on intracellular antioxidant and redox response pathways (and associated apoptosis pathways), wherein the drug delivery and activity is lipid associated. The present invention is a cell-based bioassay for measuring the bioactivity of drug substance and formulated drug product by determining the drug's dose-dependent inhibitory effects on 4 hydroxynonenal (4-HNE)-induced antioxidant response element (ARE) activity.

This technology includes a codon optimized expression vector for the high expression and production of RLIP-76 which can be used to provide protection from radiation. RLIP-76 is a multifunctional membrane protein that transports glutathione conjugates of electrophilic compounds outside the cell. The sequence was generated with codon bias alterations, reduction of secondary structure, lowering of GC content, and removal of cryptic elements that could affect expression in E.coli.