Discovery and Development of Novel Monoamino Oxidase A Inhibitors for the Treatment of Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide, whose progression has been shown to be highly dependent on androgens (testosterone). Androgen deprivation therapy is a usual first-line option; however, patients tend to evolve into a state known as castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), for which the number of treatment options is much more limited.
Monoamino oxidase A (MAO-A), a well-known enzyme in neurotransmitter regulation, is also highly overexpressed in prostate cancer, and thus the inhibition of MAO-A may represent a novel strategy for CRPC treatment. While a number of MAO-A inhibitors are in use clinically for CNS diseases, none of them have acceptable characteristics for therapeutic use in prostate cancer. The general aim of this project is the development of the first selective and competitive inhibitor of MAO-A with low blood-brain barrier penetration for application in the treatment of CRPC.
The project combines the experience of SME GalChimia, a company specialized in drug discovery services for the pharmaceutical industry, with the innovative screening platform of the BioFarma group at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC).
The global budget of the project totals 1.109.846€ and is funded by the COLABORACIÓN PÚBLICO-PRIVADA 2021 program of the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) with Next Generation EU funds from the European Union through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Spanish Government.
