Dr. Zemlicka

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has renewed a grant for the 16th year to study possible antitumor and antiviral agents.

The NIH’s National Cancer Institute awarded $470,744 to Jiri Zemlicka, PhD, to continue his research of nucleoside analogues that may have promise in treating cancer, hepatitis B virus, human immunodeficiency virus, cytomegalovirus, a virus that commonly afflicts people who have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, as well as other DNA viruses.

Dr. Zemlicka, a professor who has been with Wayne State University’s School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute (formerly the Michigan Cancer Foundation) for 31 years, is now focusing most of his work on methylenecyclopropane compounds.

Dr. Zemlicka said he believes chances are good that at least one of his compounds will eventually be developed into a drug, but it is premature to say which one and when.

"Over the years, we’ve synthesized and tested many compounds. In many cases, we found that analogue which might not work well for tumors might be a potent antiviral agent. Over the past 12 years, we have developed more than a dozen effective antiviral agents worthy of further investigation. We have to study to see what works best," he said. "We are slaves of our compounds."