St. John’s Faculty Member Receives Grant to Research Possible Cure for Brain Cancer

Vikas V. Dukhande, Ph.D
June 13, 2022

An associate professor in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at St. John’s University was recently awarded a federal grant for continued research to develop effective treatment of an aggressive and almost always lethal type of brain tumor.

“The ultimate goal of our research is to discover novel drugs that can cure deadly cancers such as glioblastomas,” said Vikas V. Dukhande, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the leader of the research project. “Invasive glioblastomas with very poor prognosis and a high-mortality rate remain a big health-care challenge.”

The four-year, $656,000 grant is from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences(NIGMS). The NIGMS supports basic research that increases the understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. A major goal of the NIGMS R16 grant is to build research capacity at US institutions enrolling significant numbers of underrepresented students.

Noting tumors such as glioblastomas exhibit “distinct metabolic changes,” Dr. Dukhande explained, “We want to target this altered metabolism in tumors to develop a therapeutic for glioblastoma.”

“Toward these efforts, we tested an antiepileptic stiripentol as it was recently shown by other researchers to inhibit a metabolic enzyme,” the cancer researcher said. “Stiripentol is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and it meets an important criterion for a glioblastoma drug: it is already known that it can reach the brain, which many drugs fail to do.”

Stiripentol is an anticonvulsant medication used for the treatment of Dravet syndrome, a serious genetic brain disorder. The research grant will enable Dr. Dukhande and his research team to study the medication’s anticancer properties and mechanism. He is collaborating with Aaron Muth, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, on the project.

Dr. Dukhande appreciates the support he has received from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and the University, all which enable his research laboratory.

Dr. Dukhande joined the faculty of St. John’s University in 2015. Originally from Mumbai, India, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree from the Institute of Chemical Technology at Mumbai University. He earned his doctorate degree from Idaho State University.