Robert Vince, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Medicinal Chemistry

Education:

B.S., University of Buffalo, 1962
Ph.D., University of Buffalo, 1966

Research Interests:

Following the identification of a human retrovirus (HIV) as the etiologic agent of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), an intense effort was made to identify drugs for the treatment of this debilitating, lethal disease. Ongoing research in our laboratory deals with the development of anti-viral agents and has focused on the design of anti-HIV drugs. In response to the initial project for a very large-scale anti-HIV drug screening and AIDS drug development program at the National Cancer Institute, researchers in our lab developed a series of carbocyclic nucleoside analogs. These compounds have design features compatible with action as DNA chain terminators and are structurally analogous to natural nucleosides, the only difference being that a methylene group replaces the oxygen atom of the carbohydrate ring. The studies showed that these analogs, called carbovirs, which lack a labile glycosidic bond, are stable to hydrolytic cleavage while retaining the therapeutically useful interaction with enzymes involved in DNA and RNA synthesis. As a result, several of the carbocyclic nucleosides inhibited the infectivity and replication of HIV in T-cells and led to the development of the commercially available anti-HIV drug, Ziagen®.

Publications:

"Synthesis of Conformationally Restricted 2',3'-exo-methylene Carbocyclic Nucleosides Build on a Bicyclo[2',3']hexane Template," Rashmi G. Bhushan and Robert Vince, Bioorg. Medicinal Chem. 10, 2325-2333 (2002).

"Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Endocyclic-2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxymethanecarba Adenosine," Danae R. Quirk Dorr and Robert Vince, Nucleosides, Nucleotides, and Nucleic Acids, 21, 665-680 (2002).

"Metabolism of O6-Propyl and N6-Propyl-Carbovir in CEM Cells," William B. Parker, Sue C. Shaddix, Lucy M. Rose, Phuong T. Pham, Mei Hua, and Robert Vince, Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids, 19, 795-804 (2000).