Synergistic effects of opioids & GABA-A PAMs. This work is being pursued in close collaboration with Dr. Jim Cook at UW-Milwaukee and Dr. Diana Martinez of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. This work was developed with the late Dr. Bradford Fischer of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. It is currently supported by NIH R01 DA055701.
Read our foundational paper!
Rahman MA, Keck TM, Poe MM, Sharmin S, Cook JM, Fischer BD. Synergistic antihyperalgesic and antinociceptive effects of morphine and methyl 8-ethynyl-6-(pyridin-2-yl)-4H-benzo[f]imidazo[1,5-a][1,4]diazepine-3-carboxylate (MP-III-024): a positive allosteric modulator at α2GABAA and α3GABA A receptors. Psychopharmacology 2021. PubMed PMID: 33585961; DOI: 10.1007/s00213-021-05791-1
Novel dopamine D4 receptor ligands. In vitro analyses and structure-activity relationship analysis of new drugs targeting the dopamine D4 receptor. This work is being pursued in close collaboration with Dr. Comfort Boateng of High Point University School of Pharmacy. Our many collaborators include Dr. David R. Sibley and Dr. R. Benjamin Free at NINDS-IRP, Dr. Sergi Ferre at NIDA-IRP, and Dr. Chenglong Li at the University of Florida. This work was previously supported by NIH R21 DA050896 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Read our recent papers!
Alkhatib M, Jakobs FM, Hanson JN, Nilson AN, Li T, Faibille AB, Ricchezza J, Jordan S, Panasis DE, Nguyen N, Kasarla N, Wang B, Sola Garcia S, Saez J, Paule J, Lee CB, Rais R, Slusher BS, Sibley DR, Li C, Keck TM, Boateng CA. Bioisosteric Replacement of Amides with 1,2,3- Triazoles Improves Dopamine D4 Receptor Ligand Pharmacokinetics. (2024) In review. ChemRxiv preprint. DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2024-0z6jk.
Keck TM, Free RB, Day MM, Brown SL, Maddaluna MS, Fountain G, Cooper C, Fallon B, Holmes M, Stang CT, Burkhardt R, Bonifazi A, Ellenberger MP, Newman AH, Sibley DR, Wu C, Boateng CA. Dopamine D4 Receptor-Selective Compounds Reveal Structure-Activity Relationships that Engender Agonist Efficacy. J Med Chem. 2019 Apr 11;62(7):3722-3740. PubMed PMID: 30883109; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6466480.
Synthesis and development of novel analgesics. In vitro and behavioral characterization of novel hasubanan-based alkaloids. This work is being pursued in close collaboration with Dr. Gustavo Moura-Letts of Rowan University and was supported by a grant from the New Jersey Health Foundation. We just received a new grant (March 2022) to support this work from from The Foundation for Health Advancement!
Abuse liability and anti-addiction potential of the atypical μ opioid receptor agonist IBNtxA. Detailed behavioral characterization of the naltrexone derivative IBNtxA. This work has been performed in close collaboration with Dr. Bradford Fischer of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and was supported by grant 1R03DA041560 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Read our recent paper!
Islam A, Rahman MA, Brenner MB, Moore A, Kellmyer A, Buechler HM, DiGiorgio F, Verchio VR, McCracken L, Sumi M, Hartley R, Lizza JR, Moura-Letts G, Fischer BD, Keck TM. Abuse liability and discriminative stimulus properties of the atypical μ-opioid receptor agonist IBNtxA.
ACS Pharmacol. Transl. Sci. 2020 Jul 27;3(5):907-920. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsptsci.0c00066
bioRxiv preprint: DOI: 10.1101/2020.05.30.125450
Novel dopamine D3 receptor ligands. In vitro analyses and structure-activity relationship analysis of new drugs targeting the dopamine D3 receptor, in collaboration with Dr. R. Benjamin Free at NINDS-IRP.
Read our recent paper!
Moritz AE, Free RB, Weiner WS, Akanoa EO, Gandhi D, Abramyan A, Keck TM, Ferrer M, Hu X, Southall N, Steiner J, Aubé J, Shi L, Frankowski KJ, Sibley DR. Discovery, Optimization and Characterization of ML417: A Novel and Highly Selective D3 Dopamine Receptor Agonist. In press at Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Online publication date: May 9, 2020. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c00424.
Mycobacterium vaccae immunization for drug addiction and relapse. First behavioral analyses of the immunization-derived effects in animal models of addiction. This work has been performed in close collaboration with Dr. Christopher Lowry of the University of Colorado-Boulder, Dr. Bradford Fischer of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, and Dr. Ileana Soto Reyes of Rowan University. This research is supported by a grant from the Camden Health Research Initiative.
Venture Partners at CU Boulder: Immunization for Cocaine Addiction and Relapse
U.S. Patent Application 16/804,815, filed February 28, 2020
Cognitive effects of seizures in mice. Behavioral characterization of the memory and cognition of mice in a simple model of seizure disorders. This work is being pursued in close collaboration with Dr. Thomas Ferraro and the late Dr. Bradford Fischer of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.
Read our recent paper!
Batterman AI, DeChiara J, Islam A, Brenner M, Fischer BD, Keck TM, Ferraro TN. Cognitive and behavioral effects of brief seizures in mice. (2019) Epilepsy & Behavior. 98:249-257. PubMed PMID: 31398689; DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.07.015
Novel dopamine D2 receptor ligands. In vitro analyses and structure-activity relationship analysis of new drugs targeting the dopamine D2 receptor, identified by in silico drug screening. This work is being pursued in close collaboration with Dr. Chun Wu of Rowan University and was recently supported by an internal grant from the Rowan College of Science and Mathematics. Dr. Gustavo Moura-Letts of Rowan University has joined us to provide medicinal chemistry expertise and will be synthesizing new analogs of some of our hit compounds. This research is currently supported by a grant from the New Jersey Health Foundation.
Searching for new treatments for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Behavioral analyses of candidate drug compounds in mouse models of AUD.
Behavioral deficits in a mouse model of Niemann-Pick type C disease. Detailed behavioral characterization of the motor, coordination and sensorimotor gating deficits of a mouse model of Niemann-Pick type C. This work was pursued in close collaboration with Dr. Ileana Soto Reyes of Rowan University and was supported by 1R15NS104994.