# Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of ant-Glioblastoma Agents > **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2021 · $271,698 ## Abstract Project Summary The objective of this submission is to develop the recently isolated natural product neaumycin B into a lead for glioblastoma therapy. Neaumycin B is highly toxic to glioblastoma cells while being significantly less toxic toward other cell lines, suggesting the potential for a unique biological target. The lethality of glioblastomas and the limited options for their treatment provide ample justification to explore and advance new hits. Hits can also serve as the basis for identifying new biological targets that will allow for new assay development for screening additional structures that could show anti-glioblastoma activity. The supply of neaumycin B is limited due to its instability during the prolonged cultivation period. The first Specific Aim, therefore is to develop an efficient, modular synthesis of neaumycin B that will provide suitable quantities for subsequent biological studies and will be sufficiently flexible to be applicable to analog synthesis. The second Specific Aim is to prepare several analogs that address limitations in the advancement of neaumycin B as a lead in glioblastoma therapy. These include accessibility, which will be addressed by synthesizing simplified analogs, and stability, which will be addressed through replacing a conjugated triene unit with stable isosteres. The capacity to prepare chimeric structures through cycloaddition chemistry will be advanced by preparing alkyne-containing analogs. All analogs will be evaluated for their potency toward U87 glioblastoma cells and other cancer cell lines to establish a structure- activity relationship, to validate the observed cell line selectivity, and to guide the preparation of agents for identifying the biological target. The proteomics-based approach to identifying the biological target will facilitate assay development, which will facilitate screening studies for identifying new anti-glioblastoma hits. Specific Aim 3 is directed toward using the microenvironment around a glioma or in a neurodegenerative disease to release a biological effector from a blood-brain barrier transporter. This will allow for localization of the agent in the brain since the release from the transporter will prevent the agents from efflux through the blood-brain barrier. This synthesis-intensive project will involve contributions from experts in chemical biology and proteomics to deliver new approaches for treating glioblastomas and other neurological conditions. ## Key facts - **NIH application ID:** 10260581 - **Project number:** 5R01GM140655-02 - **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH - **Principal Investigator:** Paul E Floreancig - **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.) - **Funding institute:** NIH - **Fiscal year:** 2021 - **Award amount:** $271,698 - **Award type:** 5 - **Project period:** 2020-09-15 → 2024-06-30 ## Primary source NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10260581 ## Citation > US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10260581, Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of ant-Glioblastoma Agents (5R01GM140655-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10260581. Licensed CC0. --- *[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*