Bahaa Mustafa, PhD

Research Program: Cancer Therapeutics Faculty Rank: Assistant professor Campus: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College: College of Pharmacy Department: Pharmaceutical Science

Cancer Research Interest

• Disease Site Focus: Breast, Thoracic/ Lung, Hematologic Malignancies, Prostate
• Research Focus Area: Treatment, Carcinogenesis, Prevention
• Type of Research: Translational, Clinical
• Research Keywords: anti-PDL-1, anti-CD47, Phage display, Peptide, Antibody, Trop-2
• Research Interest Statement: NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer accounting for 84% of all lung cancer cases. Trop-2 is overexpressed in various cancers including NSCLC and so has emerged as a potential molecular target for the treatment of lung cancer. In my future research plan, I am planning to discover Trop-2 peptides by phage display technique that can be used as targeting ligands to deliver therapeutics for NSCLC. In my plan, based on my experience with peptide phage display discovery I will utilize that to discover Trop-2 peptides. Next, we will develop and characterize a targeted liposomes that will be functionalized with Trop-2 specific peptide. Liposomes have several advantages as nanocarriers for drug delivery such as biocompatibility, capacity for self-assembly and the ability to carry large drug payloads. Modification of nanoparticles with peptides as targeting ligands for drug delivery systems is also a prominent approach. The targeting liposomal delivery system will encapsulate Cisplatin (CDDP) as a cytotoxic drug and modified with anti-CD47 peptides that I discovered as immunotherapeutic agent. CDDP is a well-known chemotherapeutic drug and had shown anticancer activity in a variety of tumors including NSCLC. The successful accomplishment of this project can lead to the development of a more specific and effective therapeutic strategy for NSCLC.

Contact Information

• Email Address: BMUSTAFA@UAMS.EDU
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Recent Publications

• Ferdous KU, Tesfay MZ, Cios A, [et al., including Mustafa B]. Enhancing Neoadjuvant Virotherapy's Effectiveness by Targeting Stroma to Improve Resectability in Pancreatic Cancer. Biomedicines. 2024 12(7). PMID: 39062169. PMCID: PMC11275208.
• Mustafa B, Fetse J, Kandel S, [et al.]. Discovery of Anti-CD47 Peptides as Innate Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors. Advanced therapeutics. 2023 6(12). PMID: 38655206. PMCID: PMC11034909.
• Fetse J, Zhao Z, Liu H, [et al., including Mustafa B]. Discovery of Cyclic Peptide Inhibitors Targeting PD-L1 for Cancer Immunotherapy. Journal of medicinal chemistry. 2022 65(18):12002-12013. PMID: 36067356. PMCID: PMC10671706.
• Liu H, Liu Y, Zhao Z, [et al., including Mustafa B]. Discovery of Anti-PD-L1 Human Domain Antibodies for Cancer Immunotherapy. Frontiers in immunology. 2022 13:838966. PMID: 35444660. PMCID: PMC9013927.
• Adhikary P, Kandel S, Mamani UF, [et al., including Mustafa B]. Discovery of Small Anti-ACE2 Peptides to Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Infectivity. Advanced therapeutics. 2021 4(7):2100087. PMID: 34179347. PMCID: PMC8212088.