Sesha Sridevi Alluri

I. Development of Novel Antibiotics Effective against Resistant Bacteria

Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent global public heath threat. In United States more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur each year according to Centers for Disease control and Prevention (CDC). Hence investigation into new classes of antibiotics is urgently needed. This project focuses on development of novel antibiotics active particularly against resistant organisms. These novel compounds are designed based on the structure of a highly potent cyclic peptide antibiotic, Lugdunin, isolated from Staphylococcus lugdunensis strains in human nasal commensals. Lugdunin was found to be highly potent against Gram-positive organisms, particularly difficult to treat methicillin-resistant S. aureus and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci strains. The aim of the present study is to design and synthesize natural and unnatural analogs of lugdunin using solid phase peptide synthesis methods and evaluate their biological activity.

II. Design and Synthesis of Novel non-covalent SARS-Co V2 3CL protease Inhibitors

The global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) continues to threaten public health and safety. The 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro), a cysteine protease with its catalytic dyad consists of His41 and Cys145, is an established target of antivirals against coronaviruses. Nirmatrelvir is a covalent inhibitor that has been approved for the treatment of COVID-19 infection. However, covalent inhibitors face potential side effects due to off-target reaction. Hence there is an urgent need to develop new COVID-19 therapeutics.The current research involves discovering novel non-covalent inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease using AI and ML computational tools. A new class of HIV-1 protease inhibitors have shown promising binding affinity to SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro using virtual molecular docking visualization. Based on the docking studies, the target compounds will be identified and synthesized. The compounds will be evaluated for their inhibitory activity against SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease.

Areas of specialty: Medicinal Chemistry, Organic Synthesis, Structure-based drug design

Senior Lecturer

Triazine compounds and their analogs, compositions, and methods. U.S. Patent 7335770 (2008)

Design and Synthesis of a Novel Class of HIV Protease Inhibitors. U.S. Patent 8,283,346 B2 (2012)

CH243 Organic Chemistry I
CH115 General Chemistry I
CH/BIO 498 Senior Capstone Research Project I
CH/BIO 499 Senior Capstone Research Project II
CH/BIO 398 Research Proposals for Undergraduate Research
CH685 Medicinal Chemistry