Good News | Professor Zhang Huiling's team won the second prize of Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Award

Recently, the joint project The Homogenization of Autophagy/Lysosome Pathway in Cardio-cerebral Ischemic Injury and Its Drug Intervention, completed by Professor Huiling Zhang, Associate Researcher Guizhen Ao and Suzhou Science and Technology City Hospital, won the second prize of Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Award.

The project focuses on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases that seriously endanger human health, including ischemic stroke and myocardial injury. The team innovatively proposes the neuronal and myocardial cell death mechanism in ischemic stroke and ischemic myocardial injury. Their study suggests that the autophagy/lysosomal pathway is activated and contributes to neuronal or cardiomyocyte death. The team also points out that lysosomal cathepsin B and L are key molecules linking autophagy, necroptosis, and early and late mitochondrial apoptosis pathways.

The team developed two new cathepsin B inhibitors and one cathepsin L inhibitor against ischemic heart and brain injury. The research results align with the latest brain and heart treatment concept proposed by the Stroke Prevention and Control Engineering Committee of the National Health and Health Commission.

Huiling Zhang, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Soochow University, worked as a postdoctoral fellow and visiting scholar in scientific research institutions such as Harvard University and the University of Texas Houston Medical and Health Center. She is a director of the Chinese Pharmacological Society and Jiangsu Pharmacological Society. She isengaged in pharmacology research of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and related drug development.

Guizhen Ao is an associate researcher at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Soochow University. She received her bachelor's degree (medicinal chemistry) from Shanghai Medical University in 1990 and her doctoral degree (medicinal chemistry) from China Medical University in 2002. The main research direction is the design, synthesis, and activity research of new drugs for treating ischemic heart and brain injury.