In recent years, many methods have emerged for researching and treating cancer, pushing the boundaries of how doctors deliver care to their patients. Graduate student Sheriff Umar Itopa advances this effort at Morgan State University under the guidance of Alexander Samokhvalov, an associate professor of chemistry who was instrumental in bringing Itopa into this research area.
During the 2025-2026 academic year, the Spokesman will examine the effect of cancer on the Morgan community, from the student body to faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni.
Itopa studies how advanced materials called metal organic frameworks (MOFs) can be used to slowly release chemotherapy drugs. In 2024, his paper was published in Nanomaterials, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Itopa’s research focuses on the drug 6-Thioguanine (6-TG), which is used in leukemia treatment, and how combining it with an aluminum-based MOF allows the drug to be released gradually— a technique that could lead to better treatment options.
In this Q&A, Itopa sat down with the Spokesman to share his journey into cancer research, the science behind his work, and what gives him hope for the future of cancer treatment.
Q: Can you tell me about your path into cancer research and what inspired you to focus on drug delivery systems?
A: I did my first and second degree in Nigeria. So I had always sort of right from my undergraduate days, delved bit by bit into drug discovery. Being that malaria, for example, is sort of an endemic disease in my country. So there’s still a lot of research actually going on and trying to find sort of more effective drug treatment options. So that’s kind of how I started into the whole concept of drug delivery and drug discovery as a whole.
Coming to Morgan State University and speaking to my professor, Dr. Sam (Samokhvalov), and understanding the kind of work he was doing—we’re not necessarily discovering new drugs, but we’re kind of finding ways to repurpose already existing drugs to make them more effective. So that’s kind of how my journey towards that direction came about.
Q: Based on your work, what’s the significance of 6-Thioguanine, and why is it commonly used in treating leukemia?
A: It’s a drug that’s been around for a minute now, it’s referred to as purine analog. So, purines are like nitrogenous bases that are components of DNA. Because leukemia is more or less like a blood cancer, what it does is that it prevents continual synthesis and brings about what is called apoptosis, which is like a programmed cell death. So the cell dies, eventually, basically.
But the problem with the drug, as well, is that it also brings about a lot of side effects, which might include effects like myelosuppression, anemia, low platelet counts, and hepatotoxic effects, which affect the liver, and all kinds of things.
That was basically the thrust of our research, which is called the burst effect. That is like a situation where there is a rapid release of the drug immediately after administration. So, you have a very high concentration, and not only is it affecting the cancerous cells themselves, but it’s also now affecting the healthy cells—so that’s why it’s called the burst effect, which is really what our target was to say, “okay, can we prevent this burst effect?”
Q: For our readers who don’t have a scientific background, how do you explain what a metal-organic framework (MOF) is, and why did you choose DUT-4 in particular?
A: Metal-organic frameworks are like versatile materials that have a wide range of applications. These materials are basically made up of a metal cluster, and then they’ve also got, like, what we refer to as organic linkers. It’s just like building a toy house of some sort, so once that’s built, what it means is that in between those structures, you see that there are holes everywhere.
They have the advantage of first having a very high surface area, and secondly, they are also tunable in the sense that the choice of material and the choice of organic linker will determine the size of the pores.
DUT-4 [was] chosen because we were able to find the pore size of the material and compare it to the drug we have, which is the 6-thioguanine, which is considered a small molecule anticancer drug. So our expectation was that it was going to be able to trap that material in there. We explored different metal-organic frameworks, and then we did the release studies to find out which of them is actually bringing about a delayed release. DUT-4 was able to actually give us the level of interaction that we observed, leading to a longer delay in the release of the drugs.
Q: How is this drug delivery different from the way that patients usually receive medication, like through pills and needles?
A: The way patients receive medicine is what is referred to as systemic administration. So they basically take it orally, or intravenously, or something like that, and those go straight into the bloodstream.
That is really what brings the burst effect—with the issue of the metal-organic framework, there are various approaches that have been explored with regard to its own form of administration. One of those is the use of implants, putting it there and allowing it to release directly to the tumor site over a long period of time.
In our own case, we were able to get up to 10 days of release using the pharmaceutical formulation. Another way, being explored in my lab, is to make it into nano-colloids, which can also be administered or injected in the first place. However, once in there, it can be releasing the drugs gradually over a long period of time and still bring the same kind of effects.
Q: In your experiments, how did the leukemia cells respond to the composite compared to the pure drug?
A: When we compared it to the pure drug, we’d see a lot of quick effect for the drug when compared to the metal-organic framework and the drug together.
In the first few days, maybe 24 to 48 hours, you find that the pure drug itself was showing a lot more effect. However, from 72 hours upward, when we did colony assays that went up to six, nine days, and even 14 days, you find that the composite becomes way more effective.
Because with our composites, we’re able to delay the release of the drug and allowed for a longer period of time..I think we saw effects up to about nine days.
Q: Cancer cases are rising in young adults. Do you see other cancers or drugs that might benefit from this kind of delayed drug system?
A: Yes, obviously, this research is not so much about having solutions to the issues with leukemia directly, as it’s more like proof of concept that the idea is possible. Even more so for other cancers that are like solid tumors, we also have a paper out, actually, on pancreatic cancer, using a broad-spectrum anticancer drug, gemcitabine. So essentially I’m saying it’s not so much geared towards, “oh, this is a solution for leukemia,” as it’s more like this is a proof of the fact that this work and applicable to other forms of cancer.
Q: What other challenges still need to be addressed before this could be moved into clinical trials?
A: The challenge will definitely be the application. Since this is like leukemia, which is like a blood cancer, you can’t just place a pharmaceutical somewhere. So, the next step is designing this in nano-colloid form…sort of like getting into the nano size and nanoparticle form…while maintaining the effect. I think that getting it to that point might be the best way to begin to apply this, and at least be able to allow us to take this to the next level, which is basically in a clinical sense, and probably even maybe begin to do in vivo studies, using animal models. If we’re able to get into that stage, that will probably be the next step to make a big jump.
Q. Lastly, what gives you hope about the future of cancer treatment, and what advice would you give to young adults facing cancer?
A: What gives me hope about it is that everybody, the whole world understands the danger that this disease pertains, and there’s a lot of work and a lot of research going into it–not just from our own perspective, there’s a lot of people also doing drug discoveries. So basically, there’s a lot of work that is going on, and we can only hope that, you know, there’s continuous support for that.
My advice to people that are probably going through this, I know it’s a tough thing, it’s just you know to keep hope. And one of the advantages of what we are doing is help the patient to live a better life. Because when you take away some of the side effects, people can go through therapy without the suffering that comes along with it. So I’m hopeful. So I hope that message goes out there.
If you’d like to share a cancer-related story, whether it’s yours or that of someone you know, email us at [email protected]
