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Amino-Nanozymes: Biomedical Applications (ANBA)

Introduction
Supramolecular chemistry, defined as "the chemistry beyond the molecules", is based on the construction of chemical systems formed by molecular components that are associated by non-covalent interactions. This chemical discipline of a highly interdisciplinary nature, finds its source of primary inspiration in biology and living systems, and since in 1978 Prof. J.-M. Lehn, Nobel Prize in chemistry, laid its foundations and language, has experienced a spectacular growth in the triple meeting point between chemistry, physics and biology. In 2016, Supramolecular Chemistry revalidated its scientific recognition with the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Profs. Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart and Ben Feringa for their research on the so- called molecular machines.
This project focuses on compounds with antioxidant, anticancer and/or antiparasitic activity with which Supramolecular Medical Chemistry team has a long experience.


Antioxidant compounds: applications in neuroprotection
Inflammation, cellular damage and oxidative stress due to free radicals constitute first line health problems, and a large number of investigations are being carried out in this field. Although free radicals are formed as a secondary product of normal cellular processes and cannot be considered intrinsically harmful, mismatches in their homeostasis have been linked to diseases such as cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, aging.
This project aims to generate new antioxidant systems based on metal complexes of first raw transition metals with azamacrocyclic ligands in order to combat oxidative stress and its consequences.


Antitumor agents
The rational design of new molecules capable of selectively interacting with nucleic acids has immense applications in the preparation and dosing of new drugs. It is well known that biogenic polyamines (putrescine, spermidine or spermine) interact with negatively charged biomolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, phospholipids and nucleotides. In fact, it has been estimated that a good part of the polyamines present in cells are associated with DNA or RNA.
In this project, the capacity of the new compounds to interact with DNA, RNA and G-quadruplex telomeric DNA will be evaluated and their cytotoxic activity will be determined against a panel of human tumor cell lines.


Chagas disease and Leishmaniasis
Chagas and Leishmaniasis, are among a group of ailments known as "neglected diseases", which are, for the most part, infectious tropical diseases caused by protozoa affecting mainly the population of developing countries. The research and development of therapeutic tools against these parasites is in an embryonic stage, due both to the absence of public R&D policies to develop drugs in these countries, and to the scarce interest from the pharmaceutical industry in the market represented by patients from low-income countries with under-resourced helth systems.
This project is intended to design new compounds capable to selectively block FeSOD avoiding proliferation of the bacteria responsible for these diseases.




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