Research
Amino-nanozimes: Design and Development of Antioxidant Systems
It is well-known that the imbalance between the production and removal of reactive oxygen species in living systems generates oxidative stress, which is related to the occurrence of neurological disorders such as Parkinson´s and Alzheimer Disease and, therefore, has profound consequences in aging and hence in life expectancy.
In order to remove ROS, living organisms have developed a battery of protective enzymes, such as superoxide dismutases (SODs), catalases and peroxidases. Mammalian SODs contain either CuZn-binuclear centres (SOD1 and SOD3) or Mn mononuclear centres (MnSOD, SOD2).
Although SOD enzymes have shown therapeutic efficacy, their use has severe drawbacks such as absence of oral activity, immunogenicity, short half-life and low cell permeability. Therefore, low-molecular weight mimetics may offer better outcomes regarding properties such as lack of antigenicity, good tissue penetrance, high stability, longer half-life in solution, and low production cost.
A number of these low molecular SOD mimetics are complexes of polyamine ligands of either cyclic or open-chain topology. In this respect, we work on the desing, synthesis and development of mononuclear and binuclear manganese and copper complexes of aza-macrocyclic ligands, which have shown SOD activities in vitro which rank among the highest ones so far reported for synthetic systems.
A step forward to improve the activity, the likely-cell uptake and bio-distribution of these low molecular weight mimetics might be their incorporation in non-toxic nanoparticles (NPs). The grafting of the molecules to the surface of the nanoparticles yield pre-concentration and amplification of the signal.
Thus, in our laboratory, we are interested in:
- Design and development of azamacrocyclic Cu(II), Mn(II) and Fe(II) complexes for antioxidant therapies.
- Desing and development of nanoparticles with both the capacity to remove the superoxide anions and the hydrogen peroxide: the amino-nanozymes.
- Biotechnological applications of amino-nanozymes as drug delivery systems.
