Study, developed at the Institute of Chemistry, generated patent registration request
In recent years, medicine has recorded an increasing number of cases of infections caused by fungi. Two factors associated with this advance are the increase in the number of immunocompromised people and the resistance of microorganisms to medicines on the market. A study carried out for the doctoral thesis by pharmacist Marilia Simão dos Santos designed and synthesized two new compounds with antifungal properties. The research opens up perspectives for the development of future drugs aimed at treating these diseases. The work, defended at the Chemistry Institute (IQ) at Unicamp, was supervised by professor Fernando Coelho.
According to Marilia, she and her advisor are already arranging, with the support of the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency (Inova Unicamp), the application for patent registration for the technology. Intellectual protection is fundamental, due to the originality of the study. The thesis author explains that the new compounds were initially planned and then synthesized. “To explain it simply, what I did initially was design two new structures, based on commercial antifungals used in clinical medicine and on molecules described in the literature that also have antifungal activities. The next step was to carry out the synthesis, that is, the connection between the parts, in order to obtain hybrid structures also capable of combating fungi”, explains the researcher.
Having overcome these two stages, Marilia needed to complete one more phase: proving that the new compounds could in fact inhibit the growth of fungi. “After the molecules were synthesized, we carried out biological tests vitro. Fortunately, the structures demonstrated an important antifungal property against some selected fungi. In general, they demonstrate an activity similar to that of the medicine we took as a reference, and for some strains of microorganisms the activity was even higher than that of the drug commonly used in the treatment of fungal infections”, he reveals.
The results obtained from the research, considers Marilia, show that the new compounds are very promising. The pharmaceutical company notes, however, that before these structures are used to develop a new class of medicines, several other studies will have to be carried out. “We need to verify the degree of toxicity and the mechanism of action of these compounds. You will then need to carry out tests in vivo, and only then can we begin a possible clinical test. In any case, the research brings new knowledge to the areas involved in drug development”, understands the author of the thesis.
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In addition to designing and synthesizing two new compounds with antifungal properties, Marília's doctoral research also developed new methodologies for the synthesis of molecules already known to science. In other words, she used different techniques to reach results already reported in the scientific literature. In this case, the synthesized compounds can have multiple applications, as solvents or potential drugs with antibacterial and anticancer properties, to name just a few examples.
In Marilia's opinion, one of the main objectives of science is precisely to arrive at processes or products that can be applied and, consequently, bring benefits to society. “This is a very challenging goal, which requires not only in-depth knowledge in chemistry, but dialogue with other areas of knowledge, such as biology and, later on, medicine”, states the author of the thesis, who carried out part of the studies at the University of Nottingham, in the United Kingdom, where she was co-supervised by professor Christopher John Moody. The researcher received grants from the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes).
