Cancer
Pharmacology:
The most relevant problems of chemotherapy consist on the marked
toxicity profile of most drugs used today and the increasingly frequent appearance
of the phenomenon of drug resistance.
It is urgent, therefore,
the need to develop more innovative molecules characterized
by a better profile in terms of both efficacy
and toxicity. The
aim of the research actually consists in the identification
of compounds of natural origin with chemotherapeutic
potential against
the cancerogenic process and the
characterization of their mechanism of action
at cellular and
molecular level. The activity of the molecules is investigated on different cancer cell
models (primary cultures and cell lines). The first step is the evaluation of the effects at cellular level, in terms of cyto-and genotoxicity,
modulation of cell
proliferation, induction of apoptosis, modulation
of cell cycle
progression, induction of cytodifferentiation. Based on
these results,
the research
is directed towards the planning and
preparation of specific investigations, aimed at the
analysis of specific pathways and molecular targets
underlying the
anticancer potential of molecules for specific cancers, including
through the
analysis of specific microRNA, as
post transcriptional regulators of genes involved in cancer
process.
Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics:
The research
interests are focused on pharmacogenetics, whose aim is to
correlate genetic polymorphisms (SNPs) in key genes to drug
efficacy. In particular, the analysis concern genes coding for
specific drug-metabolising and transporters enzymes. In the long
run, this analysis may lead to the identification of a subset of
SNPs with predictive value for optimisation of
therapy. Moreover, the interests are on molecular
biology-mutation, with the aim to identify genes that underline
cancer susceptibility. In addition SNPs are analysed in many
cancer-related genes. Additionally, the interest is on
the role of miRNA in gene regulation, in particular
in in
vitromodels to understand the
pharmacoresistance.
