The driving force of the Nanomalaria group is their personal commitment to applying nanomedicine to infectious diseases of poverty through several research lines: (i) Exploration of different types of encapsulating structure (liposomes, synthetic and natural polymers), targeting molecule (protein, polysaccharide, nucleic acid aptamers), and antimalarial compound (e.g. new structures derived from marine organisms and antimicrobial peptides) for the assembly of nanovectors capable of delivering their drug cargo with complete specificity to diseased cells. (ii) Study of metabolic pathways present in Plasmodium but absent in humans, with the aim of identifying specific enzymes as therapeutic targets. (iii) Use of glycosaminoglycans for innovative antimalarial strategies. (iv) Design of new methods for the targeted drug delivery to Plasmodium stages in the mosquito vector. (v) Investigation of novel drugs against insect-borne diseases working through radically new mechanisms. (vi) Extension of our activities to new pathologies (leishmaniasis).
Santiago Imperial Ródenas (Associate Professor) simperial(at)ub.edu
Xavier Fernández Busquets (External collaborator- IBEC-CRESIB)
Fulgheri F, Manca ML, Fernàndez-Busquets X, Manconi M. Analysis of complementarities between nanomedicine and phytodrugs for the treatment of malarial infection. Nanomedicine (Lond). 2023 Oct;18(23):1681-1696. doi: 10.2217/nnm-2023-0116
Fonte M, Fontinha D, Moita D, Caño-Prades O, Avalos-Padilla Y, Fernàndez-Busquets X, Prudêncio M, Gomes P, Teixeira C. New 4-(N-cinnamoylbutyl)aminoacridines as potential multi-stage antiplasmodial leads. Eur J Med Chem. 2023 Oct 5;258:115575. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2023.115575.
Fulgheri F, Aroffu M, Ramírez M, Román-Álamo L, Peris JE, Usach I, Nacher A, Manconi M, Fernàndez-Busquets X, Manca ML. Curcumin or quercetin loaded nutriosomes as oral adjuvants for malaria infections. Int J Pharm. 2023 Jun 30;643:123195. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2023.123195.
Characterization of Domiphen Bromide as a New Fast-Acting Antiplasmodial Agent Inhibiting the Apicoplastidic Methyl Erythritol Phosphate Pathway. Biosca A., Ramírez M., Gomez-Gomez A., Lafuente A., Iglesias V., Pozo O.J., Imperial S., Fernàndez-Busquets X. Pharmaceutics, 14, 7, 1320, 2022
Lepidine b & e as new target inhibitors from Lepidium sativum seeds against four enzymes of the pathogen Candida albicans: In vitro and in Silico studies. Gacemi S., Benarous K., Imperial S., Yousfi M. Endocrine, Metabolic and Immune Disorders – Drug Targets. 2020, 20(1)
Repurposing heparin as antimalarial: evaluation of multiple modifications toward in vivo application. Lantero, E. Aláez-Versón, C.R., Romero, P., Sierra, T., and Fernàndez-Busquets, X. Pharmaceutics. 2020, 12, E825.
Heparin administered to Anopheles in membrane feeding assays blocks Plasmodium development in the mosquito. Lantero, E., Fernandes, J., Aláez-Versón, C.R., Gomes, J., Silveira, H., Nogueira, F., and Fernàndez-Busquets, X. Biomolecules. 2020, 10, E1136.
Extracellular vesicles derived from Plasmodium-infected and non-infected red blood cells as targeted drug delivery vehicles. Borgheti-Cardoso, L.N., Kooijmans, S.A.A., Gutiérrez Chamorro, L., Biosca, A., Lantero, E., Ramírez, M., Avalos-Padilla, Y., Crespo, I., Fernández, I., Fernandez-Becerra, C., del Portillo, H.A., and Fernàndez-Busquets, X. Int. J. Pharm. 2020, 587, 119627.
Coated liposome nanocomplexes as drug delivery systems for treatment of leishmaniasis. (201811-30). Fundació La Marató de TV3 call for Research Projects on Infectious Diseases.). IP: Xavier Fernandez-Busquets. 2019-2023
Research grant, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain. Project title: “Characterization of the activity of the protein aggregation inhibitor YAT2150 as new antimalarial drug mechanism.” (PID2021-128325OB-I00). IP: Xavier Fernandez-Busquets. 01/09/2022 – 31/08/2025.
Research grant, Agencia Estatal de Investigación – Prueba de Concepto 2022. Project title: “Development of a new generation of antimalarial drugs for the post-artemisinin era.” (PDC2022-133085-I00). IP: Xavier Fernandez-Busquets. 01/12/2022 – 30/11/2024.
Research grant, CaixaResearch Health Call 2023. Project title: “Compact Analytical Tool for robust MALaria decentralized diagnosis and community surveillance.” (HR23-00679). IP: Xavier Fernandez-Busquets. 01/12/2023 – 30/11/2026.
Dario Anselmetti, Universität Bielefeld, Germany. Single molecule force spectroscopy.
Elisabetta Ranucci, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. Polyamidoamine nanoparticle synthesis.
Inga Siden-Kiamos, Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas, Heraklion, Greece. Development of the malaria parasite within the mosquito.
Paula Gomes, Universidade do Porto, Portugal. Development of new antimalarial drugs.
Fatima Nogueira, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. Antimalarial drug assays in Plasmodium-infected mosquitoes and mice.
Christian Grandfils, University of Liège, Belgium. Biomaterials research.
Eduardo Prata Vilanova, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Exploration of sulfated polysaccharides of marine origin as antimalarials.
Maria Manconi, Università di Cagliari, Italy. Liposome technology.
Krijn Paaijmans, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA. Administration of drug nanocarriers to Anopheles mosquitoes.
Kim Williamson, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, USA. Basic biology of bacterial, viral, and parasite diseases.
Juan José Valle-Delgado, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland. Atomic force microscopy.
Ellen Faszewski, Boston University, USA. Marine sponge cell adhesion.
Jos Paulusse, University of Twente, The Netherlands. Encapsulation of peptides in tailor-made multifunctionalized nanocarriers and polyamidoamine-derived nanogels.