On April 5, 2019 Patrycja Michalska Dziama, member of the NRF24AD project (GT1), defended her doctoral thesis entitled “Novel Nrf2 inducers with multitarget activities for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases”, under the supervision of Dr. Rafael Léon and Dr. Manuela G. López.
Patrycja’s thesis project proposes the synthesis of compounds directed to multiple targets with the aim of reducing oxidative stress, neuroinflammation and aberrant folding of proteins, taking into account the common pathological mechanisms between the different neurodegenerative diseases. The idea is to provide a neuroprotective effect capable of modifying favorably the progress of these diseases by preventing cell death and restoring the function of damaged neurons.
The Nrf2-ARE pathway, which regulates the cellular antioxidant response and the expression of cytoprotective enzymes, was selected as the main target of the new compounds. On the other hand, compounds design has been based on melatonin, a neurohormone with antioxidant and neuroprotective activity whose levels are reduced during aging.
As an outstanding result of Patrycja’s thesis, we can mention compound 119, a potential candidate for the treatment of multiple sclerosis according to the results obtained using in vivo models.
Congratulations!
