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  • Bioactivity of ionic liquids based on valproate in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell line
    Publication . Dias, Ana Rita; Ferraz, Ricardo; Costa-Rodrigues, João; Santos, Andreia F. M.; Jacinto, Manuel L.; Prudêncio, Cristina; Noronha, João Paulo; Branco, Luís C.; Petrovsk, Željko
    The search for alternative and effective therapies to fight cancer is one of the main goals of the pharmaceutical industry. Recently, ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as potential therapeutic agents with antitumor properties. The goal of this study was to synthesize and evaluate the bioactivity of different ILs coupled with the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) valproate (VPA) as an antitumor agent. The toxicity of the prepared ionic liquids was evaluated by the MTT cell metabolic assay in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y and human primary Gingival Fibroblast (GF) cell lines, in which they showed inhibitory effects during the study period. In addition, low cytotoxicity against GF cell lines was observed, suggesting that these compounds are not toxic to human cell lines. [C2OHDMiM][VPA] demonstrated an outstanding antitumor activity against SH-SY5Y and lower activity against the non-neoplastic GF line. The herein assessed compounds played an important role in the modulation of the signaling pathways involved in the cellular behavior. This work also highlights the potential of these ILs-API as possible antitumor agents.
  • Antibacterial activity of ionic liquids based on betalactamantibiotics against resistant bacteria
    Publication . Dias, Vitorino; Santos, Miguel; Prudêncio, Cristina; Noronha, João P.; Grilo, Inês R.; Sobral, Rita G.; Dias, Ana Rita; Branco, Luís C.; Ferraz, Ricardo
    The cases of antibiotic resistance are increasing and becoming more and more common, giving rise to a new problem for public health. Therefore, the discovery of new antibiotics is important and necessary.
  • Tackling bacterial resistance using antibiotics as ionic liquids and organic salts
    Publication . Santos, Miguel M.; Grilo, Inês R.; Ferraz, Ricardo; Madeira, Diogo A.; Soares, Bárbara M.; Inácio, Núria; Pinheiro, Luís; Petrovski, Zeljko; Prudêncio, Cristina; Sobral, Rita G.; Branco, Luís C.
    Bacterial resistance to current antibiotics has a major impact on worldwide human health, leading to 700K deaths every year. The development of novel antibiotics did not present significant progress, namely regarding clinical trials, over the last years due to low returns. Thus, innovative alternatives must be devised to tackle the continuous rise of antimicrobial resistance. Ionic Liquids and Organic Salts from Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API-OSILs) have risen in academia for over 10 years as an efficient formulation for drugs with low bioavailability and permeability, as well as reduction or elimination of polymorphism, thereby potentially enhancing their pharmaceutical efficiency. To the best of our knowledge, our group is the first to perform research on the development of API-OSILs from antibiotics as a way to improve their efficiency. More specifically, we have successfully combined ampicillin, penicillin and amoxicillin as anions with biocompatible organic cations such as choline, alkylpyridiniums and alkylimidazoliums. In this communication, we present our latest developments in the synthesis and physicochemical (DSC) characterization of OSILs from these antibiotics, in addition to in vitro antimicrobial activity data, in particular towards MRSA and multi-resistant E. coli, as well as sensitive strains of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.