PhD Mid-term Seminar Series: Nanomechanics of Microbial and viral Infections: Towards Mechanopharmacology
CIC nanoGUNE Seminars
- Speaker
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Antonio Reifs, Nanobiomechanics Group
- When
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2019/10/28
12:00 - Place
- nanoGUNE seminar room, Tolosa Hiribidea 76, Donostia - San Sebastian
- Add to calendar
-
iCal
Microbial infections are one of the leading cause of death worldwide. Bacteria
causing diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and cholera meanwhile virus
like HIV cause a cronic or mortal disease. Moreover, emerging antibiotic
resistant bacteria strains have been isolated, being the cause of thousands of
deaths every year. It is a global concern to develop novel treatments against
this microorganisms. In this context, mechanomedicine is an emerging field,
which studies how mechanical forces affects the structure and properties of
cells and proteins such as membrane receptors and how this is related to
diseases. In this research we study some different infection mechanisms at a
mechanical level, from bacteria, such as escherichia coli or yersinia pestis
and other from virus, HIV. We studied the mechanical arquitecture of these
systems by looking at the most relevant points and interactions, we performed
high-throughput virtual screening and docking to find compounds that have the
capability to interact with mechanically relevant parts of the system and
disturb the native interaction in order to prevent the infection. Following
this methodology, we have found three different mechanomodulators for HIV-1
receptor CD4 and design an assay for single-bacterium adhesion measurements.
We continue our research studying virulence factors from staphylococcus aureus
responsible of endocarditis infection, we will receive different strains form
patients allowing us to study if exist any correlation between the mechanical
of those factors and the virulence degree observed in the patient.