Objective
Heart failure and cancer are the two major causes of death in developed countries. Current therapies for their cure are affected by largely unsolved problems. A common feature of both pathologies is that matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) 3 and 9, which are zinc-dependent proteolytic enzymes, play a key role. Inhibition of MMPs 3 and 9 is promising for heart failure and cancer therapy, but the currently available inhibitors are poorly selective, and therefore toxic. The primary objective of this project is to discover novel families of inhibitors selective for MMPs 3 and 9 from fluorinated peptidomimetic units. This challenging goal will be pursued by exploiting the potent tools made available by a synergistic and multisciplinary collaboration encompassing all aspects of drug discovery, including fluorine/asymmetric/combinatorial chemistry, structural chemistry, modeling, protein crystallography, pharmacology, physiology and biology, with the additional support of an industrial partner. The other main objective of this research project is to provide an effective training for young scientists at the interface of chemistry and biology in a very competitive international context where discovery of new drugs rests mainly on the ability to use complementary approaches from various disciplines and expertises. Eventually, the scientific achievements stemming from this project will improve our knowledge of a variety of timely and fundamental topics such as
(1) the asymmetric/combinatorial synthesis of chiral fluorinated peptides and mimetics,
(2) the mechanism of action of MMPs,
(3) the behavior of fluorine-containing functions in the enzyme active sites, as well as of their influence on the recognition of the ligand by the enzymes and the effect on the binding affinity,
(4) the in vivo tests of the fluorinated inhibitors, and
(5) the generation of human monoclonal antibodies against MMP-3 and MMP-9.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy drug discovery
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pathology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine physiology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine cardiology
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
20131 MILANO
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.