Maria Jose S. Mendes Giannini is a Ph.D. at Microbiology from USP, a full professor of UNESP and currently Researcher of CNPq 1A. She is head of the clinical mycology laboratory of Pharmaceutical school of UNESP.
She has experience in Mycology and Cellular Biology, working on the following topics: fungus-host interaction and bioprospecting of substances and antibodies with antifungal activity.
Dr. Giannini has technical-scientific collaboration with researchers from international institutions (National University of Mexico, UNAM; Institute Carlos III, Madrid, Spain; the University of Texas; Institute of Molecular Medicine, Lisbon, Portugal). She is currently Research vice-rector of UNESP and member of the Board of FAPESP.
Talk abstract
Insights of new molecules as antifungal to biofilms and their efficacy by alternative method
Pathogenic fungi may cause a significant medical problem and have some features that allowtheir growth in adverse conditions. The spreading infection is most likely due to the adhesion, invasion and formation of a biofilm that contribute with antimicrobial resistance and evasion ofhost defenses. Nevertheless, the availability of antifungal agents is small and inefficient.
Our group report new studies for the treatment of fungal diseases as well as the mechanism of fungi host interaction by omics research. For that we search new markers as microRNAs, peptides, proteins and therapeutic targets. Among these therapies are the use of natural products and their derivatives; the combination of new antifungal substances and drugs used in conventional therapy, reporting a synergistic effect; the use of usual drugs associated with the nanoparticles; photodynamic therapy, immunotherapy using monoclonal antibodies, peptides and antagomirs. For testing these new therapeutic approaches we tested eukaryotic models such as zebrafish, S.cerevisiae, C. elegans and Galleria mellonella, and we determined some virulence parameters.The evaluation was made against Candida sp, Cryptococcus sp and Paracoccidioides sp and Histoplasma capsulatum. Some of them were evaluated in both forms: planktonic and biofilm. In summary, the substances tested are promising for their antifungal activity against various fungi.
The data obtained with alternative methods for virulence studies and therapeutic efficacies for fungal infections have shown great versatility and correlation with the conventional models.
References
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