05.12.2024 Design of multifunctional conjugates for the targeting of non-coding RNAs: anticancer and antimicrobial applications

Dr. Maria Duca from the Université Côte d'Azur in Nice exchanged the warm Mediterranean weather for two days in a grey German winter.

On 3 December, we welcomed Maria Duca to RTG 2937. The professor in Nice is CNRS Research Director, Director of the research group "Targeting of Nucleic Acids" and Vice-President of the French Medicinal Chemistry Society (SCT).

Maria Duca spoke about the "Design of multifunctional conjugates for the targeting of non-coding RNAs: anticancer and antimicrobial applications" in the SYNMIKRO lecture hall. RNA is one of the most intriguing and promising biological targets for the discovery of innovative drugs in a large number of pathologies and various biologically relevant RNAs that could serve as drug targets have already been identified. Among the most important ones, it is worth to mention prokaryotic ribosomal RNA which is the target of a number of currently employed antibiotics, viral RNAs such as TAR, RRE and DIS RNA of HIV-1 or oncogenic microRNAs that are tightly involved in the development and progression of various cancers. However, difficulties in the rational design of strong and specific small-molecule ligands renders this kind of molecules relatively rare. In this presentation, she showed her recent results about the structure-based design of new RNA ligands targeting oncogenic RNAs that led her to the identification of new compounds bearing a promising biological activity but also to a better understanding of the formed interactions toward the design of optimized compounds. In parallel to the design of bioactive compounds, she also performs the screening of chemical library, thus increasing the available chemical tools for the development of efficient and specific RNA binders for a wide number of therapeutic applications. Finally, she showed the validation of a new antibacterial target and the design of original compounds bearing potential antimicrobial activity against resistant bacterial strains. Click here to learn more about Maria Duca's research.

Thank you for the impulses you gave us, Maria! We hope you enjoyed your stay as much as we did.