IP: Dr. Luis M Botana

Resumen del proyecto: The pharmacological activity of different compound families of marine origin isolated and purificated from dinoflagellates, phytoplankton, Antartic bacteria and fungi samples are studied in the PHARMASEA project. In this sense, the potential antitumoral and antibiotic effect or neuronal protection against neurodegenerative diseases of these pure compounds are determined. Different cellular models are used to carry out these studies. Apoptotic and cytotoxicity assays, monolayer absorption, protein synthesis, oxidative stress, as well as electrophysiological techniques to observe ion flow modifications are some of the assays developed with the different cellular models. Some products of marine origin, such as Yessotoxin (polyether), with a potential antitumoral effect, activate programmed cell death pathways in tumoral cell lines. However no effect was observed or higher concentrations are needed to induce cell death in no tumoral cell lines. In this sense, the effect on tumour cell lines seems to be more potent when the ability of these cellular lines of divide is higher. Therefore the study of the apoptotic and citotoxic effect of these products in different cellular models with different rates of cellular division is very interesting. Previous studies have shown an opposite effect on tumor cells (lymphoma cells K-562) and fresh human lymphocytes of healthy people viability. K-562 cell line decreased its viability after the treatment while fresh human lymphocytes did not alter its viability in respect to untreated cells. In this context, it is necessary to check if these opposite effects are due to the ability of the cell lines to replicate infinitely (lacking in healthy fresh differentiated lymphocytes) or due to the apoptotic pathways alteration as occurs in tumor cell lines. In this sense, the lymphoblastoid cells from healthy people, are an interesting tool to confirm or discard what type of cell lines are sensitive to these compounds. The limphoblastoid line is an interesting tool to stugy the effect of these compounds.

Entidad financiadora: European Commission