PROGRAMA NACIONAL DE CIENCIA ANTÁRTICA (PROCIEN)
| Título | Estudio integral de moléculas bioactivas con potencial terapéutico frente a enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles presentes en D. antarctica, C. quitensis y líquenes antárticos aplicando técnicas de análisis dirigido por efecto y espectrometría de masas |
| Línea de investigación | Biotecnología |
| Résumen | The Antarctic continent is mainly dominated by lichens, algae, and mosses, which present the singularity of surviving under extreme weather conditions. Lichens are complex symbiotic associations between a mycobiont and photobiont, which can be either an alga or cyanobacteria. More than 1000 secondary metabolites have so far been described from lichen sources, of which almost 50% can only be obtained as a result of this symbiotic association. These metabolites have shown several kinds of biological activities such as antimycobacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, analgesic, antidiabetic, etc. Additional to lichens species, two native vascular plant species have been shown all necessary metabolic conditions to survive in the Antarctic continent, i.e. Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis. These native plants have the ability of producing high levels of compounds with antioxidant capacity and with protective activity against UV-B. Some studies have reported the presence of flavonoid tricin 7-O-beta-D glucopyranoside with inhibitory activity against colorectal carcinoma. Antarctic environmental conditions trigger the synthesis of new bioactive molecules, in this context, D. antarctica, C. quitensis, and Antarctic lichens characterized by their great development and diversity could be a potential source of new bioactive molecules with beneficial activities against chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCD), which are pathologies characterized for showing long duration and slow progression. It is estimated that CNCD are responsible for 41 million deaths per year, which represents 71% of all deaths worldwide. The most relevant ones are cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases accounting for around 80% of all CNCD deaths. The same trend is observed in Chile; these four pathologies produce more than 50% of all deaths and considering all type of CNCD this percentage raises 85%. The present proposal will implement, for the first time in Chile (to the best of our knowledge), a scientific and technological platform based on advanced extraction techniques, effect-directed analysis, and mass spectrometry techniques to study the presence of bioactive molecules with therapeutic potential against CNCD present in D. antarctica, C. quitensis, and Antarctic lichens. The discovering and patenting of new bioactive molecules is one of the aims developed by INACH and the knowledge obtained in terms of vegetal and lichens characterization and discovering of new bioactive molecules will increase the understanding about the importance of the Antarctic continente and it will scientifically support the relevance of maintaining its unique environment. |
| Investigador principal (IP) | Mario Antonio Aranda Bustos |
| Contacto | mario.aranda@uc.cl |
| Universidad | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile |
| Año de ejecución | 2022-2025 |
| Co-investigadores | Karem Alejandra Henríquez Aedo |
| Colaboración Internacional | |
| Tipo de proyecto | Terreno |
| Código del proyecto | RT_28-21 |
| Equidad | M |
| Sector de trabajo | |
| Número | 85 |