Investigadores de la Universidad de Navarra sintetizan nuevos compuestos de hierro contra la tuberculosis
Researchers at the University of Navarra synthesize new iron compounds against tuberculosis
The team participates in an international project to eradicate this disease, which will affect 30 million people in the next 20 years.
Eleven researchers from the research center in Applied Pharmacology (CIFA) of the University of Navarra have synthesized new iron compounds to fight tuberculosis. The team, led by Dr. Antonio Monge, is participating in an international project to eradicate the disease together with the Universities of La República (Uruguay), Sao Paolo (Brazil) and the National University of La Plata (Argentina).
In the case of the center of the University of Navarra, its Unit of research and development of Medicines - in its Forgotten Diseases section - has devised and prepared the base compounds that allow the creation of complexes with iron and that, according to Dr. Monge, "have a good profile of activity and improve B some aspects such as bioavailability, although it is necessary to continue the research to continue improving".
The new iron-containing compounds inhibit the in vitro growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes the disease, demonstrating leave toxicity in mammalian cells, and could therefore be used in the future as therapeutic agents and hospital disinfectants.
The biological tests of the first compounds, prior to the training of the metal complexes, will be carried out in the USA, thanks to the partnership of the Unit headed by Dr. Monge with the tuberculosis program of the North American Institutes of Health (NIH). Likewise, for the specialist, partnership with centers in Latin America is fundamental, "where tuberculosis, and other diseases such as malaria or Chagas disease, have a higher incidence and it is so necessary to work so that people stop suffering from them".
Future Center for Neglected Diseases
The search for more effective drugs against tuberculosis could be one of the lines of the future Center for Neglected Diseases at the University of Navarra. The center would collect the work of various groups of the center in the eradication, among others, of Chagas disease and brucellosis, two diseases called "forgotten" because they affect developing countries development and are, in many cases, the result of their poverty and associated conditions.
In this regard, Dr. Antonio Monge, director of the CIFA team specialized in Neglected Diseases, recalls that tuberculosis is caused by several species of the same bacteria and is currently considered a re-emerging disease: "This is largely due to the increase in people with HIV and other viruses that affect the autoimmune system, as well as the growing consumption of immunosuppressive drugs and drugs of abuse, which is why the World Health Organization has already estimated that this disease will affect 30 million people in the next 20 years", emphasizes the specialist.