Exploration of the chemical potential and biotransformation from fungus Rhinocladiella similis aimed biological compounds

• Grant number: 16/04004-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2016
• End date: November 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Ian Castro-Gamboa
• Grantee: Laura Vilar Simões
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07600-3 - CIBFar - Center for Research and Innovation in Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, AP.CEPID

Abstract

Natural products are important sources to search for new bioactive compounds, even when there was a decrease of research investments from many industries due to the lack on finding new pharmacological leads. This decrease may be explained do to the knowledge of the main chemotypes from natural sources as well as the use of reductionist analytical approaches, that are costly and held little results. Aiming to increase the interest in natural products research our research group Nuclei of Bioassay, Biosynthesis and Ecophysiology of natural products (NuBBE), has decided to invest research efforts into Senna spectabilis's rhizosphere microbial universe, due to the richness and little study of this biomass. To break from the traditional reductionist methods we have decided to invest in dereplication techniques that may speed-up the detection of bioactive compounds together with spectroscopic and separation analysis as well as chemometrics and multiway analysis (PCA, PLS-DA&etc). Additionally, in this research project the OSMAC approach (One Strain MAny Compunds) is being incorporated on media cultures to understand, produce and control promising microbial metabolites from the filamentous fungi (Rhinocladiella similis), aiming the detection of promising acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.