Studies in adsorption of diterpenes in organophilic fibrous clays and evaluation of biological activities and toxicity of the obtained materials

• Grant number: 17/26889-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2018
• End date: March 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Vladimir Constantino Gomes Heleno
• Grantee: Eliene Silvério dos Santos
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria Adjunta de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação. Universidade de Franca (UNIFRAN). Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In Natural Products chemistry research, the search for natural biologically active compounds is very common and intense. Several of these substances can be used as drugs or as prototypes in the search for new drugs. An important part of this search is the work of structural modification to reach bioactive semi-synthetic structures. Thus, diterpenes are interesting starting materials, since several substances of this class display interesting activities such as: antimicrobial, antiparasitic, anti-HIV, hypotensive and anti-inflammatory, among others. During the search of these leads, the modifications carried out have the purpose of increasing the activity and the production of materials with lower level of toxicity, which is another very important subject in the research of new drugs. Based on developed ideas and results obtained in nanotechnology studies, it is here proposed an investigation about the possibility to achieve better levels of biological activity and/or lower levels of toxicity with diterpenes by incorporation into clay materials before subjection to biological systems. Moreover, it is widely known that the incorporation of organic molecules into inorganic substrates such as clay minerals through adsorption studies can change bioavailability of substances in the biological environment. This occur due to different interactions and/or chemical bonds with the inorganic substrate that, in turn, may promote significant difference in diffusion and desorption of the bioactive molecules to the biological medium. Paligorsquite is a clayey mineral belonging to the group of fibrous clays with structural characteristics similar to the group of smectites, characterized as a filosilicate 2: 1. Due to its elongated nature of the particles and their fine granulometry, paligorsquite has a large surface area (> 200 m2/g) and high adsorption capacity when activated. So, the proposal of this work is to perform a study about the adsorption of active diterpenes in fibrous clays such as paligorsquite. This is to verify the release of the adsorbed material, evaluate the biological activity of the hybrid material as well as its toxicity. It is expected to obtain the information if, in relation to the natural product, the hybrid material is able to present some advantage, such as better activity and/or less toxicity. (AU)