| Grant number: | 18/25704-4 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |
| Start date: | March 01, 2019 |
| End date: | February 28, 2021 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Immunology - Cellular Immunology |
| Principal Investigator: | Lúcia Helena Faccioli |
| Grantee: | Tanize dos Santos Acunha |
| Host Institution: | Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil |
| Associated research grant: | 14/07125-6 - New functional aspects of eicosanoids, AP.TEM |
Abstract Venoms from animals consist of complex mixtures of bioactive molecules belonging to different chemical classes, such as proteins, lipids,polysaccharides, amino acids, among others. Since venoms induce characteristic biological responses, which vary according to the animal species, the identification of the components composing such complex mixtures will allow to create venom specific chemical fingerprints. In addition, these signatures will serve to better understand the inflammatory / immune response induced by exposure to these toxins. Many venoms from arachnids, reptiles and amphibians have been studied. However, only the protein portion of the venoms (toxins) have been properly identified and characterized. The lipid portion has been underexplored, concerning both its composition and its biological role. Numerous toxins (polypeptides) are known to be neurotoxic agents, hemithyroid, and others. However, the lipids that constitute these complex mixtures and their relevance to the response of mammalian organisms exposed to them is still poorly evaluated. Advances in fractionation methodologies, chromatography and identification and structural characterization of compounds with Mass Spectrometry (MS) offer great potential to determine the components of venoms such as scorpions, snakes, spiders and others. In this way, MS proves to be a powerful and versatile tool for lipidomics, as it is a sensitive technique capable of providing important information about components of a mixture. Thus, MS presents as a key instrument for the investigation of the lipid components of venoms. In addition, the MS can be coupled to ion mobility spectrometry (DMS), which stands out in the shotgun-type of analyses for a fast and accurate determination of the lipid profile of complex samples using an innovative separation methodology without the use of chromatographic columns. | |
| News published in Agência FAPESP Newsletter about the scholarship: | |
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