Universitat Jaume I evaluates ruthenium compounds for neurodegenerative disease treatment

The pharmaceutical division of the company Neuron BPh and the research group of Organometallic Chemistry and Homogeneous Catalysis of the Universitat Jaume I, have evaluated the possible applications of a series of ruthenium compounds for their future use in the treatment of neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer.

The research, recently published in the journal Zebrafish, has come to the conclusion that the ruthenium compound used has the ability to act as a neuroprotective or antitumoral depending on the concentration in which it is applied. So that, in low doses, the compound acts as antioxidant preventing the deterioration of cells, which means it could be used for treatments of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer or Parkinson. While in high concentrations, this compound may become a toxic substance that causes the selective death of diseased cells and, therefore, is a good candidate for the design of antitumoral drugs.

Research in biomedical applications of these compounds is relatively recent, so the Universitat Jaume I is at the forefront of this new field of research through collaboration with the company of Grenada. The results have already been presented at various scientific meetings, in particular, at the European congress 6^th Zebrafish Genetics and Developmental Meeting held in Rome, and at the 32^nd Reunión Bienal de la Real Sociedad Española de Química which was held in Oviedo, Spain, in 2009.

As for the development of the project, the compounds were obtained through synthesis procedures developed by the research group of the UJI, led by professor Eduardo Peris. The company Neuron BPh, meanwhile, undertook in vitro tests. Subsequently, the company of Grenada checked the compounds obtained in their Toxicology Platform for their safety. To do this, they used an animal model increasingly used in the proofs of drug safety: zebrafish embryo.

The group of Organometallic Chemistry and Homogeneous Catalysis has been able to carry out this research thanks to grants received by the Ministry of Education and the foundation Fundación Bancaixa-UJI. The team that has participated in this research is composed by PhD student Amparo Prades, PhD Macarena Poyatos and tenured professor of the area of Inorganic Chemistry, Eduardo Peris. The research group has an extensive experience in the design, synthesis and description of organometallic compounds, and is the group of the Universitat Jaume I with more quotations, according the ISI web of Science database.

Neuron BPh, meanwhile, has participated in the project with the company's own funds and with staff attached to its Division BioPharma, specially its director, Javier S. Burgos, from Valencia; PhDs Juan Alfaro and María del Carmen Ramos; and Jorge Ripoll as technical staff. The mission of the company focuses on drugs and nutraceuticals discoveries for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, and, in particular, of Alzheimer's disease and, additionally provides biotechnological services to pharmaceutical, chemical, food processing and biofuel companies.