Medicinal Chemistry of Natural Compounds
Group of Michal Jurášek
The group is currently focused primarily on applied, medicinal chemistry, and chemical biology aspects of selected natural compounds. We are engaged in the isolation of natural products from natural sources and in the preparation of analogues of medicinally potent compounds. The products of our work are intended for testing specific biological activities (anticancer, antiviral, antiparasitic) or for evaluating their application potential in (bio)analytical methods.
Our main research portfolio includes the chemistry of steroid compounds (cardiotonic agents, estradiol), mitotic inhibitors (colchicine, paclitaxel, vinblastine), SERCA inhibitors (trilobolide and thapsigargin), antimalarial and antiparasitic agents (artemisinin), and HIV-1 maturation inhibitors (bevirimat).
The group is also focused on the synthesis of fluorophores and fluorescently labelled natural compounds. Our preferred fluorophores include BODIPY dyes, cyanines, and xanthene dyes. These products are valuable tools for studying the fate of natural compounds in living cells using fluorescence microscopy.
At present, we are engaged in the synthesis of HaloTag probes and tools for quantitative chemoproteomic analysis.
A complementary research direction of the group is the synthesis of ligands intended for radiolabeling with radioactive nuclides. At present, we focus on ligands for P2X7 receptor and Sigma-1 receptor. These derivatives have potential applications in medical imaging techniques such as Positron Emission Tomography or Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography.