Pharmacological targets in inflammation and metabolic diseases

1. The study of new mechanisms by which PPARbeta/delta agonists reduce inflammation and insulin resistance.
2. The evaluation of new pharmacological targets for the prevention of diabetic heart muscle disease.
3. Research on new pharmacological targets for the treatment and prevention of diabetic heart muscle disease in animal type 1 diabetes mellitus models.
4. The evaluation of new pharmacological targets involved in the development of diabetes and the potential to develop new medicines to treat diabetes.
5. The study of the mechanisms involved in the low birth weight caused by endoplasmic reticulum stress on the placenta.

1. To develop heme-regulated inhibitor (HRI) activator medicines to increase hepatic and serum fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) levels for the treatment of metabolic diseases.
2. To evaluate the effects of PPARb/d agonists in preventing diabetic heart disease.
3. To establish new determinants connecting inflammation with insulin resistance.
4. To establish a possible association between FGF21 and endoplasmic reticulum stress and low birth weight.

Our area of expertise is pharmacological biochemistry in inflammation and insulin resistance.

Our methodology includes the conduct of in vivo and in vitro studies. We have expertise in the use of various in vivo models (obesity and insulin resistance models induced by fat or fructose diet; animal heart disease models with over-expression of TNFα in the heart). We use these to investigate glucose intolerance, fatty liver (liver triglyceride levels, Oil-Red O  and eosin-haematoxylin staining, immunohistochemistry), cardiac hypertrophy (echocardiography, immunohistochemistry), inflammation (expression of inflammatory cytokines in tissues, DNA binding activity of NF-κB  and other proinflammatory transcription factors, protein levels) and metabolites (diacylglycerol, ceramides).

We have also gained extensive experience in in vitro studies with various mouse (myotubes, cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes and adipocytes) and human cell lines (skeletal muscle cells, adipocytes, cardiomyocytes and hepatocytes) as well as in the study of primary cultures. In these cultures, we analyse fatty acid oxidation, glucose uptake, microRNA, inflammatory markers, adipokines and endoplasmic reticulum stress markers. We have also conducted gene silencing using small interfering RNA or gene over-expression.