Publications by authors named "M F Biava"

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health issue, causing around 10 million new cases and 1.3 million deaths in 2022. The challenge is compounded by multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB strains, and co-infection with HIV.

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Enterovirus infections are common in humans, yet there are no approved antiviral treatments. In this study we concentrated on inhibition of one of the (EV-B), namely Coxsackievirus A9 (CVA9), using a combination of medicinal chemistry, virus inhibition assays, structure determination from cryogenic electron microscopy and molecular modeling, to determine the structure activity relationships for a promising class of novel -phenylbenzylamines. Of the new 29 compounds synthesized, 10 had half maximal effective concentration (EC) values between 0.

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Malaria drug research and development efforts have resurged in the last decade following the decelerating rate of mortality and malaria cases in endemic regions. The inefficiency of malaria interventions is largely driven by the spreading resistance of the parasite to current drug regimens and that of the malaria vector, the mosquito, to insecticides. In response to the new eradication agenda, drugs that act by breaking the malaria transmission cycle (transmission-blocking drugs), which has been recognized as an important and additional target for intervention, are being developed.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The World Health Organization reported that in 2022, 10.6 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) and 1.3 million died, highlighting a growing problem with multi-drug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains of the bacteria.
  • - TB bacteria have adapted to survive inside host cells by producing their own amino acids, which means targeting amino acid biosynthesis could help develop new treatments that outsmart the bacteria's defenses.
  • - Recent progress in drug discovery shows that inhibitors of tryptophan biosynthesis are promising, suggesting that focusing on optimizing these compounds could enhance the development of effective TB therapies in the future.
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COVID-19 patients show characteristic over-expression of different cytokines that may interfere with the interferon (IFN) response, delaying its production. Within the overexpressed cytokines, IL-8 plays a key role, and it may impede IFN-I activation. PBMC from eight healthy donors were exposed to 2019-nCoV/Italy-INMI1 isolate and supernatants/cells were collected at different time points; the production of either IFN-alpha or IL-8 was assessed.

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