Interactions of natural products, their derivatives and coordination compounds with proteins and nucleic acids

The topic of the project will be the biological activity of natural products, thir derivatives and analogs, as well as metal complexes, and the interactions of these small molecules with biological macromolecules (DNA, proteins) as targets. A series of derivatives of the antitumor hydroquinone/quinone couple avarol/avarone will be synthesized, and their biological activity, especially to tumor cell lines, evaluated. Their interactions with DNA and enzymes (lysozyme, hexokinase, tyrosine kinase) will be investigated, as well as influence on cell cycle and apoptosis. Interactions with DNA will also be studied with other natural products of hydroquinone and quinone type, as well as with synthetic models of DNA binding molecules. A series of thionated steroids, as well as of different types of steroidal dimers will be synthesized, and their biological activity studied. One of the research topics will be the synthesis of a large number of d-metal complexes, principally with various ligands of hydrazone type, including selenosemicarbazones, evaluation of their cytotoxicity to tumor cell lines, and effects on the cell death processes. One of the project lines will be interactions of proteins and carbohydrates, namely isolation and characterization of lectins from marine organisms.