In collaboration with several medicinal chemistry groups, we focus on the functional and structural characterization of large libraries of inhibitors of selective pharmaceutical targets such as human phosphodiasterase 4D (PDE4D), plasmodium falciparum choline kinase (ChoK), plasmodium falciparum aminoacyl-tRNA-synthetases (aaRSs) and others. We also carry out fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) screening for the identification of small binders of potential pharmacological interest.

Selected publications

• Jhon A. Rodriguez-Buitrago, Guntars Leitis, Iveta Kanepe-Lapsa, Anastasija Rudnickiha, Emilio Parisini, Jirgensons A. Synthesis and evaluation of an Agrocin 84 toxic moiety (TM84) analogue as a malarial threonyl tRNA synthetase inhibitor. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2023, 21, 5433-5439. DOI: 10.1039/D3OB00670K

• Luque-Navarro PM, Carrasco-Jiménez MP, Goracci L, Paredes JM, Espinar Barranco L, Valverde-Pozo J, Torretta A, Parisini E, Mariotto E, Marchioro C, Laso A, Marco C, Viola G, Lanari D, López-Cara LC. New bioisosteric sulphur-containing choline kinase inhibitors with a tracked mode of action. Eur. J. Med. Chem. 2023, 246, 115003.  DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2022.115003

• Castagna R, Kolarski D, Durand-de Cuttoli R, Maleeva G. Orthogonal control of neuronal circuits and behaviour using photopharmacology. J. Mol. Neurosci. 2022,72(7), 1433.

• García-Molina P, Sola-Leyva A, Luque-Navarro PM, Laso A, Ríos-Marco P, Ríos A, Lanari D, Torretta A, Parisini E, López-Cara LC, Marco C, Carrasco-Jiménez MP. Anticancer activity of the choline kinase inhibitor PL48 is due to selective disruption of choline metabolism and transport systems in cancer cell lines. Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 426.

• Eli S, Castagna R, Mapelli M, Parisini E. Recent approaches to the identification of novel microtubule targeting agents. Front. Mol. Biosci. 2022, 9, 841777.

• Luque-Navarro PM, Mariotto E., Ballarotto M, Rubbini G, Aguilar-Troyano FJ, Fasiolo A, Torretta A, Parisini E, Macchiarulo A, Laso A, Marco C, Viola G, Carrasco-Jimenez MP, López-Cara LC. Biological evaluation of new thienopyridinium and thienopyrimidinium derivatives as human choline kinase inhibitors. Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 715.

• Brullo C, Rapetti F, Abbate S, Prosdocimi T, Torretta A, Semrau M, Massa M, Alfei S, Storici P, Parisini E, Bruno O. Design, synthesis, biological evaluation and structural characterization of novel GEBR library PDE4D inhibitors. Eur. J. Med. Chem. 2021, 223, 113638.

• Cavalloro V, Russo K, Vasile V, Pignataro L, Torretta A, Donini S, Semrau MS, Storici P, Rossi D, Rapetti F, Brullo C, Parisini E, Bruno O, Collina S.^.Insight into GEBR-32a: chiral resolution,absolute configuration and enantiopreference in PDE4D inibition. Molecules 2020, 25, 935.

• Prosdocimi T, Mollica L, Donini S, Semrau MS, Lucarelli AP, Aiolfi E, Cavalli A, Storici P, Alfei S, Brullo C, Bruno O, Parisini E. Molecular bases of PDE4D inhibition by memory-enhancing GEBR-library compounds. Biochemistry, 2018, 57, 2876.

• Torretta A, Lopez-Cara L.C., Parisini E. Crystal structure of the apo and the ADP-bound form of choline kinase from Plasmodium falciparum. Crystals, 2020, 10, 613.

• Fanzani L, Porta F, Meneghetti F, Villa S, Gelain A, Lucarelli AP, Parisini E. Mycobacterium tuberculosis low molecular weight phosphatases (MPtpA and MPtpB): from biological insight to inhibitors. Current Medicinal Chemistry, 2015, 22, 3110.