Platforms of structural and physicochemical analysis


IICiMed provides its researchers equipments allowing characterization and structural elucidation of new molecules.

- 1H and 13C NMR via Bruker AVANCE 400 MHz NMR spectrometer.

- Shimadzu IRAffinity-1 IR-FT spectrophotometer is equipped with a MIRacle 10 accessory ATR.

- Chromatographic analyses are performed on a Waters ACQUITY UPLC System (PDA detector) coupled with a ZQ 2000 single quadrupole electrospray mass spectrometer.

- Flash chromatography apparatus, puriFlash 430 from Interchim, is used for the purifications.

- Numeric polarimeter Schmidt-Haensch-Polartronic






Molecular modeling platform


It provides access to a set of tools (homology modeling, docking, conformational analysis, calculation of physico-chemical parameters of organic molecules, 3D-QSAR studies) to build, to view (3D), to analyze molecule-receptor interactions and to assist in the interpretation of structure-activity relationships.




Equipement

Hardware :
 
  • 1 Silicon Graphics Octane 2
  • 1 Dell Precision T3400 (2.83 GHz , 8 Go de RAM sous Linux 64 bits)

Software :

  • Sybyl (Tripos) : Biopolymer, Molcad, QSAR/CoMFA, Advanced Computation
  • Gold
  • Jackal

Biological platform

The anti-infectious biological platform of IICiMed allows the identification of therapeutic targets, the elucidation of the mechanisms of action of new compounds, and also the assessment of their toxicity and their activity in vitro and in vivo.

 

The identification of therapeutic targets and the study of the mechanisms of action are based on the use of techniques:

 

- molecular biology (PCR, sequencing, transfection)

- immunoassay (ELISA, Western blot)

- chromatographic (HPLC, TLC)

- spectral (UV spectroscopy, mass spectrometry)

- electron microscopy (scanning transmission)




The evaluation of new compounds as antiparasitic and/or antifungal agents can be performed in vitro and in vivo with several types of protozoa (Plasmodium, Leishmania) and fungi (Candida, Aspergillus, dermatophytes).


In vitro semi-automated technique that was developed in the laboratory allows the quick selection of drug candidates that can be evaluated in the corresponding mouse models (malaria, leishmaniasis, cutaneous and systemic candidiasis, aspergillosis, ...).

Evaluation of the in vitro toxicity may also be performed on three cell lines to determine a therapeutic index and thus to select compounds for in vivo studies (activity and acute toxicity).

This diversity of therapeutic targets is permitted by the development of a biological library involving a large number of parasitic or fungal pathogens strains.

Chemical library



The Group of Service "National Chemical Library" was created in July 2003 by an agreement between the CNRS and 17 higher education institutions and research organizations. The primary mission of the National Chemical Library is to bring together collections of synthetic products and existing natural extracts in French public laboratories and to promote scientific and industrial development. Our laboratory currently has a status of "incubated." Currently more than 900 compounds are listed according to previously defined criteria.

Biological library



Biological library aims to centralize the storage and the management of cell lines and strains of pathogens in order to keep them in optimal conditions. To this end, the biological library has a system of liquid nitrogen storage and refrigerated storage (4 °C and -80 °C). The strains are from three origins: fungal, parasitic and human. Fungal strains include various species of the genus Candida, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Emericellopsis ... Parasitic strains include various species of the genus Leishmania, Trypanosoma and Plasmodium. Human strains include human cell lines origin: myeloma (RPMI 8226, U26, NCI H929...), chronic myeloid leukemia (K562...) or murine origin: lymphocyte clone (CTLL-2...), fibroblasts (WEHI...).