David Andreu

Group website

Research Outline

Our group has a long-standing commitment to the chemistry and applications of bioactive peptides. We have enduring interests in peptide antibiotics, synthetic peptide vaccines and optimized peptides as potential drug-like leads. In the first area, we have designed lead structures with potent activities against bacteria, protozoa and fungi. In the vaccine area, we have developed synthetic functional replicas of the main antigenic sites of foot-and-mouth disease virus that have been incorporated into vaccine candidates providing full protection against experimental viral challenge. We are also interested in the structural optimization of minimalist active peptide disruptors targeting CB1R-5HT2A heteromer for preserving Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-induced analgesia yet avoiding cognitive impairment.

 

Research Lines

  • ELECTROMED - Electrochemically-enabled high-throughput peptidomics for next-generation precision medicine (H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2020 (862539))

  • NOVIRUSES2BRAIN - ''One size fits all'' unique drug to eradicate multiple viral species simultaneously from the central nervous system of co-infected individuals (H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2020 (828774))

  • NOZIKA - Fighting Zika virus with antiviral peptides and conjugates translocating blood-placental and blood-brain barriers (“La Caixa” Foundation Health Research call 2017 HR17_00409)

  • DENUVAC - Construcciones vacunales peptídicas mono y multivalentes contra la fiebre aftosa: producción optimizada y estudios de estructura, estabilidad y biodistribución (AGL2017-84097-C2-2-R)

  • Fighting pain with cannabis avoiding side-effects (Fundació “LA CAIXA” PRODUCTE grants 2018 Knowledge Industry, CI18-00045)

 

Team during 2019-20

PhD students: Clara Pérez-Peinado, Mar Forner, Maria Gallo, Adam Carrera, Greta Ripoll, Weiteng An

Postdocs: Sira Defaus, Toni Todorovski, Eduard Figueras

Technicians: Javier Valle, Yolanda Tor

 

Selected publications 

  • Gallo M, Defaus S, Andreu D (2019) 1988–2018: Thirty years of drug smuggling at the nano scale. Challenges and opportunities of cell-penetrating peptides in biomedical research. Arch. Biochem. Biophys; 661:74-86. doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2018.11.010. PMID: 30447207
  • Pérez-Peinado C, Defaus S, Sans-Comerma L, Valle J, Andreu D (2019) Decoding the human serum interactome of snake-derived antimicrobial peptide Ctn[15-34]: Toward an explanation for unusually long half-life. J Proteomics; 204:103372. doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2019.04.022. PMID: 31051282
  • Forner M, Defaus S, Andreu D (2020) Peptide-Based Multiepitopic Vaccine Platforms via Click Reactions. J. Org. Chem; 85(3):1626-34. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.9b02798. PMID: 31782300
  • Defaus S, Forner M, Cañas-Arranz R, de León P, J Bustos M, Rodríguez-Pulido M, Blanco E, Sobrino F, Andreu D (2020) Designing functionally versatile, highly immunogenic peptide-based multiepitopic vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease virus. Vaccines; 8(3):1–12. doi: 10.3390/vaccines8030406. PMID: 32707834
  • Skalska J, Andrade V.M, Cena G.L, Harvey P.J, Gaspar D, Mello É.O, Henriques S.T, Valle J, Gomes V.M, Conceição K, Castanho M.A.R.B, Andreu D (2020) Synthesis, Structure, and Activity of the Antifungal Plant Defensin PvD1. J. Med. Chem; 63(17): 9391-9402. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c00543. PMID: 32787086

 

Other relevant information 

  • European patent EP19382856.3: “Fighting pain with cannabis avoiding side effects”.

 

Progress towards the development of efficient peptide-based vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV): a novel form of epitope presentation to the immune system based on a synthetic multiple antigen peptide containing six immunologically relevant peptide motifs arranged in a dendrimeric fashion (named B2T-TB2).

 
 

Finding and selecting drug leads based on peptide-porphyrin conjugates that are both efficacious and able to translocate the blood-placental and blood-brain barriers so that Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya and other viruses can be targeted across barriers, including during pregnancy.

Disrupting CB1R/5-HT2AR cross-talk with drug-like peptides allows THC-mediated

analgesia while minimizing cognitive side effects.