The goup's main goal is the study of leishmanicidal action of membrane-active microbicidal peptides, whether natural, components of innate immunity, or synthetic. More specifically: i).- Optimisation in the design of leishmanicidal peptides through the establishment of structure-activity relationships. ii).- Design of production systems that make obtaining these cheaper. iii).- Elucidation of their mechanisms of leishmanicidal activity. iv).- Trial of the most active peptides in animal models. As a subproduct, techniques have been developed for testing the energy metabolism inhibitors of the parasite, useful for elucidation of targets and mass screening. A secondary line of study targets macrophage-parasite relationships with respect to new receptors for the entry of the amastigote.
Biological Research Centre, Scientific Research Board