PHARMACEUTICAL MICROBIOLOGY

Course objectives

The course completes the formation of the student in the field of microbiology by giving a clear and detailed vision of some aspects of the subject together with critical skills that are necessary to evaluate future developments in this specific sector. The fundamental objective of the course is to give adequate informations on the following subjects: • Emerging problems in the treatment of infectious diseases and their possible solutions according to recent findings of molecular and cellular microbiology; • Drugs used in the treatment of infectious diseases (analysis of conventional methods used in research and development of drugs for infectous diseases and impact of new molecular findings on them): • Methods used to search and develop new anti-infective drugs and to identify new molecular targets of pathogens; • New approaches in the tratment of infections, methods for integrated biological control of mucosal environments by quorum sensing modulators, phages and predating bacteria; • Biological drugs (vaccines and recombinant drugs) (productive and applicative aspects); • Characterization and manipulation of mucosal microbiota in order to promote human health with particular attention to the use of probiotics, prebiotics and functional foods able to modify the mucosal microbiota; • Potentials of biotechnologic diagnostics in the different sectors of microbiologic interest.

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CLAUDIO PASSARIELLO Lecturers' profile

Program - Frequency - Exams

Course program
• Antibacterials, antifungals and antivirals: • Definition, molecular characteristics, mechanisms of action; historical notes on their discovery and industrialization; structural evolution as a function of the development and diffusion of resistance; classic approaches to search for new active compounds. • Molecular approaches to identify new targets to develop antibacterials, antifungals and antivirals: • Target based approaches; reverse genomics; molecole interfering with quorum sensing; biosurfactants; molecules obtained from proteo-genomics + targeted drug design, use of phages and predating bacteria. • Natural substances and their use in anti-infective therapy: • Historical notes; notes on the principal extractive methods and on methods to evaluate their activity; mechanisms of action and fields of application; limits and future perspectives. • Prebiotics, probiotics e sinbiotics, characteristics and role for human health, with particolar attention to the prevention and treatment of disbioses and methabolic pathologies. • Conventional and biotechnologic immunotherapics: research, development and clinical use. • Conventional and biotechnologic vaccines: characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, productive and applicative problems. • Biologic drugs: characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, productive problems, infectious complications deriving from their administration. • New methods for the detection of molecular targets and their application to molecular diagnostics in medical, pharmaceutic, industrial, food and environmental microbiology, with particular attention to the development of biosensors and nanobiosensors. • Microbiological aspects of pharmaceutic preparations: contamination and degradation of pharmaceutic products; principles of control of the microbiological quality of pharmaceutic products.
Books
Lecture notes
  • Lesson code1022407
  • Academic year2024/2025
  • CoursePharmaceutical Biotechnology
  • CurriculumSingle curriculum
  • Year1st year
  • Semester2nd semester
  • SSDMED/07
  • CFU6
  • Subject areaDiscipline biotecnologiche comuni