FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF PLANT BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS OF BIOMEDICAL INTEREST

Plant bioactive compounds are good candidates in biomedicine and the investigation of their functional activities deserves particular attention for their clinical application. This study exploits innovative in silico, in vitro and in vivo approaches to investigate the functional properties of plant secondary metabolites of biomedicine interest. The in silico analyses were supported by bioinformatics tools that have been used to study the ability of biomaterials surface to modulate cellular pathways. Other tools have been used to find food-containing miRs involved in the modulation of the inflammatory process. In vitro analyses were used to study antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammaging, wound healing and hypoglycaemic abilities of bioactive compounds. Using P. Spinosa L. fruit extract, based on the secondary metabolites analysed (through quali- and quantitative analyses performed with HPLC-DAD and HPLC/MS), the investigation has been performed in microorganisms, cell free and cell based systems. In vivo analyses were performed in the model organism C. elegans to determine antioxidant and anti-aging activities of the P. Spinosa L. fruit extract. Finally, leucosomes loaded with P. Spinosa L. fruit extract were used as biomimetic nanosystems to analyse the anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties. Overall, our data suggest that the use of secondary plant metabolites may be an adjuvant therapeutic treatment to counteract the pro-inflammatory and pro-oxidative conditions induced by aging and the associated diseases. These properties can also be exploited in biomedicine, both for the functionalization of biomaterials and for drug delivery.