Aug 15, 2025

What a start for the Semester

For the beginning of the semester (and coming back from the holidays), we hosted our new Polish friends from Gdansk Medical University. 3 Days went quickly just by going through the interfaces that both Pharmacy units have, and in what parts we can collaborate both in teaching as well as research. Luckily, we had a full summer going on (Polish summer was rainy this year), so it was nice to show around the lake and harbour areas (also our facilities), but there were also left nice places to be seen next time (read Puijo tower and ski jumping tower). Big thanks to the UEF team and the visitors, Danuta, Katarzyna, Adrian, and Bartosz! Looking forward what all this can bring out!

Aug 9, 2025

Summer Break Behind

After such a great summer and relaxing holidays, most of us are slowly getting back to business. However, during the vacation, science kept rolling on, and also in our case, as we were luckily able to publish 1 review and 2 collaborative original papers:

1.  Beyond epilepsy: The expanding role of valproic acid in Alzheimer's disease therapy - a review (link)  in prestigious Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (JPET), together with our Polish collaborator Magdalena Markowicz-Piasecka (Medical University of Lodz), in which we summarized the preclinical and clinical findings supporting the use of epileptic drug, valproic acid, as a potential neurpprotective agent to treat Alzheimer's disease.

2.  Oxidative modulation of Piezo1 channels (link) in the high-quality journal called Redox Biology, together with Prof. Tarja Malm's research group at the UEF, where we found that the reduced activity of the mechanosensitive Piezo1 channel in the oxidative environment is determined by oxidation of both cysteines and methionines, which are enriched in intracellular domains, with methionines playing a predominant role. Since Piezo1 channels play a great role in the pathophysiology of numerous disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases, the redox modulation of these mechanosensors could be a significant drug target under conditions where oxidative stress is involved.

3.  Biological evaluation of a glucose-based boron carrier as a potential agent for boron neutron capture therapy (link) in the appreciated International Journal of Cancer, together with Prof. Jarkko Rautio (UEF), and Mirkka Sarparanta and Filip Ekholm (University of Helsinki), and the rest of the BCNT consortium. In this study, we utilized glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) to achieve superior cellular uptake in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and more favorable pharmacokinetic parameters compared to clinically used boron carriers, BPA and BSH (L-p-boronophenylalanine and sodium mercaptoundecahydrododeca borate).

Jul 19, 2025

New Metformin Publication Out!

Just as our summer holidays began, we were able to push one of our latest findings with metformin derivatives out. This paper entitled "Optimizing the structure of repurposed metformin can improve anti-cholinesterase and anti-amyloidogenic effects (link)" was recently published in European Journal of Pharmacology and it revealed the potential inhibitory activity of our metformin sulfonamide derivatives against butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) over acetylcholinesterase (AChE), enzymes that play roles in the progression of the Alzheimer's disease. This was again a collaborative project with our Polish friend Magdalena, and this time it also involved computational modelling to estimate the interactions of the compounds with AChE, done by Tuomo. Anyway, the compounds had synergistic effects with the clinically used AChE inhibitor, donepezil, and they inhibited beta-amyloid (Aβ) aggregation at both early and late stages, proving that metformin derivatives could serve as a dual-action therapy for AD.


What a start for the Semester