{"id":1720,"date":"2026-05-06T08:19:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T06:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/?p=1720"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:45:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:45:32","slug":"alice-fossati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/2026\/05\/06\/alice-fossati\/","title":{"rendered":"Alice Fossati"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:17% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"512\" height=\"512\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/files\/2025\/09\/cropped-00_Profile_Tondo-Social__Spilla_PE26_1200px.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-312 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/files\/2025\/09\/cropped-00_Profile_Tondo-Social__Spilla_PE26_1200px.png 512w, https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/files\/2025\/09\/cropped-00_Profile_Tondo-Social__Spilla_PE26_1200px-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/files\/2025\/09\/cropped-00_Profile_Tondo-Social__Spilla_PE26_1200px-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/files\/2025\/09\/cropped-00_Profile_Tondo-Social__Spilla_PE26_1200px-270x270.png 270w, https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/files\/2025\/09\/cropped-00_Profile_Tondo-Social__Spilla_PE26_1200px-192x192.png 192w, https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/files\/2025\/09\/cropped-00_Profile_Tondo-Social__Spilla_PE26_1200px-180x180.png 180w, https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/files\/2025\/09\/cropped-00_Profile_Tondo-Social__Spilla_PE26_1200px-32x32.png 32w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>OC11 &#8211; Alice Fossati<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, Italy<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong><a href=\"alice.fossati01@universitadipavia.it\">e-mail<\/a> &#8211;<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-2775-3950\">ORCID<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table  table-striped table-bordered table-hover\"  class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong><strong>Identification of Natural Tyrosinase Inhibitors as potential therapy for Neurodegenerative Diseases.<\/strong><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><em>Fossati Alice<sup>1,2<\/sup>, Cavalloro Valeria<sup>1,2<\/sup>, Emanuela Martino<sup>1,2<\/sup>, Battisti Verena<sup>3<\/sup>, Langer Thierry<sup>3<\/sup>, and Collina Simona<sup>4<\/sup>.<br><\/em>\u00a0<br><em><sup>1<\/sup><\/em> Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy<br><em><sup>2<\/sup><\/em> National Biodiversity Future Center, Piazza Marina 61, 90133 Palermo, Italy<br><em><sup>3<\/sup><\/em> Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14 (UZA II), 1090 Vienna, Austria<br><em><sup>4<\/sup><\/em> Department of Drug Science, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Abstract<\/strong><br><em><u>Background<\/u><\/em>: Neurodegenerative diseases (ND) cause progressive neuron loss with severe cognitive\/motor deficits. In 2019 they affected 50M people (WHO), rising to 3.4B (43% global population) by 2021. These disorders were responsible for about 11.1 million deaths, making them the leading cause of global disease burden [1]. Tyrosinase (Tyr), known for skin hyperpigmentation, plays a critical role in neurodegeneration: it oxidizes dopamine in dopaminergic neurons, generating reactive intermediates, cytotoxic neuromelanin, and oxidative stress, causative of \u03b1-synuclein misfolding, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuronal apoptosis. Moreover, Tyr overexpression in aging\/stress amplifies pathological cascades [2]. Tyr inhibitors are approved only for cosmetic purposes and currently their application as neurodegeneration therapies is currently underrated. In this context, plants produce secondary metabolites with multi-target neuroprotective effects, long used in traditional medicine and now promising for ND prevention. Moreover, no systematic studies exist on human-specific Tyr inhibitors from local flora.<br><br><em><u>Methods<\/u><\/em>: This study aimed to identify natural products with potential therapeutic benefits for ND. In particular, twenty-seven plants belonging to different botanical families were selected using a taxonomic approach within the NBFC project framework and screened in vitro for tyrosinase inhibition [3]. <em>Carissa macrocarpa<\/em> (Eckl.) A.DC. and <em>Adenophora lilifolia<\/em> (L.) Ledeb. ex A.DC. extracts demonstrated the most promising inhibitory activity. A comprehensive database of secondary metabolites from these plants was built based on literature and UHPLC-MS phytochemical characterization data. A pharmacophoric model for Tyr inhibitors was developed and validated to screen this database. The resulting hits were subjected to molecular docking analysis towards binding pockets of both <em>Agaricus bisporus<\/em> (J.E. Lange) Imbach tyrosinase and a human homology model of tyrosinase.<br><br><em><u>Conclusions<\/u><\/em>: Our findings establish a starting point for identifying specific natural products that effectively inhibit Tyr, enabling the preparation of plant extract and isolation of pure compounds with potentially enhanced efficacy against ND diseases.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>References &nbsp;<\/strong><br>[1] Maher C, and Ferreira G. Time to reconsider what Global Burden of Disease studies really tell us about low back pain. <em>Ann Rheum Dis<\/em>. <strong>2022<\/strong>;81:306\u20138. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/annrheumdis-2021-221173<br>[2] Carballo-Carbajal I, Laguna A, Romero-Gim\u00e9nez J, Cuadros T, Bov\u00e9 J, Martinez-Vicente M, et al. Brain tyrosinase overexpression implicates age-dependent neuromelanin production in Parkinson\u2019s disease pathogenesis. <em>Nat Commun<\/em>. <strong>2019<\/strong>;10:973. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41467-019-08858-y<br>[3] Fossati, A., Cavalloro, V., Negri, S. Linciano P., Guzzo F., Collina S., and Martino E. Bioprospecting Italian biodiversity for identifying potential neuroprotective agents. <em>Sci Rep <\/em><strong>2026<\/strong>. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41598-026-47845-4<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OC11 &#8211; Alice Fossati Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, Italy e-mail &#8211; ORCID Identification of Natural Tyrosinase Inhibitors as potential therapy for Neurodegenerative Diseases. Fossati Alice1,2, Cavalloro Valeria1,2, Emanuela Martino1,2, Battisti Verena3, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9643,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senza-categoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1793,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720\/revisions\/1793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}