{"id":2078,"date":"2026-05-07T17:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/?p=2078"},"modified":"2026-05-12T16:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:56:23","slug":"elsi-ferro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/2026\/05\/07\/elsi-ferro\/","title":{"rendered":"Elsi Ferro"},"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>PC10 &#8211; Elsi Ferro<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">CRS4 (Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia), Pula, Italy<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/elsi-ferro-123752120\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a><\/strong> <strong>&#8211;<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8747-533X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ORCID<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><br><strong>elsi@crs4.it<\/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>Integrated Experimental and Computational Analysis of Benzimidazole \u03b1-Glucosidase Inhibitors for Pathway-Informed Design<\/strong><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><em>Ferro Elsi <sup>1<\/sup>, Laus Antonio <sup>1<\/sup>, Atzeni Rossano <sup>1 <\/sup>, Pieroni Enrico <sup>1 <\/sup>, Valentini Maria <sup>1 <\/sup>, Massimo Pisu <sup>1<\/sup><\/em><br><br><em><sup>1<\/sup><\/em> CRS4 (Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia), Pula, Italy<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Abstract<\/strong><br>Inhibition of \u03b1-glucosidase represents an established therapeutic strategy for the&nbsp; control of postprandial hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes. Currently available inhibitors are often associated with adverse effects, therefore the identification of novel compounds with improved efficacy&nbsp; and safety profiles remains an important challenge.<br>This work focuses on the combined experimental and computational investigation of benzimidazole derivatives as potential \u03b1-glucosidase inhibitors, with the aim of enabling pathway-informed optimization and rational design strategies. Selected compounds, synthesized through an efficient and environmentally friendly protocol, have shown promising inhibitory activity against \u03b1-glucosidase, with limited effects on \u03b1-amylase and no significant cytotoxicity in cellular models [1].<br>On the computational side, ongoing efforts are aimed at elucidating the molecular determinants of ligand binding and supporting the interpretation of experimental observations. In our approach, structure-based molecular modeling approaches are employed, including molecular docking to predict binding modes, classical molecular dynamics simulations to probe the stability of protein\u2013ligand interactions, and cutting-edge enhanced sampling techniques [2] to explore conformational variability and particularly binding free\/energy landscapes.<br>Overall, this work aims to provide a framework for the rational characterization and prioritization of candidate \u03b1-glucosidase inhibitors, while contributing to pathway-informed optimization and design strategies.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>References &nbsp;<\/strong><br>[1] Tocco G, Laus A, Manis C, Caboni P, Fais A, Era B. Sustainable Synthesis of 1,2-Disubstituted Benzimidazoles as Promising \u03b1-Glucosidase Inhibitors: In Vitro and In Silico Evaluation. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2025 Sep 30;18(10):1469.<br>[2] Rizzi V, Aureli S, Ansari N, Gervasio FL. OneOPES, a Combined Enhanced Sampling Method to Rule Them All. J Chem Theory Comput. 2023 Sep 12;19(17):5731-5742<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PC10 &#8211; Elsi Ferro CRS4 (Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia), Pula, Italy LinkedIn &#8211; ORCIDelsi@crs4.it Integrated Experimental and Computational Analysis of Benzimidazole \u03b1-Glucosidase Inhibitors for Pathway-Informed Design Ferro Elsi 1, Laus Antonio [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10371,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senza-categoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078","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\/10371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2078"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2449,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions\/2449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.unica.it\/pe2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}