Details

Title of the project: Synthesis and biological profiling of bioactive molecules for the investigation of monoamine transporters.

Finishing date: 18.12.2019

Research topic of the student: The main topic of the research project revolves around enantioselective synthesis and biological profiling of phase I metabolites of mephedrone. Mephedrone is a designer drug, structurally related to amphetamines and cathinones which gained wide spread popularity in the 2000´s due to its effects resembling the ones of ecstasy. Mephedrone clears out of urine very fast, however users report feelings of high for hours. The reason for this might be parallel action of its metabolites. Also, (S)- mephedrone has higher potency the (R)- mephedrone which calls for enantioselective synthesis. The synthesized metabolites will be pharmacologically evaluated on SERT, DAT and NET, as well as determined in a urine sample of a mephedrone user. As a major complementary expertise (to the focus on enantioselective synthetic chemistry), the development of analytical methods for biological specimen was obtained. 

Publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ 

Lab Rotation (2 weeks): Host: Harald Sitte, Institute of Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna. Subject: Pharmacological evaluation of mephedrone metabolites; 2019.

Place after graduation: Affiliate Pharmacovigilance QC Associate at Cognizant, Budapest, Hungary