Main prize in Student-Inventor competition goes to UPWr doctoral student

• Our doctoral student's research can help treat cancer and even fight the virus that causes COVID–19
• The grant from the Preludium competition and cooperation with the University of Porto will help implement a project on flavonoid compounds
• For the fifth year in a row, the main prize in the national Student–Inventor competition was awarded to students and doctoral students from the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences.

The Student–Inventor competition organised by the Kielce University of Technology is addressed to students, doctoral students and graduates who, during their studies, became the creators or co–authors of an invention or utility model. In the last, 12th edition, 103 solutions developed by 141 authors were submitted.

The test compounds can be used in pharmaceutical formulations

The main prize was won by Agnieszka Krawczyk–Łebek from the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, who is carrying out her doctoral thesis under the scientific supervision of Prof. Edyta Kostrzewy–Susłow. A series of 38 inventions concerning new flavonoid glycosides with potential antimicrobial activity, which the doctoral student obtained through chemical synthesis and microbiological transformations, was awarded.

– The simulations of the biological potential of the compounds obtained on the basis of their chemical structure have shown that with a high probability, often as much as 90%, they have antitumor, hepato– and cardioprotective activity, and some of them show a structure that allows interaction with the SARS–CoV–2 virus protein involved in its replication, which means that it may probably work against the virus that causes COVID–19 – says Agnieszka Krawczyk–Łebek, emphasising that the research conducted so far indicates that the compounds obtained by her may, in the future, be used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic preparations and food products.

The new compounds obtained by the UPWr doctoral student include flavonoids belonging to three subclasses (chalcones, flavanones and flavones) with methyl or chlorine substituents.

– These types of compounds occur only in a few species of plants, in small amounts and have not been sufficiently researched so far, although available reports indicate their great potential, e.g. anti–inflammatory and antimicrobial. The use of classical chemical synthesis, however, does not allow us to obtain flavonoid glycosides, their most bioavailable form, with satisfactory efficiency – explains Agnieszka Krawczyk–Łebek, who has found a solution to this problem. It is the award–winning cycle of inventions that offers methods of biotransformation in cultures of entomopathogenic filamentous fungi, in which chlorine or methyl flavonoid aglycones are converted to flavonoid glycosides efficiently and in accordance with the principles of green chemistry.

– It is worth emphasising that biotransformations using carefully selected microorganisms capable of conducting specific types of reactions, performed with the use of optimised preparative TLC methods, are part of modern biotechnology methods recommended by Green Chemistry. Compounds obtained by such methods are treated as identical to natural ones – adds Prof. Edyta Kostrzewa–Susłow.

The Preludium competition and cooperation with the University of Porto will help to implement the project

As a UPWr doctoral student, I am currently working on the implementation of a research project as part of the Preludium competition, the aim of which is to obtain a whole pool of flavonoid derivatives with a chlorine atom and subject them to systematic analysis in terms of antimicrobial properties. And during a trip planned for this year under the Erasmus+ programme, she plans to conduct an evaluation of the anti–inflammatory and anti–diabetic properties of selected compounds in collaboration with researchers from the University of Porto.

– In the context of the worldwide spreading of civilisation and epidemic diseases and the spreading of antibiotic resistance of many pathogenic bacteria strains, the search for new active and biologically active compounds has become a necessity. I am convinced that the flavonoid derivatives I have obtained have great potential for the development of new medicines and dietary supplements – emphasises Agnieszka Krawczyk–Łebek.

Flavonoids – success after success

For the fifth year in a row, the main prize in the national Student–Inventor competition was awarded to students and doctoral students from the Department of Chemistry at the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences. – For the fourth time it has gone to a research team dealing with the synthesis and biotransformation of compounds with a flavonoid and steroid structure. The winners of previous competitions were Dr. Ewa Kozłowska and Dr. Mateusz Łużny – says Prof. Edyta Kostrzewa–Susłow. She emphasises that her doctoral student will represent chemical and biological sciences at the UPWr at the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, giving her an opportunity to confront her own "efforts" with inventors from all over the world.

– For Agnieszka Krawczyk–Łebek, the award perfectly complements her publication achievements and the recently obtained research project in the Preludium competition, which is a kind of continuation of research on the awarded bioactive substances from the flavonoid group. This award strengthened our belief that the work on the synthesis and biotransformation of flavonoid compounds with a methyl group and halogen atoms should be continued and will provide answers to a number of questions that bother us in the field of biological activities of these compounds – summarises the professor.