Donatella Verbanac

• Assistant Professor, Ph.D.
• Professor (Associate) at University of Zagreb

Molecular biomarkers are valuable tools to predict the disease and determine its course. Several markers have been associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS); however, none is sufficiently reliable to enable accurate diagnosis. We characterized a broad panel of serum proteins to assess disease-specific bioma...

The aim of this study was to determine whether there are differences in complete blood count parameters (CBC) and inflammation-related biomarkers, MPV/PC, PLR, NLR, LWR, LMR, NMR, and LCR, among patients with colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and patients with colorectal adenomas. The study included 155 patients who were divided into two groups according...

Liquid biopsy has an underexplored diagnostic potential in colorectal cancer (CRC). Sufficient quantity and quality of its elements (circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA), exosomes and exosomal RNA) are essential for accurate results. The present study aims to establish the optimal protocol for handling liquid biopsy samples. Samples were obtained by...

Specific markers for colorectal cancer (CRC), preceded by colorectal adenoma (pre-CRC), are lacking. This study aimed to investigate whether microRNAs (miR-19a-3p, miR-92a-3p, miR-193a-3p, and miR-210-3p) from tissues and exosomes are potential CRC biomarkers and compare them to existing biomarkers, namely carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohy...

Four new Ni-substituted Krebs-type sandwich-tungstobismuthates, K4Ni2[{Ni(β-ala)(H2O)2}2{Ni(H2O)}2{Ni(H2O)(η2-β-ala)}2(B-β-BiW9O33)2]·49H2O {(β-ala)4(Ni3)2(BiW9)2}, K3.5Na6.5[{Ni(η3-L-asp)}2(WO2)2(B-β-BiW9O33)2]·36H2O·L-asp {(L-asp)2(NiW)2(BiW9)2}, K4Na6[{Ni(gly)(H2O)2}2(WO2)2(B-β-BiW9O33)2]·86H2O {(gly)2(NiW)2(BiW9)2}, and K2Na8[{Ni(η2-serinol) (H...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide. The high mortality from CRC is mainly related to metastasis affecting distant organs and their function. Dissemination of tumor cells from the primary tumor and hematogeneous spread are considered crucial in the formation of tumor metastases. The analysis of circulating tumor cells...

Liquid biopsy (LB) is a minimally invasive method which aims to detect circulating tumor-derived components in body fluids. It provides an alternative to current cancer screening methods that use tissue biopsies for the confirmation of diagnosis. This paper attempts to determine how far the regulatory, policy, and governance framework provide suppo...

Background and objectives Constipation is one of the most common gastrointestinal conditions, particularly among older individuals. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of selected multistrain probiotics on functional constipation and laboratory blood parameters in the elderly living in a nursing home. Subjects and methods Sixty pa...

In the present study, various procedures have been compared for the determination of lipophilicity, hydrophobicity, and plasma protein binding of curcuminoids, boswellic acids, andrographolides, and piperine as biologically active ingredients of botanicals used in IBD treatment. Our results have shown that IAM-HPLC assay is the most suitable one fo...

The knowledge on how gut microbes contribute to the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) at the onset of disease is still scarce. We compared gut microbiota in newly diagnosed, treatment-naïve adult IBD (Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC)) to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients and healthy group. Mucosal and fecal microbiota of 49 pat...

The objective of this study was to examine the benefits of different n6/n3 polyunsaturated fatty acid ratios on the lipid metabolism, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress in the adipose tissue of rats fed a high-fructose diet. Male and female rats were divided into four groups: a control group (CON) (n6/n3 ratio ~7), a high-fructose group (HF)...

Here we present an extensive narrative review of the broadly understood modifications to the lifestyles of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The PubMed database was analyzed, combining PCOS entries with causes, diseases, diet supplementation, lifestyle, physical activity, and use of herbs. The metabolic pathways leading to disturbances i...

Drug-specific therapeutic approaches for colorectal cancer (CRC) have contributed to significant improvements in patient health. Nevertheless, there is still a great need to improve the personalization of treatments based on genetic and epigenetic tumor profiles to maximize the quality and efficacy while limiting cytotoxicity. Currently, CEA and CA...

The current paradigm of urinary tract infection (UTI) pathogenesis takes into account the contamination of the periurethral space by specific uropathogens residing in the gut, which is followed by urethral colonization and pathogen ascension to the urinary bladder. Consequently, studying the relationship between gut microbiota and the subsequent de...

We report on the new monosubstituted aluminum Keggin-type germanotungstate (C4H12N)4[HAlGeW11O39(H2O)]·11H2O ([Al(H2O)GeW11]4–), which has been synthesized at room temperature via rearrangement of the dilacunary [γ-GeW10O36]8– polyoxometalate precursor. [Al(H2O)GeW11]4– has been characterized thoroughly both in the solid state by single-crystal and...

Comprehensive Medication Management Services (CMM) are clinical services based on pharmaceutical care. It is a patient-centred approach in which pharmacists take responsibility for the patient’s needs.

Older people are more susceptible to experiencing drug therapy problems (DTPs) due to their age-related changes in pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics, multiple comorbidities and polypharmacy. With the lack of data on DTP profile of the elderly living in Croatian nursing homes, identification and resolution of DTPs could be crucial in improving t...

Medication management is associated with improvements in the quality of life (QoL), foremost with health outcomes and life aspects overall.

We report on a family of five new 4f- and 4d-doped sandwich-type germanotungstates with the general formula [(n-C4H9)4N]l/mH2[(M(H2O)3)(γ-GeW10O35)2]·3(CH3)2CO [M(H 2 O) 3 (GeW 10 ) 2 ] (M = CeIII, NdIII, GdIII, ErIII, l = 7; ZrIV, m = 6), which have been synthesized at room temperature in an acetone-water mixture. Among the compound series, [Zr(H...

Objective The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and type of drug therapy problems (DTPs) in older institutionalized adults. Method We conducted a cross-sectional observational study from February to June 2016 at a 150-bed public nursing home in Croatia, where comprehensive medication management (CMM) services were provided. A ration...

The human microbiota is a diverse microbial ecosystem associated with many beneficial physiological functions as well as numerous disease etiologies. Dominated by bacteria, the microbiota also includes commensal populations of fungi, viruses, archaea, and protists. Unlike bacterial microbiota, which was extensively studied in the past two decades,...

Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs) are growth and differentiation factors within the TGFβ superfam- ily of proteins. They induce ectopic and orthotopic endochondral bone formation and are involved in the regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and mesenchymal-epithelial interactions in critical morphogenetic processes of tissue...

Plants and minerals have been used since ancient times for the treatment of many ailments and diseases. Most were used for mystical reasons and others relied on the “doctrine of signatures”, which stated that the shape of the plant reflected its potential medicinal use. The root of the mandrake or ginseng, for instance, is shaped like that of the h...

Taking responsibility for your life, among other factors, means also considering what to eat and which nutrition pattern to follow. Everyone needs to think about what they put on the plate and which ingredients should be avoided. Food, as such, will never be a drug or medication, like a painkilling tablet relieving pain in a short amount of time, f...

We present a new efficient green synthetic protocol for introduction of substituents to the C-6 position of 2-arylbenzothiazole nuclei. Newly synthesized compounds were designed to study the influence of the hydroxy and methoxy groups on the 2-arylbenzothiazole scaffold, as well as the influence of the type of substituents placed on the C-6 positio...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is disturbing disorder with a delayed response triggered by the stressful events. That experience is so painful that those people cannot integrate it, nor they can move on. The most significant symptoms are recurrent, involuntary distressing memories, dreams and dissociative reactions (flashbacks), arousal alter...

Chalcones are polyphenolic secondary metabolites of plants, many of which have antioxidant activity. Herein, a set of 26 synthetic chalcone derivatives with alkyl substituted pyrazine heterocycle A and four types of the monophenolic ring B, were evaluated for the potential radical scavenging and antioxidant cellular capacity influencing the growth...

Inflammatory bowel diseases are a group of chronic inflammatory conditions that affect gastrointestinal tract due to inapt and continuous immune activation in response to a myriad of predisposing factors (most notably genetics, environmental impact and gut microbiota composition). It has been shown that vitamin D status can also play a role in the...

Articular cartilage is tissue that shows no capacity for effective spontaneous regeneration. Tissue engineering, as a new important field of regenerative medicine, emerges as a potentially effective solution for the treatment of articular cartilage injuries and defects. The aim of this study was to evaluate chondrocyte oxygen level preference for t...

The antibacterial activity of 29 different polyoxometalates (POMs) against Moraxella catarrhalis was investigated by determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The Preyssler type polyoxotungstate (POT) [NaP5W30O110]¹⁴⁻ demonstrates the highest activity against M. catarrhalis (MIC = 1 μg/ml) among all tested POMs. Moreover, we show...

Novel nitro (3a–3f)- and amino (4a–4f and 5a–5f)-substituted 2-benzimidazolyl and 2-benzothiazolyl benzo[b]thieno-2-carboxamides were designed and synthesized as potential antibacterial agents. The antibacterial activity of these compounds has been evaluated against Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis) and Gram-negative b...

The information on microbiota composition in the human gastrointestinal tract predominantly originates from the analyses of human faeces by application of next generation sequencing (NGS). However, the detected composition of the faecal bacterial community can be affected by various factors including experimental design and procedures. This study e...

Liver fibrosis is a progressive pathological process resulting in an accumulation of excess extracellular matrix proteins. We discovered that bone morphogenetic protein 1-3 (BMP1-3), an isoform of the metalloproteinase Bmp1 gene, circulates in the plasma of healthy volunteers and its neutralization decreases the progression of chronic kidney diseas...

Background The intestine represents an interface where host tissues come in contact with microbiota in a balanced state of homeostasis. Mounting knowledge on gut microbiota led to many important findings associating the composition of bacterial taxa in the human gastrointestinal tract with many human disorders including the inflammatory bowel disea...

Chemical composition, antioxidant activity and invitro antibacterial activity of propolis from the central, continental part of Croatia were studied. Propolis hydro-ethanolic extracts (PHEE), prepared using three different methods and two solvent mixtures contained high amounts of flavonoids (20.95–28.11 % TIC), aromatic acids (8.17–15.91 % TIC) an...

A series of novel 2-substituted benzimidazole derivatives were synthesized and their antibacterial activity was assessed against selected Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The specific moiety at the 2-position of the benzimidazole was extensively modified with several fused heterocyclic functional groups containing nitrogen and sulfur heter...

Macrolides, polyketide natural products, and their 15-membered semi-synthetic derivatives are composed of substituted macrocyclic lactone ring and used primarily as potent antibiotics. Recently their usefulness was extended to antimalarial and anti-inflammatory area. Hybrid macrolides presented in this article are the next generation semi-synthetic...

As current antibacterial chemotherapeutics are faced with an alarming increase in bacterial resistance, expanding the available therapeutic arsenal in the fight against resistant bacterial pathogens causing respiratory tract infections is of high importance. The antibacterial potency of macrolones, a novel class of macrolide antibiotics, was evalua...

A set of novel quinolone–triazole conjugates (12–31) were synthesized in three steps in good yields starting from 2-phenylquinoline-4-carboxylic acid. All the intermediates, as well as the final 1,2,4-triazolyl quinolines were fully characterized by their detailed spectral analysis utilizing different techniques such as IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and fin...

The healthy intestine represents a remarkable interface where sterile host tissues come in contact with gut microbiota, in a balanced state of homeostasis. The imbalance of gut homeostasis is associated with the onset of many severe pathological conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic gastrointestinal disorder increasing in...

Current antibacterial chemotherapeutics are facing an alarming increase in bacterial resistance pressuring the search for novel agents that would expand the available therapeutic arsenal against resistant bacterial pathogens. In line with these efforts, a series of 9 amidine derivatives of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene were synthesized and, together w...

The purpose of this study was to revise the clinical use of commercial BMP2 (Infuse) and BMP7 (Osigraft) based bone devices and explore the mechanism of action and efficacy of low BMP6 doses in a novel whole blood biocompatible device OSTEOGROW. Complications from the clinical use of BMP2 and BMP7 have been systemically reviewed in light of their r...

Respiration is a process of gas exchange in the lungs, but also a cellular process of food metabolism for energy production. The health of the respiratory system is therefore tightly connected with the appropriate diet. Food not only provides energy for the body, but many food ingredients exert various biological eff ects which are important for he...

Bone morphogenetic protein 6 (BMP6) is a member of TGF-β superfamily with a high potential to induce new bone and cartilage. Here we demonstrate that BMP6 compared to the BMP7 paralog has unique biological properties. Previously, we showed that BMP6 is more active at lower amounts then BMP7 because of increased resistance to noggin due to lysine in...

In vitro high-throughput screening was carried out in order to detect new activities for old drugs and to select compounds for the drug development process comprising new indications. Tebrophen, a known antiviral drug, was found to inhibit activities on inflammation and cancer related targets. In primary screening this semisynthetic halogenated pol...

Macrolide antibiotics, like erythromycin, clarithromycin, and azithromycin, possess anti-inflammatory properties. These properties are considered fundamental to the efficacy of these three macrolides in the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases like diffuse panbronchiolitis and cystic fibrosis. However, long-term treatment with macrolide antib...

A series of porphyrins, tetrapyrrole natural organic compounds, are evaluated here as endogenous anti-inflammatory agents. They directly inhibit the activity of Fyn, a non-receptor Src-family tyrosine kinase, triggering anti-inflammatory events associated with down-regulation of T-cell receptor signal transduction, leading to inhibition of tumor ne...

Olea europea, the olive tree, is an ancient tree that originates from the Mediterranean environment of Asia Minor. The edible olive fruit is also used for its oil, gained by the process of pressing, a nutrient with proven beneficial effects. Virgin olive oil is the natural juice of the olive fruit, which plays a major role in the healthy Mediterran...

The process of drug research and development has always been a challenge for many different professionals involved. In this process special emphasis has always been placed on the utilization of the state-of –the-art techniques through the interactions of experts from various fields. Nowadays, the approach of having single, narrow knowledge and back...

Plants and minerals have been used since ancient times for the treatment of many ailments and diseases. Most were used for mystical reasons and others relied on the “doctrine of signatures”, which stated that the shape of the plant reflected its potential medicinal use. The root of the mandrake or ginseng, for instance, is shaped like that of the h...

The Mediterranean diet has been an area of popular and scientific in-trigue for more than 30 years. Research has focused on both whole-diet compliance as well as individual component effects and many questions re-main open as to the full spectrum of effects from this olive oil rich eating pattern. This paper summarizes key findings related to the M...

Dipeptidyl peptidase IV is a glycoprotein which removes N-terminal dipeptides from physiologically relevant polypeptides. An homologous series of 6-imino-2-thioxo-5-{[3,4,5-tris(methyloxy)phenyl]methyl}-2,5-dihydro-4(3H)-pyrimidinones has been tested for inhibition of DPP IV activity. The inhibitory effects at 0.1mM were observed. Enzyme kinetic st...

Overweight and obesity represent a growing medical and socioeconomic problem of modern society with numerous consequences on human health. Overweight individuals are at increased risk for developing chronic and degenerative conditions, from metabolic, cardiovascular and malignant diseases to increased susceptibility to infections and higher mortali...

Overweight and obesity represent a growing medical and socioeconomic problem of modern society with numerous consequences on human health. Overweight individuals are at increased risk for developing chronic and degenerative conditions, from metabolic, cardiovascular and malignant diseases to increased susceptibility to infections and higher mortali...

In this paper synthesis of macrolones 1-18 starting from azithromycin is reported. Two key steps in the construction of the linker between macrolide and quinolone moiety, are formation of central ether bond by alkylation of unactivated OH group, and formation of terminal C-C bond at 6-position of the quinolone unit. Due to the difficulty in formati...

A development of a new drug is an extremely complex process, with average costs over $900 million and a time span up to 15 years. Regulatory hurdles are progressively higher, costs are escalating and the competition is ever tougher. All these factors drive pharmaceutical companies to shor-ten the Research & Development (R&D) process as much as poss...

Histamine is a biogenic amine that occurs to different degrees in many foods. In healthy individuals, dietary histamine can be very rapidly detoxified (neutralized) by amine oxidases, while persons with low amine oxidase activity are at risk of histamine toxicity provoked effects. Diamine oxidase (DAO) is the main enzyme for the metabolism of extri...

Tyrosine phosphorylation represents a unique signaling process that controls metabolic pathways, cell activation, growth and differentiation, membrane transport, apoptosis, neural, and other functions. We present here the three-dimensional structure of Fyn tyrosine kinase, a Src-family enzyme involved in T-cell receptor signal transduction. The str...

Phosphorylation of tyrosine residues constitutes a unique signaling pathway involved in regulation of most cellular processes responding to different extracellular stimuli. The enzymes that carry out this modification are tyrosine kinases. These enzymes enable the transfer of γ-phosphate from ATP to the phenol –OH group of tyrosine on protein subst...

The purpose of High Throughput Screening (HTS) in pharmaceutical industry is to identify, as soon as possible, compounds that are good starting points for successful new drug development process. Experts from this area study the chemical structures of so called »hit« compounds that have been found to interact with the target protein, interfere with...

For the first time ever, the number of overweight people in the world is the same as the number who are underfed - about one billion. In the US they are calling obesity an epidemic, not only among adults but also among children and teenagers. Obesity in childhood has increased alarmingly not only in the US but also in most western countries. The ri...

A study was performed on macromolecular databases. Bioinformatic infrastructure is one of the most important condition for successful biomolecular and biochemical research. Databases are better and more complete if greater number of people and groups are included in creating, filling and maintaining it.

In this work we followed the dynamics of zinc and copper concentration in liver tissue during compensatory liver growth (CLG) (24 and 48 h, 7 and 15 days) after partial hepatectomy (pHX) on Balb/c mice. Significant increase of zinc and copper levels in liver after 48 h in prix and sham operated animals, indicates that these two elements are necessa...

Owing to the importance of zinc for the functioning of the immune system, the role of endogenous Zn, located both in lymphoid and nonlymphoid organs, was investigated during the standard humoral and cellular types of immune response. For this purpose, the dynamics of hepatic, thymic, splenic, and renal Zn content was determined in mice sensitized w...

The most commonly encountered difficulties for the quantitative measurement of zinc in biological samples are the limited sample amount, total and effective digestion of connective and fatty residues, and low zinc concentrations. These problems often lead to the determination of lower zinc values than actually present, so that the sample preparatio...

Partial hepatectomy in young mice (pHx) induces thymic atrophy, disregulation of thymocytes subsets and a strong accumulation of zinc in thymic tissue after 1-2 days of liver regeneration. Zinc is relevant for good immune functioning. Restoration of zinc into both the thymus and thymocytes subsets in the late period of liver regeneration is observe...

The influence of endogenous prostanoid formation on the regenerating and intact liver tissue and serum proteins was evaluated hy treatment with indomethacin (IND) on partially hepatectomized (PHX), sham operated (sham HX) and intact mice. The IND administration (5 mg per kg body mass, two times a day, dissolved in 20% ethanol) was started immediate...

Disaccharidases are brush border enzymes of intestinal mucosa subject to the influence of many factors. Maltase, sucrase and lactase values were examined in partially hepatectomized mice, treated and untreated with Sandostatin. The disaccharidase activities were determined according to the method of Dahlquist modified by Lutkic. The observed factor...

We have recently shown that two antimicrobial peptides (Bac5 and Bac7) and/or their immature forms (proBac5 and proBac7) can be released extracellularly from activated neutrophils. In the present study we have investigated the biological activities of the immature forms, which do not exhibit antimicrobial effects. We show that proBac7 is a monocyte...

Tyrosine phosphorylation represents unique signaling process in the cell as an answer to the different extracellular signals. The enzymes that carry out this modification are protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) which catalyze transfer of γ-phosphate of ATP on phenole –OH group of tyrosine on protein substrates. The largest subfamily of nonreceptor PTKs...