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Página de JOSE MARIA PRIETO GARCIA.
URL: http://www.uv.es/prietojm
Jose M Prieto-Garcia
M.Pharm.,
Ph.D. (Pharmacology), Member of the Spanish Society of Pharmacology,
Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the Higher Academy
of Education
Email (UV)
Email (Personal)
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Jose M. Prieto obtained a PhD in Pharmacology (2001) at the
University of Valencia (Valencia, Spain) in the field of topical inflammation.
His Post-doctoral research activities include the EU funded projects 'Insect
Chemical Ecology' (Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Universita degli Studi
di Pisa, Italy) (2001-2004) and “Medicinal Cannabis” (Department of
Pharmaceutical and Biological Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, University of
London, United Kingdom) (2005-2006). He was then appointed as Lecturer (UCL
School of Pharmacy) where his research focuses on the application of advanced
techniques (untargeted OMICS and Artificial Intelligence) to the prediction of
pharmacological and biological effects of complex substances. He has authored
more than 75 original scientific outputs, supervised over 10 PhD students and
is member of the editorial board of Frontiers in Pharmacology, Biomolecules and
Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice (Elsevier) among others.
Metrics: AD SCIENTIFIC INDEX 2025 ID 1143913
MY RESEARCH LINES AND THEIR IMPACT
Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic assessment of Herb-Drug
Interactions (HDI)
My research line on Herb-Drug Interactions
kicked -off in 2014 with ambitious projects aiming to unveil the
potential of these occurrences in the most populated countries of
Africa (Nigeria) and South America (Brazil) with funding from the
Commonwealth and CAPES-Brazilian Research Council, respectively. Our
rational is that we cannot convince people living in resources-limited
regions of not taking herbal medicines but at least we can help their
healthcare professionals to make informed choices based on a blend of
pre-clinical PK data and the clinical evidence available.
The
results have been published in leading journals of the pharmacology
field under Open Access licenses to facilitate their dissemination
among public and healthcare providers of the Region alike. The popular
demand for these papers has been overwhelming, as reflected by their
number of downloads of our pharmacological and toxicological
considerations of use of plants in the traditional management of
diabetes in Nigeria (Ezuruike & Prieto, 2014), which kept it in the
TOP 10 of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology for 10 years. This
highlights the need of the scientific community as well the public for
more evidence-based, critical and systematic information on this domain.
On the other
hand, our pharmacokinetic evaluation of potential herb-drug
interactions herbal medicines in Brazil (Mazzari & Prieto, 2014)
achieved less public interest but more global impact, as the quality
and significance of this research has been cited by the World Health
Organisation in the page number 1 of its document “Key technical issues
of herbal medicines with reference to interaction with other medicines”
(WHO, 2021). Likewise, regional authorities have used them to support
national formularies with much needed safety data on HDI (ANVISA, 2021).
During the
SARS-2 pandemic I contributed with an innovative risk-benefit analysis
(a modified PrOACT-URL method) to allow for the qualitative measurement
of safe, evidenced-based use of 40 herbal medicines listed by WHO and
EMEA for respiratory conditions in the context of COVID (Silveira et
al., 2020). The paper received so far 373K views, 17K downloads and 217
citations (top 99% in citations of the journal Frontiers in
Pharmacology).
REFERENCES
- ANVISA.
Formulário de Fitoterápicos, 2nd ed, Farmacopeia Brasileira, 2021,
Brasília, 2021. Pp 30, 63, 81.URL:
https://www.gov.br/anvisa/pt-br/assuntos/farmacopeia/formulario-fitoterapico/2024-fffb2-1-er-3-atual-final-versao-com-capa-em-word-2-jan-2024.pdf
- Ezuruike, U. and Prieto, J.M.
(2016) ‘Assessment of Potential Herb-Drug Interactions among Nigerian
Adults with Type-2 Diabetes.’, Frontiers in pharmacology, 7, p. 248.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2016.00248.
- Mazzari AL, Prieto JM.
Herbal medicines in Brazil: pharmacokinetic profile and potential
herb-drug interactions. Front Pharmacol. 2014 Jul 9;5:162. doi:
10.3389/fphar.2014.00162. Erratum in: Front Pharmacol. 2015 Mar
10;6:23. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2015.00023.
- Silveira D*, Prieto-Garcia JM*,
Boylan F, Estrada O, Fonseca-Bazzo YM, Jamal CM, Magalhães PO, Pereira
EO, Tomczyk M, Heinrich M*. COVID-19: Is There Evidence for the Use of
Herbal Medicines as Adjuvant Symptomatic Therapy? Front Pharmacol. 2020
Sep 23;11:581840. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.581840 .
- WHO. 2021.
Key technical issues of herbal medicines with reference to interaction
with other medicines. World Health Organization, Geneva. Pp 1.,22. URL:
https://iris.who.int/rest/bitstreams/1348154/retrieve
Drug discovery with emphasis on combinatorial therapies
against melanoma.
Cancer
research remains a critical imperative at both national and
international levels. Recent UK elections highlighted the urgent need
for increased funding for oncological research, aligning with the UN
Sustainable Development Goal 3, which emphasizes good health and
well-being.
Goals and Strategy
- Tackling
“tumor-promoting inflammation,” a fundamental cancer hallmark, by
discovering new cytotoxic molecules with COX/LOX inhibitory activities.
- Contributing
to the development of combinatorial therapies in cancer through
preclinical studies (in vitro and in silico) with mechanistically
explicit rationales for combination therapy via synergistic drug
interactions.
The strategies
involve: in vitro assays (proliferation, mitochondrial viability,
caspase 3-7 activity, 2D migration, 3D invasion, and synthesis of
eicosanoids), computational approaches (application of the median
effect method to ascertain synergies/antagonism/additivity), targeted
and untargeted metabolomics, next-generation sequencing, and
collaborations with computational biologists (gene network).
Impact on the Scientific Community, Public, and Governments
- The research
focuses on assisting nations in enhancing their economies through the
discovery of sustainable commodities. Significant contributions include
initiatives in Malaysia (National Agrofood Policy 2011–2020) and Saudi
Arabia (Umm Al-Qura University Grant Code: 19-MED-1–02–0004),
investigating the chemopreventive properties of endemic species and
traditional herbal medicines.
- Key aspects of
this work involve capacity building and knowledge transfer. PhD
scholars from Malaysia and Saudi Arabia trained under my supervision
have transitioned into prominent scientific and academic leadership
roles.
- Leveraging
cutting-edge technologies such as multi-omics, computational biology,
and AI models within multinational collaborations is imperative.
Funding was secured from the UCL 'Grand Challenges Program,' and a
Collaborative Science and Technology Workshop was organized with the
French Embassy in London. Additionally, Royal Society UK-India Visiting
Grants were received to investigate the role of inflammatory cells and
macrophages in lung and breast cancer pathogenesis.
- Funding from
The School of Pharmacy, University of London, was secured to unveil the
in vitro effects of selective COX and LOX inhibitors and their
combinations with antineoplastic drugs in the mouse melanoma cell line
B16F10. The approach revealed that only meloxicam provided clear
synergy with dacarbazine and temozolomide, while LOX inhibitors were
mostly antagonistic (Da-Costa-Rocha & Prieto. 2021. Int J Mol Sci
22).
- With funding
from the Malaysian Ministry of Science-Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
and the “Foundation Plants for Health,” promising Malaysian
pro-apoptotic and anti-migratory natural substances were described for
use in prostate cancer chemoprevention by upregulating SMAC/Diablo gene
expression and inhibiting 5-ALOX activity (Hanafi et al. 2017. Front
Pharmacol 8, 895; Hanafi et al. 2023. Plants, 12).
- Funding from
the Ministry of Science, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was attracted to
screen the cytotoxicity potential of 9 Saudi natural products
(AlQathama et al. 2022. Eur J Integr Med 49, 102083), leading to new
mechanistic details of how Justicidin B derivatives modulate apoptosis
in human melanoma cells (Al-Qathama, Gibbons & Prieto. 2017.
Oncotarget 8, 95999).
- Current
efforts involve the use of NGS along with in vitro, cell-based
pharmacological methods and collaborations with computational
biologists to explain how natural compounds perturb the melanoma
risk-gene network (Shao et al. 2024. G3, 14).
REFERENCES
- Shao L, Zhao Y, Heinrich M, Prieto-Garcia JM, Manzoni
C. Active natural compounds perturb the melanoma risk-gene network. G3
(Bethesda). 2024 Feb 7;14(2).
- Shao L, González-Cardenete MA, Prieto-Garcia JM. In
Vitro Cytotoxic Effects of Ferruginol Analogues in Sk-MEL28 Human Melanoma
Cells. Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Nov 14;24(22).
- Prieto JM, Hanafi MMM. Advances in Molecular
Regulation of Prostate Cancer Cells by Top Natural Products of Malaysia. Curr
Issues Mol Biol. 2023 Feb 9;45(2):1536–67.
- Hanafi MMM, Yaakob H, Gibbons S, Prieto JM. In Vitro
Pro-Apoptotic and Anti-Migratory Effects of Marantodes pumilum (syn. Labisia
pumila) Extracts on Human Prostate Cancer Cell Lines: Bioguided Isolation
of 5-Henicosene-1-yl-resorcinol. Plants (Basel). 2023 Apr 6;12(7).
- AlQathama A, Ezuruike UF, Mazzari ALDA, Yonbawi A,
Chieli E, Prieto JM. Effects of Selected Nigerian Medicinal Plants on the
Viability, Mobility, and Multidrug-Resistant Mechanisms in Liver, Colon, and
Skin Cancer Cell Lines. Front Pharmacol. 2020;11:546439.
- Prieto JM, Silveira D. Natural Cytotoxic Diterpenoids,
a Potential Source of Drug Leads for Melanoma Therapy. Curr Pharm Des.
2018;24(36):4237–50.
- Hanafi MMM, Afzan A, Yaakob H, Aziz R, Sarmidi MR,
Wolfender JL, et al. In Vitro Pro-apoptotic and Anti-migratory Effects of Ficus
deltoidea L. Plant Extracts on the Human Prostate Cancer Cell Lines PC3. Front
Pharmacol. 2017;8:895.
- Al-Qathama A, Gibbons S, Prieto JM. Differential
modulation of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and onset of caspase-3/7 activation induced by
derivatives of Justicidin B in human melanoma cells A375. Oncotarget. 2017 Nov
10;8(56):95999–6012.
WORK FOR NGOs
2016-Principal
Investigator, The Yeheb Project
To improve the lives of communities in the
drylands of the Horn of Africa by restoring the Yeheb plant as a reliable,
drought-resistant source of food and fodder (https://www.yeheb.org/
).
2014-Scientific advisor, Iamoe Centre
To protect and preserve the ancient
knowledge, traditions, and natural habitat of the Amazon by creating
experiential learning opportunities for people in collaboration with local
indigenous people (https://www.iamoe.org/ )
Summary:
1 Textbook; 6 Chapters; >75 Papers; >70 Communications
Metrics:
(3,371 Citations; h-index 28; i10-index 53)
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MFPp_JYAAAAJ&hl=en
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2649-1691
Scopus
Author ID: 7201826721
ResearcherID: F-2835-2012
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Textbooks
Heinrich, M., Barnes, J., Prieto-Garcia, J., Gibbons, S., & Williamson, E. M. (2024). Fundamentals of Pharmacognosy and
Phytotherapy (4th ed.). London: Elsevier.
(The link downloads a PDF with the full list of publications
and communications to congresses)
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