Rosa Maria Vitale

Rosa Maria Vitale received the master degree with honors in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies in 1997 at the University of Naples “Federico II”. In 2003 she received a post-graduated Specialization degree in “Biotechnological Applications” with honors and in 2004 the PhD degree in “Design and use of molecules of biotechnological interest” at University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”. From 2004 to 2007 she was CNR TD researcher at the Biostructure and Bioimaging Institute (IBB-CNR) and since 2007 she is CNR permanent researcher at the Biomolecular Chemistry Institute (ICB-CNR). Her research activity is centered on computational chemistry, particularly focused on molecular modeling of protein systems and their complexes, homology modeling, drug design and molecular simulations of biomolecular systems, in particular GPCRs, receptor ions channels belonging to the TRP family and nuclear receptors. Presently, the research activity is mainly oriented at the: 1) identification of novel ligands from natural and synthetic sources for molecular targets of pharmacological interest by docking-based virtual screenings plus molecular dynamics simulations, and/or ligand-based cheminformatics, 2) repositioning of already-approved drugs, 3) determination of structure-activity relationships for series of structurally- or functionally-related compounds.

1. Vitale RM*, Iannotti FA, Schiano Moriello A, Tunisi L, Piscitelli F, Savopoulos R, Cristino L, De Petrocellis L, Amodeo P, Gray R, Di Marzo V*. Identification and Characterization of Cannabidiol as an OX1R Antagonist by Computational and In Vitro Functional Validation. Biomolecules. 2021 Aug 1;11(8):1134. doi: 10.3390/biom11081134 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34439801/

2. Vitale RM, Avonto C, Del Prete D, Moriello AS, Amodeo P, Appendino G, De Petrocellis L. Discovery of a Remarkable Methyl Shift Effect in the Vanilloid Activity of Triterpene Amides. J Nat Prod. 2020;83(11):3476-3481. doi: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.0c00639. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33136399/

3. Vitale RM, Thellung S, Tinto F, Solari A, Gatti M, Nuzzo G, Ioannou E, Roussis V, Ciavatta ML, Manzo E, Florio T, Amodeo P. Identification of the hydantoin alkaloids parazoanthines as novel CXCR4 antagonists by computational and in vitro functional characterization. Bioorg Chem. 2020 Dec;105:104337. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2020.104337. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33113408/

4. D’Aniello E, Fellous T, Iannotti FA, Gentile A, Allarà M, Balestrieri F, Gray R, Amodeo P, Vitale RM*, Di Marzo V*. Identification and characterization of phytocannabinoids as novel dual PPARα/γ agonists by a computational and in vitro experimental approach. Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj. 2019 Mar;1863(3):586-597. doi: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2019.01.002. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30611848/

5. Schiano Moriello A, López Chinarro S, Novo Fernández O, Eras J, Amodeo P, Canela-Garayoa R, Vitale RM*, Di Marzo V, De Petrocellis L.* Elongation of the Hydrophobic Chain as a Molecular Switch: Discovery of Capsaicin Derivatives and Endogenous Lipids as Potent Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid Channel 2 Antagonists. J Med Chem. 2018 Sep 27;61(18):8255-8281. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b00734. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30176215/