Education
Professional positions
Memberships
English, Greek
Organic Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry
My research interests fall at the interface of chemistry and biology focusing on studies of bioactive molecules including, synthesis, interactions with biomolecules and drug delivery. The focus of my PhD thesis was the multistep synthesis of natural products (azaspiracid-3) and molecular recognition studies of barbiturates. As a postdoctoral researcher, I studied the resistance mechanisms of HIV-1 integrase inhibitors and revealed a two-way binding mode of the first FDA approved integrase inhibitor, raltegravir. The results of this study received the first award at the 7th European HIV Drug Resistance Workshop and published in Biochemistry as a rapid report that was characterised as one of the 10 most accessed rapid reports in 2009. I later became interested in the human proteasome and developed a computational protocol to study the factors that confer subunit selectivity to proteasome inhibitors and opened the prospect of collaboration with pharmaceutical companies. A current research project includes the evaluation of argyrin analogues as inhibitors of the proteasome and immunoproteasome by using molecular modelling and in vitro assays.
Another research area of interest is the transdermal delivery of highly potent therapeutics using microneedles. This project involves an exploration of microfabrication techniques for the preparation of microneedles, imaging techniques for evaluating skin penetration, drug delivery studies and finite element analyses for the structural characterization of the microneedles.
Selected publications:
Refereed articles in Academic Journals:
Refereed and published conference proceedings:
Books chapters and Dissertations:
Allardyce, Duncan and Adu Mantey, Priscilla and Szalecka, Monika and Nkwo, Robert and Loizidou, Erika (2023) Identification of a new class of proteasome inhibitors based on a naphthyl-azotricyclic-urea-phenyl scaffold. RSC Medicinal Chemistry , 14 (3). pp. 573-582.
Zeinalipour-Yazdi, Constantinos D. and Loizidou, Erika (2021) An experimental FTIR-ATR and computational study of H-bonding in ethanol/water mixtures. Chemical Physics , 550 (1). pp. 1-7. ISSN 0301-0104
Allardyce, Duncan and Bell, Celia M. and Loizidou, Erika (2019) Argyrin B a non-competitive inhibitor of the human immunoproteasome exhibiting preference for β1i. Chemical Biology and Drug Design , 94 (2). pp. 1556-1567. ISSN 1747-0277
Loizidou, Erika and Yagnik, Darshna and Szalecka, Monika and Nguyen, Dao Thanh Thuong (2019) The potential use of microneedles as an alternative method for skin cancer treatment. In: The World Congress on Advanced Treatments and Technologies in Skin Cancer (Skin-Cancer2019), 4-5 Apr 2019, Vienna, Austria.
Allardyce, Duncan and Bell, Celia M. and Loizidou, Erika (2017) Analysis of argyrin B binding at constitutive and immunoproteasome active sites using molecular modelling and kinetic assays. In: Computational Advances in Drug Discovery (Structure Based Drug Design), 05-08 Sep 2017, Lausanne, Switzerland.