Clinical Pharmacology

The aim of our group is to investigate the use of medicines and evaluate its benefit/risk relationship in usual clinical practice. Our group coordinates the Catalan centre of the Spanish System of Pharmacovigilance. Research activities on pharmacology and pharmacoepidemiology are coupled with undergraduate teaching at the Autonomous University of Barcelona Medical School, training of specialists in clinical pharmacology, and continuous education of health professionals on therapeutics.

The group is a Special Group of Research recognized by AGAUR GenCat. It is a partner of “The European Consortium “EU PE&PV Network” (European Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance Network)” and it is part of the European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCePP). It gives institutional support to the Clinical Research Ethical Committee of the University hospital Vall d’Hebron (UHVH), the Drug and Pharmacotherapeutic Committee of the UHVH, and also to the Drug and Pharmacotherapeutic Committee of the Institut Català de la Salut.

Research lines

Risk of blood dyscrasias associated with the use of medicines

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Study of drug-induced liver disease

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Inhibition of nanoparticle phagocytic clearance by activation of innate inhibitory receptors

Professional phagocytes are innate immune system cells that remove harmful circulating foreign particles as bacteria, as well as self particles as apoptotic cells. However, phagocytes such as macrophages may also engulf and remove from circulation nanoparticles and liposomes that have been injected as therapeutic and/or diagnostic tools. Macrophages in the spleen and liver are known to clear these particles within hours after injection into the circulation, limiting their therapeutic and/or diagnostic efficiency. In order to increase the circulation time of specific nanoparticles, we propose to attach to those particles diverse known ligands for innate inhibitory receptors, including LAIR-1 ligand (collagen peptide), Siglec-7 ligand (sialic acids) and diverse small-neuropeptide receptors ligands. Moreover, we will analyze the effect on the circulation time of nanobeads conjugated to specific peptides, sialic acids and neuropeptides alone or in combination in order to get the best possible blocking effect without side-effects.

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