Prof. Antonella Leggio

Associate professor from 11/01/2010 in Organic Chemistry (CHIM / 06) at the Department of Pharmacy and Health and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Calabria.

She gained 20 years’ experience in organic- and bio-molecules synthesis and characterization and in their further processing to produce pharmacological functional analogs.

Recently, in collaboration with Dr. Luigi Pasqua and Dr. Catia Morelli, she started to study structural and reactivity properties of nanoparticles for their functionalization with organic ligands, useful in cancer drugs targeting.

  1. Role in company

    Co-founder and Chief Research Officer (CRO)

    • design and supervision on the production and characterization of pro-drugs to be combined with mesoporous silica micro- and nano-systems;
    • planning and supervision of nanoparticles surface functionalization with specific linker which are able to anchor biomolecules and drugs.
  2. Publications #1

    Leggio, A.; Liguori, A.; Procopio, A.; Siciliano, C.; Sindona G. “Synthesis of 4’-aza analogues of 2’,3’-dideoxythimidine by 1,3-Dipolar Cycloadditions of nitrones to 1-N-vinyl-thymine”, Tetrahedron Letters 1996, 37, 1277-1280.

    Leggio, A.; Liguori, A.; Procopio, A.; Sindona, G. “Convenient and stereospecific homologation of N-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl--amino acids to their -homologues”, Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transaction 1 1997, 1969-1971.

    Leggio, A.; Liguori, A.; Napoli, A.; Siciliano, C.; Sindona, G. “New strategies for an efficient removal of the 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc) protecting group in the peptide synthesis”, European Journal of Organic Chemistry 2000, 573-575.

    Leggio, A.; Liguori, A.; Napoli, A.; Siciliano, C.; Sindona, G. “Site selectivity in the synthesis of O-methylated hydroxamic acids with diazomethane”, Journal of Organic Chemistry 2001, 66, 2246-2250.

    Le Pera, A.; Leggio, A.; Siciliano, C.; Di Gioia, M. L.; Napoli, A.; Sindona, G.; Liguori, A. “A straightforward chemical synthesis of 17-ketosteroids by cleavage of the C-17-dihydroxy acetone side chain in corticosteroids”, Steroids 2003, 68, 139-142.

    Vivacqua A.; Recchia A. G.; Fasanella G.; Gabriele S.; Carpino A.; Rago V.; Di Gioia M. L.; Leggio A.; Bonofiglio, D., Liguori A.; Maggiolini M. “The Food Contaminants Bisphenol A and 4-Nonylphenol act as agonists for Estrogen Receptor  in MCF7 Breast Cancer Cells” , Endocrine, 2003, 22, 275-284.

    Di Gioia, M. L.; Leggio*, A.; Liguori, A. “N-Methylation of Peptides on Selected Positions during the Elongation of the Peptide Chain in Solution Phase”, Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2005, 70, 3892-3897.
    Leggio, A.; Di Gioia, M. L.; Perri, F.; Liguori, A. “N-Nosyl--amino acids in the solution phase peptide synthesis” Tetrahedron 2007, 63, 8164-8173.

    Leggio, A.; Belsito, E. L.; De Marco R.; Liguori, A.; Perri, F.; Viscomi M. C. “An Efficient Preparation of N-Methyl-alpha-amino Acids from N-Nosyl-alpha-amino Acid Phenacyl Esters” Journal of Organic Chemistry 2010, 75, 1386-1392.

    De Marco, R.; Leggio, A.; Liguori, A.; Marino, T.; Perri, F.; Russo, N. “Site-Selective Methylation of N-beta-Nosyl Hydrazides of N-Nosyl Protected alpha-Amino Acids” Journal of Organic Chemistry 2010, 75, 3381-3386.

    Leggio, A.; De Marco R.; Perri, F.; Spinella, M.; Liguori, A. “Unusual Reactivity of Dimethylsulfoxonium Methylide with Esters” European Journal of Organic Chemistry 2012, 114-118.

    Leggio, A.; Belsito, E. L.; De Marco, R.; Liguori, A.; Siciliano, C., Spinella, M. “Simultaneous extraction and derivatization of amino acids and free fatty acids in meat products” Journal of Chromatography A 2012, 1241, 96-102.

    Mariagiovanna Spinella, Rosaria De Marco, Emilia L. Belsito, Antonella Leggio,* Angelo Liguori “The dimethylsulfoxonium methylide as unique reagent for the simultaneous deprotection of amino and carboxyl function of N-Fmoc--amino acid and N-Fmoc-peptide esters” Tetrahedron, 2013, 69, 2010-2016.

    Rosaria De Marco, Mariagiovanna Spinella, Anna De Lorenzo, Antonella Leggio,* Angelo Liguori* “C → N and N → C solution phase peptide synthesis using the N-acyl 4-nitrobenzenesulfonamide as protection of carboxylic function” Org. Biomol. Chem., 2013, 11, 3786-3796.

    Leggio, A.; Catalano, S.; De Marco, R.; Barone, I.; Andò, S.; Liguori, A. “Therapeutic potential of leptin receptor modulators” European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2014, 78, 97-105.

    Leggio, A.; Belsito, E. L.; Di Gioia, M. L.; Leotta, V.; Romio, E.; Siciliano C.; Liguori, A. “Silver acetate-assisted formation of amides from acyl chlorides” Tetrahedron Letters 2015, 56, 199–202.

    Catalano, S.; Leggio, A.; Barone, I.; De Marco, R.; Gelsomino, L.; Campana, A.; Malivindi, R.; Panza, S.; Giordano, C.; Liguori, A.; Bonofiglio, D.; Liguori, A.; Ando, S. “A novel leptin antagonist peptide inhibits breast cancer growth in vitro and in vivo” Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine 2015, in press.