miRNA-29 bioseparation and target delivery strategies for Alzheimer's disease

300 Pages·2016·7.79 MB·English

UNIVERSIDADE DA BEIRA INTERIOR
Ciências

miRNA-29 bioseparation and target delivery
strategies for Alzheimer’s disease

Patrícia Alexandra Nunes Pereira

Tese para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em
Bioquímica
(3º ciclo de estudos)

Orientadora: Prof.ª Doutora Fani Pereira de Sousa
Co-orientador(a): Prof.ª Doutora Ana Rita Figueiras
Prof. Doutor Ilídio Correia

Covilhã, abril de 2016
ii
"Whether or not your efforts are smiled upon by fate,
what really matters in the end is to be able to say,
I did what I was able to"
Louis Pasteur
iii
iv
Aos meus Pais…
Por todo o amor, apoio incondicional e compreensão
Amo-vos

v
vi
This work was financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(SFRH/BD/81914/2011) under the program QREN - POPH - Type 4.1 – Advanced
Training, cofounded by the European Social Fund and by national funds from the
MCTES. Moreover, this work was also supported in the framework of research and
development projects (PTDC/EBB-BIO/114320/2009 and EXPL/BBB-BIO/1056/2012)
and strategic programs (Pest-C/SAU/UI0709/2011 and Pest-OE/SAU/UI0709/2014) co-
founded by the operational program factors of competitiveness – COMPETE (FCOMP-
01-0124-FEDER-041068 – EXPL/QEQ-MED/1068/2013) and co-founded by FEDER funds
(FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027560) of COMPETE.

Final version printed in April of 2016
vii
viii
Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors Professor
Fani Sousa, Professor Ana Rita Figueiras and Professor Ilídio Correia, for all the careful
guidance, valuable advice and trust. To Professor Fani Sousa my deepest appreciation for her
valuable scientific knowledge and experiences shared during the last years. I would like to
thanks for encouraging my research and for allowing me to grow as a research scientist. In
addition, I am also grateful for believing in me, for her availability, dedication, help,
motivation, unconditional support in difficult times, by the endless hours of conversation and
especially for her friendship and patience, my very thanks to my " scientific mother "! To my
co-supervisor Professor Ana Rita Figueiras my sincerely appreciation for her invaluable
support, for the continuous guidance, help, availability, dedication, for all encouragement
and especially for her friendship. It was a huge privilege working with you.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor João Queiroz for all the vast and
valuable scientific knowledge that he transmitted me. I am really thankful for the
availability, dedication and interest that he demonstrated for my work through the
constructive scientific discussions and suggestions made during the development of the same,
which were crucial for their success.
I would like to thanks to Professor Carla Cruz for her friendship, availability, help, support
and interest demonstrated for my work through the scientific expertise provided, as well as
for the trust in me through participation in her scientific projects. I would also like to thanks
to Professor Cláudio Maia for the scientific expertise and valuable contribution throughout
this thesis. To Professor Luís Passarinha, for his friendship, motivation, help and support,
between a coffee and a laugh.
I’m deeply grateful to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for the financial support
through my PhD fellowship (SFRH/BD/81914/2011).
I also thank to all the people involved in Health Sciences Research Centre of the University of
Beira Interior (CICS-UBI), especially to the Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences research
group which cooperated in the development of this work. A special acknowledgment to the
laboratory technicians Margarida Carrilho and Sofia Duarte that really cooperated for the
successful development of this work and, especially for all the friendliness, availability,
helpfulness and excellent moments of good humor.
To all my laboratory colleagues, specially Ângela Sousa, Eduarda Coutinho, Rita Martins,
Margarida Almeida, Rita Videira, Helena Marcelino, Ana Martinho, Susana Ferreira and
Filomena Silva, I would like to acknowledge all these people by their teachings, valuable
ix
technical help, feedback, unspeakable patience, friendship, advice, support on the not so
good times and willingness that contributed for this work to move forward. Thanks for all the
great moments. Moreover, I am extremely thankful to Joana Tomás, who with her special
expertise provided me with invaluable advice and encouragement. Your patience, support,
friendship and collaboration were crucial for the success of this work, I sincerely thank you.
A very special thanks to Augusto Pedro, companion and friend, who supported me in good
times and bad times, by their critical thinking that contributed significantly to the quality of
this work, as well as, by your availability and help whenever I needed. For all your love,
affection and friendship, and all the confidence placed in me, by the patience, advices and
motivation throughout all the days of intensive work. We managed to overcome more this
stage of our lives together, thank you my love.
Por último, e não menos importante, gostaria de agradecer de uma forma muito especial à
minha família, por todo o amor, confiança e apoio nos tempos mais difíceis durante a minha
formação acadêmica. Aos meus pais, por tornarem isto possível, por toda a vossa bondade e
paciência, por me apoiarem sempre sem nunca duvidar e por entenderem as minhas inúmeras
ausências. Estou-vos eternamente grata. Esta tese tem o vosso apoio incondicional, amor e
carinho. Amo-vos.

x