Education

1994– Master Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (University of Cagliari)
1998- Doctoral degree (University of Cagliari).

Employment:

Since 1997- Medicinal Chemistry Assistant Professor (Department of Life and Environment Sciences, Unit of Drug Sciences, University of Cagliari).
2004 al 2006– Supervisors Board of the PhD program in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (University of Cagliari)
Since 2006– Supervisors Board of the PhD program in Chemical Sciences and Chemical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Doctoral Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies.

Teaching:

2001/2003 –Professor, Complementary of Medicinal Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy)
2003/2010 — Professor, Chemical and Toxicological Analysis ( Faculty of Pharmacy)
2011/2012 –Professor, Drug Analysis (Faculty of Pharmacy)
Since 2012/2013 –Professor, Drug Analysis (Faculty of Pharmacy)
Member of Italian Chemical Society

Research activities

Design and realization of micro/nanoparticles polymeric systems encapsulating drugs, suitable for the treatement of various diseases related to the central nervous system, the gastrointestinal tract and the ocular apparatus.
For this purpose we develope appropriate methods for the preparation of drug delivery systems, in order to obtain micro and nanoparticle, charatcterized by uniform size, good polydispersity index and zeta potential depending on the route of administration for which are prepared.
The polymers used for the nanoparticles’ preparation are mainly natural polymers and/or their semisynthetic derivatives such as chitosan, sodium alginate and others, which show excellent pharmaceutical properties for their biodegradability, biocompatibility and for their excellent bioadhesive properties.
The physical-chemical and structural characterization of the functionalized polymers and formulations is performed using analytical techniques such as NMR spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), light scattering and UV spectroscopy. The quantitative analysis to determine the encapsulation efficiency and release kinetics is performed by HPLC.
The main purpose of these research is to find pharmaceutical formulations that allows to drastically reduce the dosage of the drug, at the same time enabling a controlled release in the target sites.

Website

http://people.unica.it/mariacristinacardia/

Publications from 2008 to 2013

1)Chimenti F, Maccioni E, Cardia MC, Secci D, Bolasco A et al.: “Recent Advances in Monoamine Oxidase B Inhibitors Design”, New Perspectives in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, S.G. Pandalai – India, pagine 10, ISBN: 978-81-308-0321-0, 2009.

2) Cardia, M.C., Sanna, M.L., Meleddu, R., Distinto, S., Yañez, M., Viña, D., Lamela, M., Maccioni, E., “A novel series of 3,4-disubstituted dihydropyrazoles: Synthesis and evaluation for MAO enzyme inhibition”, Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry 50 (SUPPL.1) , pp. E87-E92

3) Distinto Simona, Esposito Francesca, Kirchmair Johannes, Cardia M. Cristina, Gaspari Marco, Maccioni Elias, Alcaro Stefano, Markt Patrick, Wolber Gerhard, Zinzula Luca, Tramontano Enzo, “Identification of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase dual inhibitors by a combined shape-, 2D-fingerprint- and pharmacophore-based virtual screening approach”. (2012) European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 50 , pp. 216-229.

4) Distinto S, Yáñez M, Alcaro S, Cardia MC, Gaspari M, Sanna ML, Meleddu R, Ortuso F, Kirchmair J, Markt P, Bolasco A, Wolber G, Secci D, Maccioni E., “Synthesis and biological assessment of novel 2-thiazolylhydrazones and computational analysis of their recognition by monoamine oxidase B” (2012) European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 48 , pp. 284-295.

5) Maccioni E, Alcaro S, Cirilli R, Vigo S, Cardia MC, Sanna ML, Meleddu R, Yanez M, Costa G, Casu L, Matyus P, Distinto S. “3-Acetyl-2,5-diaryl-2,3-dihydro-1,3,4-oxadiazoles: A new scaffold for the selective inhibition of monoamine oxidase B”. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2011) 54 (18), pp. 6394-6398.

6) Maccioni E, Alcaro S, Orallo F, Cardia MC, Distinto S, Costa G, Yanez M, Sanna ML, Vigo S, Meleddu R, Secci D, “Synthesis of new 3-aryl-4,5-dihydropyrazole-1-carbothioamide derivatives. An investigation on their ability to inhibit monoamine oxidase” (2010), European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 45 (10) , pp. 4490-4498.

7) Chimenti F, Secci D, Bolasco A, Chimenti P, Granese A, Carradori S, Maccioni E, Cardia MC, Yanez M, Orallo F, Alcaro S, Ortuso F, Cirilli R, Ferretti R, Distinto S, Kirchmair J, Langer T., “Synthesis, semipreparative HPLC separation, biological evaluation, and 3D-QSAR of hydrazothiazole derivatives as human monoamine oxidase B inhibitors” (2010), Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry 18 (14) , pp. 5063-5070.

8) Giovanni Cerioni, Elias Maccioni, Maria Cristina Cardia, Sara Vigo, Francesca Mocci, “Characterization of 2,5-diaryl-1,3,4-oxadiazolines by multinuclear magnetic resonance and density functional theory calculations. Investigation on a case of very remote Hammett correlation” (2009), Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry 47 (9), pp. 727-733.

9) Cardia MC, Distinto S, Maccioni E, Plumitallo A, Sanna L, Sanna ML, Vigo S., “Synthesis and characterization of new phthalhydrazothiazole derivatives: A preliminary investigation on their activity against hepatocellular carcinoma” (2009), Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry 46 (4) , pp. 674-679.