Arthur D. Tinoco

Dr. Arthur D Tinoco

Chemistry Graduate and Undergraduate Assistant professor
e-mail: arthur.tinoco@upr.edu
Office Location: Facundo Bueso 312
Office Phone: 787-764-0000 ext. 88566
Lab Location: Facundo Bueso 136 & 143
Lab Phone: 787-764-0000 ext. 88566
Homepage: http://tinocolab.weebly.com/

Social Networks
Twitter: @TeamTinoco

Research Interests
– Bioinorganic Chemistry
– Chemical Biological approaches to understand biomolecular regulation of metals
– Metals in Biology
– Studying small molecule mimics of metal-based enzymes
– Development of new drug design strategies for metal-based therapeutics
– Peptide-based drug delivery systems
– Mass spectrometry based ‘omics’ studies for elucidating the mechanism of action of
therapeutics
– Metal-based anticoronavirus drug development
– To promote and encourage disability, gender, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status diversity in the Natural Sciences and to create spaces and opportunities for inclusivity in the STEM workforce.
– To study the metal bioactivity in humans and to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that regulate this behavior.
– To develop new bio-inspired drug design strategies for metal-based therapeutics and use mass spectrometry based “omics” studies to investigate the mechanism of action of these compounds for improved target selectivity.

Research Objectives
Projects

Protein regulation of metal functionality and therapeutic potential
Using peptides for selective metal delivery
Synergizing titanium(IV) and iron chelators in an anticancer drug design strategy to attack the bioavailability of iron in cancer cells
With the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tinoco laboratory will be embarking on a mission to apply the functional tunability of metal-protein interactions for the development of a specific drug against SARS-COV-2. To this end, we will explore the development of albumin-fatty acid-metal complexes operate in a multimodal fashion to attack SARS-COV-2 and inhibit its aggressive spreading.
NSF REU: PR-CLIMB

Publications
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/arthur.tinoco.1/bibliography/public/

Rodríguez, I.; Fernández-Vega, L.; Maser-Figueroa, A.N.; Sang, B.; González-Pagán, P.; Tinoco, A.D.* “Exploring Titanium(IV) Complexes as Potential Antimicrobial Compounds.” Antibiotics 2022, 11, 158. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11020158

Delinois, L.J.; De Leon-Velez, O.; Vazquez-Medina, A.; Velez-Cabrera, A.; Marrero-Sanchez, A.; Nieves-Escobar, C.; Alfonso-Cano, D.; Caraballo-Rodriguez, D.; Rodriguez-Ortiz, J.; Acosta-Mercado, J.; Benjamin-Rivera, J.A.; Gonzalez-Gonzalez, K.; Fernandez-Adorno, K.; Santiago-Pagan, L.; Delgado-Vergara, R.; Torres-Avila, X.; Maser-Figueroa, A.; Grajales-Aviles, G.; Miranda Mendez, G.I.; Santiago-Pagan, J.; Nieves-Santiago, M.; Alvarez-Carrillo, V.; Griebenow, K.; Tinoco, A.D.* “Cytochrome c: Using biological insight toward engineering an optimized anticancer biodrug.” Inorganics 2021, 9, 83. https://doi.org/10.3390/inorganics9110083.

Gaur, K.; Perez Otero, S.C.; Benjamin-Rivera, J.A.; Rodriguez, I.; Loza-Rosas, S.A.; Vazquez-Salgado, A.M.; Akam, E.A.; Hernandez-Matias, L.; Sharma, R.K.; Alicea, N.; Kowaleff, M.; Washington, A.V.; Astashkin, A.V.; Tomat, E.; Tinoco, A.D.* “Iron Chelator Transmetalative Approach to Inhibit Human Ribonucleotide Reductase.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. Au. 2021, doi:10.1021/jacsau.1c00078

Rodriguez, I.*; Gautam, R.*; Tinoco, A.D.* “Using X-ray diffraction techniques for biomimetic drug development, formulation, and polymorphic characterization.” Biomimetics. 2021, doi: 10.3390/biomimetics6010001.

Delinois, L.J.; Peon, H.; Villalobos-Santos, J.C.; Ramirez-Paz, J.; Miller, J.; Griebenow, K.H.; Tinoco, A.D.* “A cytochrome c-chlorotoxin hybrid protein as a possible antiglioma drug.” ChemMedChem. 2020, 15(22), 2185-2192.

Benjamin-Rivera, J.A.; Cardona-Rivera, A.E.; Vazquez-Maldonado, A.L.; Dones-Lassalle, C.Y.; Pabon-Colon, H.L.; Rodriguez-Rivera, H.M.; Rodriguez, I.; Gonzalez-Espiet, J.C.; Catala-Torres, J.F.; Carrasquillo Rivera, M.; De Jesus-Soto, M.G.; Cordero-Virella, N.C.; Cruz-Maldonado, P.M.; Gonzalez-Pagan, P.; Hernandez-Rios, R.; Gaur, K.; Loza-Rosas, S.A.; Tinoco, A.D.* “Exploring serum transferrin regulation of nonferric metal therapeutic function and toxicity.” Inorganics. 2020, 8(9), 48; doi: 10.3390/inorganics8090048.

Gaur, K.; Cruz, Y.M.; Santiago Espinoza, J.A.; Morales Rueda, C.A.; Loza-Rosas, S.A.; Fernandez-Vega, L.; Benjamin-Rivera, J.A.; Alvarez, A.; Tinoco, A.D.* “Exploring the pH dependent aqueous speciation of metal complexes through UV-Vis spectroscopy.” J. Chem. Ed. 2020, doi: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b01199.

Hanif, M.*; Yang, X., Tinoco, A.D.; and Plażuk, D. “Editorial: New Strategies in Design and Synthesis of Inorganic Pharmaceuticals.” Front. Chem. 2020, 8:453. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2020.00453.

Fernandez-Vega, L.; Ruiz Silva, V.A.; Domínguez-González, T.M.; Claudio-Betancourt, S.; Toro-Maldonado, R.E.; Capre Maso, L.C.; Sanabria Ortiz, K.; Pérez-Verdejo, J.A.; Román González, J.; Rosado-Fraticelli, G.T.; Pagán Meléndez, F.; Betancourt Santiago, F.M.; Rivera-Rivera, D.A.; Martínez Navarro, C.; Bruno Chardón, A.C. Vera, A.O.; Tinoco, A.D.* “Evaluating ligand modifications of the titanocene and auranofin moieties for the development of more potent anticancer drugs.” Inorganics. 2020, 8, doi: 10.3390/inorganics8020010.

Sharma, S.; Sharma, R.K.; Gaur, K.; Cátala Torres, J.F.; Loza-Rosas, S.A.; Torres, A.; Saxena, M.; Julin, M. Tinoco, A.D.* “Fueling a hot debate on the application of TiO₂ nanoparticles in sunscreen.” Materials. 2019, 12, doi: 10.3390/ ma12142317.

Gaur, K.; Vazquez-Salgado, A.M.; Duran-Camacho, G.; Dominguez-Martinez; Benjamin-Rivera, J.A.; Fernandez-Vega, L.; Carmona Sarabia, L.; Cruz Garcia, A.; Perez-Deliz, F.; Mendez Roman, J.A.; Vega-Cartagena, M.; Loza-Rosas, S.A.; Rodriguez Acevedo, X.; Tinoco, A.D.* “Iron and copper intracelular chelation as an anticancer drug strategy.” Inorganics. 2018, 6, doi: 10.3390/inorganics6040126.

Das, S.; Parga, K.; Chakraborty, I.; Tinoco, A.D.; Delgado, Y.; Lopez, P.M.; Fernández Vega, L.; Sanakis, Y.; Ghosh, Y.; Ghosh, S.; Bankson, J.; Klostergaard, J.; Gonzalez-Mendez, R.; Raptis, R.G.* “Magnetic resonance imaging contrast enhancement in vitro and in vivo by octanuclear iron-oxo cluster-based agents.” J. Inorg. Biochem. 2018, 186, 176-186.

Carballeira, N.M.*; Morales-Guzman, C.; Alvarez-Benedicto, E.; Torres-Martinez, Z.; Delgado, Y.; Griebenow, K.; Tinoco, A.D.; Reguera, R.M.; Perez-Pertejo, Y.; Carbajo-Andres, R.; Balana-Fouce, R. “First total synthesis of ω-phenyl ∆6 fatty acids and their Leishmanicidal and anticancer properties.” Curr. Top. Med. Chem. 2018, doi: 10.2174/1568026618666180516125056.

Saxena, M.; Delgado, Y.; Sharma, R.; Sharma, S.; Guzman, S.; Tinoco, A.D.; Griebenow, K.H.* “Inducing cell death in cancer cells by targeted delivery of cytochrome c via a transferrin conjugate.” PLoS ONE. 2018, 13(4): e0195542. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195542.

Saxena, M.; Loza-Rosas, S.A.; Gaur, K.; Sharma, S.; Perez Otero, S.C.; Tinoco, A.D.* “Exploring titanium(IV) chemical proximity to iron(III) to elucidate a function for Ti(IV) in the human body.” Coord. Chem. Rev. 2018, 363, 109-125.

Loza-Rosas, S.A.; Vazquez, A.M.; Rivero, K.I.; Negron, L.J.; Delgado, Y.; Benjamin-Rivera, J.A.; Vazquez-Maldonado, A.L.; Parks, T.B.; Munet-Colon, C.; Tinoco, A.D.* “Expanding the therapeutic potential of the iron chelator deferasirox in the development of aqueous stable Ti(IV) anticancer complexes.” Inorg. Chem. 2017, 56, 7788-7802.

Loza-Rosas, S.A.; Saxena, M.; Delgado, Y.; Gaur, K.; Pandrala, M.; Tinoco, A.D.* “A ubiquitous metal, Difficult to track: Towards an understanding of the bioactivity of Titanium(IV) in humans.” Metallomics, 2017, 9, 346-356.

Morales-Cruz, M.; Cruz-Montañez, A.; Figueroa, C.M.; González-Robles, T.; Davila, J.; Inyushin, M.; Loza-Rosas, S.A.; Molina, A.M.; Muñoz-Perez, L.; Kucheryavykh, L.Y.; Tinoco, A.D.; Griebenow, K. “Combining stimulus-triggered release and active targetting strategies improves cytotoxicity of cytochrome c nanoparticles in tumor cells.” Mol. Pharmaceutics, 2016, 13, 2844-2854.

Tinoco, A.D.*; Saxena, M.; Sharma, S.; Noinaj, N.; Delgado, Y.; Quiñones González, E.P.;
Conklin, S.E.; Zambrana, N.; Loza-Rosas, S.A.; Parks, T.B. “Unusual synergism of transferrin and
citrate in the regulation of Ti(IV) speciation, transport, and toxicity.” J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 2016,
138, 5659.

Saxena, M.; Sharma, R.K.; Ramirez, J.; Tinoco, A.D.; Griebenow, K.* “Purification and characterization of a cytochrome c with novel caspase-3 activation activity from the pathogenic fungus Rhizopus arrhizus.” BMC Biochemistry, 2015, 16, 21.

Parks, T.B.; Cruz, Y.M.; Tinoco, A.D.* “Applying the Fe(III) binding property of a chemical transferrin mimetic to Ti(IV) anticancer drug design.” Inorg. Chem., 2014, 53, 1743.

Mitchell, A.; Lone, A.M.; Tinoco, A.D.*; Saghatelian, A.* “Proteolysis controls endogenous substance P levels.” PLOS ONE, 2013, 8(7): e68638. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068638

Tinoco, A.D.*; Thomas, H.R.; Incarvito, C.D.; Saghatelian, A.; Valentine, A.M. “Cytotoxicity of a Ti(IV) complex is independent of serum proteins.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2012, 109, 5016.