Letters in Drug Design & Discovery - Volume 12, Issue 8, 2015

The diagnosis of parkinsonism is essentially made by the presence of typical features including bradykinesia, plastic rigidity and resting tremor. However, in older persons, where the prevalence of parkinsonism is higher, the diagnosis is often inaccurate. The utilization of new radiological techniques, such as the DaT-SCAN SPECT, can improve the early diagnosis and treatment of these patients. However, no data are availa Read More

Inositol is a cyclic polyol naturally occurring as seven optically inactive stereoisomers and one enantiomeric pair. Within the human body, brain is the most saturated organ of inositol, mainly with myo- and scyllo-inositol. One of the molecular mechanisms for the maintenance of inositol brain levels is active transport via stereospecific carrier molecules – one hydrogen myo-inositol transporter (HMIT) and two sodium myo-inosit Read More

Detecting early-stage ovarian cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancerrelated deaths in women, is difficult, and the development of novel chemotherapeutic agents is required. Since several flavonoids show anticancer activities against ovarian cancer, 35 naphthylated flavonoids including 3’,4’-naphthochalcones, 5’,6’-naphthochalcone, 7,8-nap-hthoflavones, 5,6-naphthoflavanones, 5,6-naphthoflavones, 2,3-napht Read More

A new complex [Cu(D-glu)(phen)(H2O)]·NO3·2H2O 1 (D-glu = D-glutamic acid, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) was synthesized and identified by IR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Fluorescence studies showed that 1 exhibited stronger intercalative interaction to CT-DNA as compared to known complex [Cu(L-glu)(phen)(H2O)]·NO3·2H2O 2. Both complexes inhibited the growth of MCF-7 cells with the IC50 valu Read More

Mannich bases (2-6) of curcumin analogue 1, [1,5-bis(4-hydroxy-phenyl)penta-1,4-dien-3- one], were synthesized.Their cytotoxicity against human HL-60 promyelocytic leukemia and HSC-2, HSC-3, and HSC-4 oral squamous carcinoma cell lines, as well as against normal oral cells was evaluated. Mannich bases 2-5 displayed more potent cytotoxicity than curcumin and curcumin analogue 1 towards malignant cells with high PSE va Read More

A novel series of 1,2,4-triazole clubbed (E)-5-(4-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)phenyl)-1-(2- hydroxyphenyl)pent-4-ene-1,3-dione (4a-h) and 2-(4-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)styryl)-4H-chromen-4- one (5a-h) derivatives have been synthesized by ultrasound and conventional synthetic approach. All the synthesized compounds were screened for antibacterial and antifungal activities. From the series compound 4e and 5a show excellent a Read More

34 novel ATR inhibitors were used to build an optimal 3D-QSAR model. Homology modeling and molecular docking were used to study the interaction of ATR kinase protein and inhibitor. The results showed that both the CoMFA model (q2 = 0.550; r2 = 0.978; standard error of estimate [SEE] = 0.129; F = 177.729 and r2pred = 0.530) and the CoMSIA model (q2 = 0.632; r2 = 0.991; standard error of estimate [SEE] = 0.0 Read More

Malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum actively invades its host cells utilizing its actin/ myosin-based motor machinery. Actin-profilin interaction is essential for actin filament dynamics in eukaryotic cells. P.falciparum profilin (PfPRF) is highly divergent from other eukaryotic profilins and possesses unique structural properties. In this study, we attempted to identify region(s) of P.falciparum actins (PfACT1 and PfACT2) that i Read More

Malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum completes its life cycle in vertebrate human and invertebrate mosquito hosts. Inside the mosquito midgut, interaction between ookinete surface expressed P. falciparum enolase (PfENO) and host serine protease plasminogen obtained through blood meal is essential for midgut invasion. Lysine motif on enolases is known to bind to plasminogen through its kringle motifs. A PfENO lysine motif Read More

2-[(1-Methyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl)thio]-N'-[(aryl)methylidene/ethylidene]acetohydrazides were synthesized and investigatedin vitroagainst pathogenic bacteriaand Candidaspecies for their antimicrobial activityusing CLSI broth microdilution method. MTT assay was also carried out to evaluate their cytotoxic effects on NIH/3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblast cell lines.2-((1-Phenyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl)thio)-N'-(1-(pyridin-3-yl)ethylidene)aceto Read More