Synthesis of New Formyl Halo N-methylimidazole Derivatives

Bromo-formyl imidazoles 16-20 have been prepared by three different ways. The first consisted of conversion of bromo or iodo imidazoles 1-6 into diethyl acetals 13-15, and subsequent hydrolysis into formyl derivatives 7-9. In the second, bromination of. formyl imidazoles with NBS afforded compounds 16-18 in 45-70°/o yield. The third method used direct formylation of bromo imidazoles 10-12 with n-BuLi/DMF reagent into compounds 16, 19, and 20

Computer-aided approaches reveal trihydroxychroman and pyrazolone derivatives as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 virus main protease

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. The disease is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The aim of this study is to target the SARS-CoV-2 virus main protease (Mpro) via structure-based virtual screening. Consequently, > 580,000 ligands were processed via several filtration and docking steps, then the top 21 compounds were analysed extensively via MM-GBSA scoring and molecular dynamic simulations. Interestingly, the top compounds showed favorable binding energies and binding patterns to the protease enzyme, forming interactions with several key residues. Trihydroxychroman and pyrazolone derivatives, SN02 and SN18 ligands, exhibited very promising binding modes along with the best MM-GBSA scoring of –40.9 and –41.2 kcal mol–1, resp. Hence, MD simulations for the ligand-protein complexes of SN02 and SN18 affirmed the previously attained results of the potential inhibition activity of these two ligands. These potential inhibitors can be the starting point for further studies to pave way for the discovery of new antiviral drugs for SARS-CoV-2

Computer-aided discovery of antimicrobial agents as potential enoyl acyl carrier protein reductase inhibitors

Purpose: To perform a virtual screening for a set of drug-like ligand library against the Staphylococcus aureus enoyl acyl carrier protein reductase, saFabI.Methods: The virtual screening was conducted based on a previously validated pharmacophoreconstrained docking. Consequently, the top list obtained was filtered using visual inspection where forty compounds were selected for experimental testing using disk-diffusion test and broth dilution method. The hits obtained were checked for their toxicity against human fibroblasts cell lines.Results: Three compounds were active against Staphylococcus aureus and other tested gram-positive bacteria. However, no significant inhibitory activity (p < 0.05) was detected against Escherichia coli or Candida albicans. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values for the most active compounds were identified using the broth dilution method; all of them exhibited inhibitory activity within micromolar range.The docking results showed that the hits obtained exhibited a small size with a nice binding mode to saFabI enzyme, forming the important interactions with the key residues. Furthermore, the best three hits demonstrated good safety profile as they did not show any significant toxicity against human fibroblast cell line.Conclusion: Overall, the newly discovered hits can act as a good starting point in the future for the development of safe and potent antibacterial agents.Keywords: Enoyl acyl carrier protein reductase, saFabI, Antibacterial agents, Docking, Constraint, Virtual screening Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutica

SYNTHESIS OF AMINO ACETYLENIC BENZOPHENONE DERIVATIVES AS H3-ANTAGONISTS

Objective: To synthesize new amino acetylenic benzophenone derivatives with significant H3-antagonist's activity.Methods: Amino acetylenic benzophenone derivatives were synthesized from the reaction of 2-hydroxybenzophenone with 3-bromoprop-1-in to generate 2-(prop-2-yn-1-yloxy)-1,3-benzophenone (AZ-1). A mixture of 2-(prop-2-yn-1-yloxy)-1,3-benzophenone, paraformaldehyde, cyclic amine, cuprous chloride (catalytic amount) in peroxide free dioane through Mannich reaction yielded the designed amino acetylenic benzophenone derivatives (AZ-2-7).Results: The IR, H1-NMR, 13C NMR, and elemental analysis were consistent with the assigned structures. The designers of these compounds as H3-antagonists were based on the nationalization of the important criteria that provide effective inhibitory binding with H3-receptor. Molecular docking results of compounds (AZ-2-7) showed a good H3-receptor antagonistic activity relative to thioperamide of-6 (kcal/mol) especially AZ-2 which has-8.6 (kcal/mol).Conclusion: Docking results provide a good lead to designing more effective H3 antagonists in managing many CNS diseases like Alzheimer, epilepsy, depression, schizophrenia and many others

DESIGN, SYNTHESIS AND BIOLOGICAL SCREENING OF AMINOACETYLENIC TETRAHYDROPHTHALIMIDE ANALOGUES AS NOVEL CYCLOOXYGENASE (COX) INHIBITORS

Objective: To design and synthesise a new amino acetylenic tetrahydro phthalimide derivative and investigate their selective inhibitory activity to COXs.Methods: Aminoacetylenic tetrahydro phthalimide derivatives were synthesised by alkylation of tetrahydro phthalimide with propargyl bromide afforded 2-(prop-2-yn-1-yl)-2,3,3a,4,7,7a-hexahydro-1H-isoindole-1,3-dione. The alkylated tetrahydro phthalimide was subjected to Mannich reaction afforded the desired amino acetylenic tetra phthalimide derivatives (AZ 1-6). The elemental analysis was indicated by the EuroEA elemental analyzer and biological characterization was via IR, 1H-NMR, [13]C-NMR, DSC was determined with the aid of Bruker FT-IR and Varian 300 MHz spectrometer and DMSO-d6 as a solvent, molecular docking was done using the Autodock Tool software (version 4.2). ChemBioDraw was used in the drawing of our schemes.Results: The IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, DSC and elemental analysis were consistent with the assigned structures. The designers of the compounds as COXs inhibitor activity were based on the nationalisation of the important criteria that provide effective inhibitory binding with COXs–receptor. The results indicated that the synthesised compounds (AZ1-6) showed a close similarity in the binding affinity to both COXs and may be more specific to COX-1. AZ-5 showed the highest % of inhibition for COX-1 even better than aspirin. Which may suggest that the aryl group is required for COX-2 inhibition.Conclusion: For the first time, we indicate the requirement of aromaticity in COX-2 structural inhibitory activity.Â

Implications of Synchronous IVR Radio on Syrian Refugee Health and Community Dynamics

With 1,033,513 Syrian refugees adding a strain on the Lebanese healthcare system, innovation is key to improving access to healthcare. Our previous work identified the potential for technology to improve access to antenatal care services and increase refugee agency. Using (1) paper mock ups and a mobile based prototype, (2) process mapping, (3) focus groups and interviews and (4) key informant meetings, we explored the concept of refugee led community radio shows to deliver peer-led healthcare. We observed the influence of community radio shows on Syrian refugee health education, community dynamics and community agency in relationships between healthcare providers and refugees. Refugees were positively impacted through situating the technology within the community. We highlight issues around trust, agency, understanding, sel-forganization and privacy that resulted from running the shows through mock ups and a mobile based prototype. Our findings inform future work in community run radio shows

Biotransformation of organic micropollutants by anaerobic sludge enzymes

This is the accepted manuscript of the following article: Gonzalez-Gil, L., Krah, D., Ghattas, A., Carballa, M., Wick, A., & Helmholz, L. et al. (2019). Biotransformation of organic micropollutants by anaerobic sludge enzymes. Water Research, 152, 202-214. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2018.12.064Biotransformation of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in wastewater treatment plants ultimately depends on the enzymatic activities developed in each biological process. However, few research efforts have been made to clarify and identify the role of enzymes on the removal of OMPs, which is an essential knowledge to determine the biotransformation potential of treatment technologies. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the enzymatic transformation of 35 OMPs under anaerobic conditions, which have been even less studied than aerobic systems. Initially, 13 OMPs were identified to be significantly biotransformed (>20%) by anaerobic sludge obtained from a full-scale anaerobic digester, predestining them as potential targets of anaerobic enzymes. Native enzymes were extracted from this anaerobic sludge to perform transformation assays with the OMPs. In addition, the effect of detergents to recover membrane enzymes, as well as the effects of cofactors and inhibitors to promote and suppress specific enzymatic activities were evaluated. In total, it was possible to recover enzymatic activities towards 10 out of these 13 target OMPs (acetyl-sulfamethoxazole and its transformation product sulfamethoxazole, acetaminophen, atenolol, clarithromycin, citalopram, climbazole, erythromycin, and terbutryn, venlafaxine) as well as towards 8 non-target OMPs (diclofenac, iopamidol, acyclovir, acesulfame, and 4 different hydroxylated metabolites of carbamazepine). Some enzymatic activities likely involved in the anaerobic biotransformation of these OMPs were identified. Thereby, this study is a starting point to unravel the still enigmatic biotransformation of OMPs in wastewater treatment systemsThis research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) through the EU-Project ATHENE (Grant agreement 267897), by a Short Term Scientific Mission of the Water2020 Cost Action ES1202, by a FPU Grant (FPU13/01255) and by the COMETT project (CTQ2016-80847-R). Authors from Universidade de Santiago de Compostela belong to CRETUS Strategic Partnership (AGRUP2015/02) and to Galicia Competitive Research Group (GRC ED431C 2017/29), programs co-funded by FEDER (EU)S

An extreme-scale implicit solver for complex PDEs: highly heterogeneous flow in earth's mantle

Mantle convection is the fundamental physical process within earth's interior responsible for the thermal and geological evolution of the planet, including plate tectonics. The mantle is modeled as a viscous, incompressible, non-Newtonian fluid. The wide range of spatial scales, extreme variability and anisotropy in material properties, and severely nonlinear rheology have made global mantle convection modeling with realistic parameters prohibitive. Here we present a new implicit solver that exhibits optimal algorithmic performance and is capable of extreme scaling for hard PDE problems, such as mantle convection. To maximize accuracy and minimize runtime, the solver incorporates a number of advances, including aggressive multi-octree adaptivity, mixed continuous-discontinuous discretization, arbitrarily-high-order accuracy, hybrid spectral/geometric/algebraic multigrid, and novel Schur-complement preconditioning. These features present enormous challenges for extreme scalability. We demonstrate that---contrary to conventional wisdom---algorithmically optimal implicit solvers can be designed that scale out to 1.5 million cores for severely nonlinear, ill-conditioned, heterogeneous, and anisotropic PDEs