LIGAND BASED PHARMACOPHORE MODELING, VIRTUAL SCREENING AND MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDIES TO DESIGN NOVEL PANCREATIC LIPASE INHIBITORS

Objective: To understand the essential structural features required for pancreatic lipase (PL) inhibitory activity and to design novel chemical entities, ligand-based pharmacophore modeling, virtual screening and docking studies were carried out.Methods: The pharmacophore model was generated based on 133 compounds with PL inhibitory activity using PHASE. An external test set and decoy dataset methods were applied to validate the hypothesis and to retrieve potential PL inhibitors. The generated hypothesis model was further subjected to virtual screening and molecular docking studies.Results: A five point pharmacophoric hypothesis model which consists of three hydrogen bond acceptor sites and two hydrophobic sites was developed. The generated pharmacophore gave significant 3D QSAR (three-dimensional Quantitative Structural Activity Relationship) model with r2 of 0.9389 and Q2 value of 0.4016. After database screening, five molecules were found to have better glide scores and binding interactions with the active site amino acid residues.Conclusion: As an outcome of this study, five hit molecules were suggested as potent PL inhibitors as they showed good glide scores as well as binding interactions with required active site amino acids. The five molecules obtained from this study may serve as potential leads for the development of promising anti-obesity agents.Â

An Investigation towards Challenges in medical image processing

Imaging is important in today's healthcare since it is used at every stage of the clinical process, from diagnosis and treatment planning to surgery and follow-up investigations. Large data volumes provide issues for medical image processing because most imaging modalities have gone completely digital with ever- increasing resolution. This work, address difficulties in the range of Kilo- to Terabytes related to bioimaging, virtual reality in medical visualisations, bioimage management, and neuroimaging. Algorithms for image processing and visualisation must be modified due to the growing volume of data. With the aid of graphical processing units, scalable algorithms and sophisticated parallelization strategies have been created. This publication provides a summary of them. Although these methods are managing the difficulty from Kilo to Terabyte, the Petabyte level is quickly approaching. Medical image processing is still an important area of study because of this

Mussel culture in mulky estuary, Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka during 1997-'99

During 1997-'98 seasons, the mussel culture activities were carried out at Mulky estuary with the active participation of local fishermen and the growth rate was studied. Culture work was continued at two places in Mulky estuary during 1998-'99 seasons. The growth rate of mussels in Chitrapu area was higher than that observed in Mulky area. During 1998-'99 seasons, the meat content of the harvested mussel was low as they had spawned before the harvest. The culture works carried out at Mulky estuary reveal that mussel culture can be profitabily done during October-May months in Mulky estuary. The fishermen group can take up the culture activities as a part-time venture as the culture involves minimum labour only during the initial period and thereafter it needs little husbandry work. There is good demand for mussels in monsoon months when supply of marine fish is less due to ban on mechanized fishing. Mussels harvested in May can be processed and marketed for sale during the lean season, for which infrastructural facilities have to be developed. Once the marketing infrastructure is developed mussel culture activities can be taken up by more fishermen group in a profitable manner

Loose shell syndrome (LSS) of cultured Penaeus monodon - microbiological and histopathological investigations

Investigations were undertaken on loose shell syndrome (LSS) of cultured Penaeus monodon during the period 2009 - 2010. The infected shrimps were collected from culture ponds of east and west Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh, India and were subjected to microbiological and histopathological studies. Four species of Vibrio were isolated from the diseased shrimps and were identified as V. harveyi, V. alginolyticus, V. metschnikovii and V. fluvialis based on morphological characteristics and biochemical tests. Histopathological studies revealed the presence of occlusion and inclusion bodies of monodon baculovirus (MBV), hepatopancreatic parvo-like virus (HPV), and white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in hepatopancreatic and gill tissues. All the LSS affected shrimps collected during the present study were found infected with V. harveyi and concurrent infections of other Vibrio species were observed in 40% of the samples. Prevalence of infection with WSSV, MBV and HPV was less compared to Vibrio infections. Granuloma formation was observed in the affected tissues due to bacterial invasions. Multiple viral infections in association with Vibrio sp. were also observed in 2% of LSS affected shrimp

Sesquiterpene Lactones Isolated from Elephantopus scaber L. Inhibits Human Lymphocyte Proliferation and the Growth of Tumour Cell Lines and Induces Apoptosis In Vitro

This study was designed to isolate the compounds responsible for the cytotoxic properties of South Indian Elephantopus scaber L. and further investigate their effects on quiescent and proliferating cells. Bioassay-guided isolation of the whole plant of chloroform extract of South Indian Elephantopus scaber afforded the known sesquiterpene lactone, deoxyelephantopin, and isodeoxyelephantopin whose structures were determined by spectroscopic methods. These compounds caused a dose dependent reduction in the viability of L-929 tumour cells in 72 h culture (IC50 value of 2.7 μg/mL and 3.3 μg/mL) by the cell viability assay. Both the compounds act selectively on quiescent and PHA-stimulated proliferating human lymphocytes and inhibited tritiated thymidine incorporation into cellular DNA of DLA tumour cells. The compound deoxyelephantopin at a concentration of 3 μg/mL caused maximum apoptotic cells. It also exhibited significant in vivo antitumour efficacy against DLA tumour cells. The results, therefore, indicate that the antiproliferative property of deoxyelephantopin and isodeoxyelephantopin could be used in regimens for treating tumors with extensive proliferative potencies

Premature Centromere Division and Spontaneous Abortion

Premature Centromere Division (PCD) was observed in the chromosomes of metaphase spreads in a patient with the history of recurrent abortions. Short term leukocyte cultures were set up with blood sample from the woman with a history of recurrent abortions for the past four consequent years. 25 % of the metaphase spreads screened displayed premature centromere division of the chromosomes in each of the cells. This abnormal behavior of the centromeres may predispose the individual to cell division errors due to chromosome instability and the consequences of which may be a spontaneous abortion

Wealth from waste-utilisation of fish waste for production of biogas

A biogas unit was installed in the premises of Mangalore Research Centre of CMFRI during November, 2016 in order to utilize the fish waste generated from the biological analysis done in the lab. This biogas unit installed is first of its kind in the state to utilize fish waste. A unit was installed gainfully utilizing the fish waste generated after the biological analysis of fish. Disposal of the fish waste generated periodically at the Research Centre during sampling made for biological studies was becoming difficult. However, with the installation of the biogas unit- designed and supplied by private manufacturer in Kerala, solved the disposal problem of fish waste

Linear and nonlinear rheology of wormlike micelles

Several surfactant molecules self-assemble in solution to form long, cylindrical, flexible wormlike micelles. These micelles can be entangled with each other leading to viscoelastic phases. The rheological properties of such phases are very interesting and have been the subject of a large number of experimental and theoretical studies in recent years. We shall report on our recent work on the macrorheology, microrheology and nonlinear flow behaviour of dilute aqueous solutions of a surfactant CTAT (Cetyltrimethylammonium Tosilate). This system forms elongated micelles and exhibits strong viscoelasticity at low concentrations ($\sim$ 0.9 wt%) without the addition of electrolytes. Microrheology measurements of $G(\omega)$ have been done using diffusing wave spectroscopy which will be compared with the conventional frequency sweep measurements done using a cone and plate rheometer. The second part of the paper deals with the nonlinear rheology where the measured shear stress $\sigma$ is a nonmonotonic function of the shear rate $\dot{\gamma}$. In stress-controlled experiments, the shear stress shows a plateau for $\dot{\gamma}$ larger than some critical strain rate, similar to the earlier reports on CPyCl/NaSal system. Cates et al have proposed that the plateau is a signature of mechanical instability in the form of shear bands. We have carried out extensive experiments under controlled strain rate conditions, to study the time-dependence of shear stress. The measured time series of shear stress has been analysed in terms of correlation integrals and Lyapunov exponents to show unambiguously that the behaviour is typical of low dimensional dynamical systems.Comment: 15 pages, 10 eps figure

കാലാവസ്ഥാ വ്യതിയാനവുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട് ഭാരതത്തിലെ കടൽ മത്സ്യത്തൊഴിലാളികൾ ആർജ്ജിച്ചെടുത്ത തദ്ദേശീയ സാങ്കേതിക ജ്ഞാനം (Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITKs’) of Indian Marine Fishermen with reference to Climate Change)

The fisher folk of coastal India possess a rich repertoire of ancient knowledge and traditional wisdom with respect to various climate change related phenomena which they have made use of in their day to day fishing activities. This provides them, the rule of the thumb to be followed with respect to observed indicators or relationship with in events of climate change related inflections. These local fisher communities over centuries, have developed and implemented extensive mitigation and adaptation strategies that have enabled them reduce their vulnerability to past climate variability and change. However, the fact that this rich treasure house of indigenous wisdom which serves as a complement to modern scientific methods of adapting and mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change in fisheries has been largely ignored or rather receded into the mists of antiquity