14 research outputs found
Recent advances in candidate-gene and whole-genome approaches to the discovery of anthelmintic resistance markers and the description of drug/receptor interactions
Anthelmintic resistance has a great impact on livestock production systems
worldwide, is an emerging concern in companion animal medicine, and represents
a threat to our ongoing ability to control human soil-transmitted helminths.
The Consortium for Anthelmintic Resistance and Susceptibility (CARS) provides
a forum for scientists to meet and discuss the latest developments in the
search for molecular markers of anthelmintic resistance. Such markers are
important for detecting drug resistant worm populations, and indicating the
likely impact of the resistance on drug efficacy. The molecular basis of
resistance is also important for understanding how anthelmintics work, and how
drug resistant populations arise. Changes to target receptors, drug efflux and
other biological processes can be involved. This paper reports on the CARS
group meeting held in August 2013 in Perth, Australia. The latest knowledge on
the development of molecular markers for resistance to each of the principal
classes of anthelmintics is reviewed. The molecular basis of resistance is
best understood for the benzimidazole group of compounds, and we examine
recent work to translate this knowledge into useful diagnostics for field use.
We examine recent candidate-gene and whole-genome approaches to understanding
anthelmintic resistance and identify markers. We also look at drug
transporters in terms of providing both useful markers for resistance, as well
as opportunities to overcome resistance through the targeting of the
transporters themselves with inhibitors. Finally, we describe the tools
available for the application of the newest high-throughput sequencing
technologies to the study of anthelmintic resistance
Synthesis and Self-Assembly of ABn Miktoarm Star Polymers
The stability of tetrahedrally close-packed (TCP) phases in block copolymer melts is predicted by theory to depend on molecular architecture, yet no experimental studies to date have probed its effect. Motivated by this open question, here we report an efficient synthesis of asymmetric AB miktoarm star polymers using functionalized sugars as cores for orthogonal grafting-from block copolymerizations. A combination of ring-opening and atom transfer radical polymerization produced model low dispersity materials comprising a single A = poly(lactide) (L) and multiple B = poly(dodecyl acrylate) (D) arms that amplify "conformational asymmetry" through two concerted effects: The mikto architecture and disparate block statistical segment lengths. Analyzing the self-assembly of LD and LD samples resulted in the discovery of two TCP phases, Ï and A15, that remained stable to significantly higher A-block volume fractions as the number of B arms increased. These results experimentally establish the importance of conformational asymmetry and molecular architecture as powerful design tools for the self-assembly of block copolymers into nonclassical phases