Analogues designing for dephosphorylation of acetylcholinesterase enzyme

Organophosphate (OP) causes phosphorylation of acetylcholinesterase enzyme which leads to accumulation of acetylcholine. This phosphorylation generally occurs due to exposure of nerve agents and intake of pesticides, etc. Various standard drugs specifically oxime derivatives (HI-6, Obidoxime, 2-PAM, etc.) are used as AChE enzyme reactivation agents. These standard drugs show least penetration to CNS. Taking them into consideration with the help of structure and ligand based screened compounds, various small molecules analogues targeting CNS have been designed. These analogues pass all the pharmacokinetic parameters structurally and have also shown better results than that of standards. Among various charged and uncharged analogues, 4g, 4h and 4j have attained docking scores –13.11, –12.84 and –12.75Kcal/mol respectively which is better than that of the standard (HI-6) –12.13kcal/mol.

Analogues designing for dephosphorylation of acetylcholinesterase enzyme

856-865Organophosphate (OP) causes phosphorylation of acetylcholinesterase enzyme which leads to accumulation of acetylcholine. This phosphorylation generally occurs due to exposure of nerve agents and intake of pesticides, etc. Various standard drugs specifically oxime derivatives (HI-6, Obidoxime, 2-PAM, etc.) are used as AChE enzyme reactivation agents. These standard drugs show least penetration to CNS. Taking them into consideration with the help of structure and ligand based screened compounds, various small molecules analogues targeting CNS have been designed. These analogues pass all the pharmacokinetic parameters structurally and have also shown better results than that of standards. Among various charged and uncharged analogues, 4g, 4h and 4j have attained docking scores –13.11, –12.84 and –12.75Kcal/mol respectively which is better than that of the standard (HI-6) –12.13kcal/mol

Structure-Based Virtual Screening and in vitro and in vivo Analyses Revealed Potent Methyltransferase G9a Inhibitors as Prospective Anti-Alzheimer's Agents

G9a is a lysine methyltransferase able to di-methylate lysine 9 of histone H3, promoting the repression of genes involved in learning and memory. Novel strategies based on synthesizing epigenetic drugs could regulate gene expression through histone post-translational modifications and effectively treat neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, potential G9a inhibitors were identified using a structure-based virtual screening against G9a, followed by in vitro and in vivo screenings. First, screening methods with the AD transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans strain CL2006, showed that the toxicity/function range was safe and recovered age-dependent paralysis. Likewise, we demonstrated that the best candidates direct target G9a by reducing H3 K9me2 in the CL2006 strain. Further characterization of these compounds involved the assessment of the blood-brain barrier-permeability and impact on amyloid-β aggregation, showing promising results. Thus, we present a G9a inhibitor candidate, F, with a novel and potent structure, providing both leads in G9a inhibitor design and demonstrating their participation in reducing AD pathology. Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; G9a methyltransferase; amyloid-β; epigenetics; structure based virtual screening

G9a Inhibition Promotes Neuroprotection through GMFB Regulation in Alzheimer’s Disease

Epigenetic alterations are a fundamental pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Herein, we show the upregulation of G9a and H3K9me2 in the brains of AD patients. Interestingly, treatment with a G9a inhibitor (G9ai) in SAMP8 mice reversed the high levels of H3K9me2 and rescued cognitive decline. A transcriptional profile analysis after G9ai treatment revealed increased gene expression of glia maturation factor β (GMFB) in SAMP8 mice. Besides, a H3K9me2 ChIP-seq analysis after G9a inhibition treatment showed the enrichment of gene promoters associated with neural functions. We observed the induction of neuronal plasticity and a reduction of neuroinflammation after G9ai treatment, and more strikingly, these neuroprotective effects were reverted by the pharmacological inhibition of GMFB in mice and cell cultures; this was also validated by the RNAi approach generating the knockdown of GMFB/Y507A.10 in Caenorhabditis elegans. Importantly, we present evidence that GMFB activity is controlled by G9a-mediated lysine methylation as well as we identified that G9a directly bound GMFB and catalyzed the methylation at lysine (K) 20 and K25 in vitro. Furthermore, we found that the neurodegenerative role of G9a as a GMFB suppressor would mainly rely on methylation of the K25 position of GMFB, and thus G9a pharmacological inhibition removes this methylation promoting neuroprotective effects. Then, our findings confirm an undescribed mechanism by which G9a inhibition acts at two levels, increasing GMFB and regulating its function to promote neuroprotective effects in age-related cognitive decline</p

An investigation into the effect of rockmass properties on mean fragmentation

Desired rock fragmentation is the need of the hour, which influences the entire mining cycle. Thus, most engineering segments pay attention to rock fragmentation and neglect by-products like ground vibration and fly rock. Structural and mechanical properties of rock mass like joint spacing, joint angle, and compressive strength of rock pose a puzzling impact on both fragmentation and ground vibration. About 80% of explosive energy that gets wasted in producing ill effects can be positively optimised, with a new set of blast design parameters upon identifying the behaviour of rock mass properties. In this connection, this research aims to investigate the influence of joint spacing, joint angle, and compressive strength of rock on fragmentation and induced ground vibration. To accomplish this task, research was carried out at an opencast coal mine. It was discovered from this research that compressive strength, joint spacing, and joint angle have a significant effect on the mean fragmentation size (MFS) and peak particle velocity (PPV). With the increase in compressive strength, MFS explicit both increase and decrease trends whilst PPV increased with a specific increase in compressive strength of the rock. An increase in joint spacing triggers both increase and decrease trends in both MFS and PPV. While there is an increase in joint angle, MFS and PPV decrease

Probing voltage sensing domain of KCNQ2 channel as a potential target to combat epilepsy: a comparative study

<p>Multidrug resistance along with side-effects of available anti-epileptic drugs and unavailability of potent and effective agents in submicromolar quantities presents the biggest therapeutic challenges in anti-epileptic drug discovery. The molecular modeling techniques allow us to identify agents with novel structures to match the continuous urge for its discovery. KCNQ2 channel represents one of the validated targets for its therapy. The present study involves identification of newer anti-epileptic agents by means of a computer-aided drug design adaptive protocol involving both structure-based virtual screening of Asinex library using homology model of KCNQ2 and 3D-QSAR based virtual screening with docking analysis, followed by dG bind and ligand efficiency calculations with ADMET studies, of which 20 hits qualified all the criterions. The best ligands of both screenings with least potential for toxicity predicted computationally were then taken for molecular dynamic simulations. All the crucial amino acid interactions were observed in hits of both screenings such as Glu130, Arg207, Arg210 and Phe137. Robustness of docking protocol was analyzed through Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve values 0.88 (Area under curve AUC = 0.87) in Standard Precision and 0.84 (AUC = 0.82) in Extra Precision modes. Novelty analysis indicates that these compounds have not been reported previously as anti-epileptic agents.</p