Investigation of Ambient Seismic Noise using seismic interferometry in the Midwestern United States

The portion of the North American craton occupied by the Midwestern United States is a cratonic platform, where a veneer of Phanerozoic sedimentary strata buries the Precambrian basement up to 7 km. Due to the sediment cover and low topographic relief, the at depth structure of the region remains poorly understood. This region is of particular interest because over the past half-billion years tectonic forces have resulted in the formation of epeirogenic provinces in a stable cratonic interior. Using the OIINK flexible seismic array and the Earthscope Transportable Array, Ambient Seismic Noise Tomography was applied to investigate the crustal structure and produce high-resolution structural models of the region. For our analysis we used the vertical component of seismograms recorded between January 2011 and December 2014, where spurious events were filtered out to establish the background seismic noise of the region. Seismic observations based on the cross-correlations of seismic noise from 46,665 station pairs were used to obtain phase velocities at periods from 4 to 40 s. From these measurements a high resolution model was formed, improving the our understanding of the complex basement geology of the Midwestern United States

Structural and Spectroscopic Analysis of the Kinase Inhibitor Bosutinib and an Isomer of Bosutinib Binding to the Abl Tyrosine Kinase Domain

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is caused by the kinase activity of the BCR-Abl fusion protein. The Abl inhibitors imatinib, nilotinib and dasatinib are currently used to treat CML, but resistance to these inhibitors is a significant clinical problem. The kinase inhibitor bosutinib has shown efficacy in clinical trials for imatinib-resistant CML, but its binding mode is unknown. We present the 2.4 Å structure of bosutinib bound to the kinase domain of Abl, which explains the inhibitor's activity against several imatinib-resistant mutants, and reveals that similar inhibitors that lack a nitrile moiety could be effective against the common T315I mutant. We also report that two distinct chemical compounds are currently being sold under the name “bosutinib”, and report spectroscopic and structural characterizations of both. We show that the fluorescence properties of these compounds allow inhibitor binding to be measured quantitatively, and that the infrared absorption of the nitrile group reveals a different electrostatic environment in the conserved ATP-binding sites of Abl and Src kinases. Exploiting such differences could lead to inhibitors with improved selectivity

Design and Microwave-assisted Synthesis of 1,3,4-Oxadiazole Derivatives for Analgesic and Anti-inflammatory Activity

1,3,4-Oxadizoles form a biologically important group of compounds having activities like analgesic, anti-inflammatory, bactericidal, antifungal, anticonvulsant, psychotropic, plant growth regulating and mono amino oxidase inhibition. This research has focused on the incorporation of the oxadiazole moiety into isoniazid because of their versatile biological action, to get 2-aryl-5-(4-pyridyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole to explore the possibilities of some altered biological action. 1,3,4-Oxadiazole derivatives were synthesized by microwave-assisted synthesis and screened for their analgesic, anti-inflammatory activities. The synthesized compounds were characterized by Melting point, Thin layer chromatographyInfra red, Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, etc. Almost all the synthesized compounds possessed good activity as compared to the standard

PKC Theta Ablation Improves Healing in a Mouse Model of Muscular Dystrophy

Inflammation is a key pathological characteristic of dystrophic muscle lesion formation, limiting muscle regeneration and resulting in fibrotic and fatty tissue replacement of muscle, which exacerbates the wasting process in dystrophic muscles. Limiting immune response is thus one of the therapeutic options to improve healing, as well as to improve the efficacy of gene- or cell-mediated strategies to restore dystrophin expression. Protein kinase C θ (PKCθ) is a member of the PKCs family highly expressed in both immune cells and skeletal muscle; given its crucial role in adaptive, but also innate, immunity, it is being proposed as a valuable pharmacological target for immune disorders. In our study we asked whether targeting PKCθ could represent a valuable approach to efficiently prevent inflammatory response and disease progression in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy. We generated the bi-genetic mouse model mdx/θ−/−, where PKCθ expression is lacking in mdx mice, the mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We found that muscle wasting in mdx/θ−/− mice was greatly prevented, while muscle regeneration, maintenance and performance was significantly improved, as compared to mdx mice. This phenotype was associated to reduction in inflammatory infiltrate, pro-inflammatory gene expression and pro-fibrotic markers activity, as compared to mdx mice. Moreover, BM transplantation experiments demonstrated that the phenotype observed was primarily dependent on lack of PKCθ expression in hematopoietic cells

Sinteza i vrednovanje analgetskog, protuupalnog i ulcerogenog djelovanja nekih triazolo- i 2-pirazolil-pirido[2,3-d]-pirimidina

New series of 2-hydrazino-7,8-dihydro-6H-cyclopenta[5,6]pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines and its 1,7,8,9-tetrahydrocyclopenta[5,6]pyrido[2,3-d][1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyrimidine, 1,7,8,-9-tetrahydrocyclopenta[5,6]pyrido[2,3-d][1,2,3,4]tetrazolo[4,5-a]pyrimidine, 8,9-dihydro-7H-cyclopenta[5,6]pyrido[2,3-d]imidazolo[1,2-a]pyrimidine, 2-(pyrazol-1-yl)-7,8-dihydro-6H-cyclopenta[5,6]pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives were prepared in order to obtain new compounds with potential anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity and low ulcerogenic effect. The compounds possessing potent anti-inflammatory activity were further tested for their analgesic and ulcerogenic activities. Compounds 3-amino-6-(4-aryl)-9-(4-arylmethylene)-cyclopenta[5,6]pyrido[2,3-d][1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyrimidin-5(H)-one (4c), 1-amino-2-methyl-6-(4-aryl)-9-(4-aryl-methylene)-cyclopenta[5,6]pyrido[2,3-d]imidazolo[1,2-a]pyrimidin-5(H)-one (6a), 2-amino-5-(4-aryl)-8-(4-arylmethylene)-cyclopenta[5,6]pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine-4(H)-one (9), 2-(3-amino-5-hydroxypyrazol-1-yl)-5-(4-aryl)-8-(4-arylmethylene)-cyclopenta[5,6]-pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(H)-one (10a) and 3-thioxo-6-(4-aryl)-9-(4-arylmethylene)-cyclopenta[5,6]pyrido[2,3-d][1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyrimidin-5(H)-one (13) showed significant analgesic effects. Compound 2-(3-amino-5-hydroxypyrazol-1-yl)-5-(4-aryl)-8-(4-arylmethylene)-cyclopenta[5,6]pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(H)-one (10a) was evaluated as the lead compound having higher anti-inflammatory activity (82.8%) than ibuprofen (79.5%) and lower ulcerogenic effect.U radu je opisana sinteza serije 2-hidrazino-7,8-dihidro-6H-ciklopenta[5,6]pirido[2,3-d]pirimidina i njihovih 1,7,8,9-tetrahidrociklopenta[5,6]pirido[2,3-d][1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pirimidinskih, 1,7,8,9-tetrahidrociklopenta[5,6]pirido[2,3-d][1,2,3,4]tetrazolo[4,5-a]pirimidinskih, 8,9-dihidro-7H-ciklopenta[5,6]pirido[2,3-d]imidazolo[1,2-a]pirimidinskih i 2-(pirazol-1-il)-7,8-dihidro-6H-ciklopenta[5,6]pirido[2,3-d]pirimidinskih derivata s potencijalnim protuupalnim i analgetskim te manjim ulcerogenim djelovanjem. Spojevima s izraženim protuupalnim djelovanjem testirano je analgetsko i ulcerogeno djelovanje. Spojevi 3-amino-6-(4-aril)-9-(4-arilmetilen)-ciklopenta[5,6]pirido[2,3-d][1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pirimidin-5(H)-on (4c), 1-amino-2-metil-6-(4-aril)-9-(4-aril-metilen)-ciklopenta[5,6]pirido[2,3-d]imidazolo[1,2-a]pirimidin-5(H)-on (6a), 2-amino-5-(4-aril)-8-(4-arilmetilen)-ciklopenta[5,6]pirido[2,3-d]pirimidin-4(H)-on (9), 2-(3-amino-5-hidroksipirazol-1-il)-5-(4-aril)-8-(4-arilmetilen)- ciklopenta[5,6]-pirido[2,3-d]pirimidin-4(H)-on (10a) i 3-tiokso-6-(4-aril)-9-(4-arilmetilen)-ciklopenta[5,6]pirido[2,3-d][1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pirimidin-5(H)-on (13) pokazali su značajno analgetsko djelovanje. Spoj 2-(3-amino-5-hidroksipirazol-1-il)-5-(4-aril)-8-(4-arilmetilen)-ciklopenta[5,6]pirido[2,3-d]pirimidin-4(H)-on (10a) je vodeći spoj s jačim protuupalnim djelovanjem (82,8%) od ibuprofena (79,5%), a slabijim ulcerogenim djelovanjem