Design, synthesis, pharmacological evaluation and molecular docking studies of substituted oxadiazolyl-2-oxoindolinylidene propane hydrazide derivatives

©2016 Sociedade Brasileira de Química. The manuscript describes design and synthesis of novel oxadiazolyl-2-oxoindolinylidene propane hydrazides as amide tethered hybrids of indole and oxadiazole and their evaluation for antiinflammatory and analgesic activity. The compounds were synthesized following five step reaction to yield fifteen derivatives as 3-(5-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)-N′-[2-oxo-1,2-dihydro-3Hindol-3-ylidene]propane hydrazides. The final derivatives 3-[5-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl]-N′-[2-oxo-1,2-dihydro-3H-indol-3-ylidene]propane hydrazide and 3-[5-(4-methylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl]-N′-[2-oxo-1,2-dihydro-3H-indol-3-ylidene]propane hydrazide were found to be highly promising molecules with severity index of 0.35 and 0.56, respectively, which is promising for an analgesic compound. The hydroxy and methyl substitution on phenyl ring system provided with active anti-inflammatory compounds having increase in reaction time of 84.11 and 83.17%, respectively compared to standard drug at 85.84%. Molecular docking studies exhibit comparable interaction with synthesized derivatives and standard drug having a dock score of -4.44 by the K-nearest neighbour genetic algorithm method.Published versio

CD4+ Effector T cells Accelerate Alzheimer\u27s Disease in Mice

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by pathological deposition of misfolded self-protein amyloid beta (Aβ) which in kind facilitates tau aggregation and neurodegeneration. Neuroinflammation is accepted as a key disease driver caused by innate microglia activation. Recently, adaptive immune alterations have been uncovered that begin early and persist throughout the disease. How these occur and whether they can be harnessed to halt disease progress is unclear. We propose that self-antigens would induct autoreactive effector T cells (Teffs) that drive pro-inflammatory and neurodestructive immunity leading to cognitive impairments. Here, we investigated the role of effector immunity and how it could affect cellular-level disease pathobiology in an AD animal model. METHODS: In this report, we developed and characterized cloned lines of amyloid beta (Aβ) reactive type 1 T helper (Th1) and type 17 Th (Th17) cells to study their role in AD pathogenesis. The cellular phenotype and antigen-specificity of Aβ-specific Th1 and Th17 clones were confirmed using flow cytometry, immunoblot staining and Aβ T cell epitope loaded haplotype-matched major histocompatibility complex II IA RESULTS: The propagated Aβ-Th1 and Aβ-Th17 clones were confirmed stable and long-lived. Treatment of APP/PS1 mice with Aβ reactive Teffs accelerated memory impairment and systemic inflammation, increased amyloid burden, elevated microglia activation, and exacerbated neuroinflammation. Both Th1 and Th17 Aβ-reactive Teffs progressed AD pathology by downregulating anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive regulatory T cells (Tregs) as recorded in the periphery and within the central nervous system. CONCLUSIONS: These results underscore an important pathological role for CD4+ Teffs in AD progression. We posit that aberrant disease-associated effector T cell immune responses can be controlled. One solution is by Aβ reactive Tregs

Exploring the therapeutic mechanisms of Cassia glauca in diabetes mellitus through network pharmacology, molecular docking and molecular dynamics

Cassia glauca is reported as anti-diabetic medicinal plant and is also used as an ethnomedicine. However, its mode of action as an anti-diabetic agent has not been clearly elucidated. Hence, the present study investigated the probable mechanism of action of C. glauca to manage diabetes mellitus via network pharmacology and molecular docking and simulations studies. The reported bioactives from C. glauca were retrieved from an open-source database, i.e. ChEBI, and their targets were predicted using SwissTargetPrediction. The proteins involved in the pathogenesis of diabetes were identified from the therapeutic target database. The targets involved in diabetes were enriched in STRING, and the pathways involved in diabetes were identified concerning the KEGG. Cytoscape was used to construct the network among bioactives, proteins, and probably regulated pathways, which were analyzed based on edge count. Similarly, molecular docking was performed using the Glide module of the Schrodinger suite against majorly targeted proteins with their respective ligands. Additionally, the drug-likeness score and ADMET profile of the individual bioactives were predicted using MolSoft and admetSAR2.0 respectively. The stability of these complexes were further studied via molecular dynamics simulations and binding energy calculations. Twenty-three bio-actives were retrieved from the ChEBI database in which cassiarin B was predicted to modulate the highest number of proteins involved in diabetes mellitus. Similarly, GO analysis identified the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway to be primarily regulated by modulating the highest number of gene. Likewise, aldose reductase (AKR1B1) was majorly targeted via the bioactives of C. glauca. Similarly, docking study revealed methyl-3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinate (docking score −9.209) to possess the highest binding affinity with AKR1B1. Additionally, drug-likeness prediction identified cassiaoccidentalin B to possess the highest drug-likeness score, i.e. 0.84. The molecular dynamics simulations and the MMGBSA indicate high stability and greater binding energy for the methyl-3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinate (ΔGbind = −40.33 ± 6.69 kcal mol−1) with AKR1B1, thus complementing results from other experiments. The study identified cassiarin B, cassiaoccidentalin B, and cinnamtannin A2 as lead hits for the anti-diabetic activity of C. glauca. Further, the PI3K-Akt and AKR1B1 were traced as majorly modulated pathway and target, respectively

Identification and characterization of antibacterial compound(s) of cockroaches (Periplaneta americana)

Infectious diseases remain a significant threat to human health, contributing to more than 17 million deaths, annually. With the worsening trends of drug resistance, there is a need for newer and more powerful antimicrobial agents. We hypothesized that animals living in polluted environments are potential source of antimicrobials. Under polluted milieus, organisms such as cockroaches encounter different types of microbes, including superbugs. Such creatures survive the onslaught of superbugs and are able to ward off disease by producing antimicrobial substances. Here, we characterized antibacterial properties in extracts of various body organs of cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) and showed potent antibacterial activity in crude brain extract against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and neuropathogenic E. coli K1. The size-exclusion spin columns revealed that the active compound(s) are less than 10 kDa in molecular mass. Using cytotoxicity assays, it was observed that pre-treatment of bacteria with lysates inhibited bacteria-mediated host cell cytotoxicity. Using spectra obtained with LC-MS on Agilent 1290 infinity liquid chromatograph, coupled with an Agilent 6460 triple quadruple mass spectrometer, tissues lysates were analyzed. Among hundreds of compounds, only a few homologous compounds were identified that contained isoquinoline group, chromene derivatives, thiazine groups, imidazoles, pyrrole containing analogs, sulfonamides, furanones, flavanones, and known to possess broad-spectrum antimicrobial properties, and possess anti-inflammatory, anti-tumour, and analgesic properties. Further identification, characterization and functional studies using individual compounds can act as a breakthrough in developing novel therapeutics against various pathogens including superbugs

Security Analysis of SDN Cloud Applications

Recently with the emergence of Software Defined Networking (SDN), cloud environments have gone through modifications as traditional data centers adopt SDN as a network management solution. As cloud networking platform provides great power to configure networks in cloud, there is also a downside that intruders and hackers may control the network functionality which may lead to more damage than in legacy networks. Even though cloud networking providers implement the most of the security standards, data storage and important files on external service providers may lead to risk. The ease in procuring and accessing cloud services can also give users the ability to scan, identify and exploit loopholes and vulnerabilities within a system. For instance, in a multi-tenant cloud architecture where multiple users are hosted on the same server, a hacker might try to break into the data of other users hosted and stored on the same server. However, such exploits and loopholes are not likely to surface and the likelihood of a compromise is not great. Understanding traffic flows will extract issues out and methods can be suggested dealing with it. Security concerns here are highly expanded attack that includes the control and data plane. Security challenges are unique to clouds that differ from SDN. In this paper, SDN cloud applications are compared and analysis of three applications such as Meridian, CloudNaaS and HPE Virtual Cloud Network are performed. Main factor for choosing the three applications are their market share and wide deployment. The architecture of these applications are explained and security analysis is done using a threat analysis tool called STRIDE. We suggest some mitigation techniques for the well known threats like spoofing , tampering of data, repudiation and also check if the application has in-built countermeasures against these threats

Power Generation By Diffuser Augmented Wind Turbine

Brimmed diffuser is collection–acceleration device which shrouds a wind turbine.For a given turbine diameter, the power augmentation can be achieved by brimmed diffuser, popularly known as wind lens. The present numerical investigation deals with the effect of low pressure region created by wind lens and hence to analyze the strong vortices formed by a brim attached to the shroud diffuser at exit. Also in this analysis, a comparative numerical prediction of mass flow rates through the wind turbine has been carried out with various types of wind lens which in turn helps to optimize the torque augmentation. It has been numerically proved that there is significant increase in the wake formation & vortex strength when brimming effect is added to a diffuse

Tracing the GSAP-APP C-99 Interaction Site in the β-Amyloid Pathway Leading to Alzheimer's Disease

Gamma secretase activating protein (GSAP) present in β-amyloid pathway orchestrates the formation of β-amyloid plaques by γ-secretase activation and is an emerging therapeutic target for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. It forms a ternary complex with γ secretase and APP C-99. However, there are limited reports for the interaction of APP C-99 with GSAP. Here, we report the characterization of purified maltose binding protein tagged human GSAP and its interaction with synthetic APP C-99 peptide fragments (712IATVIVITLVMLKKQ727 (712IQ727), 719TLVMLKKKQYTSIHHGVVEVDAAVT743 (719TT743) 734GVVEVDAAVTPEERHLSKMQQNGY757 (734GY757), and 746ERHLSKMQQNGYENPTYKFFEQMQN770 (746EN770)). The results emphasize the selective interaction of peptide (719TT743) with MBP-GSAP with a dissociation constant of 0.136 µM. Further, computational modeling of the GSAP - 719TT743 complex finds an optimal bound pose of 719TT743 within an extended groove on the surface of GSAP. The preliminary results highlight the interaction between the two major proteins in the plausible ternary complex; APP C-99-GSAP- γ secretase. It paves a futuristic path to investigate the GSAP- APP C-99 binding in detail and accentuate the role of GSAP in the β-amyloid pathway.by Deekshi Angira, Rupesh Chikhale, Kapilkumar Mehta, Richard A. Bryce and Vijay Thiruvenkata