Discovery and structure-activity relationships of pyrrolone antimalarials

In the pursuit of new antimalarial leads, a phenotypic screening of various commercially sourced compound libraries was undertaken by the World Health Organisation Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (WHO-TDR). We report here the detailed characterization of one of the hits from this process, TDR32750 (8a), which showed potent activity against Plasmodium falciparum K1 (EC50 approximately 9 nM), good selectivity (<2000-fold) compared to a mammalian cell line (L6), and significant activity against a rodent model of malaria when administered intraperitoneally. Structure-activity relationship studies have indicated ways in which the molecule could be optimized. This compound represents an exciting start point for a drug discovery program for the development of a novel antimalaria

A global analysis of Y-chromosomal haplotype diversity for 23 STR loci

In a worldwide collaborative effort, 19,630 Y-chromosomes were sampled from 129 different populations in 51 countries. These chromosomes were typed for 23 short-tandem repeat (STR) loci (DYS19, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385ab, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635, GATAH4, DYS481, DYS533, DYS549, DYS570, DYS576, and DYS643) and using the PowerPlex Y23 System (PPY23, Promega Corporation, Madison, WI). Locus-specific allelic spectra of these markers were determined and a consistently high level of allelic diversity was observed. A considerable number of null, duplicate and off-ladder alleles were revealed. Standard single-locus and haplotype-based parameters were calculated and compared between subsets of Y-STR markers established for forensic casework. The PPY23 marker set provides substantially stronger discriminatory power than other available kits but at the same time reveals the same general patterns of population structure as other marker sets. A strong correlation was observed between the number of Y-STRs included in a marker set and some of the forensic parameters under study. Interestingly a weak but consistent trend toward smaller genetic distances resulting from larger numbers of markers became apparent