Molecular Docking and Biophysical Studies for Antiproliferative Assessment of Synthetic Pyrazolopyrimidinones Tethered with Hydrazide-Hydrazones.

Chemotherapy represents the most applied approach to cancer treatment. Owing to the frequent onset of chemoresistance and tumor relapses, there is an urgent need to discover novel and more effective anticancer drugs. In the search for therapeutic alternatives to treat the cancer disease, a series of hybrid pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidin-4(5H)-ones tethered with hydrazide-hydrazones, 5a–h, was synthesized from condensation reaction of pyrazolopyrimidinone-hydrazide 4 with a series of arylaldehydes in ethanol, in acid catalysis. In vitro assessment of antiproliferative effects against MCF-7 breast cancer cells, unveiled that 5a, 5e, 5g, and 5h were the most effective compounds of the series and exerted their cytotoxic activity through apoptosis induction and G0/G1 phase cell-cycle arrest. To explore their mechanism at a molecular level, 5a, 5e, 5g, and 5h were evaluated for their binding interactions with two well-known anticancer targets, namely the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the G-quadruplex DNA structures. Molecular docking simulations highlighted high binding affinity of 5a, 5e, 5g, and 5h towards EGFR. Circular dichroism (CD) experiments suggested 5a as a stabilizer agent of the G-quadruplex from the Kirsten ras (KRAS) oncogene promoter. In the light of these findings, we propose the pyrazolo-pyrimidinone scaffold bearing a hydrazide-hydrazone moiety as a lead skeleton for designing novel anticancer compound

Luminescence and cathodoluminescence properties of M^IPr(PO_3)_4(M^I=Na, Li,K) and PrP_5O_14

Poly-crystals of praseodymium phosphate M^IPr(PO_3)_4 (M^I=Na, Li, K) and PrP_5O_14 have been synthesized by the flux method. All of these hosts crystallized in the monoclinic structures with different space groups. The spectroscopic properties of trivalent praseodymium ions in these compounds have been characterized. The emission spectra under laser excitation at 488 nm show several characteristic emission bands of Pr^3+ resulting from intra-configurational transitions between ^3^P_0 and 4f^2 lower lying levels. All the studied compounds exhibit two strong parity-allowed 4f^15d^1 -> 4f^2 emission bands located in the near ultraviolet domain using electrons as source for optical excitation. Therefore, these materials are of interest for applications in lighting and scintillating applications

Formation and interactions of cold and ultracold molecules: new challenges for interdisciplinary physics

Progress on researches in the field of molecules at cold and ultracold temperatures is reported in this review. It covers extensively the experimental methods to produce, detect and characterize cold and ultracold molecules including association of ultracold atoms, deceleration by external fields and kinematic cooling. Confinement of molecules in different kinds of traps is also discussed. The basic theoretical issues related to the knowledge of the molecular structure, the atom-molecule and molecule-molecule mutual interactions, and to their possible manipulation and control with external fields, are reviewed. A short discussion on the broad area of applications completes the review.Comment: to appear in Reports on Progress in Physic

Giant primary adrenal hydatid cyst presenting with arterial hypertension: a case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>A primary hydatid cyst of the adrenal gland is still an exceptional localization. The adrenal gland is an uncommon site even in Morocco, where echinococcal disease is endemic.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 64-year-old Moroccan man who presented with the unusual symptom of arterial hypertension associated with left flank pain. Computed tomography showed a cystic mass of his left adrenal gland with daughter cysts filing the lesion (Type III). Despite his negative serology tests, the diagnosis of a hydatid cyst was confirmed on surgical examination. Our patient underwent surgical excision of his left adrenal gland with normalization of blood pressure. No recurrence has occurred after 36 months of follow-up.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There are two remarkable characteristics of this case report; the first is the unusual location of the cyst, the second is the association of an adrenal hydatid cyst with arterial hypertension, which has rarely been reported in the literature.</p

Crack detection by the topological gradient method

The topological sensitivity analysis consists in studying the behavior of a shape functional when modifying the topology of the domain. In general, the perturbation under consideration is the creation of a small hole. In this paper, the topological asymptotic expansion is obtained for the Laplace equation with respect to the insertion of a short crack inside a plane domain. This result is illustrated by some numerical experiments in the context of crack detection