Alzheimer's disease and HIV associated dementia related genes: I. location and function.

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, has few clinical similarities to HIV-1-associated dementia (HAD). However, genes were identified related among these dementias. Discovering correlations between gene function, expression, and structure in the human genome continues to aid in understanding the similarities between pathogenesis of these two dementing disorders. The current work attempts to identify relationships between these dementias in spite of their clinical differences, based on genomic structure, function, and expression. In this comparative study, the NCBI Entrez Genome Database is used to detect these relationships. This approach serves as a model for future diagnosis and treatment in the clinical arena as well as suggesting parallel pathways of disease mechanisms. Identifying a correlation among expression, structure, and function of genes involved in pathogenesis of these dementing disorders, may assist to understand better their interaction with each other and the human genome

Nutraceuticals based computational medicinal chemistry

In recent years, the edible biomedicinal products called nutraceuticals have been becoming more popular among the pharmaceutical industries and the consumers. In the process of developing nutraceuticals, in silico approaches play an important role in structural elucidation, receptor-ligand interactions, drug designing etc., that critically help the laboratory experiments to avoid biological and financial risk. In this thesis, three nutraceuticals possessing antimicrobial and anticancer activities have been studied. Firstly, a tertiary structure was elucidated for a coagulant protein (MO2.1) of Moringa oleifera based on homology modeling and also studied its oligomerization that is believed to interfere with its medicinal properties. Secondly, the antimicrobial efficiency of a limonoid from neem tree called ‘azadirachtin’ was studied with a bacterial (Proteus mirabilis) detoxification agent, glutathione S-transferase, to propose it as a potent drug candidate for urinary tract infections. Thirdly, sequence specific binding activity was analyzed for a plant alkaloid called ‘palmatine’ for the purpose of developing intercalators in cancer therapy. Cumulatively, we have used in silico methods to propose the structure of an antimicrobial peptide and also to understand the interactions between protein and nucleic acids with these nutraceuticals.QC 20130531</p

Nutraceuticals based computational medicinal chemistry

In recent years, the edible biomedicinal products called nutraceuticals have been becoming more popular among the pharmaceutical industries and the consumers. In the process of developing nutraceuticals, in silico approaches play an important role in structural elucidation, receptor-ligand interactions, drug designing etc., that critically help the laboratory experiments to avoid biological and financial risk. In this thesis, three nutraceuticals possessing antimicrobial and anticancer activities have been studied. Firstly, a tertiary structure was elucidated for a coagulant protein (MO2.1) of Moringa oleifera based on homology modeling and also studied its oligomerization that is believed to interfere with its medicinal properties. Secondly, the antimicrobial efficiency of a limonoid from neem tree called ‘azadirachtin’ was studied with a bacterial (Proteus mirabilis) detoxification agent, glutathione S-transferase, to propose it as a potent drug candidate for urinary tract infections. Thirdly, sequence specific binding activity was analyzed for a plant alkaloid called ‘palmatine’ for the purpose of developing intercalators in cancer therapy. Cumulatively, we have used in silico methods to propose the structure of an antimicrobial peptide and also to understand the interactions between protein and nucleic acids with these nutraceuticals.QC 20130531</p