Tris(acetonitrile-κN){2,6-bis­[(diphenyl­phosphan­yl)amino]-4-eth­oxy-1,3,5-triazine-κ3 P,N 1,P′}iron(II) bis­(tetra­fluorido­borate) acetonitrile disolvate

In the title compound, [Fe(CH3CN)3(C29H27N5OP2)](BF4)2·2CH3CN, the FeII ion is octa­hedrally coordinated by a meridionally chelating tridentate pincer-type PNP ligand derived from 2,6-diamino-4-eth­oxy-1,3,5-triazine and by three acetonitrile mol­ecules. The four Fe—N bond lengths range from 1.9142 (12) to 1.9579 (11) Å, while the Fe—P bonds are 2.2452 (4) and 2.2506 (4) Å [P—Fe—P = 165.523 (14)°], consistent with FeII in a low-spin state. Unlike related Fe PNP complexes based on 2,6-diamino­pyridine, the BF4 anions are not hydrogen bonded to the two NH groups of the pincer ligand but show instead anion–π inter­actions with the triazine ring and acetonitrile mol­ecules in addition to ten C—H⋯F inter­actions. Most remarkable among these is an anion–π(triazine) inter­action with a short distance of 2.788 (2) Å between one F and the centroid of the π-acidic triazine ring. The corresponding shortest distance between this F atom and a triazine carbon atom is 2.750 (2) Å. The two NH groups of the pincer ligand donate N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds to the triazine N atom of a neighbouring complex and to an uncoordinated acetonitrile mol­ecule. This last mol­ecule is in a side-on head-to-tail association with the second uncoordinated acetonitrile at C⋯N distances of 3.467 (2) and 3.569 (2) Å. In contrast to several related compounds with diamino­pyridine- instead of diamino­triazine-based PNP ligands, the title crystal structure is remarkably well ordered. This suggests that the diamino­triazine moiety exerts notable crystal structure stabilizing effects

Role of a sensor histidine kinase ChiS of Vibrio cholerae in pathogenesis

Vibrio cholera survival in an aquatic environment depends on chitin utilization pathway that requires two factors, chitin binding protein and chitinases. The chitinases and the chitin utilization pathway are regulated by a two-component sensor histidine kinase ChiS in V. cholerae. In recent studies these two factors are also shown to be involved in V. cholerae pathogenesis. However, the role played by their upstream regulator ChiS in pathogenesis is yet to be known. In this study, we investigated the activation of ChiS in presence of mucin and its functional role in pathogenesis. We found ChiS is activated in mucin supplemented media. The isogenic chiS mutant (ChiS-) showed less growth compared to the wild type strain (ChiS+) in the presence of mucin supplemented media. The ChiS- strain also showed highly retarded motility as well as mucin layer penetration in vitro. Our result also showed that ChiS was important for adherence and survival in HT-29 cell. These observations indicate that ChiS is activated in presence of intestinal mucin and subsequently switch on the chitin utilization pathway. In animal models, our results also supported the in vitro observation. We found reduced fluid accumulation and colonization during infection with ChiS- strain. We also found ChiS- mutant with reduced expression of ctxA, toxT and tcpA. The cumulative effect of these events made V. cholerae ChiS- strain hypovirulent. Hence, we propose that ChiS plays a vital role in V. cholerae pathogenesis

Virulence of Cholera Toxin Gene-Positive Vibrio cholerae Non-O1/non-O139 Strains Isolated From Environmental Water in Kolkata, India

Cholera toxin (CT)-producing Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 cause acute diarrheal disease and are proven etiological agents of cholera epidemics and pandemics. On the other hand, V. cholerae non-O1/non-O139 are designated as non-agglutinable (NAG) vibrios and are not associated with epidemic cholera. The majority of NAG vibrios do not possess the gene for CT (ctx). In this study, we isolated three NAG strains (strains No. 1, 2, and 3) with ctx from pond water in Kolkata, India, and examined their pathogenic properties. The enterotoxicity of the three NAG strains in vivo was examined using the rabbit ileal intestinal loop test. Strain No. 1 induced the accumulation of fluid in the loop, and the volume of fluid was reduced by simultaneous administration of anti-CT antiserum into the loop. The volume of fluid in the loop caused by strains No. 2 and 3 was small and undetectable, respectively. Then, we cultured these three strains in liquid medium in vitro at two temperatures, 25 degrees C and 37 degrees C, and examined the amount of CT accumulated in the culture supernatant. CT was accumulated in the culture supernatant of strain No.1 when the strain was cultured at 25 degrees C, but that was low when cultured at 37 degrees C. The CT amount accumulated in the culture supernatants of the No. 2 and No. 3 strains was extremely low at both temperature under culture conditions examined. In order to clarify the virulence properties of these strains, genome sequences of the three strains were analyzed. The analysis showed that there was no noticeable difference among three isolates both in the genes for virulence factors and regulatory genes of ctx. However, vibrio seventh pandemic island-II (VSP-II) was retained in strain No. 1, but not in strains No. 2 or 3. Furthermore, it was revealed that the genotype of the B subunit of CT in strain No. 1 was type 1 and those of strains No. 2 and 3 were type 8. Histopathological examination showed the disappearance of villi in intestinal tissue exposed to strain No. 1. In addition, fluid accumulated in the loop due to the action of strain No. 1 had hemolytic activity. This indicated that strain No. 1 may possesses virulence factors to induce severe syndrome when the strain infects humans, and that some strains of NAG vibrio inhabiting pond water in Kolkata have already acquired virulence, which can cause illness in humans. There is a possibility that these virulent NAG vibrios, which have acquired genes encoding factors involved in virulence of V. cholerae O1, may emerge in various parts of the world and cause epidemics in the future

Open Science in Drug Discovery: Addressing the Gaps in Traditional Model of Developing New Medicines

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The Foundational Role of Open Access in Open Science

<p><strong>Slide 1: Title</strong></p><p>This paper I am going to present is a joint work of Prof. Geoffrey Boulton, who is the Regius Professor of Geology Emeritus, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom and a member of the Governing Board of the International Science Council (ISC). </p><p>The work also draws heavily from the input of the ISC steering group of the ISC project of Future of Scientific Publishing, consisting of experts across the globe.</p><p><strong>Slide 2: Overview</strong></p><p>Science has the greatest impact when its results are made openly available as a public good, and this is possible because of the publication system that science follows. Therefore, we argue that the achievement of OA is not just necessary but the main driver of OS.</p><p>However, much resultant knowledge, rather than being freely available as the endpoint of scientific workflow, is gifted by scientists to commercial publishers and only publicly available on payment for access. How has this happened?</p><p>How the digital revolution has presented an opportunity to take control of the publication-the role of the OA movement</p><p>Progress towards OA</p><p>What's not working and how policies and practices can address these issues</p><p>Disclaimer: Here, science is not a discipline but a method of inquiry. </p><p><strong>Slide 3: The Dawn of Scientific Publishing, OS and Public </strong>Good</p><p>Science used to be practiced in secrecy; however, the late 17th century saw a new innovation, scientific journals, and robust mechanisms of peer scrutiny of the evidence provided against the new knowledge. The invention of the printing press by Gutenberg was also another driving force of the success of this mechanism. </p><p>As Paul David pointed out in his 2003 essay, "The Historical Origins of Open Science", a significant driving force behind this transition was the collective belief that society would gain from a unified and open pursuit of knowledge. The "open science" practice began in this era, rooted in the norms of information sharing and treating new findings as "public good". This approach capitalized on the inherent "public goods" characteristics of information, allowing the shared use and reuse of knowledge, which led to the rapid expansion of the collective knowledge pool.</p><p><strong>Slide 4: Evolving context</strong></p><p>After WWII, it was evident that scientific inventions made a significant difference in human lives. Take alone the case of penicillin; numerous lives were injured compared to the previous war. Economic theories also proved that it is not just capital or labor supply that drives economic growth, but science & technology play an important role.</p><p>So, scientific endeavors became more institutionalized; states started to fund research. This resulted in a multi-fold increase in scientific activities and the need for more journals to convey all the new knowledge created. Publishing activities, which were previously handled solely by scientific societies, now saw the entrance of commercial entities…</p><p>High subscription</p><p>Research quality equated with JIF, h index,</p><p>Publish or perish-reproducibility crises</p><p><strong>Slide 5: Open Access Movement: A Paradigm Shift</strong></p><ul><li>Origins and motivations behind the Open Access (OA) movement</li><li>Key declarations: Budapest, Bethesda, and Berlin</li><li>Objectives: Reshaping scholarly communication, democratizing access</li></ul><p><strong>Slide 6: Pathways to Open Access</strong></p><ul><li>Gold OA: Immediate open access, APCs involved</li><li>Diamond OA: No charges for authors and readers</li><li>Green OA: Self-archiving in repositories, embargo periods</li></ul><p><strong>Slide 7: Global Progress in Open Access</strong></p><ul><li>Examples of OA progress: DOAJ, EU policies, U.S. federal agencies</li><li>Regional successes: Latin America (SciELO, Redalyc), Africa (AJOL, African Open Science Platform), Asia (initiatives in China and India)</li></ul><p><strong>Slide 8: </strong></p><p>The newer open-access publishing models have brought more unique challenges. Now, there are open-access journals that are free for everyone to read, but researchers need to pay a hefty amount as an article processing charge <strong>(APC) to publish their work. APC can be as high as USD 11,000 to publish a single article</strong>. The other serious problem of the current publishing systems is journal prestige and impact factors as the proxy measure of quality. The inefficiencies of the system, such as delays in publishing, inaccessibility of data, restrictive copyright regimes, and challenges in reproducibility, are some of the other issues that need immediate attention.</p><ul><li>Plan S: Impact on Scientific Publishing Landscape</li><li>Concept of "Subscribe to Open" (S2O)</li><li> PLOS Global Equity Program- </li></ul><p>Through this program, institutions can partner with PLOS by paying an annual flat fee for specific journals, allowing researchers from that institution to publish in journals such as PLOS Climate, PLOS Global Public Health, and PLOS Water without paying any APCs. This fee structure is designed considering the institution's historical research output in the related field and aligning the costs based on the World Bank lending tier of the respective country.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Slide 9: Innovations – </strong></p><p>Persistent Digital Identifier (PID): A Persistent Digital Identifier (PID) is a long-lasting reference to a digital object, such as digital documents or datasets. While web addresses or URLs may change over time, PIDs ensure that the referenced items remain accessible even if their location or metadata are altered. The most common example of PIDs is the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), overseen by the International DOI Foundation (IDF). DOIs are used to provide a permanent link to scholarly articles, datasets, and other research outputs. Crossref and DataCite are the two major organizations that produce DOIs in the scholarly communication domain. Institutions maintaining a collection of resources can also generate PIDs; the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) allocates a Unique ID to every term. <strong>ORCID iD</strong> is an example of a persistent identifier for a researcher (person). Research Organization Registry (ROR) is a global, community-led registry of open persistent identifiers for research organizations. Using PIDs ensures stable links to research output and researchers, thus fostering more reliable citation practices and facilitating better tracking and management of digital resources</p><p> </p><p><strong>Slide 10: International Science Council's Eight Principles</strong></p><ul><li>List of the Eight Principles</li></ul><p>equitable and efficient scientific publishing system.</p><ol><li><strong>Universal Open Access</strong>: Ensuring open access to research articles for both authors and readers is essential for scientific progress. Barriers related to financial capacity, institutional affiliations, language, and geography must be removed to foster inclusivity and equal opportunity. This principle advocates for the democratization of access to information, allowing everyone to engage with and benefit from scientific knowledge.</li><li><strong>Open Licenses for Reuse</strong>: Research publications should carry open licenses, enabling further development from existing work. While restrictive licenses allow monopolization over research data by the publishers, open licenses enable reuse by allowing text and data mining, potentially accelerating the pace of discovery. </li><li><strong>Rigorous Peer Review</strong>: The integrity of science is heavily dependent on rigorous peer review. A robust and continuous peer review system should be the backbone of publishing to ensure that reproducible and accurate scientific findings are added to the public domain. This helps in maintaining trust in the science. The publishing system needs innovative solutions to the evolving demands and challenges of keeping up with quality in the peer review process. Open peer review systems present an opportunity to make the system efficient, scalable, and transparent.</li><li><strong>Accessibility of Data and Observations</strong>: Making data and observations from scientific work available for peer scrutiny is essential for ensuring the reliability and reproducibility of the research. The underlying data of a research paper should be accessible under FAIR (Findable–Accessible–Interoperable–Reusable) principles.</li><li><strong>Preservation for Future Access</strong>: Records of science aren't just for the present, and it's important to ensure access for future generations. Rather than a sole "version of record," keeping the "record of versions" would help enhance the accessibility of scientific methods and outcomes.</li><li><strong>Respecting Traditions and Bibliodiversity</strong>: Different disciplines and regions may have unique publication traditions. By respecting these diversities in knowledge production and dissemination, we could develop a richer, more varied scientific discourse.</li><li><strong>Adaptive Publication Systems</strong>: Publication systems should be adaptive to the opportunities technological advancements provide, ensuring that the scientific publishing process remains efficient, relevant, and in sync with contemporary needs and opportunities.</li><li><strong>Accountable Governance</strong>: The processes governing the dissemination of scientific knowledge should be answerable to the researchers who produce the knowledge. This ensures that the interests of the scientific community are prioritized over the increasing hold of commercial entities.</li></ol><p> </p&gt

The Foundational Role of Open Access in Open Science

<p>Dr. Moumita Koley presented "The Foundational Role of Open Access in Open Science" during the 2023 Annual Forum for Open Research online. </p&gt

Preprint Perspectives: Unveiling the Attitudes of Indian Researchers - A Survey Analysis

The movement towards open access has led to significant transformations in the scientific publishing system. One emergent area is the publication of an early version of the research paper in a preprint repository prior to the submission in the journal of choice. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of Indian researchers' attitudes towards preprints, drawing from a nationwide survey conducted by the Indian National Young Academy of Science (INYAS) in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology's Centre for Policy Research (DST-CPR), IISc. The survey aimed to understand preprint publication patterns and awareness across career stages and disciplines, commonly used preprint servers, perceived benefits, and concerns regarding preprints among Indian researchers. Findings indicate a modest engagement with preprints among Indian researchers, with a considerable majority yet to consider preprints as a viable option for early research dissemination. While researchers recognize that preprints can speed up research dissemination and increase visibility, concerns about scooping ideas and potential impacts on journal publication persist. The survey also highlights a discipline-wide variation in preprint adoption. This paper contributes to the ongoing dialogue on open science by highlighting the potential of preprints to democratize access to research findings while addressing the challenges that must be overcome to realize their benefits fully