Beneficial effects of the fructus Sophorae extract on experimentally induced osteoporosis in New Zealand white rabbits

Sophora japonica is a source of several flavonol, flavone and isoflavone glycosides that are reported to positively affect menopausal symptoms including osteoporotic complications. In the present study fructus Sophorae extract (FSE) was administered orally for three months at a dose of 200 mg kg–1 in ovariectomized (OVX) New Zealand rabbits. 3D computed tomography scans and histopathological images revealed microstructural disturbances in the bones of the castrated animals. FSE recovered most of the affected parameters in bones in a manner similar to zoledronic acid (ZA) used as a positive control. The aglycones of the main active compounds of FSE, daidzin, and genistin, were docked into the alpha and beta estrogen receptors and stable complexes were found. The findings of this study provide an insight into the effects of FSE on bone tissue loss and suggest that it could be further developed as a potential candidate for the prevention of postmenopausal osteoporotic complications

PESFOR-W: Improving the design and environmental effectiveness of woodlands for water Payments for Ecosystem Services

ABSTRACT: The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe?s water bodies to ?good ecological status? by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% of river basins. Accumulating evidence shows that recent improvements to agricultural practices are benefiting water quality but in many cases will be insufficient to achieve WFD objectives. There is growing support for land use change to help bridge the gap, with a particular focus on targeted tree planting to intercept and reduce the delivery of diffuse pollutants to water. This form of integrated catchment management offers multiple benefits to society but a significant cost to landowners and managers. New economic instruments, in combination with spatial targeting, need to be developed to ensure cost effective solutions - including tree planting for water benefits - are realised. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are flexible, incentive-based mechanisms that could play an important role in promoting land use change to deliver water quality targets. The PESFOR-W COST Action will consolidate learning from existing woodlands for water PES schemes in Europe and help standardize approaches to evaluating the environmental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of woodland measures. It will also create a European network through which PES schemes can be facilitated, extended and improved, for example by incorporating other ecosystem services linking with aims of the wider forestscarbon policy nexus

Novel Hits for N-Myristoyltransferase Inhibition Discovered by Docking-Based Screening

N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) inhibitors that were initially developed for treatment of parasitic protozoan infections, including sleeping sickness, malaria, and leismaniasis, have also shown great promise as treatment for oncological diseases. The successful transition of NMT inhibitors, which are currently at preclinical to early clinical stages, toward clinical approval and utilization may depend on the development and design of a diverse set of drug molecules with particular selectivity or pharmacological properties. In our study, we report that a common feature in the inhibitory mechanism of NMT is the formation of a salt bridge between a positively charged chemical group of the small molecule and the negatively charged C-terminus of an enzyme. Based on this observation, we designed a virtual screening protocol to identify novel ligands that mimic this mode of interaction. By screening over 1.1 million structures downloaded from the ZINC database, several hits were identified that displayed NMT inhibitory activity. The stability of the inhibitor-NMT complexes was evaluated by molecular dynamics simulations. The ligands from the stable complexes were tested in vitro and some of them appear to be promising leads for further optimization

Discovery of a Novel Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitor by Fragment-Based Design and Virtual Screening

Despite extensive and intensive research efforts in recent decades, there is still no effective treatment for neurodegenerative diseases. On this background, the use of drugs inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) remains an eternal evergreen in the symptomatic treatment of mild to moderate cognitive impairments. Even more, the cholinergic hypothesis, somewhat forgotten in recent years due to the shift in focus on amyloid cascade, is back to life, and the search for new, more effective AChE inhibitors continues. We generated a fragment-based library containing aromatic moieties and linkers originating from a set of novel AChE inhibitors. We used this library to design 1220 galantamine (GAL) derivatives following the model GAL (binding core) - linker (L) - aromatic fragment (Ar). The newly designed compounds were screened virtually for blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability and binding to AChE. Among the top 10 best-scored compounds, a representative lead molecule was selected and tested for anti-AChE activity and neurotoxicity. It was found that the selected compound was a powerful non-toxic AChE inhibitor, 68 times more active than GAL, and could serve as a lead molecule for further optimization and development

Ex Vivo Antioxidant and Cholinesterase Inhibiting Effects of a Novel Galantamine–Curcumin Hybrid on Scopolamine-Induced Neurotoxicity in Mice

Oxidative stress is an essential factor in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). An excessive amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induces the peroxidation of lipid membranes, reduces the activity of antioxidant enzymes and causes neurotoxicity. In this study, we investigated the antioxidant and cholinesterase inhibitory potential of a novel galantamine–curcumin hybrid, named 4b, administered orally in two doses (2.5 mg/kg and 5 mg/kg) in scopolamine (SC)-induced neurotoxicity in mice. To evaluate the effects of 4b, we used galantamine (GAL) (3 mg/kg) and curcumin (CCN) (25 mg/kg) as positive controls. Ex vivo experiments on mouse brains showed that the higher dose of 4b (5 mg/kg) increased reduced glutathione (GSH) levels by 46%, catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity by 57%, and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity by 108%, compared with the SC-treated group. At the same time, 4b (5 mg/kg) significantly reduced the brain malondialdehyde (MDA) level by 31% and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activities by 40% and 30%, respectively, relative to the SC-impaired group. The results showed that 4b acted as an antioxidant agent and brain protector, making it promising for further experimental research in the field of neurodegenerative diseases

The Amaryllidaceae alkaloids: an untapped source of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors

The AChE inhibitory activity of alkaloid extracts and compounds has been in the focus of research on the plants of Amaryllidoideae subfamily since the approval of galanthamine in 2001 by FDA for treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. A small fraction of the huge biodiversity of the plants producing Amaryllidaceae alkaloids has been studied as a source of AChE inhibitors. Less than 20% of the known Amaryllidaceae alkaloids have been tested in vitro for their ability to inhibit AChE. Galanthamine, lycorine and haemanthamine are scaffolds for semi-synthesis of potent AChE inhibitors. In the last years, galanthamine has been studied in silico for drug optimization and synthesis of potent dual-binding AChE inhibitors. In silico studies of other Amaryllidaceae alkaloids have also provoked the interest of researchers in the last years. The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive review on studies of the AChE inhibitory activity of extracts and compounds from the plants of Amaryllidoideae subfamily covering the literature from the last two decades

3′-Aminothiocyclohexanespiro-5′-hydantoin and Its Pt(II) Complex—Synthesis, Cytotoxicity and Xanthine Oxidase Inhibitory Activity

Herein, we report the synthesis of platinum(II) complex bearing 3′-aminothiocyclohexanespiro-5′-hydantoin as ligand. The complex was characterized by IR, NMR spectral analyses, elemental analyses and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Cytotoxicity and inhibitory potential on xanthine oxidase (XO) were evaluated by performed docking calculations. The cytotoxic activities of the 3′-aminothiocyclohexanespiro-5′-hydantoin (1), its Pt(II) complex (2), thiocyclohexanespiro-5′-hydantoin (3), and its platinum complex (4) were assessed against HL-60 and MDA-MB-231 cells in comparison with the antiproliferative activity of cisplatin as a referent. The ligands (1 and 3) did not exhibit in vitro antitumor efficacy on either of the human tumor cell lines. Complex 2 showed higher antitumor activity (IC50 = 42.1 ± 2.8 μM on HL-60 and 97.8 ± 7.5 μM against MDA-MB-231 cells) than complex 4 (IC50 = 89.6 ± 2.8 μM on HL-60 and 112.5 ± 4.2 μM in MDA-MB-231 cells). IC50 values of cisplatin as referent were 8.7 ± 2.4 μM on HL-60 and 31.6 ± 5.4 μM on MDA-MB-231 cell lines. The inhibitory activity of ligands and complexes against XO, evaluated in vitro, were compared with allopurinol (IC50 = 1.70 ± 0.51 μM) as standard inhibitor. The platinum(II) complexes (2 and 4) inhibited the activity of XO, with IC50 values 110.33 ± 26.38 μM and 115.45 ± 42.43 μM, respectively, while the ligands 1 and 3 did not show higher degrees of inhibition at concentrations lower than 150 μM. The inhibitory potential against XO might be a possible precedent resulting in improved profile and anticancer properties

3′-Aminothiocyclohexanespiro-5′-hydantoin and Its Pt(II) Complex—Synthesis, Cytotoxicity and Xanthine Oxidase Inhibitory Activity

Herein, we report the synthesis of platinum(II) complex bearing 3′-aminothiocyclohexanespiro-5′-hydantoin as ligand. The complex was characterized by IR, NMR spectral analyses, elemental analyses and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Cytotoxicity and inhibitory potential on xanthine oxidase (XO) were evaluated by performed docking calculations. The cytotoxic activities of the 3′-aminothiocyclohexanespiro-5′-hydantoin (1), its Pt(II) complex (2), thiocyclohexanespiro-5′-hydantoin (3), and its platinum complex (4) were assessed against HL-60 and MDA-MB-231 cells in comparison with the antiproliferative activity of cisplatin as a referent. The ligands (1 and 3) did not exhibit in vitro antitumor efficacy on either of the human tumor cell lines. Complex 2 showed higher antitumor activity (IC50 = 42.1 ± 2.8 μM on HL-60 and 97.8 ± 7.5 μM against MDA-MB-231 cells) than complex 4 (IC50 = 89.6 ± 2.8 μM on HL-60 and 112.5 ± 4.2 μM in MDA-MB-231 cells). IC50 values of cisplatin as referent were 8.7 ± 2.4 μM on HL-60 and 31.6 ± 5.4 μM on MDA-MB-231 cell lines. The inhibitory activity of ligands and complexes against XO, evaluated in vitro, were compared with allopurinol (IC50 = 1.70 ± 0.51 μM) as standard inhibitor. The platinum(II) complexes (2 and 4) inhibited the activity of XO, with IC50 values 110.33 ± 26.38 μM and 115.45 ± 42.43 μM, respectively, while the ligands 1 and 3 did not show higher degrees of inhibition at concentrations lower than 150 μM. The inhibitory potential against XO might be a possible precedent resulting in improved profile and anticancer properties

Synthesis and DNase I Inhibitory Properties of New Squaramides

Three new monosquaramides (3a–c) were synthesized, characterized by IR, NMR and X-ray, and evaluated for inhibitory activity against deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) and xanthine oxidase (XO) in vitro. The target compounds inhibited DNase I with IC50 values below 100 μM, being at the same time more potent DNase I inhibitors than crystal violet, used as a positive control. 3-Ethoxy-4-((1-(pyridin-3-yl)propan-2-yl)amino)cyclobut-3-ene-1,2-dione (3c) stood out as the most potent compound, exhibiting a slightly better IC50 value (48.04 ± 7.98 μM) compared to the other two compounds. In order to analyze potential binding sites for the studied compounds with DNase I, a molecular docking study was performed. Compounds 3a–c are among the most potent small organic DNase I inhibitors tested to date

Lethality among Patients with HIV/AIDS Monitored in the Clinic of Infectious Diseases in St George University Hospital, Plovdiv, 2010–2014

Background: The introduction of complex antiretroviral therapy has resulted in signifi cant decrease in the mortality rate of HIV positive patients, but it still remains unacceptably high, especially in some groups of patients. Aim: To investigate the death rate in patients with HIV/AIDS, lethality and mortality in co-infection, and the most common causes and predictors of fatal outcome, focused on early diagnosis and appropriate therapy. Materials and methods: The study included 53 deceased patients with HIV/AIDS, monitored at the Clinic of Infectious Diseases in St George University Hospital, Plovdiv between 01.01.2010 and 31.12.2014. The methods of research included clinical analysis, laboratory tests, microbiological and serological tests (HCV, HBV, toxoplasmosis), ELISA, PCR. Statistical analysis was performed by descriptive statistics, the Student’s t-test, the method of Van der Ward, and regression analysis (logistic regression). Results: During the study period 316 patients with HIV/AIDS were monitored, 53 of them with lethal outcome. Lethality was 16.7% for the whole group; in intravenous drug users - 13.8%; in co-infected patients: HIV/M. tuberculosis - 46%, in HIV/HCV - 17.8%. Lethality and mortality in HIV(+) patients with co-infections in populations of diff erent age, gender, duration since starting сАRТ and degree of immunodefi ciency (according to CD4, VL) was compared with the lethality and mortality in patients with these conditions from the general population. Conclusions: Fatal outcome in patients with HIV/AIDS was most commonly associated with co-infections HIV/M. tuberculosis and HIV/HCV. Predictors of a fatal outcome are pulmonary tuberculosis, advanced immunodefi ciency with VL> 500 000 c/μL and CD4 <100/mm3, absence or non-systemic antiretroviral therapy