Traditional medicine-inspired approaches to drug discovery: can Ayurveda show the way forward?

Drug discovery strategies based on natural products and traditional medicines are re-emerging as attractive options. We suggest that drug discovery and development need not always be confined to new molecular entities. Rationally designed, carefully standardized, synergistic traditional herbal formulations and botanical drug products with robust scientific evidence can also be alternatives. A reverse pharmacology approach, inspired by traditional medicine and Ayurveda, can offer a smart strategy for new drug candidates to facilitate discovery process and also for the development of rational synergistic botanical formulations

Short Communication Residence time distribution in the extra capillary space of hollow fiber bioreactors

The residence time distribution (RTD) in the extracapillary space (ECS) of hollow fiber bioreactors (HFBRs) has been studied using a high molecular weight protein, bovine serum albumin, as a tracer. The RTD measurements have been carried out at different conditions of flow in the ECS and the intracapillary space (ICS). The RTD results obtained give an indication of the flow patterns existing in the ECS. The implications of these studies on cell cultivation as well as product recovery from HFBRs have been discussed

On Realising CSIR’s Amazing Potential

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Hydrogen-bonding-mediated generation of side chain liquid crystalline polymers from complementary nonmesogenic precursors

Liquid crystalline phases in macromolecular assemblies have been generated by utilizing complementary hydrogen-bonding interaction between functional vinyl polymers and rigid aromatic derivatives. While neither of the individual components is mesogenic, the resulting assemblies exhibited liquid crystalline behavior. Poly((2-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) and poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) were chosen as the functional polymer backbone bearing proton-accepting and proton-donating groups, respectively. As rigid aromatic units, 4-hydroxybiphenyl, trans-4-hydroxystilbene, 4'-methoxy-4-hydroxyazobenzene, and 4-pyridylbenzoate were used. All the polymeric assemblies were obtained as transparent films and they exhibited liquid crystalline properties. Hydrogen-bonding in these assemblies was evident from their FTIR and 13C NMR spectra. The liquid crystalline behavior of these hydrogen-bonded polymeric assemblies was established by DSC, polarizing microscopy, and X-ray diffractometry. Phase diagrams of the mixtures revealed the dependence of the liquid crystalline transitions on the composition of such binary mixtures. Generation of liquid crysalline phases in these hydrogen-bonded polymeric assemblies derived from non-liquid crystalline precursors without the mediation of a flexible spacer is unprecedented. Furthermore, this approach offers a relatively simple route to prepare functional materials with controlled molecular architecture from readily accessible and simpler precursors

Hydration in polymer studied through magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance and heteronuclear <SUP>13</SUP>C{<SUP>1</SUP>H} Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy: cross-relaxation and location of water in poly(acrylamide)

A combination of magic angle spinning (MAS) and heteronuclear 13C{1H} Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy (HOESY) is shown to be a powerful technique for studying hydration in polymers. This is demonstrated in poly(acrylamide)-water system. The increased spectral resolution due to MAS is shown to resolve polymer-polymer and polymer-water dipolar correlations in the two dimensional HOESY experiment. The 2D experiment is thus shown to lead to an indirect detection of water interacting with the polymer. The one dimensional transient Overhauser experiment involving selective inversion of water allows the study of cross-relaxation between water protons and carbonyl carbon in the polymer side chain. The cross-relaxation rate is rationalized in terms of a direct dipole-dipole interaction between the carbonyl carbon and the hydrated bound water. Based on temperature dependent 17O spin-lattice relaxation time measurements and a two-step motional model for water, we gather that water molecules close to the observed polymer site reorient anisotropically, typically an order of magnitude slower than in pure water. The correlation time for bound water mobility has been estimated to be 0.58&#215;10-10 s at 298 K, and, in turn, has been used to locate hydrated water at a distance of 3.45 &#197; from amide carbonyl. This is the first time such an estimate has been made for hydrated water in a polymer using HOESY data