Drug Design for CNS Diseases: Polypharmacological Profiling of Compounds Using Cheminformatic, 3D-QSAR and Virtual Screening Methodologies.

HIGHLIGHTS Many CNS targets are being explored for multi-target drug designNew databases and cheminformatic methods enable prediction of primary pharmaceutical target and off-targets of compoundsQSAR, virtual screening and docking methods increase the potential of rational drug design The diverse cerebral mechanisms implicated in Central Nervous System (CNS) diseases together with the heterogeneous and overlapping nature of phenotypes indicated that multitarget strategies may be appropriate for the improved treatment of complex brain diseases. Understanding how the neurotransmitter systems interact is also important in optimizing therapeutic strategies. Pharmacological intervention on one target will often influence another one, such as the well-established serotonin-dopamine interaction or the dopamine-glutamate interaction. It is now accepted that drug action can involve plural targets and that polypharmacological interaction with multiple targets, to address disease in more subtle and effective ways, is a key concept for development of novel drug candidates against complex CNS diseases. A multi-target therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer's disease resulted in the development of very effective Multi-Target Designed Ligands (MTDL) that act on both the cholinergic and monoaminergic systems, and also retard the progression of neurodegeneration by inhibiting amyloid aggregation. Many compounds already in databases have been investigated as ligands for multiple targets in drug-discovery programs. A probabilistic method, the Parzen-Rosenblatt Window approach, was used to build a "predictor" model using data collected from the ChEMBL database. The model can be used to predict both the primary pharmaceutical target and off-targets of a compound based on its structure. Several multi-target ligands were selected for further study, as compounds with possible additional beneficial pharmacological activities. Based on all these findings, it is concluded that multipotent ligands targeting AChE/MAO-A/MAO-B and also D1-R/D2-R/5-HT2A -R/H3-R are promising novel drug candidates with improved efficacy and beneficial neuroleptic and procognitive activities in treatment of Alzheimer's and related neurodegenerative diseases. Structural information for drug targets permits docking and virtual screening and exploration of the molecular determinants of binding, hence facilitating the design of multi-targeted drugs. The crystal structures and models of enzymes of the monoaminergic and cholinergic systems have been used to investigate the structural origins of target selectivity and to identify molecular determinants, in order to design MTDLs

Structural and electrical conductivity studies of nanocrystalline Li₂NiTiO₄ material

343-345A phase pure nanocrystalline Li2NiTiO4 material is synthesized by sol-gel technique. In the present study, citric acid is used as fuel and the experiment is done in nitrogen atmosphere. The material is crystallized in a cubic rock-salt structure of space group Fm m. The <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri" lang="EN-GB">structural characterization is accomplished through X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry/ differential thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy. The electrical characterization of the material is done through impedance spectroscopy. </span

Synthesis, structure and electrical conductivity studies of inverse spinel Li_0.5Fe_2.5O₄

381-384The nano-crystalline Li0.5Fe2.5O4 material by solution combustion technique has been synthesized. X-ray diffraction (XRD) method is employed to validate the structure and phase purity. The electrical relaxation studies have been represented with modulus and impedance at different temperatures. The dc conductivity and hopping frequency are thermally activated and their activation energies are found to be in the range 0.64-0.59 eV. </i

IRON file systems

Commodity file systems trust disks to either work or fail completely, yet modern disks exhibit more complex failure modes. We suggest a new fail-partial failure model for disks, which incorporates realistic localized faults such as latent sector errors and block corruption. We then develop and apply a novel failure-policy fingerprinting framework, to investigate how commodity file systems react to a range of more realistic disk failures. We classify their failure policies in a new taxonomy that measures their Internal RObustNess (IRON), which includes both failure detection and recovery techniques. We show that commodity file system failure policies are often inconsistent, sometimes buggy, and generally inadequate in their ability to recover from partial disk failures. Finally, we design, implement, and evaluate a prototype IRON file system, Linux ixt3, showing that techniques such as in-disk checksumming, replication, and parity greatly enhance file system robustness while incurring minimal time and space overheads

Landing of Exhippolysmata ensirostris at Azheekkal Harbour

Exhippolysmata ensirostris (Kemp, 1914), commonly known as Hunter shrimp (Family-Lysmatidae) were observed in landings at Azheekkal Fisheries Harbour, Kollam on 2nd March 2023

Response of letter to the editor on Procalcitonin: a promising diagnostic marker for sepsis and antibiotic therapy

Abstract In a letter to the editor, Raineri SM et al. have given an insight of another dimension of procalcitonin (PCT) use as a diagnostic tool in invasive candidiasis. But based on our preliminary information, PCT is reported as unconventional modes of diagnosis approach which yet to prove its stand-alone biomarker properties for invasive candidiasis

Quality of life and its relation with sleep habits of children with epilepsy from Eastern India

BACKGROUND: Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic disorders of the central nervous system. The quality of life of children with epilepsy is influenced by various factors including their sleep. To assess the quality of life and sleep habits among children with epilepsy and to determine the association of QOL and sleep habits, with sociodemographic and clinical variables. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 50 epileptic children aged 4–18 years, recruited using a convenient sampling technique from the IPDs and OPDs of the Paediatrics department of a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India. The data were collected using QOLCE-16 and CSHQ from parents of children with epilepsy. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as ANOVA and Pearson correlation test. RESULTS: The overall mean score of QOL was 50.78 ± 17.98, with the cognitive domain having the highest mean score of 65.50 ± 27.79 and the social domain having the lowest mean score of 29.87 ± 22.81. The overall mean sleep score was found to be 56.98 ± 8.13. Daytime sleepiness, parasomnias, and bedtime resistance were found to be frequent sleep problems in children with epilepsy. There was a significant negative correlation between QOL and sleep disturbances in children with epilepsy (r = −0.65, P ≤ 0.001). CONCLUSION: The QOL of children with epilepsy should be improved to reduce the effect of sleep problems. Epilepsy children should be treated appropriately with due focus on medication compliance as it was found to be one of the determinants in improving their QOL

IRON File Systems

Commodity file systems trust disks to either work or fail completely, yet modern disks exhibit more complex failure modes. We suggest a new fractured failure model for disks, which incorporates realistic localized faults such as latent sector errors and block corruption. We then develop and apply a novel faultinjection framework, to investigate how commodity file systems react to a range of more realistic disk failures. We classify their failure policies in a new taxonomy that measures their Internal RObustNess (IRON), which includes both failure detection and recovery techniques. We show that commodity file system failure policies are often inconsistent, sometimes buggy, and generally inadequate in their ability to recover from localized disk failures. Finally, we design, implement, and evaluate a prototype IRON file system, ixt3, showing that techniques such as in-disk checksumming and replication greatly enhance file system robustness while incurring minimal time and space overheads.