Earticle

Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) methodologies have been applied for many years, to correlate the relationship between physicochemical properties of chemical substances and their biological activities to generate a statistical model for prediction of the activities of new chemical entities. The basic principle behind the QSAR models is that, how structural variation is responsible for the difference in biological activities of the compounds. 3D- QSAR has emerged as a natural extension to the classical Hansch and Free-Wilson approaches, which develops the 3D properties of the ligands to predict their biological activities using various chemometric techniques (PLS, G/PLS, ANN etc). It has served as a valuable predictive tool in the design of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. This review seeks to provide different 3D-QSAR approaches involved in drug designing process to develop structure-activity relationships and also discussed the fundamental limitations, as well as those that might be overcome with the improved methodologies.

c-Jun N-terminal kinase-3 (JNK-3) has been identified as a promising target for neuronal apoptosis and has the effective therapeutic for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other CNS disorders. Herein, we report the essential structural and chemical parameters for JNK-3 inhibitors utilizing comparative molecular field similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) using the derivatives of 3,5-disubstituted quinolines. The best predictions were obtained CoMSIA model (q2=0.834, r2=0.987) and the statistical parameters from the generated 3D-QSAR models were indicated that the data are well fitted and have high predictive ability. The resulting contour map from 3D-QSAR models might be helpful to design novel and more potent JNK3 derivatives.

Changes of Fabry-Perot fringe patterns in porous silicon during etching process has been investigated. Four porous silicon samples were prepared with four different etch currents: (a) 10 mA/cm2, (b) 30 mA/cm2, (c) 50 mA/cm2, (d) 100 mA/cm2, respectively. Optical characterization of Fabry-Perot fringe pattern on porous silicon was achieved by Ocean optics 2000 spectrometer. The change of Fabry-Perot fringes was monitored and measured during the etching process. Fabry-Perot fringes pattern start to form after couple of minutes. As the etching time increased, more reflection peaks were observed. Its full width at half maximum (FWHM) decreased rapidly when the etching time increased.

The resistance of tumour cells against cytotoxic drug is significant limitation in successful chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer. To date, no crystal structure is available for human P-gp. We developed homology model for human P-gp NBD2 by using coordinates of transporter associated protein (TAP1). Docking study was performed for 8-geranyl-chrysin (Flavonoids) inhibitor in the NBD2 model. Ligand-protein interactions were determined which indicates that the 8-geranyl chrysin shares two overlapping sites in the cytosolic domains of P-gp, the ATP site and a hydrophobic steroid-binding site.

Chemokine receptor antagonists have potential applications in field of drug discovery. Although the chemokine receptors are G-protein-coupled receptors, their cognate ligands are small proteins (8 to 12 kDa), and so inhibiting the ligand/receptor interaction has been challenging. In particular, CCR2 and CCR5 and their ligands have been implicated in the pathophysiology of a number of diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Based on their roles in disease, they have been attractive targets for the pharmaceutical industry, targeting both CCR2 and CCR5 could be a useful strategy. Because of the importance of these receptors, providing information regarding the binding site is of prime importance. Herein, we report the comparison of CCR2 of CCR5 binding sites both sequentially as well as structurally. We also urged the importance of crucial residues in the binding site, to facilitate the development of dual antagonists targeting both the receptors. These results could also be useful for the design of novel and potent dual CCR2 and CCR5 antagonists using structure based drug design.

Relationship between reflection resonance and applied current density in Bragg photonic crystal has been investigated. Multiple bit encodes of distributed Bragg reflector features have been prepared by electrochemical etching of crystalline silicon by using various square wave current densities. Optical characterization of multi-encoding of distributed Bragg reflectors on porous silicon was achieved by Ocean optics 2000 spectrometer for the search of possible applications of multiple bit encoding of distributed Bragg reflectors such as multiplexed assays and chemical sensors. The morphology and cross-sectional structure of multi-encoded distributed Bragg reflectors was investigated by field emission scanning electron micrograph.

Chemokine receptor antagonists have potential applications in field of drug discovery. Although the chemokine receptors are G-protein-coupled receptors, their cognate ligands are small proteins (8 to 12 kDa), and so inhibiting the ligand/receptor interaction has been challenging. The application of structure-based in-silico methods to drug discovery is still considered a major challenge, especially when the x-ray structure of the target protein is unknown. Such is the case with human CCR2 and CCR5, the most important members of the chemokine receptor family and also a potential drug target. Herein, we review the success stories of combined receptor modeling/mutagenesis approach to probe the allosteric nature of chemokine receptor binding by small molecule antagonists for CCR2 and CCR5 using Rhodopsin as template. We also urged the importance of recently available β2-andrenergic receptor as an alternate template to guide mutagenesis. The results demonstrate the usefulness and robustness of in-silico 3D models. These models could also be useful for the design of novel and potent CCR2 and CCR5 antagonists using structure based drug design.

In this paper we show that for any triangle and any point on the circumcircle the envelope of the Wallace-Simson lines with signed angle α is a parabola. The proof is obtained naturally using polar coordinates. We also present the reparametrization of the envelope which is a linear normal curve.

In this paper, when N is a compact Riemannian manifold, we discuss the nonexistence of conformal deformations on Riemannian warped product manifold M = (a, ∞)×f N with prescribed scalar curvature functions.

Mulberry extracts can be incorporated into skin-whitening products. The compound attributed to lighten the skin is arbutin, a form of hydroquinone that inhibits melanin release by suppressing the tyrosinase enzyme. For the cosmetic applications, the physiological effects of mulberry (Morus alba) extracts were investigated. The water soluble fraction of mulberry contains higher amount of protein (16.28~4.47%) in contrast to fat (1.55~1.41%). In addition, the fraction abundantly contains succinic acid (972.4-275.8 mg/g) and phosphoric acid (1,628.4 -121.9 mg/g) in different parts of mulberry. The free radical scavenging ability in water soluble fraction was found to display remarkable effects in comparison with methanol and ethyl acetate fraction. The ethyl acetate-soluble of root and leaf showed remarkable tyrosinase inhibition activity by IC 50 (μg/ml). The anticancer activity of methanol fraction obtained from mulberry using human cancer cell lines showed growth inhibition effect (270.14 mg/ml in Calu-6 cells, 295.29 mg/ml in HCT-116, and 332.29 mg/ml in MCF-7 cells, respectively). Based on the results, Morus alba extracts include cosmetic ingredients with antioxidizing and whitening properties.