Predictive ADMET study of rhodanine-3-acetic acid chalcone derivatives

Considered one of the chronic diseases in a global state of emergency, diabetes mellitus (DM) may cover an area of 629 million people affected by 2045. The main route of hyperglycemia in the human body is associated with the action of the enzyme aldose reductase on glucose molecules, resulting in the accumulation of sorbitol in blood and tissue cells. Thus, the present study is a high-throughput virtual screening (HTS) of the various molecular datasets available online, as well as an investigation of the pharmacokinetic properties of absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) and enzyme inhibition aldose reductase from a series of derivatives of rhodanine-3-acetic acid chalcones (D1-8). Four derivatives (D1-4) showed greater oral bioavailability, as they are anions of low relative polarity, showing better viability to interact with the aldose reductase target with a low toxic response to the host.     

Molecular‐Dynamics Studies of Single‐Stranded Hexitol,Altritol, Mannitol,and Ribose Nucleic Acids (HNA,MNA, ANA,and RNA,Resp.) and of the Stability of HNA⋅RNA,ANA⋅RNA,and MNA⋅RNA Duplexes

The influence of the orientation of a 3′‐OH group on the conformation and stability of hexitol oligonucleotides in complexes with RNA and as single strands in aqueous solution was investigated by molecular‐dynamics (MD) simulations with AMBER 4.1. The particle mesh Ewald (PME) method was used for the treatment of long‐range electrostatic interactions. An equatorial orientation of the 3′‐OH group in the single‐stranded D ‐mannitol nucleic acid (MNA) m(GCGTAGCG) and in the complex with the RNA r(CGCAUCGC) has an unfavorable influence on the helical stability. Frequent H‐bonds between the 3′‐OH group and the O−C(6′) of the phosphate backbone of the following nucleotide explain the distorted conformation of the MNA⋅RNA complex as well as that of the single MNA strand. This is consistent with experimental results that show lowered hybridization potentials for MNA⋅RNA complexes. An axial orientation of the 3′‐OH group in the D ‐altritol nucleic acid (ANA) a(GCGTAGCG) leads to a stable complex with the complementary RNA r(CGCAUCGC), as well as to a more highly preorganized single‐stranded ANA chain. The averaged conformation of the ANA⋅RNA complex is similar to that of A‐RNA, with only minor changes in groove width, helical curvature, and H‐bonding pattern. The relative stabilities of ANA⋅RNA vs. HNA⋅RNA (HNA=D ‐hexitol nucleic acid without 3′‐OH group) can be explained by differences in restricted movements, H‐bonds, and solvation effects.     

Fast long-range connections in transportation networks

Multidimensional scaling is applied in order to visualize an analogue of the small-world effect implied by edges having different displacement velocities in transportation networks. Our findings are illustrated for two real-world systems, namely the London urban network (streets and underground) and the US highway network enhanced by some of the main US airlines routes. We also show that the travel time in these two networks is drastically changed by attacks targeting the edges with large displacement velocities.     

The Legendre condition of the fractional calculus of variations

Fractional operators play an important role in modelling nonlocal phenomena and problems involving coarse-grained and fractal spaces. The fractional calculus of variations with functionals depending on derivatives and/or integrals of noninteger order is a rather recent subject that is currently in fast development due to its applications in physics and other sciences. In the last decade, several approaches to fractional variational calculus were proposed by using different notions of fractional derivatives and integrals. Although the literature of the fractional calculus of variations is already vast, much remains to be done in obtaining necessary and sufficient conditions for the optimization of fractional variational functionals, existence and regularity of solutions. Regarding necessary optimality conditions, all works available in the literature concern the derivation of first-order fractional conditions of Euler–Lagrange type. In this work, we obtain a Legendre second-order necessary optimality condition for weak extremizers of a variational functional that depends on fractional derivatives.     

Production of Enzymes by Paenibacillus chitinolyticus and Paenibacillus ehimensis to Obtain Chitooligosaccharides

Obtaining oligosaccharides from chitosan has been the focus of several studies in the pharmaceutical, chemical, food, and medical areas, due to their functional properties. Here, we evaluated the production potential of biologically functional chitooligosaccharides using enzymes extracts produced by Paenibacillus chitinolyticus and Paenibacillus ehimensis. After 48 h of fermentation, these microorganisms were able to produce chitosanases, which generated oligomers with a degree of polymerization between dimers and hexamers. The maximum conversion of chitosan to oligomers was 99.2 %, achieved after 12 h incubation of chitosan with enzymes produced by P. ehimensis. The chitooligosaccharides generated were capable of scavenging the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical, reaching a maximum scavenging rate of 61 and 39 % when produced with P. ehimensis and P. chitinolyticus enzymes, respectively. The use of these enzymes in the crude form could facilitate their use in industrial applications.     

Synthesis and photophysical evaluation of meso-phenyl-1,4-dihydropyridineand pyridine-porphyrin hybrids

Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds - In the present work, we have synthesized new molecular hybrids consisting of porphyrin ring system connected at the meso positions with phenyl groups and/or,...