Virtual Screening,Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Streptococcus mutans Mediated Biofilm Inhibitors

Dental caries, a global oral health concern, is a biofilm-mediated disease. Streptococcus mutans, the most prevalent oral microbiota, produces extracellular enzymes, including glycosyltransferases responsible for sucrose polymerization. In bacterial communities, the biofilm matrix confers resistance to host immune responses and antibiotics. Thus, in cases of chronic dental caries, inhibiting bacterial biofilm assembly should prevent demineralization of tooth enamel, thereby preventing tooth decay. A high throughput screening was performed in the present study to identify small molecule inhibitors of S. mutans glycosyltransferases. Multiple pharmacophore models were developed, validated with multiple datasets, and used for virtual screening against large chemical databases. Over 3000 drug-like hits were obtained that were analyzed to explore their binding mode. Finally, six compounds that showed good binding affinities were further analyzed for ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion) properties. The obtained in silico hits were evaluated for in vitro biofilm formation. The compounds displayed excellent antibiofilm activities with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 15.26–250 µg/mL.     

Promoting Effect of Soluble Polysaccharides Extracted from Ulva spp. on Zea mays L. Growth

Seaweeds can play a vital role in plant growth promotion. Two concentrations (5 and 10 mg/mL) of soluble polysaccharides extracted from the green macroalgae Ulva fasciata and Ulva lactuca were tested on Zea mays L. The carbohydrate and protein contents, and antioxidant activities (phenols, ascorbic, peroxidase, and catalase) were measured, as well as the protein banding patterns. The soluble polysaccharides at 5 mg/mL had the greatest effect on the base of all of the parameters. The highest effects of soluble polysaccharides on the Zea mays were 38.453, 96.76, 4, 835, 1.658, 7.462, and 38615.19, mg/mL for carbohydrates, proteins, phenol, µg ascorbic/mL, mg peroxidase/g dry tissue, and units/g tissue of catalase, respectively. The total number of protein bands (as determined by SDS PAGE) was not changed, but the density of the bands was correlated to the treatments. The highest band density and promoting effect were correlated to 5 mg/mL soluble polysaccharide treatments extracted from Ulva fasciata in Zea mays, which can be used as a biofertilizer.     

An efficient synthesis of pyrazole chalcones under solvent free conditions at room temperature

An easy,safe,solvent free and effective method for the synthesis of pyrazole-substituted chalcones has been achieved by grinding pyrazole aldehydes and acetophenones in the presence of activated barium hydroxide(C-200) in high yield within short span of time.All reactions were carried out just by grinding the two reactants in the presence of activated barium hydroxide(C-200). Results are also compared with sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide.     

Indirect spectrophotometric determination of chromium(VI)

A new simple and sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of chromium(VI) is established. It relies upon the oxidation of iron(II) with the titled ion, in acidic medium, to form iron(III) which is complexed with tiron to form a stable blue color with maximum absorption at 650 nm. Adherence to Beer's law is observed in the range 10–100 μg of chromium(VI) per 25 ml, with a molar absorptivity of 5.6 × 10³ liters mol^?1 cm^?1, sensitivity index of 0.0093 μg cm^?1, relative error of ?5.0 to +0.3%, and relative standard deviation of 0.3–4.0%, depending on the concentration level. Furthermore, the reaction needs neither temperature control nor an extraction step.     

Inhibition efficiency and adsorption mechanism of 4-aminobenzoic acid for copper corrosion in nitric acid medium: a combined experimental and theoretical investigation

Structural Chemistry - A combined experimental and theoretical study is presented to predict and analyze the inhibition efficiency and adsorption mechanism of 4-aminobenzoic acid molecule for...     

The kinetics study of the reduction of Fast Green dye with cetylpyridinum chloride as cationic surfactant

The kinetics of the reaction of Fast Green dye (FG) with cetylpyridinum chloride was studied in alkaline medium by UV-Visible spectrophotometer. Reduction of Fast Green dye was carried out by varying the fast green dye concentration, cetylpyridinum chloride concentration and concentration of sodium hydroxide. In the present study the reduction of dye was carried out in order to reduce the color content. The interaction of dye was carried out with reducing analyte (cetylpyridinum chloride). The rate of the reaction was determined by varying the above parameters at different temperatures. It was observed that the reduction followed pseudo first-order kinetics with respect to dye, surfactant, OH⁻ ion concentration according to the following reaction pathway. The mechanism for the photo bleaching of the dye has been proposed and well confirmed by the data simulation procedure. The activation parameters of the reaction like entropy of activation (ΔS) and free energy of activation (ΔG) showed the extremely solvated states of transient complex which was less disorderly arranged than the oxidized form of dye, whereas E _a values reflects a high amount of energy required for the reduction of dye with cetylpyridinum chloride.     

Almost Dunford–Pettis sets in Banach lattices

We introduce and study the class of almost Dunford–Pettis sets in Banach lattices. It also discusses some of the consequences derived from this study. As an application, we characterize Banach lattices whose relatively weakly compact sets are almost Dunford–Pettis sets. Also, we establish some necessary and sufficient conditions on which an almost Dunford–Pettis set is L-weakly compact (respectively, relatively weakly compact). In particular, we characterize Banach lattices under which almost Dunford–Pettis sets in the topological dual of a Banach lattice coincide with that of L-weakly compact (respectively, relatively weakly compact) sets. As a consequences we derive some results.     

Development and Characterization of Novel Biopolymer Derived from Abelmoschus esculentus L. Extract and Its Antidiabetic Potential

Abelmoschus esculentus (Okra) is an important vegetable crop, widely cultivated around the world due to its high nutritional significance along with several health benefits. Different parts of okra including its mucilage have been currently studied for its role in various therapeutic applications. Therefore, we aimed to develop and characterize the okra mucilage biopolymer (OMB) for its physicochemical properties as well as to evaluate its in vitro antidiabetic activity. The characterization of OMB using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) revealed that okra mucilage containing polysaccharides lies in the bandwidth of 3279 and 1030 cm⁻¹, which constitutes the fingerprint region of the spectrum. In addition, physicochemical parameters such as percentage yield, percentage solubility, and swelling index were found to be 2.66%, 96.9%, and 5, respectively. A mineral analysis of newly developed biopolymers showed a substantial amount of calcium (412 mg/100 g), potassium (418 mg/100 g), phosphorus (60 mg/100 g), iron (47 mg/100 g), zinc (16 mg/100 g), and sodium (9 mg/100 g). The significant antidiabetic potential of OMB was demonstrated using α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzyme inhibitory assay. Further investigations are required to explore the newly developed biopolymer for its toxicity, efficacy, and its possible utilization in food, nutraceutical, as well as pharmaceutical industries.     

Butylene copolyesters based on aldaric and terephthalic acids. Synthesis and characterization

The synthesis, characterization, and some properties of new copolyesters analogous to poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT), based on L ‐arabinaric and galactaric acids, are described. These copolyesters were obtained by polycondensation reaction in the melt of mixtures of methyl 2,3,4‐tri‐O‐methyl‐L ‐arabinarate or methyl 2,3,4,5‐tetra‐O‐methyl‐galactarate and dimethyl terephthalate with 1,4‐butanediol. Their weight‐average molecular weights ranged between 10,000 and 34,000, with polydispersities ranging from 1.4 to 2.2. The composition of all the copolymers was analyzed by NMR, and was found to have a statistical microstructure. All these copolyesters were thermally stable, with degradation temperatures well above 300 °C. The melting temperature and crystallinity decreased in both series, and the glass transition temperature increased and decreased respectively, for the PBTGa and PBTAr series with increasing amounts of aldaric units in the copolyester chain. Only PBT‐derived copolyesters containing a maximum of 30% aldaric units showed discrete scattering characteristic of crystalline material. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 1168–1177, 2009