Newly Emerging Strategies in Antiviral Drug Discovery: Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Erik De Clercq on Occasion of His 80th Anniversary

Viral infections pose a persistent threat to human health. The relentless epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a global health problem, with millions of infections and fatalities so far. Traditional approaches such as random screening and optimization of lead compounds by organic synthesis have become extremely resource- and time-consuming. Various modern innovative methods or integrated paradigms are now being applied to drug discovery for significant resistance in order to simplify the drug process. This review provides an overview of newly emerging antiviral strategies, including proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC), ribonuclease targeting chimera (RIBOTAC), targeted covalent inhibitors, topology-matching design and antiviral drug delivery system. This article is dedicated to Prof. Dr. Erik De Clercq, an internationally renowned expert in the antiviral drug research field, on the occasion of his 80th anniversary.     

AQP4 Attenuated TRAF6/NFκB Activation in Acrylamide-Induced Neurotoxicity

Acrylamide (ACR) is present in high-temperature-processed high-carbohydrate foods, cigarette smoke, and industrial pollution. Chronic exposure to ACR may induce neurotoxicity from reactive oxygen species (ROS); however, the mechanisms underlying ACR-induced neurotoxicity remain unclear. We studied 28-day subacute ACR toxicity by repeatedly feeding ACR (0, 15, or 30 mg/kg) to rats. We conducted RNA sequencing and Western blot analyses to identify differences in mRNA expression in the blood and in protein expression in the brain tissues, respectively, of the rats. AQP4 transient transfection was performed to identify potential associations with protein regulation. The rats treated with 30 mg/kg ACR exhibited hind-limb muscle weakness. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP9) expression was higher in the ACR-treated group than in the control group. ACR induced MMP-9 and AQP4 protein expression in the brain tissues of the rats, which subsequently presented with neurotoxicity. In the in vitro study, Neuro-2a cells were transiently transfected with AQP4, which inhibited MMP-9 and TNF receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) expression, and inhibited ACR induced expression of TRAF6, IκBα, and nuclear factor κB (NFκB). Using a combination of in vivo and in vitro experiments, this study revealed that depressive symptoms associated with ACR-induced neurotoxicity are associated with downregulation of AQP4 and induction of the TRAF6 pathway.     

Recursive second-order Volterra filter based on Dawson function for chaotic memristor system identification

Nonlinear Dynamics - In this paper, we propose a modified version of exponential cost function to improve the stability of adaptive algorithm, where the recursive algorithm is based on the Dawson...     

Reduction in the $$\mathbf {(4+1)}$$(4+1)-dimensional Fokas equation and their solutions

Nonlinear Dynamics - An integrable extension of the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) and Davey–Stewartson (DS) equations is investigated in this paper. We will refer to this integrable...     

Upper Bound of the Number of Zeros for Abelian Integrals in a Kind of Quadratic Reversible Centers of Genus One

By using the methods of Picard-Fuchs equation and Riccati equation, we study the upper bound of the number of zeros for Abelian integrals in a kind of quadratic reversible centers of genus one under polynomial perturbations of degree $n$. We obtain that the upper bound is $7[(n-3)/2]+5$ when $n\ge 5$, $8$ when $n=4$, $5$ when $n=3$, $4$ when $n=2$, and $0$ when $n=1$ or $n=0$, which linearly depends on $n$.     

Dynamics of a Predator-Prey Model with Allee Effect and Herd Behavior

This paper deals with dynamics of a predator-prey model with Allee effect and herd behavior. We first study the stability of non-negative constant solutions for such system. We also establish the existence of Hopf bifurcation solutions for such predator-prey model. The stability and bifurcation direction of Hopf bifurcation solution in the case of spatial homogeneity are further discussed. At the same time, several examples are given by MATLAB. Finally, the numerical simulations of the system are carried out through MATLAB, which intuitively verifies and supplements the theoretical analysis results.     

微乳液静电纺丝制备多孔Nb4N5纤维及其电化学性能

以五氯化锯为原料,液体石蜡为分相剂,采用微乳液静电纺丝技术制备前驱体纤维,再经氨气还原氮化得到多孔氮化锯纤维.利用XRD、SEM、BET等进行物相及微观结构表征,结果表明合成的纤维为四方Nb4N5晶相,纤维连续,直径为260 nm,由于液体石蜡分相以及助纺剂PVP的分解作用,在纤维上形成较多孔道结构,其BET比表面积为125m2/g,孔径为2～5nm范围内的孔结构比例较高,同时在5～10 nm 范围也存在较多的孔道结构,平均孔径为7.3 nm.采用CV、GCD及EIS等测试其电化学性能发现,氮化锯纤维的储能主要受电极表面电荷传递过程控制的,外表面比电容贡献高,这得益于分布在纤维中的孔结构,其可为离子传输提供通道,并为电化学反应提供空间.当电流密度为5mA/g时,比电容为151 F/g,能量密度为7.73 Wh/kg时,功率密度为3.03 W/kg,其经2000次循环后其比电容保持在95;以上.     

A biochemometrics strategy combining quantitative determination,bioactivity evaluation and relationship analysis for identification of analgesic alkaloids of raw and vinegar‐processed Corydalis turtschaninovii

A biochemometrics strategy combining quantitative determination, bioactivity evaluation, and relationship analysis was proposed for identification of analgesic components of herbs. First, a robust liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for simultaneous determination of nine major alkaloids in crude and vinegar‐processed Corydalis turtschaninovii. Nine alkaloids were separated on a BEH C₁₈ column with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water spiked with 0.1% formic acid and then detected by multiple reactions monitoring in the positive ion mode. Nitidine chloride was employed as the internal standard. The method displayed good linearity and the precisions of intra‐day and inter‐day were all within 3.0%. The recovery rates of each alkaloid ranged from 97.1 to 102.9%. The method was successfully applied for quantitative analysis of nine alkaloids in ten batches of crude and vinegar‐processed Corydalis turtschaninovii. Second, the analgesic effects of crude and vinegar‐processed Corydalis turtschaninovii were evaluated in mice. Third, principle component analysis, canonical correlation analysis, and partial least squares regression were used to analysis the relationship between the contents of nine major alkaloids and the analgesic effect of different crude and vinegar‐processed samples. Tetrahydropalmatine, coptisine, and dehydrocorydaline have a close positive correlation with the analgesic effect.     

Interaction of cellulase with sodium dodecyl sulfate at critical micelle concentration level

The interactions between Trichoderma reesei cellulase and an anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), at critical micelle concentration level have been investigated using isothermal titration calorimetry, fluorescence spectroscopy, and circular dichroism. SDS micelles have dual interactions with cellulase: electrostatic at first and then hydrophobic interactions. When the concentration of SDS is smaller than 45.0 mM, SDS micelles cause a partial loss in the hydrolytic activity together with a steep decrease in the -helical content of cellulase. With further increasing the concentration of SDS, however, a re-formation of the -helical structure and a partial recovery of the hydrolytic activity of cellulase induced by SDS micelles are observed. Taken together, these results indicate that SDS micelles exert dual effects on cellulase through binding as both a denaturant and a recovery reagent.