Discovery of potential inhibitor against human acetylcholinesterase: a molecular docking and molecular dynamics investigation

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease of central nervous system among elderly people. Human acetylcholinesterase (hAChE), an important enzyme in neuronal signaling, is responsible for the degradation of acetylcholine which in turn prevents the post synaptic signal transmissions. hAChE has been an attractive target of drug discovery for the search of therapeutics against AD. In the recent past hAChE has become hot target for the investigation of new potential therapeutics. We performed virtual screening of entire database against hAChE. Further, the extra precision molecular docking was carried out to refine the docking results and the best complex was passed for molecular dynamics simulations in order of understanding the hAChE dynamics and its behavior in complex with the ligand which corroborate the outcomes of virtual screening. This also provides binding free energy data that establishes the ligands efficiency for inhibiting hAChE. The computational findings discussed in this paper provide initial information of inhibitory effects of ligand, (drugbank entry DB00983), over hAChE.     

石油钻机盘式刹车副材料筛选的灰色关联分析

在对 6种刹车盘和 2种刹车块材料组成的摩擦副进行变温摩擦磨损试验的基础上 ,将灰色关联法引入刹车副材料的筛选 ;在综合分析刹车副材料各性能指标的基础上 ,将待筛选的刹车副材料的摩擦学性能用灰色关联度进行量化 ;通过比较各刹车副关联度大小 ,用定量排序法对各刹车副材料的性能作出综合评价 ,从而筛选出性能优良的刹车副摩擦材料 .结果表明 ,B堆焊材料是最优的刹车盘材料 ,K2 刹车块材料可作为最优的刹车块材料 ,刹车副 P2 0 ,B/ K2 、P3 5,B/ K2 为筛选出的最优刹车副材料     

面向丙烯/丙烷吸附分离的金属有机骨架材料的高通量计算筛选

丙烯、丙烷作为分子尺寸相近的共沸物,其分离一直是化工领域研究热点。金属有机骨架(MOFs)材料因其高度可调的孔道结构,在丙烯/丙烷分离应用上已展现出诱人潜能。本文基于Core MOF 2019数据库,采用巨正则蒙特卡洛基高通量计算筛选技术,获得了分离性优异的MOFs结构,发现其拥有适中的丙烯吸附量和较弱的丙烷吸附能力,且骨架孔径为3.70～4.10?、孔隙率中等(0.35～0.44),并揭示了孔道中心吸附位的选择性与丙烯/丙烷分离系数间关系。本研究阐明了高丙烯/丙烷分离性的骨架材料的结构和性能特征,为设计MOFs实现丙烯/丙烷的高效分离提供理论指导和数据支撑。     

液相色谱/四极杆-飞行时间质谱法筛查奶酪中29种禁用和限用合成色素

建立了奶酪样品中29种禁用和限用合成色素的液相色谱/四极杆-飞行时间质谱(LC/Q-TOF MS)筛查方法。样品经正己烷-水(3:1, v/v)振荡提取,得到正己烷层、水层和残渣3部分。正己烷层经旋转蒸发浓缩后,用乙酸乙酯-环己烷(1:1, v/v)溶解,经过凝胶渗透色谱(GPC)净化去除油脂。水层经乙腈振荡提取,得到乙腈-水提取液。残渣经氨水-甲醇(1:99, v/v)溶液振荡提取,得到氨水-甲醇提取液。乙腈-水提取液和氨水-甲醇提取液不需净化直接分析。结果表明: 29种不同极性范围的合成色素化合物分别得到了有效的提取,提取回收率为70%～95%。而Q-TOF MS提供的精确质量数定性功能可以将不同种类的合成色素化合物筛查出来,各化合物与精确质量质谱库中化合物的匹配度为59.66～99.47。通过Target MS/MS扫描方式进行定量,得到8种苏丹类化合物的方法检出限为0.4～2.5 μg/kg, 21种水溶性合成色素及染料化合物的检出限为20～80 μg/kg。该方法对禁用和限用合成色素的筛查范围广泛,对含有蛋白质、脂肪等基质的食品具有较好的适用性。     

Pharmacophore Modeling and in Silico Screening Studies to Design Potential KDR Kinase Inhibitors

A novel ligand‐based pharmacophore model for KDR kinase was generated on the basis of chemical features of 30 KDR kinase inhibitors. This pharmacophore model consists of one hydrogen‐bond acceptor, one hydrogen‐bond donor and two hydrophobic groups. Several methods have been used to validate the model, suggesting that it can serve as a reliable tool for virtual screening to facilitate the discovery of novel KDR inhibitors. The model was then used as database search query from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) database for the rational design to identify new hit compound.     

Protonation sites and dissociation mechanisms of t-butylcarbamates in tandem mass spectrometric assays for newborn screening

Structures of tert-butylcarbamate ions in the gas-phase and methanol solution were studied for simple secondary and tertiary carbamates as well as for carbamate-containing products and internal standards for lysosomal enzyme assays used in newborn screening of a α-galactosidase A deficiency (Fabry disease), mucopolysaccharidosis I (Hurler disease), and mucopolysaccharidosis II (Hunter disease). The protonation of simple t-butylcarbamates can occur at the carbonyl group, which is the preferred site in the gas phase. Protonation in methanol solution is more favorable if occurring at the carbamate nitrogen atom. The protonation of more complex t-butylcarbamates occurs at amide and carbamate carbonyl groups, and the ions are stabilized by intramolecular hydrogen bonding, which is affected by solvation. Tertiary carbamates containing aminophenol amide groups were calculated to have substantially greater gas-phase basicities than secondary carbamates containing coumarin amide groups. The main diagnostically important ion dissociation by elimination of 2-methylpropene (isobutylene, i-C(4)H(8)) and carbon dioxide is shown by experiment and theory to proceed in two steps. Energy-resolved collision-induced dissociation of the Hurler's disease enzymatic product ion, which is a coumarin-diamine linker-t-butylcarbamate conjugate (3a(+)), indicated separate energy thresholds for the loss of i-C(4)H(8) and CO(2). Computational investigation of the potential energy surface along two presumed reaction pathways indicated kinetic preference for the migration of a t-butyl hydrogen atom to the carbamate carbonyl resulting in the isobutylene loss. The consequent loss of CO(2) required further proton migrations that had to overcome energy barriers.     

An LC-MS screening method with library identification for the detection of steroids in dietary supplements

For many years anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are by far the most frequently detected pharmacological substances in doping control. In order to improve their performances, professional sportsmen are often tempted to take dietary supplements. However, due to the frequent and widespread occurrence of contaminated supplements, the use of such products is not without risk for the athletes involved. In order to minimize the chances of an unattended positive doping test or serious health problems, fast and reliable screening methods for the detection of anabolic steroids in dietary supplements are needed. A general screening procedure requires the fast and unambiguous detection of a large range of steroids. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has been used intensively in the detection of doping substances for the past 40 years. Over time, many laboratories have delivered spectra to be included in standard reference databases, one of which is maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (Gaithersburg, MD, USA). In recent years, however, liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) has gained popularity. Unfortunately, existing GC-MS libraries are not applicable to LC-MS analysis. In the present study, a new mass spectral library of 88 steroids was developed, along with a fast UPLC-MS method. For the construction of this mass spectral library, three different mass spectra were measured for each steroid, with a sample cone voltage of 30, 60 and 100 V, respectively. This method was then successfully tested on contaminated dietary supplements which had previously been tested by means of a targeted LC-MS/MS method. Overall, the library search was shown to identify the same compounds as the MRM method.     

Developing counter current chromatography to meet the needs of pharmaceutical discovery

Experiments have been carried out to evaluate Counter Current Chromatography (CCC) as an alternative purification technique to preparative Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) for small molecule pharmaceuticals. The major drawback of CCC is the extensive time required in selecting the solvents to perform the separation. This is equivalent to choosing both the stationary phase and the mobile phase at the same time. In RP-HPLC it is a simple matter of deciding on the gradient, most samples can be purified on a C18 column with a water:acetonitrile gradient. The majority of the initial work was based on a standard test set of commercially available compounds, developed within our group to evaluate the performance of the HPLC apparatus and the column prior to the start of work each day. The work carried out on CCC has shown that the technique offers similar capabilities and can be carried out using similar protocols to RP-HPLC. CCC also has some advantages over RP-HPLC and can be regarded as a valuable addition to the chromatography toolbox.     

Superhydrophobic-Superhydrophilic Micropatterning: Towards Genome-on-a-Chip Cell Microarrays

High-density cell microarrays based on superhydrophilic microspots separated by superhydrophobic barriers have been realized. The microspots absorb water solutions, while the barriers prevent cross-contamination, thus allowing the spots to be used as reservoirs for transfection mixtures and preventing cell proliferation and cell migration between the microspots. The picture shows four cell types after two days of culturing on the microarray.