Excitation functions of the Zn(p,xn)Ga reactions.

The excitation functions for Zn(p,n)Ga and Zn(p,2n)Ga have been calculated for incident proton energies from threshold values to 30 MeV using the statistical model code TALYS-1.6. The (p,n) and (p,2n) cross sections have been calculated using both phenomenological Koning and Delaroche (KD) and semimicroscopic Jeukenne-Lejeune-Mahaux-Bruyeres (JLMB) optical model potentials.

The physical basis of fabrication of amyloid-based hydrogels by lysozyme.

The fabrication of amyloid-based hydrogels has attracted remarkable attention within the field of materials science and technology. These materials have a multitude of potential applications in the biomaterials field such as developing scaffolds for tissue engineering, drug delivery and hygiene products. Despite the potential new applications of these materials, the physical nature of their assembly is not well understood.

Stimulus-Responsive Supramolecular Host-Guest Assembly of a Cationic Pyrene Derivative with Sulfated β-Cyclodextrin.

In general, aggregation-prone organic molecules are prevented from self-aggregation in the presence of macrocyclic hosts like β-cyclodextrin because of their preference for the formation of inclusion complex with guest molecules. On the contrary, sulfate-laced β-cyclodextrin has been recently reported to induce the aggregation of some of the non-aggregation-prone organic dyes, which have been subsequently utilized for biosensing applications. In the present contribution, we report the interaction of a cationic organic probe molecule, 1-pyrene methyl amine (PMA), which belongs to one of the most useful families of organic fluorescent probes, that is, pyrene, with a sulfated β-cyclodextrin derivative (SCD).

Oral administration of 3,3'-diselenodipropionic acid prevents thoracic radiation induced pneumonitis in mice by suppressing NF-kB/IL-17/G-CSF/neutrophil axis.

The incidence of symptomatic radiation induced lung pneumonitis (RILP), a major dose limiting side effect of thoracic radiotherapy, is in the range of 15-40%. Therapeutic options for the prevention and treatment of RILP are limited. Hence there is a need for developing novel radioprotectors to prevent RILP which can be patient compliant.

Natural compound safranal driven inhibition and dis-aggregation of α-synuclein fibrils.

Self-assembly of α-synuclein (α-Syn) is linked with a variety of neurodegenerative diseases collectively called as α-synucleiopathies. Therefore, discovering suitable inhibitors for this self-association process of α-Syn is a subject of intense research. In this background, we have demonstrated here that the natural compound, Safranal, delays/inhibits α-Syn fibrillation/aggregation, and we have also characterized its mode of action.

Triphala inhibits alpha-synuclein fibrillization and their interaction study by NMR provides insights into the self-association of the protein.

The process of assembly and accumulation of the intrinsically disordered protein (IDP), alpha-synuclein (αSyn) into amyloid fibrils is a pathogenic process leading to several neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy and others. Although several molecules are known to inhibit αSyn fibrillization, the mechanism of inhibition is just beginning to emerge. Here, we report the inhibition of fibrillization of αSyn by Triphala, a herbal preparation in the traditional Indian medical system of Ayurveda.

Perturbation of tubulin structure by stellate gold nanoparticles retards MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell viability.

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) of different sizes and shapes have been investigated extensively for their therapeutic potential against several diseases including cancer. However, the mechanisms with which they affect the cells are yet to be fully comprehended. In this study, we report the strong antiproliferative potential of novel, star-shaped ("stellate") GNPs that target tubulin-the building-block protein of the cytoskeletal filaments called microtubules-and disrupt microtubule network integrity.

Deciphering the anti-Parkinson's activity of sulphated polysaccharides from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii on the α-Synuclein mutants A30P, A53T, E46K, E57K and E35K.

Parkinsonism-linked mutations in alanine and glutamic acid residues of the pre-synaptic protein α-Synuclein (α-Syn) affect specific tertiary interactions essential for stability of the native state and make it prone to more aggregation. Many of the currently available drugs used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) are not very effective and are associated with multiple side effects. Recently, marine algae have been reported to have sulphated polysaccharides which offers multiple pharmaceutical properties.

Evaluating the antibacterial and antibiofilm potential of sulphated polysaccharides extracted from green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Aim Of The Study: In this study, antibacterial and antibiofilm potential of sulphated polysaccharides (SPs) extracted from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Cr) was evaluated against Neisseria mucosa, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus sp. and Bacillus subtilis.

Methods And Results: Antibacterial potential of Cr-SPs was evaluated by agar-cup diffusion, time-kill and colony-forming ability (CFU), minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentration assays.

Vertical flow paper-based plasmonic device for cysteine detection.

Cystinuria, is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder involving increasingly high levels of poorly soluble cysteine in urine leading to formation of stones. Developing a facile, low-cost, point-of-care and selective sensor for diagnosis of cysteine is imperative. Accordingly, for the detection of cysteine, the present study demonstrates an inexpensive colorimetric, paper-based vertical flow plasmonic micro-well device with a two-minute turn-around time.

Mechanistic Insights from Replica Exchange Molecular Dynamics Simulations into Mutation Induced Disordered-to-Ordered Transition in Hahellin, a βγ-Crystallin.

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) form a special category because they lack a unique well-folded 3D structure under physiological conditions. They play crucial role in cell signaling and regulatory functions and are responsible for several diseases. Although they are abundant in nature, only a small fraction of them have been characterized until date.

G-SERF Editing in Two-Dimensional Pure-Shift Total Correlation Spectroscopy: Scalar Coupling Measurements for a Group of Spins in Organic Molecules.

A novel G-SERF-PSYCHE-TOCSY (gradient encoded selective refocusing in pure shift yielded by chirp excitation version of total correlation spectroscopy) NMR pulse scheme has been proposed, which produces TOCSY chemical shift correlations, on one hand, and scalar coupling values for the spins scalarly coupled to irradiated resonances, by showing them as doublets along the indirect dimension, on the other. Therefore, recording such an experiment, for a group of spins with overlapping chemical shifts, in organic molecules can adequately provide scalar coupling information in a G-SERF manner along the indirect dimensions, and they can be assigned to particular spin pairs. Such COSY chemical shift correlations (which appear as doublets for the scalarly coupled spins) can be readily discriminated from the TOCSY peaks (which do not show such splitting) in the G-SERF-PSYCHE-TOCSY spectrum.

A micro-Raman and chemometric study of urinary tract infection-causing bacterial pathogens in mixed cultures.

Detection of urinary tract infection (UTI)-causing bacteria uses conventional time-consuming microbiological techniques. The current need is to use a fast and reliable method of bacterial identification. In order to unambiguously distinguish the UTI-causing five bacterial species used in the current study, micro-Raman spectra were obtained from a home-assembled micro-Raman system and analyzed by multivariate statistical techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA), partial least square-discriminate analysis (PLS-DA), and support vector machine (SVM).

Backbone and side-chain resonance assignments of centromeric protein Scm3 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The centromeric chromatin plays an essential role in regulating the attachment of microtubules and controlling the segregation of sister chromatids during mitosis. In budding yeast, the evolutionary conserved histone variant, Cse4 is a vital component of the multiprotein kinetochore complex and is recruited to the centromere through its chaperone, Suppressor of chromosome mis-segregation (Scm3). Scm3 is an inner kinetochore protein crucial for the formation of a functional inner kinetochore.

RNAi-mediated protection against banana diseases and pests.

Pests and pathogens restrict the production potential of many crop plants. The losses incurred due to pests and diseases are huge threatening food security. Management strategies include use of chemical pesticides which can be detrimental to human health and environment and other physical and biological methods which have serious limitations.

Effect of Marine Basidiomycetes sp.-Derived Ergosterol Peroxide on Cytotoxicity and Apoptosis Induction in MCF-7 Cell Line.

The aim of the present study is to extract the bioactive compounds which can induce the apoptosis in breast cancer cell line MCF-7 by marine basidiomycetes. Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) sequences based molecular taxonomic study confirmed that collected the marine basidiomycetes belongs to sp. Further, the isolated compounds from the sp.

Differentially expressed serum host proteins in hepatitis B and C viral infections.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection often lead to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is mostly detected in advanced stage. Hence, its early detection is of paramount importance using a biomarker having sensitivity and specificity both. The present study highlights differentially expressed host proteins in response to HBV/HCV infection at different stages.

Insights into the structure and tubulin-targeted anticancer potential of N-(3-bromobenzyl) noscapine.

Background: Noscapine is a non-narcotic, antitussive alkaloid isolated from plants of Papaveraceae family. This benzylisoquinoline alkaloid and its synthetic derivatives, called noscapinoids, are being evaluated for their anticancer potential.

Methods: The structure of a novel analogue, N-(3-bromobenzyl) noscapine (N-BBN) was elucidated by X-ray crystallography.

NMR supersequences with real-time homonuclear broadband decoupling: Sequential acquisition of protein and small molecule spectra in a single experiment.

NOAH (NMR byOrderedAcquisition using H-detection) type of pure shift NMR pulse scheme has been designed for the efficient utilization of magnetization that presents in a spin-system under consideration. The proposed strategy, PROSMASH-HSQC (PROtein-HSQC and SMAll molecule-HSQC Signals with Homodecoupling) uses the real-time BIRD pure shift NMR strategy and two HSQC spectra (C-HSQC for small molecules and N-HSQC for N-isotopic labelled proteins) can be recorded in a single NMR experiment. Thus, this method permits precise determination of drug-protein interactions at atomic levels by monitoring the chemical shift perturbations, and will have potential applications in drug discovery programs.

Amyloid-like Structures Formed by Single Amino Acid Self-Assemblies of Cysteine and Methionine.

We report for the very first time the discovery of amyloid-like self-assemblies formed by the nonaromatic single amino acids cysteine (Cys) and methionine (Met) under neutral aqueous conditions. The structure formation was assessed and characterized by various microscopic and spectroscopic techniques such as optical microscopy, phase contrast microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The mechanism of self-assembly and the role of hydrogen bonding and thiol interactions of Cys and Met were assessed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and solid state NMR along with various control experiments.

Real-time J-upscaling in two-dimensional pure shift diagonal NMR: Simultaneous resolution enhancement in chemical shifts and scalar couplings.

A two-dimensional real-time J-upscaled pure shift diagonal pulse scheme, JS-PSYCHE-DIAG has been developed. This method enhances the resolution in scalar coupling multiplets by real-time J-upscaling during the direct acquisition, and these J-upscaled multiplets resolve on the diagonal at the respective pure shift positions, which results in resolution enhancement in chemical shifts. Thus, both chemical shifts and scalar couplings get better resolved simultaneously in the same NMR experiment.

Toxicological safety evaluation of 3,3'-diselenodipropionic acid (DSePA), a pharmacologically important derivative of selenocystine.

Diselenodipropionic acid (DSePA), a pharmacologically important derivative of selenocystine was evaluated for acute toxicity, mutagenic safety and metabolic stability. The estimated median oral lethal dose (LD) cut-off of DSePA in mice and rat models was ∼200 mg/kg and ∼25 mg/kg respectively, which is considerably higher than the reported oral LD dose of its parent compound. Subsequently DSePA treatment in absence and presence of rat liver S9 fraction was found to be non-mutagenic at the tested doses up to 1 mM in rifampicin resistance assay and up to 6 mM in Ames test.

Structural characterization of a novel KH-domain containing plant chloroplast endonuclease.

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a single celled alga that undergoes apoptosis in response to UV-C irradiation. UVI31+, a novel UV-inducible DNA endonuclease in C. reinhardtii, which normally localizes near cell wall and pyrenoid regions, gets redistributed into punctate foci within the whole chloroplast, away from the pyrenoid, upon UV-stress.

Landau Level Diagram and the Continuous Rotational Symmetry Breaking in Trilayer Graphene.

The sequence of the zeroth Landau levels (LLs) between filling factors ν=-6 to 6 in ABA-stacked trilayer graphene (TLG) is unknown because it depends sensitively on the nonuniform charge distribution on the three layers of ABA-stacked TLG. Using the sensitivity of quantum Hall data on the electric field and magnetic field, in an ultraclean ABA-stacked TLG sample, we quantitatively estimate the nonuniformity of the electric field and determine the sequence of the zeroth LLs. We also observe anticrossings between some LLs differing by 3 in LL index, which result from the breaking of the continuous rotational to C_{3} symmetry by the trigonal warping.

A Novel Method to Generate MNase Ladders Reveal Rapid Chromatin Remodeling upon Gametogenesis and Mating in Chlamydomonas.

To circumvent nuclei isolation for nucleosomal mapping of wild-type (cell walled) algal cells, we developed a quick and versatile methodology, by abrasion of whole cells (Chlamydomonas, Scenedesmus and yeast), allowing Micrococcal Nuclease (MNase) direct access to nuclear chromatin, in situ. Varying parameters such as bead abrasion, vortex and incubation conditions, we optimized capture of an 'early digest' which may probe chromatin differentially, based on nucleosome accessibility. A comparison of such ladders across vegetative cells, gametes and zygotes revealed an increase in the average nucleosomal repeat length (+17-34nt) upon gametogenesis, indicating a trend of chromatin compaction.