Biogenic metal nanoparticles as a potential class of antileishmanial agents: mechanisms and molecular targets

Nanomedicine ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 809-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aftab Ahmad ◽  
Sadeeq Ullah ◽  
Fatima Syed ◽  
Kamran Tahir ◽  
Arif U Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Metal Nanoparticles ◽  
Health Problem ◽  
Review Paper ◽  
Molecular Targets ◽  
Biologically Active ◽  
Leishmania Parasite ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Antileishmanial Activities ◽  
Severe Health Problem ◽  
New Strategies

Leishmaniasis, a category 1 disease, has remained neglected for decades, and therefore, has developed into a severe health problem worldwide. Unfortunately, the available antileishmanial drugs are limited, and the parasites have shown an inevitable resistance toward most of these drugs. All these factors pose a barrier to control the parasite at present. Hence, new strategies are needed to develop more effective and less toxic nanomedicines that could treat and manage the Leishmania parasite. One of these effective strategies is to construct nanometals with biologically active molecules that could possess dynamic antileishmanial activities with desirable biocompatibility. In this review paper, antileishmanial potencies of different metal nanoparticles, with particular emphasis on biogenic metal nanoparticles from 2011 to 2019, are summarized. The mechanisms by which metal-based nanomedicines kill Leishmania are also discussed.

An overview of the biological significance of endogenous gases: new roles for old molecules

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 1138-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Li ◽  
P.K. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Cell Function ◽  
Cell Signalling ◽  
Control Cell ◽  
Biological Significance ◽  
Molecular Targets ◽  
The Body ◽  
Biologically Active ◽  
Central Nervous System Function ◽  
Signalling Molecules ◽  
Nervous System Function

Biologically active gases that occur naturally in the body include nitric oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Each of these molecules is synthesized by enzymes which have been characterized biochemically and pharmacologically, and each acts, via well-established molecular targets, to effect physiological and/or pathophysiological functions within the body. Major biological roles that appear to be common to all three gases include the regulation of vascular homoeostasis and central nervous system function. It is becoming increasingly clear that both the synthesis and the biological activity of each gas are, to some extent, regulated by the presence of the others, and as such it is necessary to consider these molecules not in isolation but acting together to control cell function. Additional, more speculative candidates for gaseous cell signalling molecules include ammonia, acetaldehyde, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide. Whether such molecules also play a role in regulating body function remains to be determined.

scholarly journals Responsiveness of Arab Women in Israel to Genetic Screening Tests Prior to/during Pregnancy

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. p24
Author(s):  
Sara Gabarin
Keyword(s):  
Health Problem ◽  
Genetic Screening ◽  
Fragile X ◽  
Hereditary Diseases ◽  
Screening Tests ◽  
Arab Women ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Severe Health Problem

Hereditary morbidity is a severe health problem in the Muslim Arab society in Israel. There are populations where the prevalence of the Mendelian type hereditary diseases is 1 in 4 or 5 residents (Al Aqeel, 2007). One of the reasons for this is the high prevalence of relation marriage, which as of 2009 accounted for 24% of all marriages (Na’amnih et al., 2015). Despite this high prevalence, responsiveness to performing hereditary screening tests in Israel is very low among Arab women. For example, in performing Fragile X screening tests, only 9.1% of Arab women reported having performed the test, compared to 52% of Jewish women (Romano-Zlicha & Shochat, 2011).

Synthesis and In silico Studies of Quinazolinone Derivatives as PARP-1 Inhibitors

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 1552-1565
Author(s):  
Sonia Verma ◽  
Akashdeep Singh Pathania ◽  
Somesh Baranwal ◽  
Pradeep Kumar
Keyword(s):  
In Silico ◽  
Biological Activities ◽  
Docking Studies ◽  
Biologically Active ◽  
Reference Drug ◽  
Drug Candidates ◽  
In Silico Studies ◽  
Antileishmanial Activities ◽  
Quinazolinone Derivatives ◽  
Parp 1

Background: Cancer is a leading cause of deaths worldwide, accounting for 9.6 million deaths in 2018. According to the WHO, the most common causes of cancer deaths are lung, colorectal, stomach liver and breast cancer. Introduction: PARP-1 has a crucial role in cell proliferation, survival and death due to its role in the regulation of multiple biological processes. Quinazolinone and its derivatives represent a large class of biologically active compounds that exhibit a broad spectrum of biological activities such as anti-HIV, anticancer, antifungal, antibacterial, anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, antimalarial, antioxidant and antileishmanial activities. Methods: In this study, we have synthesized quinazolinone derivatives by reaction of 2- aminobenzamide and substituted benzaldehydes. The synthesized compounds were also screened in silico for their PARP-1 binding affinities by molecular docking studies using Schrodinger 2016 software. In silico ADME studies were also performed for the synthesized compounds by using QikProp tool of Schrodinger software. Results: Results of in silico studies indicated that quinazolinone derivatives exhibited a good affinity towards the active site of PARP-1. Out of all synthesized compounds, SVA-11 exhibited a maximum dock score (-10.421). Results of ADME studies indicated the suitability of synthesized compounds as drug candidates. Conclusion: The synthesized compounds showed better docking scores than reference drug valiparib. Furthermore, they exhibited favorable ADME profile. Therefore, they may serve as lead compounds in the discovery of PARP-1 inhibitors.

scholarly journals Masking as a persuasive strategy in advertising for young

Comunicar ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (41) ◽  
pp. 157-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesús Bermejo-Berros
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Computing Device ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Graphic Communication ◽  
Interactive Computing ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion ◽  
New Strategies

Los jóvenes viven hoy en una cultura multimedia donde los contenidos a los que acceden y hacen circular a través de diferentes dispositivos tecnológicos audiovisuales, forman parte de su educación informal. En ese contexto, la publicidad clásica inserta en esos medios de comunicación está dando paso a nuevas estrategias en las que la publicidad se enmascara en otros contenidos dirigidos a los jóvenes. Estos creen estar suficientemente bien informados para considerar que la influencia de la publicidad sobre ellos es relativa y afirman estar dotados de eficaces estrategias que les inmunizan contra ella. Sin embargo, como se argumenta en el presente artículo, la actual publicidad está implementando nuevas formas persuasivas que no perciben. Se presenta una investigación empírica en la que participan 154 estudiantes. Mediante un dispositivo informático interactivo procesan un total de 223 estímulos correspondientes a un medio de comunicación gráfico. Como variables dependientes se recoge el grado de acierto en la identificación de la presencia de publicidad en los estímulos y el tiempo de reacción. Los resultados muestran cómo las nuevas estrategias de enmascaramiento en publicidad evitan la toma de conciencia de los jóvenes de estar recibiendo mensajes publicitarios. Ello favorece que éstos no contraargumenten. Estos resultados abren la discusión de la pertinencia de dar a conocer a los jóvenes, en su proceso educativo, estas actuales estrategias publicitarias eficaces provenientes de los sistemas de educación informal. Young people today live in a media culture where the content they access and circulate through by means of different audiovisual technological devices is part of their informal education. In this context, the traditional advertising inserted into these media is giving way to new strategies through which advertising is masked within other content consumed by young people. They believe they are sufficiently wellinformed to consider advertising's influence on them to be relative, and claim to be equipped with effective strategies that immunize them against it. However, as argued in this article, current advertising is implementing new persuasive forms that go unnoticed. We present an empirical investigation involving 154 students. Through an interactive computing device, the students processed a total of 223 stimuli corresponding to a graphic communication medium. The dependent variables include the degree of success in identifying the presence of advertising in the stimuli and reaction time. The results show how new masking strategies in advertising hinder young people's awareness that they are receiving advertising messages. This facilitates a failure to create counterarguments. The results of this work open up the discussion of whether it is relevant to make known to young people, as part of their education and training, these current effective advertising strategies deriving from informal education systems.

scholarly journals Artificial Chromosomes to Explore and to Exploit Biosynthetic Capabilities of Actinomycetes

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Alduina ◽  
Giuseppe Gallo
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Metabolites ◽  
Antitumor Agents ◽  
Genetic Manipulation ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
Complex Compounds ◽  
Biologically Active ◽  
Biosynthetic Gene Clusters ◽  
Artificial Chromosomes ◽  
Pharmacokinetic Properties ◽  
New Strategies

Actinomycetes are an important source of biologically active compounds, like antibiotics, antitumor agents, and immunosuppressors. Genome sequencing is revealing that this class of microorganisms has larger genomes relative to other bacteria and uses a considerable fraction of its coding capacity (5–10%) for the production of mostly cryptic secondary metabolites. To access actinomycetes biosynthetic capabilities or to improve the pharmacokinetic properties and production yields of these chemically complex compounds, genetic manipulation of the producer strains can be performed. Heterologous expression in amenable hosts can be useful to exploit and to explore the genetic potential of actinomycetes and not cultivable but interesting bacteria. Artificial chromosomes that can be stably integrated into theStreptomycesgenome were constructed and demonstrated to be effective for transferring entire biosynthetic gene clusters from intractable actinomycetes into more suitable hosts. In this paper, the construction of several shuttleEscherichia coli-Streptomycesartificial chromosomes is discussed together with old and new strategies applied to improve heterologous production of secondary metabolites.

scholarly journals Modified Direct Agglutination Test for Simplified Serologic Diagnosis of Leishmaniasis

2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 967-968 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Gómez-Ochoa ◽  
J. A. Castillo ◽  
J. Lucientes ◽  
M. Gascón ◽  
J. J. Zarate ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Test ◽  
Health Problem ◽  
Agglutination Test ◽  
Direct Agglutination Test ◽  
Serologic Diagnosis ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Leishmaniasis ◽  
Severe Health Problem

ABSTRACT Human leishmaniasis is a severe health problem in many countries around the world. Hence, a cheap, reliable, and accurate diagnostic test is required to fight this disease. Perhaps the direct agglutination test (DAT) meets these criteria, but antigen elaboration involves many difficulties. We have developed a new antigen elaboration method, the EasyDAT method, that avoids the problems associated with the DAT. In this study, we compared the traditional DAT antigen method with our EasyDAT antigen method by using canine sera. The sensitivities (100%) and specificities (98.7%) were the same for both methods; we therefore concluded that the EasyDAT Leishmania antigen method simplifies serologic diagnosis, making this method easier and cheaper to use.

scholarly journals Application of Plasmonic Metal Nanoparticles in TiO2-SiO2 Composite as an Efficient Solar-Activated Photocatalyst: A Review Paper

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Collin G. Joseph ◽  
Yun Hin Taufiq-Yap ◽  
Baba Musta ◽  
Mohd Sani Sarjadi ◽  
L. Elilarasi
Keyword(s):  
Visible Light ◽  
Metal Nanoparticles ◽  
Degradation Rate ◽  
Review Paper ◽  
Visible Light Region ◽  
Treatment Processes ◽  
Light Region ◽  
Photocatalytic Activities ◽  
Solar Photocatalyst ◽  
Degradation Effect

Over the last decade, interest in the utilization of solar energy for photocatalysis treatment processes has taken centre-stage. Researchers had focused on doping TiO2 with SiO2 to obtain an efficient degradation rate of various types of target pollutants both under UV and visible-light irradiation. In order to further improve this degradation effect, some researchers resorted to incorporate plasmonic metal nanoparticles such as silver and gold into the combined TiO2-SiO2 to fully optimize the TiO2-SiO2’s potential in the visible-light region. This article focuses on the challenges in utilizing TiO2 in the visible-light region, the contribution of SiO2 in enhancing photocatalytic activities of the TiO2-SiO2 photocatalyst, and the ability of plasmonic metal nanoparticles (Ag and Au) to edge the TiO2-SiO2 photocatalyst toward an efficient solar photocatalyst.

Self-assembly: mastering photonic processes at nanoscale

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Fiorini ◽  
F. Charra
Keyword(s):  
Metal Nanoparticles ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Review Paper ◽  
Light Emission ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Fluorescent Labelling ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Nano Structures ◽  
Localized Plasmon ◽  
Plasmon Modes

AbstractSupramolecular ordering happens as an important parameter for the control of light emission processes. In this review paper, we discuss several examples of application of self-assembly to the realization of nano-structures designed in view of mastering specific photonic processes. This comprises the formation of highly localized plasmon modes in self-organized 2D assemblies of metal nanoparticles, the immobilization of dyes inside highly homogeneous 2D alveolar self-assembled molecular matrices and molecular 3D building blocks designed to combine in-plane periodicity and off-plane π-conjugated protrusions. Finally, we will discuss 3D self-assembly in solution with the example of fluorescent labelling of DNA.

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