Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Joao Carlos Martins Mafra, Nubia Boechat, Guilherme Pegas Teixeira, Robson Xavier Faria
Summary: Stimulation of the P2X7 receptor by extracellular adenosine 5'-triphosphate induces proinflammatory responses, making it a target for research on inflammatory diseases. This review summarizes the key molecules developed over the years for P2X7 inhibition and inflammation, as well as newly developed chemical classes with promising activity and results in clinical studies.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Oh-Hyeon Choung, Riccardo Vianello, Marwin Segler, Nikolaus Stiefl, Jose Jimenez-Luna
Summary: This study aims to replicate the lead optimization process in drug discovery by applying artificial intelligence learning-to-rank techniques on feedback from 35 chemists at Novartis. The usefulness of the learned proxies in compound prioritization, motif rationalization, and biased de novo drug design tasks is demonstrated. Annotated response data, as well as developed models and code, are provided under a permissive open-source license.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Review
Plant Sciences
A. Anand Ganapathy, V. M. Hari Priya, Alaganandam Kumaran
Summary: This paper reviewed 97 medicinal plants with PDE5 inhibitory effect, of which 77 were selected based on their traditional use as aphrodisiacs. Isoflavones and biflavones were identified as the major active constituents responsible for action, while Icariin and Icariside II were found to be the most effective inhibitors from natural sources. Traditional medicines containing extracts of Ginkgo biloba, Kaempferia parviflora, Clerodendrum colebrookianum, Eurycoma longifolia, and Vitis vinifera were also found to inhibit the PDE5 enzyme.
JOURNAL OF ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Engineering, Environmental
Sarah Mushtaq, Farrukh Jamil, Murid Hussain, Abrar Inayat, Parveen Akhter, Khaliq Majeed, Muhammad Shahzad Khurram, Muhammad Aslam, Jechan Lee, Young-Kwon Park
Summary: The presence of cellulose in wastewater is mainly due to the use of lavatory tissue, accounting for about 30% of domestic sewage production. Therefore, the recovery of cellulose from wastewater is an important strategy for resource valorization. The inclusion of cellulose recovery in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is highly recommended due to its favorable environmental impact, flexible application routes, and mature value chain. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the initial and transformative applications of cellulose in WWTPs. The typical microbial cultures found in wastewater that facilitate cellulose degradation in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions are thoroughly discussed. An overview of commercialized technologies for cellulose recovery, with emphasis on rotating bed filters, is provided. The benefits of cellulose recovery from wastewater through various routes are also highlighted.
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Computer Science, Software Engineering
Pankajeshwara Nand Sharma, Bastin Tony Roy Savarimuthu, Nigel Stanger
Summary: Good governance practices are crucial for the success of Open Source Software projects. However, decision-making processes are often hidden in large amounts of software repository data. This study uncovers decision-making processes in Python Enhancement Proposals using a framework called DeMaP Miner. The extracted processes can be used for process compliance checking and improvement in OSS communities.
SOFTWARE-PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE
(2022)
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ken E. Giller, Shamie Zingore
Summary: A diet lacking micronutrients can be harmful to human health. Maps identifying areas in Africa with micronutrient-poor grains provide a way to target interventions to address these deficiencies.
Review
Agricultural Engineering
Ranjana Soni, Gauri Shankar, Pradipto Mukhopadhyay, Vikrant Gupta
Summary: Malaria is a major global health concern and previous measures to control and cure it are being hampered by drug resistance. Artemisinin derived from sweet wormwood is highly effective against the malaria-causing parasite and is a major component of current treatments. However, there is a limited supply of artemisinin, and novel strategies and advanced scientific methods are needed to meet global demand.
INDUSTRIAL CROPS AND PRODUCTS
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Liliya Kazantseva, Jose Becerra, Leonor Santos-Ruiz
Summary: This review discusses the latest anti-cancer compounds extracted from traditional medicinal plants, focusing on osteosarcoma research and their cellular and molecular mechanisms of action. These compounds have shown the potential to kill osteosarcoma cells through various pathways and can be used as chemotherapeutic drugs and sensitizers in combination treatments.
Review
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kirstin Scherlach, Christian Hertweck
Summary: Genetically encoded small molecules play key roles in ecological interactions and drug discovery, but are often difficult to detect due to low production and high rediscovery rates. Genome mining for biosynthetic gene clusters can help address these limitations, leading to the discovery of previously overlooked natural products.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Pauline Edorh Tossa, Morgan Belorgey, Soyol Dashbaldan, Cezary Paczkowski, Anna Szakiel
Summary: This study aimed to analyze the content of steroids and triterpenoids in flowers, inflorescences, and leaves of several plants using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The results showed that some flowers are rich in phytosterols and bioactive triterpenoids, which can be used in functional foods, dietary supplements, and cosmetics.
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Joel Wahl, Thomas Sander
Summary: Synthetically accessible chemical spaces are valuable resources for drug discovery projects. A tool kit within OpenChemLib is presented to automatically create searchable representations of such spaces, demonstrating the creation of a large chemical space from commercial building blocks and organic chemistry reactions.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL INFORMATION AND MODELING
(2022)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Shibo Lin, Chun Liu, Xiaotian Zhao, Xiao Han, Xuanhao Li, Yongqin Ye, Zheyu Li
Summary: Pyridinones have emerged as an important component in medicinal chemistry, serving as both hydrogen bond donors and acceptors. Their physicochemical properties can be controlled through synthetic routes, allowing for diverse applications in drug design, biomolecular mimetics, and kinase hinge-binding motifs. Furthermore, pyridinone derivatives exhibit various biological activities, making them valuable in drug discovery.
FRONTIERS IN CHEMISTRY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Robert Buarque de Macedo, Edward Ando, Shilpa Joy, Gioacchino Viggiani, Raj Kumar Pal, Joseph Parker, Jose E. Andrade
Summary: This research aims to uncover ants' tunneling algorithm by imaging, revealing that ants create arches that reduce intergranular forces and shield tunnels from high forces, enabling them to avoid removing compressed grains under high stress. Additionally, ants tend to excavate downward in a piecewise linear manner.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Aiping Yang, Yu Hong, Fengjuan Zhou, Ling Zhang, Youjuan Zhu, Chang Wang, Yang Hu, Li Yu, Lihong Chen, Xiachang Wang
Summary: One of the biggest concerns in global health today is antibiotic resistance, highlighting the need to find alternative solutions. This study focuses on investigating endophytic microorganisms from medicinal plants in Fenghuang Mountain in order to discover new antibiotics. The research demonstrates the potential of these microbes to produce a variety of natural products, making them an important source for new antibiotics.
Review
Chemistry, Medicinal
Shanshan Zhang, Yi Liu, Ansar Javeed, Cuiqin Jian, Jinlyu Sun, Shandong Wu, Bingnan Han
Summary: The prevalence of allergic diseases has been increasing globally, affecting approximately 20-30% of the population. The challenge in anti-allergy research lies in developing drugs with high efficacy and minimal side effects by targeting multiple mechanisms based on different clinical characteristics and allergens. This review highlights potential therapeutic targets and synthetic small molecules for anti-allergy treatment, focusing on the structure-activity relationship and mechanism of compound-target interaction. The findings can contribute to the improvement of virtual screening efficiency for antiallergic drug development and serve as a valuable reference for related research areas such as allergy, inflammation, and cancer drug design.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Karlie R. Sharma, Christine M. Colvis, Griffih P. Rodgers, Douglas M. Sheeley
Summary: There are many genes within the druggable genome that have not been studied, and the US National Institutes of Health's program provides resources to explore these genes, with the potential for rapid impact on human health.
DRUG DISCOVERY TODAY
(2024)
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Mohammad Sameer Khan, B. H. Jaswanth Gowda, Waleed H. Almalki, Tanuja Singh, Amirhossein Sahebkar, Prashant Kesharwani
Summary: Mitochondria-specific functional liposomes hold great potential for cancer therapy. This review discusses the association between mitochondria and tumor formation, as well as the advantages of liposomes in delivering drugs to mitochondria.
DRUG DISCOVERY TODAY
(2024)
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Choong Yong Ung, Cristina Correia, Hu Li, Christopher M. Adams, Jennifer J. Westendorf, Shizhen Zhu
Summary: With increasing human life expectancy, the global medical burden of chronic diseases is growing. Chronic diseases often involve malfunctioning of multiple organs, and understanding the interorgan crosstalk is crucial to understanding the etiology of chronic diseases. Researchers have proposed the locked-state model (LoSM) and cutting-edge systems biology and artificial intelligence strategies to decipher chronic multiorgan locked states. The findings have important clinical implications for improving treatments for chronic diseases.
DRUG DISCOVERY TODAY
(2024)
