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Shiv Nadar University

(SoNS) School of Natural Sciences

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is now clinically considered as a chronic inflammation-based neurodegenerative disease. The CDnir7 probe was previously developed as an optical imaging probe to target macrophages in order to image mouse inflammation using in vivo optical imaging modalities such as In Vivo imaging system (IVIS) and fluorescent molecular tomography (FMT). Here, we demonstrate the application of CDnir7 in AD mouse brain imaging via multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT). Longitudinal MSOT imaging of CDnir7 showed higher CDnir7 localization in AD mouse cerebral cortex compared to that of normal mice. MSOT signals of CDnir7 localization in mouse brain were verified by ex vivo near-infrared (NIR) imaging and immunohistochemistry. Histological evaluation showed strong CDnir7 staining in AD cerebral cortex, hippocampus, basal ganglia and thalamus area. Based on the supporting evidence, CDnir7 has great potential as a molecular imaging probe for AD brain imaging. © 2019, The Author(s).

World University root node

Chemistry

Fulltext

Scientific Reports

Visualizing Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Brain with Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography using a Fluorescent probe, CDnir7

Antimicrobial drug resistance is one of the most critical problems that plagued the human race in modern times. Discovery of novel antibiotics is important to counter this threat. Accordingly, herein we have reported the discovery of substituted benzimidazole class of molecules with antimicrobial property (specifically against Staphylococcus aureus). They were initially identified through a random screening and a novel catalytic synthetic strategy was utilized to access them. in vitro screening and phenotypic profiling revealed the antimicrobial nature. De novo transcriptome and gene analyses predicted the putative targets. This work provides a solid foundation for developing the benzimidazoles as a target specific antimicrobial preclinical candidate. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Life Sciences

Drug Development Research

Transcriptome analysis predicts mode of action of benzimidazole molecules against Staphylococcus aureus UAMS-1

This work systematically describes one-step synthesis of hydrophilic functionalized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) via thermolysis in presence of polyamines such as diethylene triamine (DETA), triethylene tetraamine (TETA), tetraethylene pentamine (TTEPA), or pentaethylene hexamine (PEHA) or mixture of a polyamine (TETA) and polyols such as diethylene glycol (DEG), triethylene glycol (TEG) or tetraethylene glycol (TTEG) while varying the polyamine: polyol (v/v) ratio, reaction temperature and reaction time. The saturation magnetization (Ms) values of the as-prepared polyamine (DETA/TETA/TTEPA/PEHA) coated SPIONs are determined in the range of 31.8–48.5 emu/g, which is altered in the range of 40.2–57.8 emu/g by the addition of a polyol (DEG/TEG/TTEG) to the polyamine (TETA) at different ratios. Moreover, the Ms. values are further improved to 64.6 and 66.8 emu/g at the optimized TETA:TEG (1:1) ratio by prolonging the reaction time up-to 2 h and the reaction temperature to 270 °C, respectively. In addition, the TETA-TEG coated SPIONs have displayed their average particle sizes, hydrodynamic sizes, and zeta potential (ζ) values in the range of 7–11 nm, 99–120 nm and +45 to +57 mV, respectively (indicating high water solubility). Finally, the TETA-TEG coated SPIONs with the highest Ms. and ζ values (i.e. 66.8 emu/g and +57 mV) are selected for the biological studies, where they have revealed excellent (i) cytocompatibility, and (ii) intracellular uptake in the cancer (HepG2 liver & MCF-7 breast) cells for the incubation periods of 24/48 h. Thus, the TETA-TEG coated SPIONs based aqueous ferrofluids have a great potential to be used in biomedical applications. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.

Journal of Molecular Liquids

One-step synthesis of hydrophilic functionalized and cytocompatible superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) based aqueous ferrofluids for biomedical applications

Zeta-toxin is a cognate toxin of epsilon antitoxin of prokaryotic Type II toxin-antitoxin system (TA) and play an important role in cell death. An orthologue of bacterial-zeta-toxin (BzT) was identified in Leishmania donovani with similar structural and functional features. Leishmania zeta-toxin (named Ld_ζ1) harboring similar UNAG and ATP-binding pockets showed UNAG kinase and ATP-binding activity. An active Ld_ζ1 was found to express in infective extracellular promastigotes stage of L. donovani and episomal overexpression of an active Ld_ζ1domain-triggered cell death. This study demonstrates the presence of prokaryotic-like-zeta-toxin in eukaryotic parasite Leishmania and its association with cell death. Conceivably, phosphorylated UNAG or analogues, the biochemical mimics of zeta-toxin function mediating cell death can act as a novel anti-leishmanial chemotherapeutics. © 2019 Federation of European Biochemical Societies

FEBS Letters

Identification and functional characterization of a bacterial homologue of Zeta toxin in Leishmania donovani

Lipid-based palmitoylation is a post-translation modification (PTM) which acts as a biological rheostat in life cycle progression of a deadly human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. P. falciparum palmitoylation is catalyzed by 12 putative palmitoyl acyl-transferase enzymes containing the conserved DHHC-CRD (DHHC motif within a cysteine-rich domain) which can serve as a druggable target. However, the paucity of high-throughput assays has impeded the design of drugs targeting palmitoylation. We have developed a novel strategy which involves engineering of Escherichia coli, a PTM-null system, to enforce ectopic expression of palmitoyl acyl-transferase in order to study Plasmodium-specific palmitoylation and screening of inhibitors. In this study, we have developed three synthetic E. coli strains expressing Plasmodium-specific DHHC proteins (PfDHHC7/8/9). These cells were used for validating acyl-transferase activity via acyl-biotin exchange (ABE) and clickable chemistry methods. E. coli proteome was found to be palmitoylated in PfDHHC-expressing clones, suggesting that plasmodium DHHC can catalyze palmitoylation of E. coli proteins. Upon treatment with generic inhibitor 2-bromopalmitate (2-BMP), a predominant reduction in palmitic acid incorporation is detected. Overall, these findings suggest that synthetic E. coli strains expressing PfDHHCs can enforce global palmitoylation in the E. coli proteome. Interestingly, this finding was corroborated by our in silico palmitoylome profiling, which revealed that out of the total E. coli proteome, 108 proteins were predicted to be palmitoylated as represented by the presence of three cysteine consensus motifs (cluster type I, II, III). In summary, our study reports a proof of concept for screening of chemotherapeutics targeting the palmitoylation machinery using a high-throughput screening platform. © 2018 The Authors. Published by FEBS Press and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

FEBS Open Bio

Plasmodium palmitoylation machinery engineered in E. coli for high-throughput screening of palmitoyl acyl-transferase inhibitors

MassiveMIMO(MaMI) is one of the fiery topics in 5G wireless communications. It is introduced based on the fact that the channel vectors becomes asymptotically orthogonal (as antenna elements tending to infinity). Convergence of frequency selective channel (quasi static block fading) characteristics in terms of favorable propagation and channel hardening (asymptotically orthogonal) conditions are studied using metrics like Eigenvalue Ratio (EVR), Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) and Diagonal Dominance (DD). Finally, simulations results for convergence metrics EVR, MAD and DD are compared with its limiting behavior. The effect of time delay spread on the channel convergence is studied based on the condition number of channel matrix. © 2019 IEEE.

Electrical Engineering

(SoE) School of Engineering

Physics

IEEE Region 10 Annual International Conference, Proceedings/TENCON

Convergence of MassiveMIMO Frequency Selective Channels

The mechanisms, extent, and rate of K-storage in graphenic and graphitic carbons, as direct comparisons with Li-storage in the same structures/materials, in terms of the effects of dimensional scale and presence of surface and exposed edge sites have been brought to the fore via DFT-based simulations, duly complemented and supplemented by experimental studies. The simulation indicates feasibilities toward K-storage on single-layer graphene (SLG) at a concentration greater than that in graphite (i.e., beyond KC8), the formation of more than one layer of K on SLG, and K-storage on both the surfaces of SLG, unlike that for Li-storage. Simulations done with graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) indicate that K can get hosted on the graphene surfaces and at the exposed "stepped" edges, in addition to the "classical" K-intercalation in-between the constituent graphene layers. Accordingly, the computation studies indicate considerably enhanced K-storage "specific capacity" of GNR, as compared to bulk graphite, with the capacity decreasing with the increase in number of graphene layers. Electrochemical potassiation/depotassiation of well-ordered fairly pristine few layers graphene films (FLG; ∼6-7 layers) confirms the simultaneous occurrences of bulk (i.e., K-intercalation) and surface storage of K, resulting in reversible K-storage capacity being greater than that of thicker bulk graphite films by a factor of ∼2.5. This is in agreement with the predictions from DFT. However, this increment is less compared to that for Li-storage, again in accordance with the DFT results. Our measurements indicate lower diffusivity of K, as compared to Li, in the same graphitic structure by an order of magnitude. Accordingly, the rate capability of K-storage in graphite has been found to be considerably inferior to Li-storage, which renders the reduction in dimensional scale even more important in the case of K-storage, as observed here with FLG. © 2019 American Chemical Society.

ACS Nano

Enhanced and faster potassium storage in graphene with respect to graphite: A comparative study with lithium storage

Benchmark scenarios for LRSUSY dark matter studies

In this work, layered perovskite SBN was investigated in a new-doped form for hole as well as electron transport layer (HTL/ETL) in perovskite solar cells. This work was targeted to determine utility of bismuth layer SBN materials as an active layer in hybrid perovskite solar cells. Thoroughly hard ball-milled compositions Sr1−xSnxBi1.95La0.05Nb2O9 (x = 0.0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2) were prepared by microwave synthesis to obtain fine (~ 10–60 nm) mesoporous particle network of atomic level substitutions. Microwave synthesis was crucial in modifying dielectric, semiconducting and optical characteristics of prepared SBN materials. The optical energy band gap and hall resistivity decreased in continuous manner on tin doping. The role of metallic tin as dopant in sharpening redox peaks and decreasing capacitive reactance of grain boundaries was investigated in detail using cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy respectively. The tin being more polar covalent than strontium augmented dielectric response too. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics

Hole/electron transport layers in tin-doped SBLN nano materials for hybrid solar cell applications

Bit error rate (BER) and channel capacity are two important metrics to assess the performance of free-space optical communication (FSOC) systems. Due to the fading of the optical signal owing to the atmospheric effects, these two quantities behave as random variables. Most of the studies in this direction have focused on the calculation of only the average of these quantities. However, since the complete information about a random variable is encoded in its distribution, it is more informative to examine the latter itself. In this work, the authors derive exact probability density function (PDF) expressions for the BER and the channel capacity for an arbitrary irradiance model. In particular, they investigate these exact results for log-normal, gamma-gamma, and K distributions. For the BER analysis, they focus on the binary phase shift keying and quadrature phase shift keying modulation schemes. The authors' analytical reults are found to be in conformity with Monte Carlo simulations. The exact PDFs of the BER and the channel capacity reveal that there are several instances when the average is unable to capture the actual behaviour of these quantities, and therefore one must be careful in drawing conclusions based on the first moment only. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2019