Implications of enolase in the RANKL-mediated osteoclast activity following spinal cord injury

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is a debilitating condition characterized by damage to the spinal cord, resulting in loss of function, mobility, and sensation. Although increasingly prevalent in the US, no FDA-approved therapy exists due to the unfortunate complexity of the condition, and the difficulties of SCI may be furthered by the development of SCI-related complications, such as osteoporosis. SCI demonstrates two crucial stages for consideration: the primary stage and the secondary stage. While the primary stage is suggested to be immediate and irreversible, the secondary stage is proposed as a promising window of opportunity for therapeutic intervention. Enolase, a metabolic enzyme upregulated after SCI, performs non-glycolytic functions, promoting inflammatory events via extracellular degradative actions and increased production of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) serves as a biomarker of functional damage to neurons following SCI, and the inhibition of NSE has been demonstrated to reduce signs of secondary injury of SCI and to ameliorate dysfunction. This Viewpoint article involves enolase activation in the regulation of RANK-RANKL pathway and summarizes succinctly the mechanisms influencing osteoclast-mediated resorption of bone in SCI. Our laboratory proposes that inhibition of enolase activation may reduce SCI-induced inflammatory response and decrease osteoclast activity, limiting the chances of skeletal tissue loss in SCI.     

Identification of potential inhibitors for Sterol C-24 reductase of <i>Leishmania donovani</i> through virtual screening of natural compounds

Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne parasitic neglected tropical disease caused by a group of about 30 different species of the genus Leishmania. It is transmitted by the bite of female phlebotomies sand fly. Three main clinical manifestations of leishmaniasis include cutaneous, visceral, and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by Leishmania donovani, is an infection of reticuloendothelial system and fatal if untreated. Cholesterol, a sterol that is prominent in the mammalian cell membranes whereas stigmasterol and ergosterol are more prevalent in plants, yeast, and protozoa, respectively. Ergosterols which is absent in human being, is an important constituent of parasite membrane. Sterol C-24 reductase (LdSR) enzyme catalyzes the final step in the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway. The inhibition of biosynthesis of ergosterol may lead to decreased cell viability and growth. Here, we performed the molecular docking-based virtual screening of a library of natural ligands against LdSR to identify a potential inhibitor to fight leishmaniasis. Capsaicin, prenyletin, flavan-3-ol, resveratrol, and gingerol showed the top binding affinity towards LdSR. Based upon ADME properties and bioactivity score, gingerol showed the best lead-likeness and drug-likeness properties. Hence, we further annotated its leishmanicidal properties. We found that gingerol inhibited the growth and proliferation of promastigotes as well as intra-macrophagic amastigotes. Gingerol exerted its antileishmanial action through the induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in concentration-dependent manner. Gingerol induced ROS led to apoptosis. Overall, this study described that gingerol would act as possible inhibitor to LdSR.     

Characterization of Exopolysaccharide Produced by Corynebacterium#98 in Cheese Whey Substrate

Corynebacterium #98 produced an orange pigmented gum when grown in a 1.5% whey medium containing added lactose, MgSO₄, and FeSO₄ at optimized conditions: pH 7.0, 30°C, agitation and aeration at 1090 ml/min. Gum rheology showed increasing viscosity with gum concentration. Viscosity varied inversely with temperature and NaC1 concentration. Analysis indicated an ash content of 29.7% due mainly to potassium, sodium and phosphate. The structural components of the gum identified were rhamnose, xylose, mannose, glucose, galactose, and glucuronic and mannuronic acids in a weight ratio of 2:1:6:6:7:16:11.     

Quantitative Determination of Pea Losses as Affected by Conventional Water Blanching

A pilot scale study was conducted to measure soluble solid losses of early June, mini and medium sweet peas commercially blanched at 95 ± 1°C for 3 min using a 25 lb (11.34 kg) sample size. Early June peas had smaller losses than mini and medium sweet peas. Dry matter losses were the greatest for the smallest sizes in each variety. Moisture content did not change significantly during blanching but increased after canning. Alcohol Insoluble Solids increased for all sizes in each cultivar after blanching. Recovery of small size peas may be maximized by bypassing blanching and gravity separation.     

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SPHERICAL, CYLINDRICAL AND AXIAL BUBBLE CLOUDS COLLAPSE

The nonlinear dynamics of a spherical,cylindrical and axial cloud of cavitation bubbles were numerically simulated in order to learn more about the physical phenomena occurring in the cloud cavitation....     

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A D.C. DRIVE ELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEM WITH ELASTIC COUPLING AND PULSATING LOAD TORQUE

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the analysis of a d.c. motor drive with a pulsating load torque and elastic mechanical link between the motor and the load. A mathematical model of the system using State Space technique is given and the equations are solved to obtain closed-form solutions for motor speed and current under transient and steady state conditions. The analysis reveals that the system performance is significantly affected by elasticity of the shaft and the nature of pulsation of load torque     

A NEW APPROACH TO PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF CHOPPER CONTROLLED D.C. MOTOR DRIVE

ABSTRACT

An analytical method for performance analysis of a d.c. separately excited motor fed from a chopper is presented. The motor input voltage is represented as a series of step-voltages with a time phase difference. The system equations are solved to obtain closed-form solutions for motor current and speed, for transient as well as steady state conditions. The method presented is superior to existing methods in that the solution is in closed-form, and does not make recourse to recursive numerical techniques. The solutions for steady state condition corresponding to any set of operating conditions (voltage, chopper duty factor, load torque) can be directly obtained. The computational effort and time needed is therefore extremely small as compared to other methods.