In the indigenous system of medicine in India, the plant Sesbania grandiflora is claimed to be useful for various ailments, and one such use is for the treatment of renal calculi. The major purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of S. grandiflora in the treatment of renal calculi. The leaf juice of S. grandiflora was evaluated for median lethal dose, gross behavioral changes, antiurolithiatic and antioxidant activities. The antiurolithiatic activity was evaluated by a calculi-producing diet model, using gentamicin (subcutaneously) and 5% ammonium oxalate in rat feed to induce calcium oxalate-type stones. The parameters monitored in the present study are calcium and oxalate deposition in the kidney, kidney weights, urinary excretion of calcium and oxalate. The in vivo antioxidant parameters lipid peroxidation, glutathione reductase and catalase were monitored. The plant juice was also evaluated for scavenging of nitric oxide and 2-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl free radicals. The leaf juice of S. grandiflora was safe orally and exhibited no gross behavioral changes except for an increase in urination. The leaf juice of S. grandiflora showed significant antiurolithiatic activity against calcium oxalate-type stones and also exhibited antioxidant properties. The results obtained in this study provide evidence for the efficacy of the leaf juice of S. grandiflora as antiurolithiatic agent.

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A simple, sensitive, precise, accurate and robust high performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for simultaneous estimation of saxagliptin (SAXA) and dapagliflozin (DAPA) in pharmaceutical formulation. Design of experiments (DoE) was applied for multivariate optimization of the experimental conditions of RP-HPLC method. Risk assessment was performed to identify the critical method parameters. Three independent factors; mobile phase composition, flow rate and column temperature were used to design mathematical models. Central composite design (CCD) was used to study the response surface methodology and to study in depth the effects of these independent factors. Desirability function was used to simultaneously optimize the retention time and resolution of SAXA and DAPA. The optimized and predicted data from contour diagram consisted of acetonitrile and ortho phosphoric acid (0.1%) in the ratio of 50:50 respectively, at a flow rate of 0.98 ml/min and column temperature 31.4 °C. Using these optimum conditions baseline separation of both drugs with good resolution and run time of less than 6 min were achieved. The optimized assay conditions were validated according to ICH guidelines. Hence, the results clearly showed that Quality by design approach could be successfully applied to optimize RP-HPLC method for simultaneous estimation of SAXA and DAPA.

The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) outbreak that is caused by a highly contagious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a zoonotic pandemic, with approximately 24.5 million positive cases and 8.3 lakhs deaths globally. The lack of effective drugs or vaccine provoked the research for drug candidates that can disrupt the spread and progression of the virus. The identification of drug molecules through experimental studies is time-consuming and expensive, so there is a need for developing alternative strategies like in silico approaches which can yield better outcomes in less time. Herein, we selected transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) enzyme, a potential pharmacological target against SARS-CoV-2, involved in the spread and pathogenesis of the virus. Since 3D structure is not available for this protein, the present study aims at homology modelling and validation of TMPRSS2 using Swiss-model server. Validation of the modelled TMPRSS2 using various online tools confirmed model accuracy, topology and stereochemical plausibility. The catalytic triad consisting of Serine-441, Histidine-296 and Aspartic acid-345 was identified as active binding site of TMPRSS2 using existing ligands. Molecular docking studies of various drugs and phytochemicals against the modelled TMPRSS2 were performed using camostat as a standard drug. The results revealed eight potential drug candidates, namely nafamostat, meloxicam, ganodermanontriol, columbin, myricetin, proanthocyanidin A2, jatrorrhizine and baicalein, which were further studied for ADME/T properties. In conclusion, the study unravelled eight high affinity binding compounds, which may serve as potent antagonists against TMPRSS2 to impact COVID-19 drug therapy.

Cinnamon enhanced the bioavailability of pioglitazone by inhibiting the CYP3A4 enzyme. Hence, cinnamon might be beneficial when used in combination with pioglitazone in diabetic patients and an adjustment of dose of pioglitazone may be necessary.

Objective: To develop the UV-spectrophotometric method and to apply the Chemometric designs to the developed method for the simultaneous estimation of Atorvastatin calcium (ATR) and Aspirin (ASP) in intact capsule dosage form without further extraction. Methods: The UV-Spectrophotometric method was developed by using methanol as solvent for both the drugs and the data generated from the absorption spectra was mined by two Chemometric designs which were based on the principles of linear regression analysis method (LRC) and Crammer's matrix method (CRM). The wavelengths selected for linear regression analysis and crammers'matrix methods were 245 nm (wavelength of maximum absorption; λ max of ATR) and 275 nm (wavelength of maximum absorption; λ max of ASP). Results: Both the methods hold good linearity for ATR from 4-20 µg/ml and for ASP from 20-120 µg/ml with regression coefficient values of 0.9999 and 0.9991 respectively. The intraday and inter-day precision was found to be less than 2% RSD. The percentage recovery was in the range of 100.1-102.65 for Atorvastatin calcium and 99.95-101.15 for Aspirin by both the methods. The percentage assay was found to be 102.52 for ATR and 98.9 for ASP by LRC method and 101.62 for ATR and 98.84 for ASP by CRM method. Conclusion: The developed methods neither require any cumbersome separation procedure nor complex derivatization procedures for the analysis of the two drugs and moreover they are effective in minimizing the errors in analysis, simple and economical.

Chalcones possess Michael acceptor property due to the presence of α,β-unsaturated enone moiety in their structure. In the present study, molecular docking was performed to predict binding affinity of ring substituted chalcones with Monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL), a serine hydrolase enzyme which can inhibited by Michael acceptors such as maleimide derivatives. 3, 4-Dimethoxy derivative, 3h, with -44.45 kJmol-1 of interaction energy, exhibited highest binding affinity and formed Pi-Sulphur interactions with methionine-123 residue of MAGL enzyme. As MAGL is an emerging target for antinociceptive drug development, ring substituted chalcones were synthesized and evaluated for their central antinociceptive activity using tail immersion and hot plate methods. The results revealed that compound 3h, chalcone bearing methoxy groups at 3rd and 4th positions of phenyl ring exhibited good antinociceptive activity in both the models. Good correlation was observed between antinociceptive activity and binding affinity toward MAGL in case of compound 3h.