Background: There are many biomarkers associated with breast cancer. Higher expression of PIK3CA (Phosphoinositide 3-kinase Cα), in its upregulated form, is associated with Hr + and Her2 − breast cancer; therefore, many drugs were synthesized against this protein to treat breast cancer patients. FDA recently approved that the drug alpelisib also inhibits PI3KCα (PDB ID-5DXT) in BC patients with Hr + and Her2 −. In present study, we have exploited fourteen coumarin-carbonodithioate derivatives and alpelisib against this protein along with eighteen others which are responsible for causing BC through computational analysis. We have used Schrödinger Maestro 11.2 version for our in silico docking study, and to calculate relative binding energies of ligands, we used prime MM-GBSA module. Result: Docking study revealed that among all fourteen compounds, 2f, 2a, 2d, and 2e showed the highest G score than the alpelisib and coumarin against PI3KCα with − 9.3, − 9.0, − 9.0 and − 9.1 kcal/mol respectively, along with individual G score of alpelisib (− 8.9) and coumarin (− 7.9). Prime MM-GBSA analysis gave the relative binding energies of alpelisib, 2f, and 2e with − 19.94864535, − 18.63076296 and − 13.07341286 kcal/mol sequentially. Conclusion: This study provides an insight into the coumarin-carbonodithioate derivatives that could act as inhibitors of PI3KCα like alpelisib. Further prime MM-GBSA study revealed ligand binding energies and ligands strain energies.

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A bacterium capable of utilizing p-cresol as sole source of carbon and energy was isolated from soil and identified as a Bacillus species. The organism also utilized phenol, o-cresol, m-cresol, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and gentisic acid as growth substrates. The organism degraded p-cresol to 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, which was further metabolized by a gentisate pathway, as evidenced by isolation and identification of metabolites and enzyme activities in the cell-free extract. Such a bacterial strain can be used for bioremediation of environments contaminated with phenolic compounds.

The Klebsiella sp. strain ATCC13883T capable of degrading carbofuran phenol (2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethylbenzofuran-7-ol) has been separated from the soil by enrichment culture technique and immobilized in various, namely polyurethane foam (PUF), polyacrylamide, alginate, agar and alginate-bentonite clay-powdered activated charcoal (PAC). The degradation rates of 20 and 30 mM carbofuran phenol by free and immobilized cells in batch and semi-continuous shaken cultures were compared. The PUF-immobilized cells achieved higher degradation rates in a shorter time than freely suspended cells and the cells immobilized in polyacrylamide, alginate and agar. The PUF-and alginate-bentonite clay-PAC-immobilized cells could be reused for more than 36 cycles, polyacrylamideentrapped cells for 20 cycles and alginate-bentonite-PAC 28 cycles, without losing any degradation capacity and showed better tolerance to pH, temperature and concentration changes than free cells. These results showed that cells immobilized in modified alginate-bentonite-PAC immobilizers tolerated and completely degraded carbofuran phenol at initial concentrations of 20 and 30 mM and also higher. Such a bacterial strain could be used for bioremediation of environments contaminated with phenolic compounds.

p-Cresol is an environmental pollutant due to its vast use, toxicity and persistence, nevertheless, its degradation in an enzyme is unclear. In this study, we used Pleurotus sp. isolate VLECK02 polyphenol oxidase (PPO) for the determination of p-cresol degradation. On the basis of UV, FT-IR and chromatographic (HPLC and GC–MS) analysis, 4-methylcatechol was identified as the main metabolite of p-cresol catabolism. In addition, batch and semi-continuous degradation of p-cresol (10 and 20 mM) were studied and compared by free and immobilized PPO in different matrices like sodium alginate (SA), sodium alginate–polyvinyl alcohol (SA–PVA) and sodium alginate–polyvinyl alcohol–silver nanoparticles (SA–PVA–AgNPs). The experimental data showed that an enzyme (PPO) immobilized in SA–PVA–AgNPs was completely degraded p-cresol at initial concentrations of 10 and 20 mM within 30 h. These results suggest that the enzyme immobilized in SA–PVA–AgNPs has achieved higher degradation rates at a given time than free PPO and PPO immobilized in SA–PVA and SA. The SA–PVA–AgNPs and SA–PVA immobilized enzyme could be reused for more than 12 and 8 cycles, respectively, without losing any degradation capacity. Moreover, the immobilized PPO showed higher tolerance to various temperatures and pH than free PPO. Hence, immobilized PPO could be useful for the bioremediation of environment contaminated with phenolic compounds like p-cresol.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13205-016-0547-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.