A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified association with variants in X-linked CLDN2 and MORC4, and PRSS1-PRSS2 loci with chronic pancreatitis (CP) in North American patients of European ancestry. We selected 9 variants from the reported GWAS and replicated the association with CP in Indian patients by genotyping 1807 unrelated Indians of Indo-European ethnicity, including 519 patients with CP and 1288 controls. The etiology of CP was idiopathic in 83.62% and alcoholic in 16.38% of 519 patients. Our study confirmed a significant association of 2 variants in CLDN2 gene (rs4409525—OR 1.71, P = 1.38 x 10-09; rs12008279—OR 1.56, P = 1.53 x 10-04) and 2 variants in MORC4 gene (rs12688220—OR 1.72, P = 9.20 x 10-09; rs6622126—OR 1.75, P = 4.04x10-05) in Indian patients with CP. We also found significant association at PRSS1-PRSS2 locus (OR 0.60; P = 9.92 x 10-06) and SAMD12-TNFRSF11B (OR 0.49, 95% CI [0.31–0.78], P = 0.0027). A variant in the gene MORC4 (rs12688220) showed significant interaction with alcohol (OR for homozygous and heterozygous risk allele -14.62 and 1.51 respectively, P = 0.0068) suggesting gene-environment interaction. A combined analysis of the genes CLDN2 and MORC4 based on an effective risk allele score revealed a higher percentage of individuals homozygous for the risk allele in CP cases with 5.09 fold enhanced risk in individuals with 7 or more effective risk alleles compared with individuals with 3 or less risk alleles (P = 1.88 x 10-14). Genetic variants in CLDN2 and MORC4 genes were associated with CP in Indian patients.

Nanocrystalline forms of nickel ferrite (NiFe 2 O 4 ) have been synthesized with the aid of single step chemical combustion method using citric acid as fuel in the 1:1 ratio. The single phase formation of nickel ferrite was confirmed through powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The presence of various functional groups was confirmed through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) analysis and the compositional analysis was performed through Energy dispersive X-ray studies (EDX). The micro structural features of nanocrystallites were examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Surface morphology of the nanocrystalline form of NiFe 2 O 4 was also investigated through transmission electron microscopic (TEM) analysis. Magnetic measurements have showed the ferrimagnetic properties with Curie temperature @ 500°C. The obtained results are in good agreement with the reported values. The other results have been discussed in detail. ª 2015 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors represent a budding class of targeted anti-cancer agents. This structurally diverse group of molecules can induce growth arrest, differentiation, apoptosis, and autophagocytic cell death of cancer cells. Of the different classes of HDAC the class I and Class II are considered the main targets for cancer. For the two classes of HDAC, only a few compounds have emerged as preferential inhibitors and even fewer are able to discriminate efficiently among HDACs in the same class. This limitation has diminutive relevance to the use of HDAC inhibitors as potential anti-tumor drugs. Hence, the four HDACs of class I was modeled and about twelve known inhibitors which are currently under the phase I/II trials were docked using an efficient shape-based search algorithm and the AScore scoring function, to each of the class I HDAC members in order to identify the inhibitor or group with better pharmacological action. The molecular descriptors study and the drug score, drug likeness prediction helped in the identification of potential compounds targeting specific enzymes of HDAC family. The ranking of various groups of ligands helped in the identification of potential groups and better compound that can better target class I HDAC in an effective way.

Single crystals of L-threonine have been grown from aqueous solutions of different pH values. The crystal grown from the solution of isoelectric pH (PI) was found to have the best linear and nonlinear optical properties. The optical quality of L-threonine was improved greatly in the case of the crystal grown at PI. The morphology of the title crystal has been discussed in detail. The crystalline powder SHG efficiency of L-threonine crystals grown at PI was found to be 1.2 times that of KDP. Capacitance and dielectric loss measurements were also carried out, and the dielectric constant was calculated at room temperature in the frequency range 100 Hz-5 MHz. The dielectric constant of the crystalline sample remains constant for the entire frequency range studied.

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