Repurposing has gained momentum globally and become an alternative avenue for drug discovery because of its better success rate,
and reduced cost, time and issues related to safety than the conventional drug discovery process. Several drugs have already been
successfully repurposed for other clinical conditions including drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). Though TB can be cured
completely with the use of currently available anti-tubercular drugs, emergence of drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
and the huge death toll globally, together necessitate urgently newer and effective drugs for TB. Therefore, we performed virtual
screening of 1554 FDA approved drugs against murE, which is essential for peptidoglycan biosynthesis of M. tuberculosis. We used
Glide and AutoDock Vina for virtual screening and applied rigid docking algorithm followed by induced fit docking algorithm in
order to enhance the quality of the docking prediction and to prioritize drugs for repurposing. We found 17 drugs binding strongly
with murE and three of them, namely, lymecycline, acarbose and desmopressin were consistently present within top 10 ranks by both
Glide and AutoDock Vina in the induced fit docking algorithm, which strongly indicates that these three drugs are potential
candidates for further studies towards repurposing for TB.
The ability of three Pleurotus species (P. florida LCJ 65, P. ostreatus LCJ 183 and P. sajorcaju LCJ 184) was compared for the decolourization of bromophenol blue, brilliant green and methylred using by solid and liquid medium. All three Pleurotus species were effective in decolourizing the dyes on potato dextrose agar plate. During quantitative decolourization experiments, the absorption spectrum of the dye solution showed a steady decrease in decolourization with the increase in the days of incubation. The decolourization efficiency varied for species to species and it was found that P. sajorcaju LCJ 184 effectively decolourized the selected dyes by 85-98%. In present study, different factors (dye concentration, inoculums size, pH, static and shaking culture conditions) influencing the ability of Pleurotus species to decolourize three different dyes is documented and the result proposes P. florida LCJ 65 and P. sajorcaju LCJ 184 as potential strains for decolourization ofbromophenol blue, brilliant green and methylred dye.
Endophytic fungi Fusarium sp. LCJ273 capable of producing L-asparaginase was isolated from the medicinal plant Adhatoda vasica. The aim of the present study was to maximize L-asparaginase production by submerged fermentation through statistical optimization. L-Asparaginase production by Fusarium sp. LCJ273 was studied in five different media. Various nutritional parameters specifically carbon, nitrogen and inducers were optimized for enhancing the production of L-asparaginase. In addition, different statistical based experimental designs were also applied to increase the production of L-asparaginase by Fusarium sp. LCJ273. Dextrose, ammonium sulphate and wheat bran were found to be effective for growth and higher yield of L-asparaginase in Modified Czapek’s Dox Broth. Dextrose at a concentration of 3.0 g/L increased L-asparaginase production up to 9.18±0.9 U/mL, ammonium sulphate at the concentration of 20 g/L showed maximum L-asparaginase production up to 13.69±0.4 U/mL and wheat bran at 2.5 g/L yielded up to 14.24±0.5 U/mL. The maximum L-asparaginase production was observed by Fusarium sp. LCJ273 on 5th day. The study revealed that through optimization, a 2 fold increase in L-asparaginase could be achieved.
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