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Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare form of aggressive skin cancer mainly caused by Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). Most MCC tumors express MCPyV large T (LT) antigens and play an important role in the growth-promoting activities of oncoproteins. Truncated LT promotes tumorigenicity as well as host cell proliferation by activating the viral replication machinery, and inhibition of this protein in humans drastically lowers cellular growth linked to the corresponding cancer. Our study was designed with the aim of identifying small molecular-like natural antiviral candidates that are able to inhibit the proliferation of malignant tumors, especially those that are aggressive, by blocking the activity of viral LT protein. To identify potential compounds against the target protein, a computational drug design including molecular docking, ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion), toxicity, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, and molecular mechanics generalized Born surface area (MM-GBSA) approaches were applied in this study. Initially, a total of 2190 phytochemicals isolated from 104 medicinal plants were screened using the molecular docking simulation method, resulting in the identification of the top five compounds having the highest binding energy, ranging between −6.5 and −7.6 kcal/mol. The effectiveness and safety of the selected compounds were evaluated based on ADME and toxicity features. A 250 ns MD simulation confirmed the stability of the selected compounds bind to the active site (AS) of the target protein. Additionally, MM-GBSA analysis was used to determine the high values of binding free energy (ΔG bind) of the compounds binding to the target protein. The five compounds identified by computational approaches, Paulownin (CID: 3084131), Actaealactone (CID: 11537736), Epigallocatechin 3-O-cinnamate (CID: 21629801), Cirsilineol (CID: 162464), and Lycoricidine (CID: 73065), can be used in therapy as lead compounds to combat MCPyV-related cancer. However, further wet laboratory investigations are required to evaluate the activity of the drugs against the virus.

Clonal propagation is important for the conservation of native, wild and threatening tree species. The study investigates the opportunities of rooting of branch cuttings of Santalum album treated with 0, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8% indole-3butyric acid (IBA) in a non-mist propagator. A total of four hundreds eighty cuttings were used to assess the rooting ability of this species. The study revealed significant differences (p<0.05) of rooting percent, average root number per cutting and average root length among the treatments. Rooting success varied 1.32-fold (70-92.6%), 3.8-fold (5-19) and 3.1-fold (3.1-9.6 cm) in rooting percentage, average root number per cutting and average root length respectively among the treatments. The maximum and minimum rooting success were observed in T3 and T0 in all cases except in root number per cutting. In this case T2 performed better than others. The result exposed significant differences (p<0.05) of sprouting percent (1.32-fold: 62.3-83.3%) among the treatments but no significant difference (p>0.05) of number of sprouts per cutting (2.5-fold: 2-5) and number of leaves per cutting (1.7-fold: 10-17). Maximum and minimum sprouting percent was showed similar fashion of rooting percent. The results also exposed significant differences (p<0.05) of biomass production in adventitious roots and shoots among the treatments. Biomass production was significantly (p<0.01) higher in adventitious shoots than those of roots. The overall survival of rooted cutting was higher in control (90.56%) than others but showed no significant differences (p>0.05) among the treatments. It can be recommended not to use IBA for rooting of branch cuttings of S. album.

Introduction Many of the global pandemics threaten human existence over the decades among which coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) is the newest exposure circulating worldwide. The RNA encoded severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) virus is referred as the pivotal agent of this deadly disease that induces respiratory tract infection by interacting host ACE2 receptor with its spike glycoprotein. Rapidly evolving nature of this virus modified into new variants helps in perpetrating immune escape and protection against host defense mechanism. Consequently, a new isolate, delta variant originated from India is spreading perilously at a higher infection rate. Methods In this study, we focused to understand the conformational and functional significance of the missense mutations found in the spike glycoprotein of SARS‐CoV‐2 delta variant performing different computational analysis. Results From physiochemical analysis, we found that the acidic isoelectric point of the virus elevated to basic pH level due to the mutations. The targeted mutations were also found to change the interactive bonding pattern and conformational stability analyzed by the molecular dynamic's simulation. The molecular docking study also revealed that L452R and T478K mutations found in the RBD domain of delta variant spike protein contributed to alter interaction with the host ACE2 receptor. Conclusions Overall, this study provided insightful evidence to understand the morphological and attributive impact of the mutations on SARS‐CoV‐2 delta variant.

From Shannon limit it is known that, for a particular bandwidth and noise characteristics, there exists a maximum rate at which data can be transmitted with arbitrarily small number of errors. Coding schemes are utilized to improve the data transmission efficiency. The paper aims to represent the comparative performance analysis of Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes and Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes in transmitting data over noisy channel for different parameters. The performance of LDPC block codes is simulated for different decoding schemes and code rates. Performance analysis of LDPC codes is also shown for regular and irregular codes. For fixed error correcting capability, the BCH coding scheme is further simulated for different code length with increasing code length. The simulated output is worthwhile to analyze the performance of a communication system before the physical implementation of the system. General Terms:Communication