Snake venom 5'-nucleotidase (5'NUC) plays a very important role in envenomation strategies; however, apart from its modulation of hemostatic functions, its other pharmacological effects are not yet well characterized. Several studies have used specific inhibitors of enzyme toxins as a biochemical or pharmacological tool to characterize or establish its mechanism of action. We report here for the first time vanillin mandelic acid (VMA), an analog of vanillin, to potentially, selectively, and specifically inhibit venom 5'NUC activity among other enzymes present in venoms. VMA is much more potent in inhibiting 5'NUC activity than vanillyl acid (VA). The experimental results obtained are in good agreement with the in silico molecular docking interaction data. Both VA and VMA are competitive inhibitors as evident by the inhibition-relieving effect upon increasing the substrate concentration. VMA also dose-dependently inhibited the anticoagulant effect in Naja naja venom. In this study, we report novel non-nucleoside specific inhibitors of snake venom 5'NUC and experimentally demonstrate their involvement in the anticoagulant activity of N. naja venom. Hence, we hypothesize that VMA can be used as a molecular tool to evaluate the role of 5'NUC in snake envenomation and to develop prototypes and lead compounds with potential therapeutic applications against snake bites.
An Experimental investigation is conducted to establish the feasibility of using Jatropha biodiesel in Direct Injection Compression Ignition (DICI) engines. While the biodiesel has certain limitations and adverse in terms of poor performance and high level of pollutants in the exhaust of the gases, specified chemical (Propylene Glycol, C3H8O2) and nano(Al2O3) additives are used with Jatropha biodiesel. The experiments are conducted in two phases by using an experimental test rig, which consists of a DICI engine, electric loading device, data acquisition system, and AVL exhaust gas analyzers. In the first phases of experimentation, the performance and emission characteristics of the engine are analyzed by using neat diesel and Jatropha biodiesel and in the second phase of investigation, similar experiments are conducted by using chemical and nanoadditives blended biodiesel. The results of biodiesel are compared with those of neat diesel and it is seen that the performance and emission characteristics of the engine are inferior in the case of biodiesel when compared with neat diesel. However, the results revealed that the working characteristics could be improved by selecting of proper chemical and nanoadditives in right proportions.
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