Multiple drug resistance (MDR) in bacteria is a global health challenge that needs urgent attention.
The 2011 outbreak caused by Escherichia coli O104:H4 in Europe has exposed the inability of present antibiotic
arsenal to tackle the problem of antimicrobial infections. It has further posed a tremendous burden on entire
pharmaceutical industry to find novel drugs and/or drug targets. Polyphosphate kinase (PPK) in bacteria plays
a crucial role in helping latter to adapt to stringent conditions of low nutritional availability thus making
it a good target for antibacterials. In spite of this critical role, to best of our knowledge no in-silico work
has been carried out to develop PPK as an antibiotic target. In the present study, virtual screening of PPK
was carried out against all the 3D compounds with pharmacological action present in PubChem database. Our
screening results were further refined by interaction maps to eliminate the false positive data respectively.
From our results, compound number 5281927 (PubChem ID) has been found to have significant affinity towards
affinity towards PPK active ATP-binding site indicating its therapeutic relevance.
u-CARE is aimed to cater to the needs of researchers working in the field of antimicrobial drug resistance with minimal knowledge of bioinformatics. This database is also intended as a guide book to medical practitioners to avoid use of antibiotics against which resistance has already been reported in E. coli. The database is available from: http://www.e-bioinformatics.net/ucare.
In the development of multicellularity, signaling proteins has played a very important role. Among them, RAS family is one of the
most widely studied protein family. However, evolutionary analysis has been carried out mainly on super family level leaving sub
family information in scanty. Thus, a subfamily evolutionary study on RAS evolutionary expansion is imperative as it will aid in
better drug designing against dreadful diseases like Cancer and other developmental diseases. The present study was aimed to
understand RAS evolution on both holistic as well as reductive level. All human RAS family genes and protein were subjected to
BLAST tools to find orthologs and paralogs with different parameters followed by phylogenetic tree generation. Our results clearly
showed that H-RAS is the most primitive RAS in higher eukaryotes and then diverged into other RAS family members due to
different gene modification events. Furthermore, a site specific selection pressure analysis was carried out using SELECTON server
which showed that H-RAS, M-RAS and N-RAS are evolving faster than K-RAS and R-RAS. Thus, the results ascertain a new
ground to cancer biologists to exploit negatively selected K-RAS and R-RAS as potent drug targets in cancer therapeutics.
Background: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), like Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (CT and NG, respectively) are linked to an important sexual and reproductive health (SRH) burden worldwide. Behavior is an important predictor for SRH, as it dictates the risk for STIs. Assessing the behavior of a population helps to assess its risk profile. Methods: Study participants were recruited at a gynecology outpatient department (OPD) in the Allahabad district in Uttar Pradesh India, and a questionnaire was used to assess demographics, SRH, and obstetric history. Patients provided three samples (urine, vaginal swab, and whole blood). These samples were used to identify CT and NG using PCR/NAAT and CT IgG ELISA. Results: A total of 296 women were included for testing; mean age was 29 years. No positive cases of CT and NG were observed using PCR/NAAT. A 7% (22/296) positivity rate for CT was observed using IgG ELISA. No positive association was found between serology and symptoms (vaginal discharge, abdominal pain, dysuria, and dyspareunia) or adverse pregnancy outcomes (miscarriage and stillbirth). Positive relations with CT could be observed with consumption of alcohol, illiteracy, and tenesmus (p-value 0.02–0.03). Discussion: STI prevalence in this study was low, but a high burden of SRH morbidity was observed, with a high symptomatic load. High rates of miscarriage (31%) and stillbirth (8%) were also observed among study subjects. No associations could be found between these ailments and CT infection. These rates are high even for low- and middle-income country standards. Conclusion: This study puts forward high rates of SRH morbidity, and instances of adverse reproductive health outcomes are highlighted in this study, although no associations with CT infection could be found. This warrants more investigation into the causes leading to these complaints in the Indian scenario and potential biases to NAAT testing, such as consumption of over-the-counter antimicrobials.
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