Binary copolymerizations of 8-methacryloxy-quinoline with methyl methacrylate, methyl acrylate, styrene and acrylonitrile

8-methacryloxy-quinoline monomer (MAQ) was prepared by the reaction of 8-hydroxyquinoline with either methacryloyl chloride or methacrylic acid in the presence of triethylamine and N, N′-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, respectively. Its structure was confirmed by IR and 1 H-NMR spectroscopy. Binary copolymerization of this new monomer with methyl acrylate (MA), acrylonitrile (AN) methyl methacrylate (MMA), styrene(ST), were performed in Dimethylformamide, using 1 mol% azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator at 65 °C. The copolymer compositions were determined from nitrogen analysis except MAQ-AN with 1 H-NMR. Copolymerization Parameters for each system were calculated by both the Finemen-Ross and Kelen-Tüdös methods. The monomer reactivity ratios for the systems MAQ-MA, MAQ-AN, MAQ-MMA and MAQ-ST were found to be r1?=?0.695?±?0.036, r2?=?0.62?±?0.235; r1?=?0.273?±?0.087, r2?=?0.259?±?0.67; r1?=?0.356?±?0.015, r2?=?1.615?±?0.052 and r1?=?0.097?±?0.003, r2?=?0.339?±?0.027 respectively. The Q and e values for MAQ monomer were found to be 1.62 and 1.40.     

Incidence of heavy metal and antibiotic resistance in bacterial isolates from Blue Nile river water in Ethiopian region

Heavy metal pollution of river water has health implications. This study was aimed to test if bacteria that are heavy metal resistant can resist antibiotics. Heavy metal-resistant bacteria were isolated using Nutrient agar plates amended with 100?μg?ml^?1 of metal salts. Isolates were further screened to determine minimal inhibitory concentration against each metal. The isolates belonged to the genera of Neisseria, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Micrococcus, Corynebacterium and Proteus. Minimum inhibitory concentration of the isolates for heavy metals ranged from 200 to 2300?μg?ml^?1. Isolates of Pseudomonas, Neisseria, Bacillus, Protues, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus and Micrococcus spp. exhibited multiple antibiotic resistance. Statistically significant correlation between metal resistance and antibiotic resistance was observed among bacterial isolates. The present work suggests that some of the isolates could be hazardous to human beings as a result of natural selection of dual resistant mechanisms.     

Kisspeptin-10 Rescues Cholinergic Differentiated SHSY-5Y Cells from α-Synuclein-Induced Toxicity In Vitro

The neuropathological substrate of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is defined by the inextricable cross-seeding accretion of amyloid-β (Aβ) and α-synuclein (α-syn)-laden deposits in cholinergic neurons. The recent revelation that neuropeptide kisspeptin-10 (KP-10) is able to mitigate Aβ toxicity via an extracellular binding mechanism may provide a new horizon for innovative drug design endeavors. Considering the sequence similarities between α-syn’s non-amyloid-β component (NAC) and Aβ’s C-terminus, we hypothesized that KP-10 would enhance cholinergic neuronal resistance against α-syn’s deleterious consequences through preferential binding. Here, human cholinergic SH-SY5Y cells were transiently transformed to upsurge the mRNA expression of α-syn while α-syn-mediated cholinergic toxicity was quantified utilizing a standardized viability-based assay. Remarkably, the E46K mutant α-syn displayed elevated α-syn mRNA levels, which subsequently induced more cellular toxicity compared with the wild-type α-syn in choline acetyltransferase (ChAT)-positive cholinergic neurons. Treatment with a high concentration of KP-10 (10 µM) further decreased cholinergic cell viability, while low concentrations of KP-10 (0.01–1 µM) substantially suppressed wild-type and E46K mutant α-syn-mediated toxicity. Correlating with the in vitro observations are approximations from in silico algorithms, which inferred that KP-10 binds favorably to the C-terminal residues of wild-type and E46K mutant α-syn with CDOCKER energy scores of −118.049 kcal/mol and −114.869 kcal/mol, respectively. Over the course of 50 ns simulation time, explicit-solvent molecular dynamics conjointly revealed that the docked complexes were relatively stable despite small-scale fluctuations upon assembly. Taken together, our findings insinuate that KP-10 may serve as a novel therapeutic scaffold with far-reaching implications for the conceptualization of α-syn-based treatments.