Reactive biased target ion beam deposited W-DLC nanocomposite thin films - Microstructure and its mechanical properties

Tungsten incorporated diamond like carbon (W-DLC) nanocomposite thin films with variable fractions of tungsten were deposited by using reactive biased target ion beam deposition technique. The influence of tungsten incorporation on the microstructure, surface topography, mechanical and tribological properties of the DLC were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy. Atomic force microscope (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nano-indentation and nano-scratch tests. The amount of W in films gets increases with increasing target bias voltage and most of the incorporated W reacts with carbon to form WC nanoclusters. Using TEM and FFT pattern, it was found that spherical shaped WC nanoclusters were uniformly dispersed in the DLC matrix and attains hexagonal (W2C) crystalline structure at higher W concentration. On the other hand, the incorporation of tungsten led to increase the formation of C-sp(2) hybridized bonding in DLC network and which is reflected in the hardness and elastic modulus of W-DLC films. Moreover, W-DLC films show very low friction coefficient and increased adhesion to the substrate than the DLC film, which could be closely related to its unique nanostructure of the W incorporated thin films. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Crowd Sourcing a New Paradigm for Interactome Driven Drug Target Identification in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

A decade since the availability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) genome sequence, no promising drug has seen the light of the day. This not only indicates the challenges in discovering new drugs but also suggests a gap in our current understanding of Mtb biology. We attempt to bridge this gap by carrying out extensive re-annotation and constructing a systems level protein interaction map of Mtb with an objective of finding novel drug target candidates. Towards this, we synergized crowd sourcing and social networking methods through an initiative `Connect to Decode' (C2D) to generate the first and largest manually curated interactome of Mtb termed `3interactome pathway' (IPW), encompassing a total of 1434 proteins connected through 2575 functional relationships. Interactions leading to gene regulation, signal transduction, metabolism, structural complex formation have been catalogued. In the process, we have functionally annotated 87% of the Mtb genome in context of gene products. We further combine IPW with STRING based network to report central proteins, which may be assessed as potential drug targets for development of drugs with least possible side effects. The fact that five of the 17 predicted drug targets are already experimentally validated either genetically or biochemically lends credence to our unique approach.

Orthogonal biofunctionalization of magnetic nanoparticles via ``clickable'' poly(ethylene glycol) silanes: a ``universal ligand'' strategy to design stealth and target-specific nanocarriers

The present work demonstrates a novel strategy to synthesize orthogonally bio-engineered magnetonanohybrids (MNPs) through the design of versatile, biocompatible linkers whose structure includes: (i) a robust anchor to bind with metal-oxide surfaces; (ii) tailored surface groups to act as spacers and (iii) a general method to implement orthogonal functionalizations of the substrate via ``click chemistry''. Ligands that possess the synthetic generality of features (i)-(iii) are categorized as ``universal ligands''. Herein, we report the synthesis of a novel, azido-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) silane that can easily self-assemble on MNPs through hetero-condensation between surface hydroxyl groups and the silane end of the ligand, and simultaneously provide multiple clickable sites for high density, chemoselective bio-conjugation. To establish the universal-ligand-strategy, we clicked alkyl-functionalized folate onto the surface of PEGylated MNPs. By further integrating a near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) marker (Alexa-Fluor 647) with MNPs, we demonstrated their folate-receptor mediated internalization inside cancer cells and subsequent translocation into lysosomes and mitochondria. Ex vivo NIRF imaging established that the azido-PEG-silane developed in course of the study can effectively reduce the sequestration of MNPs by macrophage organs (viz. liver and spleen). These folate-PEG-MNPs were not only stealth and noncytotoxic but their dual optical and magnetic properties aided in tracking their whereabouts through combined magnetic resonance and optical imaging. Together, these results provided a strong motivation for the future use of the ``universal ligand'' strategy towards development of ``smart'' nanohybrids for theragnostic applications.

Computational studies on histidine kinase protein BaeS to target multidrug-resistant Salmonella

Multidrug-resistant Salmonella serovars have been a recent concern in curing infectious diseases like typhoid. Salmonella BaeS and BaeR are the two-component system (TCS) that signal transduction proteins found to play an important role in its multidrug resistance. A canonical TCS comprises a histidine kinase (HK) and its cognate partner response regulator (RR). The general approaches for therapeutic targeting are either the catalytic ATP-binding domain or the dimerization domain HisKA (DHp) of the HK, and in some cases, the receiver or the regulatory domain of the RR proteins. Earlier efforts of identifying novel drugs targeting the signal transduction protein have not been quite successful, as it shares similar ATP-binding domain with the key house keeping gene products of the mammalian GHL family. However, targeting the dimerization domain of HisKA through which the signals are received from the RR can be a better approach. In this article, we show stepwise procedure to specifically identify the key interacting residues involved in the dimerization with the RR along with effective targeting by ligands screened from the public database. We have found a few inhibitors which target effectively the important residues for the dimerization activity. Our results suggest a plausible de novo design of better DHp domain inhibitors.

Simulations reveal that the HIV-1 gp120-CD4 complex dissociates via complex pathways and is a potential target of the polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer

The polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer prevents HIV-1 entry into target cells in vitro. Its mechanism of action, however, remains unclear and precludes the design of potent dendrimers targeting HIV-1 entry. We employed steered molecular dynamics simulations to examine whether the HIV-1 gp120-CD4 complex is a target of PAMAM. Our simulations mimicked single molecule force spectroscopy studies of the unbinding of the gp120-CD4 complex under the influence of a controlled external force. We found that the complex dissociates via complex pathways and defies the standard classification of adhesion molecules as catch and slip bonds. When the force loading rate was large, the complex behaved as a slip bond, weakening gradually. When the loading rate was small, the complex initially strengthened, akin to a catch bond, but eventually dissociated over shorter separations than with large loading rates. PAMAM docked to gp120 and destabilized the gp120-CD4 complex. The rupture force of the complex was lowered by PAMAM. PAMAM disrupted salt bridges and hydrogen bonds across the gp120-CD4 interface and altered the hydration pattern of the hydrophobic cavity in the interface. In addition, intriguingly, PAMAM suppressed the distinction in the dissociation pathways of the complex between the small and large loading rate regimes. Taken together, our simulations reveal that PAMAM targets the gp120-CD4 complex at two levels: it weakens the complex and also alters its dissociation pathway, potentially inhibiting HIV-1 entry.

Intercepting maneuvering target with specified impact angle by modified SDRE technique

A guidance law derived by modifying state dependent Riccati equation technique, to enable the imposition of a predetermined terminal intercept angle to a maneuvering target, is presented in this paper. The interceptor is assumed to have no knowledge about the type of maneuver the target is executing. The problem is cast in a non-cooperative game theoretic form. The guidance law obtained is dependent on the LOS angular rotational rate and on the impact angle error. Theoretical conditions which guarantee existence of solutions under this method have been derived. It is shown that imposing the impact angle constraint calls for an increase in the gains of the guidance law considerably, subsequently requiring a higher maneuverability advantage of the interceptor. The performance of the proposed guidance law is studied using a non-linear two dimensional simulation of the relative kinematics, assuming first order dynamics for the interceptor and target.

State estimation of spiralling target using UKF with generalized sinusoidal target acceleration model

Hit-to-kill interception of high velocity spiraling target requires accurate state estimation of relative kinematic parameters describing spiralling motion. In this pa- per, spiraling target motion is captured by representing target acceleration through sinusoidal function in inertial frame. A nine state unscented Kalman filter (UKF) formulation is presented here with three relative positions, three relative velocities, spiraling frequency of target, inverse of ballistic coefficient and maneuvering coef-ficient. A key advantage of the target model presented here is that it is of generic nature and can capture spiraling as well as pure ballistic motions without any change of tuning parameters. Extensive Six-DOF simulation experiments, which includes a modified PN guidance and dynamic inversion based autopilot, show that near Hit-to-Kill performance can be obtained with noisy RF seeker measurements of gimbal angles, gimbal angle rates, range and range rate.

Target reliability-based optimisation for internal seismic stability of reinforced soil structures

In this paper, an approach for target component and system reliability-based design optimisation (RBDO) to evaluate safety for the internal seismic stability of geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) structures is presented. Three modes of failure are considered: tension failure of the bottom-most layer of reinforcement, pullout failure of the topmost layer of reinforcement, and total pullout failure of all reinforcement layers. The analysis is performed by treating backfill properties, geometric and strength properties of reinforcement as random variables. The optimum number of reinforcement layers and optimum pullout length needed to maintain stability against tension failure, pullout failure and total pullout failure for different coefficients of variation of friction angle of the backfill, design strength of the reinforcement and horizontal seismic acceleration coefficients by targeting various system reliability indices are proposed. The results provide guidelines for the total length of reinforcement required, considering the variability of backfill as well as seismic coefficients. One illustrative example is presented to explain the evaluation of reliability for internal stability of reinforced soil structures using the proposed approach. In the second illustration (the stability of five walls), the Kushiro wall subjected to the Kushiro-Oki earthquake, the Seiken wall subjected to the Chiba-ken Toho-Oki earthquake, the Ta Kung wall subjected to the Ji-Ji earthquake, and the Gould and Valencia walls subjected to Northridge earthquake are re-examined.

Epitaxial Co metal thin film grown by pulsed laser deposition using oxide target

We report here the growth of epitaxial Co metal thin film on c-plane sapphire by pulsed laser deposition (RD) using Co:ZnO target utilizing the composition inhomogeneity of the corresponding plasma. Two distinct plasma composition regions have been observed using heavily alloyed Co0.6Zn0.4O target. The central and intense region of the plasma grows Co:ZnO film; the extreme tail grows only Co metal with no trace of either ZnO or Co oxide In between the two extremes, mixed phases (Co +Co-oxides +Co:ZnO) were observed. The Co metal thin film grown in this way shows room temperature ferromagnetism with large in plane magnetization similar to 1288 emu cm(-3) and a coerciviLy of similar to 230 Oe with applied field parallel to the film-substrate interface. Carrier density of the film is similar to 10(22) cm(-3). The film is epiLaxial single phase Co metal which is confirmed by both X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy characierizaLions. Planar Hall Effect (PHE) and Magneto Optic Kerr Effect (MOKE) measurements confirm that the film possesses similar attributes of Co metal. The result shows that the epiLaxial Co metal thin film can be grown from its oxides in the PLD. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Detection of Target DNA using Photo-Reactive Protoporphyrin Moeity on a Nanocomposite Substrate

Detection of pathogens from infected biological samples through conventional process involves cell lysis and purification. The main objective of this work is to minimize the time and sample loss, as well as to increase the efficiency of detection of biomolecules. Electrical lysis of medical sample is performed in a closed microfluidic channel in a single integrated platform where the downstream analysis of the sample is possible. The device functions involve, in a sequence, flow of lysate from lysis chamber passed through a thermal denaturation counter where dsDNA is denatured to ssDNA, which is controlled by heater unit. A functionalized binding chamber of ssDNA is prepared by using ZnO nanorods as the matrix and functionalized with bifunctional carboxylic acid, 16-(2-pyridyldithiol) hexadecanoic acid (PDHA) which is further attached to a linker molecule 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) (EDC). Linker moeity is then covalently bound to photoreactive protoporphyrin (PPP) molecule. The photolabile molecule protoporphyrin interacts with -NH2 labeled single stranded DNA (ssDNA) which thus acts as a probe to detect complimentary ssDNA from target organisms. Thereafter the bound DNA with protoporphyrin is exposed to an LED of particular wavelength for a definite period of time and DNA was eluted and analyzed. UV/Vis spectroscopic analysis at 260/280 nm wavelength confirms the purity and peak at 260 nm is reconfirmed for the elution of target DNA. Quantitative and qualitative data obtained from the current experiments show highly selective detection of biomolecule such as DNA which have large number of future applications in Point-of-Care devices.

Suramin is a potent and selective inhibitor of Mycobacterium tuberculosis RecA protein and the SOS response: RecA as a potential target for antibacterial drug discovery

In eubacteria, RecA is essential for recombinational DNA repair and for stalled replication forks to resume DNA synthesis. Recent work has implicated a role for RecA in the development of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria. Consequently, our goal is to identify and characterize small-molecule inhibitors that target RecA both in vitro and in vivo. We employed ATPase, DNA strand exchange and LexA cleavage assays to elucidate the inhibitory effects of suramin on Mycobacterium tuberculosis RecA. To gain insights into the mechanism of suramin action, we directly visualized the structure of RecA nucleoprotein filaments by atomic force microscopy. To determine the specificity of suramin action in vivo, we investigated its effect on the SOS response by pull-down and western blot assays as well as for its antibacterial activity. We show that suramin is a potent inhibitor of DNA strand exchange and ATPase activities of bacterial RecA proteins with IC50 values in the low micromolar range. Additional evidence shows that suramin inhibits RecA-catalysed proteolytic cleavage of the LexA repressor. The mechanism underlying such inhibitory actions of suramin involves its ability to disassemble RecA-single-stranded DNA filaments. Notably, suramin abolished ciprofloxacin-induced recA gene expression and the SOS response and augmented the bactericidal action of ciprofloxacin. Our findings suggest a strategy to chemically disrupt the vital processes controlled by RecA and hence the promise of small molecules for use against drug-susceptible as well as drug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis for better infection control and the development of new therapies.

Heat shock protein 90 as a potential drug target against surra

Trypanosomiasis is caused by Trypanosoma species which affect both human and animal populations and pose a major threat to developing countries. The incidence of animal trypanosomiasis is on the rise. Surra is a type of animal trypanosomiasis, caused by Trypanosoma evansi, and has been included in priority list B of significant diseases by the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE). Control of surra has been a challenge due to the lack of effective drugs and vaccines and emergence of resistance towards existing drugs. Our laboratory has previously implicated Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) from protozoan parasites as a potential drug target and successfully demonstrated efficacy of an Hsp90 inhibitor in cell culture as well as a pre-clinical mouse model of trypanosomiasis. This article explores the role of Hsp90 in the Trypanosoma life cycle and its potential as a drug target. It appears plausible that the repertoire of Hsp90 inhibitors available in academia and industry may have value for treatment of surra and other animal trypanosomiasis.

Characterizing the pocketome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and application in rationalizing polypharmacological target selection

Polypharmacology is beginning to emerge as an important concept in the field of drug discovery. However, there are no established approaches to either select appropriate target sets or design polypharmacological drugs. Here, we propose a structural-proteomics approach that utilizes the structural information of the binding sites at a genome-scale obtained through in-house algorithms to characterize the pocketome, yielding a list of ligands that can participate in various biochemical events in the mycobacterial cell. The pocket-type space is seen to be much larger than the sequence or fold-space, suggesting that variations at the site-level contribute significantly to functional repertoire of the organism. All-pair comparisons of binding sites within Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), pocket-similarity network construction and clustering result in identification of binding-site sets, each containing a group of similar binding sites, theoretically having a potential to interact with a common set of compounds. A polypharmacology index is formulated to rank targets by incorporating a measure of druggability and similarity to other pockets within the proteome. This study presents a rational approach to identify targets with polypharmacological potential along with possible drugs for repurposing, while simultaneously, obtaining clues on lead compounds for use in new drug-discovery pipelines.

Capturability of Augmented Pure Proportional Navigation Guidance Against Time-Varying Target Maneuvers

This paper proposes a variation of the pure proportional navigation guidance law, called augmented pure proportional navigation, to account for target maneuvers, in a realistic nonlinear engagement geometry, and presents its capturability analysis. These results are in contrast to most work in the literature on augmented proportional navigation laws that consider a linearized geometry imposed upon the true proportional navigation guidance law. Because pure proportional navigation guidance law is closer to a realistic implementation of proportional navigation than true proportional navigation law, and any engagement process is predominantly nonlinear, the results obtained in this paper are more realistic than any available in the literature. Sufficient conditions on speed ratio, navigation gain, and augmentation parameter for capturability, and boundedness of lateral acceleration, against targets executing piecewise continuous maneuvers with time, are obtained. Further, based on a priori knowledge of the maximum maneuver capability of the target, a significant simplification of the guidance law is proposed in this paper. The proposed guidance law is also shown to require a shorter time of interception than standard pure proportional navigation and augmented proportional navigation. To remove chattering in the interceptor maneuver at the end phase of the engagement, a hybrid guidance law using augmented pure proportional navigation and pure proportional navigation is also proposed. Finally, the guaranteed capture zones of standard and augmented pure proportional navigation guidance laws against maneuvering targets are analyzed and compared in the normalized relative velocity space. It is shown that the guaranteed capture zone expands significantly when augmented pure proportional navigation is used instead of pure proportional navigation. Simulation results are given to support the theoretical findings.