Identification of potential inhibitors against pathogenic missense mutations of PMM2 using a structure-based virtual screening approach

The autosomal recessive phosphomannomutase 2-congenital disorder of glycosylation (PMM2-CDG) is characterized by defective functioning of the PMM2 enzyme, which is necessary for the conversion of mannose-6-phosphate into mannose-1-phosphate. Here, a computational pipeline was drawn to identify the most significant mutations, and further, we used a virtual screening approach to identify a new lead compound to treat the identified significant mutations. We searched for missense mutation data related to PMM2-CDG in HGMD®, UniProt, and ClinVar. Our search yielded a total of 103 mutations, of which 91 are missense mutations. The D65Y, I132N, I132T, and F183S mutations were classified as deleterious, destabilizing, and altering the biophysical properties using the PredictSNP, iStable, and Align GVGD in silico prediction tools. Additionally, we applied a multistep protocol to screen for an alternative lead compound to the existing CID2876053 (1-(3-chlorophenyl)-3,3-bis(pyridine-2-yl)urea) with affinity to these identified significant mutants. Two compounds, CHEMBL1491007 (6-chloro-4-phenyl-3-(4-pyridin-2-ylpiperazin-1-yl)-1H-quinolin-2-one) and CHEMBL3653029 (5-chloro-4-[6-[(3-fluorophenyl)methylamino]pyridin-2-yl]-N-(piperidin-4-ylmethyl)pyridin-2-amine), exhibited the highest binding affinity with the selected mutants and were chosen for further analysis. Through molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation, and MMPBSA analysis, we found that the known compound, i.e. CID2876053, has stronger interaction with the D65Y mutant. The newly identified lead compound CHEMBL1491007 showed stronger interaction with the I132N and I132T mutants, whereas the most deleterious mutant, F183S, showed stronger interaction with CHEMBL3653029. This study is expected to aid in the field of precision medicine, and further to in vivo and in vitro analysis of these lead compounds might shed light on the treatment of PMM2-CDG. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Oxidative Cyclization of Naphtholic Sulfonamides Mediated by a Chiral Hypervalent Iodine Reagent: Asymmetric Synthesis versus Resolution

A chiral aryl iodide promotes the enantioselective oxidative cyclization of 1-naphtholic sulfonamides, albeit in moderate ee and low yield. The products tend to crystallize as conglomerates. Recrystallization thus increases their ee to > 99% ee. This highly enantioenriched material provides seed crystals for the resolution of the racemate (prepared in high yield by oxidative cyclization with (diacetoxyiodo)benzene in trifluoroacetic acid) by coupled preferential crystallization. This enables the production of significant quantities of highly enantioenriched products, despite the low efficiency of the enantioselective reaction.

Hydrogel scaffold with substrate elasticity mimicking physiological-niche promotes proliferation of functional keratinocytes

High numbers of autologous human primary keratinocytes (HPKs) are required for patients with burns, wounds and for gene therapy of skin disorders. Although freshly isolated HPKs exhibit a robust regenerative capacity, traditional methodology fails to provide a sufficient number of cells. Here we demonstrated a well characterized, non-cytotoxic and inert hydrogel as a substrate that mimics skin elasticity, which can accelerate proliferation and generate higher numbers of HPKs compared to existing tissue culture plastic (TCP) dishes. More importantly, this novel method was independent of feeder layer or any exogenous pharmaceutical drug. The HPKs from the hydrogel-substrate were functional as demonstrated by wound-healing assay, and the expression of IFN-γ-responsive genes (CXCL10, HLADR). Importantly, gene delivery efficiency by a lentiviral based delivery system was significantly higher in HPKs cultured on hydrogels compared with TCP. In conclusion, our study provides the first evidence that cell-material mechanical interaction is enough to provide a rapid expansion of functional keratinocytes that might be used as autologous grafts for skin disorders.

High numbers of autologous human primary keratinocytes (HPKs) are required for patients with burns, wounds and for gene therapy of skin disorders.

Abstract P1-15-11: Predicting pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) based on pre- and post-NACT digital mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis findings

Background: In invasive breast cancer patients being treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT), achieving pathological complete response (pCR) is a useful goal of treatment. Monitoring response to NACT and predicting pCR is helpful in planning further therapy and providing robust prognostic information. Digital mammography (DM) and additional digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) features are important tell-tales of tumor characteristics and behaviour. Following NACT, the mammographic features- both DM and DBT- of responding tumors can vary considerably. In this prospective study, we correlated the DM and DBT features of pre-NACT and post-NACT mammograms to investigate if these can reliably predict pCR to NACT.

Methods: Following approval by institutional ethics committee, starting January 2016, 200 consecutive invasive breast carcinoma patients (mean age 51.2 years, all palpable breast masses) undergoing diagnostic breast imaging had their DM and DBT reviewed by two radiologists independently, who were blinded of the cyto/histology and the original DM and DBT reporting. Of these, 47 patients who were treated with NACT and had pre- and post-NACT DM and DBT were recruited. After a core-biopsy, radio-opaque marker(s) were placed in tumor core/margin. The pre- and post-NACT DM and DBT findings were compared and correlated with the extent of response of the primary breast tumor to NACT. DM and DBT characteristics predictive of (in-breast) pCR of index breast lesion were identified.

Results: Of the 47 patients who underwent NACT, 44 received both anthracycline and taxane, and 3 received only an anthracycline based combination chemotherapy. Twelve patients underwent breast conservative surgery and the remaining underwent mastectomy. pCR was seen in 17 (36.2%) patients based on the surgical specimen histology. On clinical examination, 19 (40.4%) patients had clinical complete response (cCR) of the breast tumor, 11 (64.7%) of whom had pCR as well. Five patients had radiological complete response (rCR, no breast lesion visualised on post-NACT imaging)- 2 patients on DM alone, 2 patients on DBT alone, and one patient on both DM and DBT. Radio-opaque clips had some obscuring effects in 3 of these 5 patients, especially on DBT, in form of reduced visibility of breast lesion on DBT, c.w. corresponding DM images. All 5 patients with rCR had pCR (sensitivity=29.4%, specificity=100%), in contrast to only 11 (57.9%) patients with cCR having pCR. Patients with pCR had benign appearing (forced Bi-RADS 2 and 3) lesions on mammography more commonly on DM (p<0.001) than on DBT (p=0.042) (41.2% vs 23.5%). Post NACT lesion morphology varied significantly between patients with and without pCR on DM (p=0.038) but not on DBT (p=0.182). Pre-NACT forced Bi-RADS score, lesion morphology or margin characteristics on DM and DBT did not vary significantly amongst patients with and without pCR.

Conclusions: Post-NACT DM and DBT features can predict pCR with high specificity but with low sensitivity. Pre-NACT DM and DBT features did not reliably predict response to NACT, and pCR in this study. DM may be better than DBT for assessing response to NACT in the presence of radio-opaque markers/clips.

Citation Format: Agarwal G, Sonthineni C, Mohindra N, Jain N, Neyaz Z, Agrawal V, Krishnani N, Maylivahnan S, Mishra A, Lal P. Predicting pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) based on pre- and post-NACT digital mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis findings [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-15-11.

Ocular infection caused by Hormographiella aspergillata: A case report and review of literature

Hormographiella aspergillata, a basidiomycete is a rare cause of human infection. We report a case of 70-year-old female with corneal ulcer and endophthalmitis caused by this agent. The patient had an intraocular implantation of lens following a cataract surgery. Corneal tissue obtained during therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty showed presence of septate hyphae on microscopy and culture grew H. aspergillata which was confirmed by sequencing of ITS region. Patient was started on systemic voriconazole and topical natamycin, however the eye could not be salvaged. To our knowledge, this is the first report of ocular infection caused Hormographiella aspergillata in an immunocompetent patient.

Overlap Function Based Fuzzified Aquatic Behaviour Information Extracted Tsunami Prediction Model

Past natural hazards have produced numerous biological and physical indicators that can be used to predict similar instances in the future. These indicators can be sensed dynamically underwater or on land to generate real time alerts. This article proposes the first validated fuzzified system to predict tsunamis (FABETP) using an overlap-based algorithm. This proposed algorithm can predict seismicity based on underwater marine animal's anomalous behavior, characterized and implemented as biological indicators (i.e., aquatic animal behavioral attributes). Relevant information is extracted from these attributes and used to design fuzzy rules that generate opinion-based alerts. More precisely, the proposed algorithm, Overlap-based Fuzzified rated Marine Behavior, (OBF_MB), derives alert rules when executed on a sea turtle behavior dataset obtained from an online repository. The deployed underwater sensor-collected dataset includes the following measurements: induced electromagnetic field, undersea turtle count, and angle of deviation (in terms of the turtles' navigation direction formulated per month and per day). These values are used as the inputs to the proposed system. To generate an opinion, an information gain-based opinion score is used to calculate the opinion deviations from the generated opinions of the default rule. For future data values, 2004 is used here as the default opinion year and the scenarios is the default rule. This paper formulates three classes of opinions using the proposed algorithm: Alert, Pre-Alert and No-Alert. These opinions can be used in the future to generate real-time alerts based on aquatic animal behavior.