Department of Bioscience & Bioengineering

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Flexibility in curriculum, in all its academic programs, encompassing elements of teaching, research, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship is the most unique feature of IIT Jodhpur. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, has identified IIT Jodhpur as a Technology &amp; Innovation Hub in the area of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The institute has also been nominated as the coordinator for the Jodhpur City and Knowledge Cluster by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.

The sprawling 852-acre IIT Jodhpur campus is a majestic tribute to the deep-rooted diverse cultural heritage of the region. The campus is an architectural masterpiece, which is slated to become an international exemplar of sustainability with net-zero energy, and advanced water and waste management strategies.&rdquo;

IIT Jodhpur

Objective: Asparagus racemosus, the source of Asparagamine A, has been known for its multifaceted therapeutic actions. But these actions have hardly been attributed to Asparagamine A, a polycyclic pyrrolizidine alkaloid. Methods: In the present study, a molecular docking of Asparagamine A with critical proteins associated with many diseases. Farnesyl Pyrophosphate Synthase (FPPS) in osteoporosis, Plasmepsin II in malaria, HIV1 proteases in AIDS, CmaA2 and PKnB in tuberculosis, Trypanothione Reductase (TR) in Trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis, Insulin Receptor (IR), Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptors (VEGFR) and Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptors (PPAR) in cancer, are few of the proteins being targeted for their associated diseases. Lamarckian Genetic Algorithm was applied for molecular docking using Autodock4.2. The metabolite structures were retrieved from KNApSAcK-3D database. PreADMET server was used for Toxicity and ADME predictions. Results: Asparagamine A was found to exhibit good drug-likeness score, good ADME properties with no carcinogenicity and toxicity. Asparagamine A showed a higher affinity with the above mentioned proteins than standard commercially available drugs. Thus, the phytochemical Asparagamine A can be a potential therapeutic molecule. Conclusion: Asparagamine A gave a high affinity for crucial drug targets involved in many diseases, thus providing a clue for design of lead molecules with better specificity and affinity. Further, in vitro and in vitro studies needs to be carried out.

World University root node

International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

In silico screening to elucidate the therapeutic potentials of Asparagamine A

Bigels are novel semi-solid formulations which have been drawing attention of many research scientists due to their numerous advantages over the conventional gels. The objective of this study was to develop and characterize novel bigels by mixing guar gum hydrogel and sorbitan monostearate-sesame oil based organogel for controlled drug delivery applications. The confocal microscopy suggested the existence of both aqueous and oil phases together as bigel. Micro-scale deformation (viscometric) analysis in conjugation with macro-scale deformation studies suggested shear-thinning and viscoelastic nature of the bigels. Thermal study suggested an increase in thermal stability with the increase in organogel proportion in the bigels. The developed bigels were biocompatible in nature. The in vitro drug release study showed that the release of ciprofloxacin (lipophilic drug) increased with a decrease in the organogel content. Further analysis showed that the drug release from all the bigels followed zero order diffusion kinetics which is desirable for a controlled release system. The drug loaded gels showed good antimicrobial efficiency against Bacillus subtilis. In conclusion, the developed bigels may be tried as matrices for topical drug delivery. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces

Guar gum and sesame oil based novel bigels for controlled drug delivery

Biopolymers

Water and side‐chain embedded $\pi$‐turns

Here, we report a covalently functionalized graphene oxide with Tris-(nitrilo Tris-acetic acid) (TGO), which can reconstitute kinesin mediated intracellular cargo transport, and deliver multiple proteins and therapeutic antimitotic dodecapeptide peptides into the cancer cell. © 2014 The Partner Organisations.

Chemical Communications

Single functionalized graphene oxide reconstitutes kinesin mediated intracellular cargo transport and delivers multiple cytoskeleton proteins and therapeutic molecules into the cell

A new synthetic tripeptide-based hydrogel has been discovered at physiological pH and temperature. This hydrogel has been thoroughly characterized using different techniques including field emission scanning electron microscopic (FE-SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopic (HR-TEM) imaging, small- and wide-angle X-ray diffraction analyses, FT-IR, circular dichroism, and rheometric analyses. Moreover, this gel exhibits thixotropy and injectability. This hydrogel has been used for entrapment and sustained release of an antibiotic vancomycin and vitamin B12 at physiological pH and temperature for about 2 days. Interestingly, MTT assay of these gelator molecules shows almost 100% cell viability of this peptide gelator, indicating its noncytotoxicity. © 2014 American Chemical Society.

Langmuir

Assembly of an injectable noncytotoxic peptide-based hydrogelator for sustained release of drugs

Energy efficient voltage scheduling for multi-core processors is an important issue in the context of parallel and distributed computing. Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) is used to reduce the energy consumption of cores. Nowadays processor vendors are providing software for DVS. We consider a system using a single multi-core processor with software controlled DVS having a finite set of discretely available core speeds. Our contribution to this work is solving a well-known energy efficient voltage scheduling problem on the considered system. The problem that we consider is to find a minimum energy voltage scheduling for a given computational load that has to be completed within a given deadline. First we show that the existing methods to solve this problem on other processor models fail to apply on our processor model. Then we formulate an Integer Program (IP) for the problem. Through a series of reductions we reduce the IP formulation of the problem into an Integer Linear Program (ILP) formulation and prove that the proposed IP for the problem can be solved in O(D(log(max(s(max), p) + 1) + qlog(Dp + 1)) + log(alpha ps(max)(3)D)(2q(4q + 3)log(max(Dp, C) + 2))(alpha 2q)) time where D is the given deadline, Cis the amount of computation that has to be completed within the deadline of D time units, p is the number of cores, q is the number of possible core speeds, s(max) is the maximum speed of cores, and cc and a are constants. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

APPLIED MATHEMATICAL MODELLING

Energy efficient voltage scheduling for multi-core processors with software controlled dynamic voltage scaling

The protein quality control (QC) system protects cells against cellular toxicity induced by misfolded proteins and maintains overall cellular fitness. Inefficient clearance of or failure to degrade damaged proteins causes several diseases, especially age-linked neurodegenerative disorders. Attenuation of misfolded protein degradation under severe stress conditions leads to the rapid over-accumulation of toxic proteinaceous aggregates in the cytoplasmic compartment. However, the precise cytoplasmic quality control degradation mechanism is unknown. In the present study, we demonstrate that the Nedd4-like E3 ubiquitin ligase ITCH specifically interacts with mutant bona fide misfolded proteins and colocalizes with their perinuclear aggregates. In a cell culture model, we demonstrate ITCH recruitment by cytoplasmic inclusions containing polyglutamine-expanded huntingtin or ataxin-3 proteins. Transient overexpression of ITCH dramatically induced the degradation of thermally denatured misfolded luciferase protein. Partial depletion of ITCH increased the rate of aggregate formation and cell death generated by expanded polyglutamine proteins. Finally, we demonstrate that overexpression of ITCH alleviates the cytotoxic potential of expanded polyglutamine proteins and reduces aggregation. These observations indicate that ITCH is involved in the cytosolic quality control pathway and may help to explain how abnormal proteins are targeted by QC ubiquitin-protein ligases.

Fulltext

Scientific Reports

Ubiquitin ligase ITCH recruitment suppresses the aggregation and cellular toxicity of cytoplasmic misfolded proteins

Advanced Materials

Designing multi-branched gold nanoechinus for NIR light activated dual modal photodynamic and photothermal therapy in the second biological window

Gene therapy provides a new hope for previously "incurable" diseases. Low gene transfection efficiency, however, is the bottle-neck to the success of gene therapy. It is very challenging to develop non-viral nanocarriers to achieve ultra-high gene transfection efficiencies. Herein, we report a novel design of "tight binding-but-detachable" lipid-nanoparticle composite to achieve ultrahigh gene transfection efficiencies of 60~82%, approaching the best value (~90%) obtained using viral vectors. We show that Fe@CNPs nanoparticles coated with LP-2000 lipid molecules can be used as gene carriers to achieve ultra-high (60-80%) gene transfection efficiencies in HeLa, U-87MG, and TRAMP-C1 cells. In contrast, Fe@CNPs having surface-covalently bound N,N,N-trimethyl-N-2-methacryloxyethyl ammonium chloride (TMAEA) oligomers can only achieve low (23-28%) gene transfection efficiencies. Similarly ultrahigh gene transfection/expression was also observed in zebrafish model using lipid-coated Fe@CNPs as gene carriers. Evidences for tight binding and detachability of DNA from lipid-nanoparticle nanocarriers will be presented. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Biomaterials

A general strategy to achieve ultra-high gene transfection efficiency using lipid-nanoparticle composites

It is well known that a velocity perturbation can travel through a mass spring chain with strongly nonlinear interactions as a solitary and antisolitary wave pair. In recent years, nonlinear wave propagation in 2D structures have also been explored. Here we first consider the propagation of such a velocity perturbation for cases where the system has a 2D "Y"-shaped structure. Here each of the three pieces that make up the "Y" are made of a small mass spring chain. In addition, we consider a case where multiple "Y"-shaped structures are used to generate a "tree." We explore the early time dynamical behavior associated with the propagation of a velocity perturbation initiated at the trunk and at the extremities for both cases. We are looking for the energy transmission properties from one branch to another of these "Y"-shaped structures. Our dynamical simulations suggest the following broad observations: (i) for strongly nonlinear interactions, mechanical energy propagation resembles pulse propagation with the energy propagation being dispersive in the linear case; (ii) for strong nonlinear interactions, the tree-like structure acts as an energy gate showing preference for large perturbations in the system while the behavior of the linear case shows no such preference, thereby suggesting that such structures can possibly act as switches that activate at sufficiently high energies. The study aspires to develop insights into the nature of nonlinear wave propagation through a network of linear chains. © 2014 American Physical Society.