Current Status and Structure Activity Relationship of Privileged Azoles as Antifungal Agents (2016-2020).

Fungal infections have greatly contributed to infectious-related deaths in the past century. This issue has become worse with the advent of immunity-impairing conditions such as HIV. The eukaryote nature of fungal pathogens makes them harder to eradicate than bacterial infections. Given the importance of the problem, considerable efforts have been made to the synthesis and biological assessment of azole-based chemical scaffolds and their bioisosteres. The emergence of validated macromolecular targets within different fungal species has inspired structure-based drug design strategies toward diverse azole-based agents. Despite advantageous features, the emergence of drug-resistant fungal species has restricted the applicability of current azoles as first-line antifungal agents. Consequently, it appears advisable to elucidate the structure activity relationships (SAR) and chemical biodiversity within antifungal azoles. This review is devoted to a brief look at clinically applied drugs, structure-based classification of azole antifungals and their SAR. The reviewed molecules belong to the antifungal structures that were reported throughout 2016-2020.

An ultra-sensitive impedimetric immunosensor for detection of the serum oncomarker CA-125 in ovarian cancer patients.

Effective treatment of ovarian cancer depends upon the early detection of the malignancy. Here, we report on the development of a new nanostructured immunosensor for early detection of cancer antigen 125 (CA-125). A gold electrode was modified with mercaptopropionic acid (MPA), and then consecutively conjugated with silica coated gold nanoparticles (AuNP@SiO2), CdSe quantum dots (QDs) and anti-CA-125 monoclonal antibody (mAb). The engineered MPA|AuNP@SiO2|QD|mAb immunosensor was characterised using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Successive conjugation of AuNP@SiO2, CdSe QD and anti-CA-125 mAb onto the gold electrode resulted in sensitive detection of CA-125 with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.0016 U mL(-1) and a linear detection range (LDR) of 0-0.1 U mL(-1). Based on the high sensitivity and specificity of the immunosensor, we propose this highly stable and reproducible biosensor for the early detection of CA-125.

Comparison of ultrasonic with stirrer performance for removal of sunset yellow (SY) by activated carbon prepared from wood of orange tree: artificial neural network modeling.

The present work focused on the removal of sunset yellow (SY) dye from aqueous solution by ultrasound-assisted adsorption and stirrer by activated carbon prepared from wood of an orange tree. Also, the artificial neural network (ANN) model was used for predicting removal (%) of SY dye based on experimental data. In this study a green approach was described for the synthesis of activated carbon prepared from wood of an orange tree and usability of it for the removal of sunset yellow. This material was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The impact of variables, including initial dye concentration (mg/L), pH, adsorbent dosage (g), sonication time (min) and temperature (°C) on SY removal were studied. Fitting the experimental equilibrium data of different isotherm models such as Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich models display the suitability and applicability of the Langmuir model. Analysis of experimental adsorption data by different kinetic models including pseudo-first and second order, Elovich and intraparticle diffusion models indicate the applicability of the second-order equation model. The adsorbent (0.5g) is applicable for successful removal of SY (>98%) in short time (10min) under ultrasound condition.