In vitro and in silico studies on the anticancer and apoptosis-inducing activities of the sterols identified from the soft coral, subergorgia reticulata.

BACKGROUND: Gorgonians and other octocorals are known to possess a huge array of secondary metabolites in which sterols are the major group of secondary metabolites apart from sesquiterpenes and diterpenes, and the bioactive metabolites could show marked biomedical potential for future drug discovery. OBJECTIVE: This study was intended for the isolation and identification of sterols from the octocoral Subergorgia reticulata and to evaluate the anticancer and apoptosis-inducing activities of the identified sterols through in vitro and in silico approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The organism was collected from Lakshadweep Island. The isolated sterols were identified using Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The structure was confirmed by using comparison of their spectra those in National Institute of Standard Technology (NIST) library. The apoptosis inducing effect of identified sterols were determined by PASS online prediction. In vitro cytotoxity studies were carried out using Dalton's lymphoma ascites cells (DLA) and the cell viability was determined by trypan blue exclusion method. RESULTS: Six sterols were identified from the soft coral S. reticulata. They are Cholesta-5,22-diene-3ol (3ß), Ergosta-5-22-dien-3ol (3ß,22E 24S), Cholesterol, 26,26-Dimethyl-5,24(28)-ergostadien-3ß-ol. ß-sitosterol, and Fucosterol. In silico predictions showed that the identified sterols exhibited remarkable apoptosis agonist activity. The probability of apoptosis agonist activity were found maximum for 26,26-Dimethyl-5,24 (28)-S. reticulata sterol fractions isolated were found to be having anticancer activity. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that S. reticulata contained biologically active sterol compounds that may be useful in the treatment of cancer.

N'-[(E)-(3-Fluoro-pyridin-2-yl)methyl-idene]pyridine-3-carbohydrazide dihydrate.

The organic molecule in the title dihydrate, C12H9FN4O·2H2O, exists in the E conformation with respect to the azo-methane C=N double bond. The mol-ecule is approximately planar, with a maximum deviation of 0.117 (1) Šfor the carbonyl O atom from the mean plane of the mol-ecule. Both pyridine rings are essentially coplanar with the central C(=O)N2C unit [dihedral angles = 1.99 (7) and 5.71 (8)°], exhibiting a significant difference in dihedral angles from its benzohydrazide analogue. The crystal packing features N-H⋯O, O-H⋯N and O-H⋯O hydrogen-bond inter-actions, which lead to the formation of a chain along the c-axis direction through one of the water mol-ecules present, and these chains are stacked one over the other by means of π-π inter-actions [with centroid-centroid distances of 3.7099 (10) and 3.6322 (10) Å] between the aromatic rings in neighbouring anti-parallel mol-ecules, building a three-dimensional supra-molecular network.

Factors determining noncompliance to mass drug administration for lymphatic filariasis elimination.

Mass Drug Administration (MDA) for Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) elimination has been implemented worldwide and in India with a goal of eliminating the disease by 2020 and 2015 respectively. Compliance to MDA is less than adequate to achieve the goal in the desired time. This study aims to identify the factors related to awareness, acceptability and attitude and the role of certain theoretical constructs of health belief model in determining the compliant behavior to MDA. Within a cross-sectional study done in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala, India, undertaken to determine coverage, a comparison was done between compliant and noncompliant individuals. 300 households were selected using cluster sampling technique, for estimation of coverage of MDA. From these households, 99 noncompliant and 70 compliant individuals were selected as cases and controls. The independent factors determining noncompliance were client attitude of not perceiving the need with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 2.52 (1.29-4.92), an unfavorable provider attitude with an adjusted OR of 2.14 (1.05-4.35) and low drug administrator acceptability with an adjusted OR of 2.01 (1.01-3.99). In MDA, the person giving the drug to the beneficiary is the most important person, whose attitude and acceptability determines compliance. More rigorous selection and training for capacity building of drug administrators are essential to enhance the compliance level. Alternate drug delivery strategies, besides house to house campaign by voluntary drug administers also needs to be implemented.