Prachi Anand

The aqueous extract of the fruits of Terminalia chebula Retz. has been evaluated for its antidiabetic activity in streptozotocin (STZ) induced mild diabetic rats and compared with a known drug, tolbutamide. The oral effective dose (ED) of the extract was observed to be 200 mg/kg body weight, which produced a fall of 55.6% (p<0.01) in the oral glucose tolerance test. Oral administration of ED of aqueous extract of T.chebula (AETC) daily once for two months reduced the elevated blood glucose by 43.2% (p<0.01) and significantly reduced the increase in glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) (p<0.01). The same dose also showed a marked improvement in controlling the elevated blood lipids as well as decreased serum insulin levels in contrast to the untreated diabetic animals. Hepatic and skeletal muscle glycogen content decreased by 75% and 62.9% respectively in diabetic controls, these alterations were partly prevented (34.9% and 21.17%) in AETC treated group when compared to the healthy controls. The in vitro studies with pancreatic islets showed that the insulin release was nearly two times more than that in untreated diabetic animals. The treatment did not have any unfavorable effect on other blood parameters of liver and kidney function tests. LD 50 was found to be above 3 g/kg bw i.e. 15 times of ED, because there were no deaths of animals even at this dose indicating high margin of safety. These findings suggest further investigations for the possible use of the aqueous extract of fruits of T.chebula for the treatment of diabetes.

Novel bisbenzimidazole inhibitors of bacterial type IA topoisomerase are of interest for the development of new antibacterial agents that are impacted by target-mediated cross resistance with fluoroquinolones. The present study demonstrates the successful synthesis and evaluation of bisbenzimidazole analogues as Escherichia coli topoisomerase IA inhibitors. 5-(4-Propylpiperazin-1-yl)-2-[2'-(4-ethoxyphenyl)-5'-benzimidazolyl]benzimidazole (12b) showed significant relaxation inhibition activity against EcTopo 1A (IC50 = 2 ± 0.005 μM) and a tendency to chelate metal ion. Interestingly, these compounds did not show significant inhibition of E. coli DNA gyrase and hTop 1 even up to 100 μM. Compound 12b has shown lowest MIC against E. coli strains among 24 compounds evaluated. The binding affinity constant and binding free energy of 12b with EcTopo 1A was observed 6.8 × 10(6) M(-1) and -10.84 kcal mol(-1) from isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), respectively. In vivo mouse systemic infection and neutropenic thigh model experimental results confirmed the therapeutic efficacy of 12b, suggesting further development of this class of compounds as antibacterial agents.

The blood brain barrier (BBB) is often an insurmountable obstacle for a large number of candidate drugs, including peptides, antibiotics, and chemotherapeutic agents. Devising an adroit delivery method to cross the BBB is essential to unlocking widespread application of peptide therapeutics. Presented here is an engineered nanocontainer for delivering peptidic drugs across the BBB encapsulating the analgesic marine snail peptide ziconotide (Prialt®). We developed a bi-functional viral nanocontainer based on the Salmonella typhimurium bacteriophage P22 capsid, genetically incorporating ziconotide in the interior cavity, and chemically attaching cell penetrating HIV-Tat peptide on the exterior of the capsid. Virus like particles (VLPs) of P22 containing ziconotide were successfully transported in several BBB models of rat and human brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMVEC) using a recyclable noncytotoxic endocytic pathway. This work demonstrates proof in principle for developing a possible alternative to intrathecal injection of ziconotide using a tunable VLP drug delivery nanocontainer to cross the BBB.