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Various remineralizing agents can be used to remineralize initial carious lesions.The study aims to compare and evaluate the remineralizing efficiency of Remin Pro (VOCO GmbH, Cuxhaven, Germany), tricalcium phosphate, and HealOzone (CurOzone USA Inc., Ontario, Canada) by measuring the microhardness of enamel.Forty-five mandibular premolars were collected and divided into three groups (A, B, and C). After sectioning mesiodistally, they were subdivided into the control and test groups. The test group was further subdivided into demineralized (AThe microhardness values of the demineralized group were lower compared to the samples of the control groups. In the remineralized group, the mean microhardness values were maximum for HealOzone (293.22 kgmmThe application of remineralizing paste proved potent in improving the remineralization in the demineralized enamel surface.

Graphical abstract, The world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Likewise, other viruses of the Coronaviridae family were responsible for causing epidemics earlier. To tackle these viruses, there is a lack of approved antiviral drugs. Therefore, we have developed robust computational methods to predict the repurposed drugs using machine learning techniques namely Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, k-Nearest Neighbour, Artificial Neural Network, and Deep Learning. We used the experimentally validated drugs/chemicals with anticorona activity (IC50/EC50) from ‘DrugRepV’ repository. The unique entries of SARS-CoV-2 (142), SARS (221), MERS (123), and overall Coronaviruses (414) were subdivided into the training/testing and independent validation datasets, followed by the extraction of chemical/structural descriptors and fingerprints (17968). The highly relevant features were filtered using the recursive feature selection algorithm. The selected chemical descriptors were used to develop prediction models with Pearson’s correlation coefficients ranging from 0.60 to 0.90 on training/testing. The robustness of the predictive models was further ensured using external independent validation datasets, decoy datasets, applicability domain, and chemical analyses. The developed models were used to predict promising repurposed drug candidates against coronaviruses after scanning the DrugBank. Top predicted molecules for SARS-CoV-2 were further validated by molecular docking against the spike protein complex with ACE receptor. We found potential repurposed drugs namely Verteporfin, Alatrofloxacin, Metergoline, Rescinnamine, Leuprolide, and Telotristat ethyl with high binding affinity. These ‘anticorona' computational models would assist in antiviral drug discovery against SARS-CoV-2 and other Coronaviruses.

Antibiotic drug resistance has emerged as a major public health threat globally. One of the leading causes of drug resistance is the colonization of microorganisms in biofilm mode. Hence, there is an urgent need to design novel and highly effective biofilm inhibitors that can work either synergistically with antibiotics or individually. Therefore, we have developed a recursive regression-based platform "Biofilm

The process of 3 Dimensional (3D) printing is used to create a 3D object with the help of a computer aided design (CAD) model, by successive addition of material layer by layer thus it is also known as additive manufacturing. During 1990’s, the technique of 3D printing was only applied for the manufacture of aesthetic or functional prototypes and was suitably named as rapid prototyping. The following descriptive review presents with an overview about contemporary 3D printing technologies and their use in various specialties of dentistry and largely focusing on the applications of this technology in the endodontics.

In December 2019, the Chinese city of Wuhan was the center of origin of a pneumonia-like disease outbreak with an unknown causative pathogen. The CDC, China, managed to track the source of infection to a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV; SARS-CoV-2) that shares approximately 79.6% of its genome with SARS-CoV. The World Health Organization (WHO) initially declared COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and later characterized it as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Due to the novel nature of this virus, there is an urgent need for vaccines and therapeutics to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and its associated disease, COVID-19. Global efforts are underway to circumvent its further spread and treat COVID-19 patients through experimental vaccine formulations and therapeutic interventions, respectively. In the absence of any effective therapeutics, we have devised h bioinformatics-based approaches to accelerate global efforts in the fight against SARS-CoV-2 and to assist researchers in the initial phase of vaccine and therapeutics development. In this study, we have performed comprehensive meta-analyses and developed an integrative resource, "CoronaVR" (http://bioinfo.imtech.res.in/manojk/coronavr/). Predominantly, we identified potential epitope-based vaccine candidates, siRNA-based therapeutic regimens, and diagnostic primers. The resource is categorized into the main sections "Genomes," "Epitopes," "Therapeutics," and Primers." The genome section harbors different components, viz, genomes, a genome browser, phylogenetic analysis, codon usage, glycosylation sites, and structural analysis. Under the umbrella of epitopes, sub-divisions, namely cross-protective epitopes, B-cell (linear/discontinuous), T-cell (CD4+/CD8+), CTL, and MHC binders, are presented. The therapeutics section has different sub-sections like siRNA, miRNAs, and sgRNAs. Further, experimentally confirmed and designed diagnostic primers are earmarked in the primers section. Our study provided a set of shortlisted B-cell and T-cell (CD4+ and CD8+) epitopes that can be experimentally tested for their incorporation in vaccine formulations. The list of selected primers can be used in testing kits to identify SARS-CoV-2, while the recommended siRNAs, sgRNAs, and miRNAs can be used in therapeutic regimens. We foresee that this resource will help in advancing the research against coronaviruses.

Aims: The aim of this study is to determine the mean failure load for each postsystem and the relationship between post lengths with the mean failure loads. Materials and Methods: Ninety single-rooted decoronated mandibular premolar teeth were endodontically treated and randomly assigned to three groups with respect to their post length (2/3rd and ½ of the root length). The first two groups were randomly divided into four subgroups, restored with the following postsystem: polyethylene-woven fiber posts, glass fiber tape, prefabricated carbon, and glass fiber posts. A composite core with no post served as control. All posts were cemented using dual-cure resin cement, and the same was used for core buildup. The standard cores were formed in each group. All the specimens were tested in a universal testing machine, and the load was calculated. Results: One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that prefabricated glass fiber post had significantly highest fracture resistance when compared to other prefabricated and custom fiber-reinforced composite posts. Two-way ANOVA demonstrated no significant difference among the post lengths. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that glass fiber posts showed higher fracture load, but post length did not significantly increase the fracture resistance of endodontically treated teeth.

ObjectiveTo assess the effect of tranexamic acid in head and neck surgical procedures.MethodsA prospective, double-blind and randomised, parallel group, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted. Ninety-two patients undergoing various head and neck surgical procedures were randomised. Subjects received seven infusions of coded drugs (tranexamic acid or normal saline) starting at the time of skin closure. Haematological, biochemical, blood loss and other parameters were observed by the staff, who were blinded to patients’ group allocation (case or control).ResultsPatients were analysed on the basis of type of surgery. Fifty patients who had undergone surgical procedures, including total thyroidectomy, total parotidectomy, and various neck dissections with or without primary tumour excision, were included in the first group. The second group comprised 41 patients who had undergone hemithyroidectomy, lobectomy or superficial parotidectomy. There was no statistical difference in blood parameters between both groups. There was a reduction in post-operative drain volume, but this was not significant.ConclusionAlthough this prospective, randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial found a reduction in post-operative drain volume in tranexamic acid groups, the difference was not statistically significant between the various head and neck surgical procedure groups.

The major challenge in traumatic injuries is the management of subgingival fracture of anterior teeth. Forced orthodontic extrusion is a suitable approach for these teeth as it provides both a sound tissue margin for final restoration and creates a periodontal environment (biological width) which is easy for the patient to maintain. Restoration after orthodontic eruption may present a more conservative treatment choice in young patients compared with the prosthetic restoration after extraction. This paper reports a case of the fractured maxillary anterior tooth at the subgingival level that was managed by forced orthodontic extrusion after endodontic therapy followed by aesthetic rehabilitation, a much-forgotten technique not utilised routinely yet conservative and cost-effective.

Chemical modifications have been extensively exploited to circumvent shortcomings in therapeutic applications of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). However, experimental designing and testing of these siRNAs or chemically modified siRNAs (cm-siRNAs) involves enormous resources. Therefore, in-silico intervention in designing cm-siRNAs would be of utmost importance. We developed SMEpred workbench to predict the efficacy of normal siRNAs as well as cm-siRNAs using 3031 heterogeneous cm-siRNA sequences from siRNAmod database. These include 30 frequently used chemical modifications on different positions of either siRNA strand. Support Vector Machine (SVM) was employed to develop predictive models utilizing various sequence features namely mono-, di-nucleotide composition, binary pattern and their hybrids. We achieved highest Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) of 0.80 during 10-fold cross validation and similar PCC value in independent validation. We have provided the algorithm in the 'SMEpred' pipeline to predict the normal siRNAs from the gene or mRNA sequence. For multiple modifications, we have assembled 'MultiModGen' module to design multiple modifications and further process them to evaluate their predicted efficacies. SMEpred webserver will be useful to scientific community engaged in use of RNAi-based technology as well as for therapeutic development. Web server is available for public use at following URL address: http://bioinfo.imtech.res.in/manojk/smepred .

The aberrant activation of B-cells has been implicated in several types of cancers and hematological disorders. BTK and PI3Kδ are kinases responsible for B-cell signal transduction, and inhibitors of these enzymes have demonstrated clinical benefit in certain types of lymphoma. Simultaneous inhibition of these pathways could result in more robust responses or overcome resistance as observed in single agent use. We report a series of novel compounds that have low nanomolar potency against both BTK and PI3Kδ as well as acceptable PK properties that could be useful in the development of treatments against B-cell related diseases.

(S)-4-Isopropyl-1-((R)-1-phenylethyl)imidazolidin-2-one was evaluated as a chiral auxiliary for asymmetric acetate and propionate Mannich-type reactions, by generation ofthe titanium enolates, affording excellent yields and stereoselectivities. The application of the auxiliary was exemplified in the stereoselective synthesis of ezetimibe.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of various post materials and cements on fracture resistance of endodontically treated teeth. Material and methods: Three post systems; custom made Ni-Cr post and core, prefabricated stainless steel and carbon fibre post with composite core and two different luting cements i.e glass ionomer and resin cements were used. Results and conclusions: Carbon fibre post cemented with resin cements showed higher failure load than Ni-Cr and stainless steel post and resin cement performed better than glass ionomer cement, the mode of fracture was more favourable with carbon fibre post than in metallic post.

Biofilms play an important role in the antibiotic drug resistance, which is threatening public health globally. Almost, all microbes mimic multicellular lifestyle to form biofilm by undergoing phenotypic changes to adapt adverse environmental conditions. Many anti-biofilm agents have been experimentally validated to disrupt the biofilms during last three decades. To organize this data, we developed the ‘aBiofilm’ resource (http://bioinfo.imtech.res.in/manojk/abiofilm/) that harbors a database, a predictor, and the data visualization modules. The database contains biological, chemical, and structural details of 5027 anti-biofilm agents (1720 unique) reported from 1988–2017. These agents target over 140 organisms including Gram-negative, Gram-positive bacteria, and fungus. They are mainly chemicals, peptides, phages, secondary metabolites, antibodies, nanoparticles and extracts. They show the diverse mode of actions by attacking mainly signaling molecules, biofilm matrix, genes, extracellular polymeric substances, and many more. The QSAR based predictor identifies the anti-biofilm potential of an unknown chemical with an accuracy of ∼80.00%. The data visualization section summarized the biofilm stages targeted (Circos plot); interaction maps (Cytoscape) and chemicals diversification (CheS-Mapper) of the agents. This comprehensive platform would help the researchers to understand the multilevel communication in the microbial consortium. It may aid in developing anti-biofilm therapeutics to deal with antibiotic drug resistance menace.

Knockdown of host genes using high-throughput genome-wide RNA interference screens has identified numerous host factors that affect viral infections, which would be helpful in understanding host-virus interactions. We have developed a vhfRNAi web resource based on genome-wide RNAi experiments for viruses. It contains experimental details of 12 249 entries (host factors + restriction factors) for 18 viruses. Simultaneously, this resource encompasses analysis of overlapping genes, genome wide association studies, gene ontology (GO), pathogen interacting proteins, interaction networks and pathway enrichment. Using overlap analysis, it was found that Influenza A virus shared overlapping host genes with the majority of viruses including Hepatitis C virus and Dengue virus 2. In the genome wide association studies analysis, 429 diseases/traits were mapped, of which obesity-related traits were the most common. GO analysis revealed that the major categories belonged to metabolic processes, molecule transport, signal transduction, proteolysis, etc. In the pathogen interacting protein analysis, protein interaction data from different resources can be explored for further understanding of host-virus biology. By pathway enrichment analysis, a total of 8955 genes were mapped on 303 pathways with most of the hits coming from metabolic pathways. We have found 491 genes that are not essential for the host but essential for the virus and can be targeted to inhibit the virus. These may be explored as potential candidates for drug targets. The resource is freely accessible at and will be useful in understanding host-virus biology as well as identification of targets for the development of antiviral therapeutics.

Objectives/Hypothesis To assess the effect of tadalafil on auditory functions. Study Design Prospective observational study in a tertiary care hospital. Methods Twenty-five tadalafil naive patients with erectile dysfunction or pulmonary artery hypertension were subjected to pure-tone and brainstem-evoked response audiometry before drug therapy, and 3 and 30 days following drug therapy. Results were compared using analysis of variance for repeated measures with Bonferonni correction. Results Fifteen patients were taking tadalafil 10 mg for erectile dysfunction, and another 10 patients were on tadalafil 20 mg once daily for pulmonary artery hypertension. No statistically significant difference was found in hearing threshold at baseline and at follow-up (P > .05). However, three patients on tadalafil 20 mg showed a significant increase in hearing threshold at higher frequencies. There was no incidence of sudden sensorineural hearing loss in the study group. Conclusions This is the first prospective and observational study that evaluated the effect of tadalafil on auditory functions with objective tests. Although there was no statistically significant result to confirm or refute the association between tadalafil and hearing impairment, increased threshold at higher frequencies after taking tadalafil supports the results from previous studies and hints at a possible relationship between the two. Similar large sample studies are warranted to know the exact association of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors on auditory functions. Level of Evidence 4.

We conducted a 10-year retrospective study to determine the prognosis of necrotizing cervical fasciitis (NCF). Our study population included 38 patients—32 males and 6 females, aged 10 months to 70 years (mean: 55 yr)—who had presented for management of NCF at our tertiary care hospital between Jan. 1, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2009. We classified each case into four categories based on the duration of disease prior to presentation, the severity of disease, and other factors that influence outcomes. We found that the most important factor in determining prognosis was the time interval between the onset of NCF and subsequent presentation for specialist or surgical intervention. Patients with a higher grade of NCF had longer hospital stays. Although aggressive surgical and medical intervention is the gold standard for the management of NCF, many of our patients presented with a relatively healthy appearing wound, which could mislead the evaluating clinician and delay prompt management. We believe that our new grading system will help obviate this problem and make clinicians more vigilant when faced with a new case of necrotizing fasciitis.

Knowledge of the subcellular location (SCL) of viral proteins in the host cell is important for understanding their function in depth. Therefore, we have developed "MSLVP", a two-tier prediction algorithm for predicting multiple SCLs of viral proteins. For this study, data sets of comprehensive viral proteins with experimentally validated SCL annotation were collected from UniProt. Non-redundant (90%) data sets of 3480 viral proteins that belonged to single (2715), double (391) and multiple (374) sites were employed. Additionally, 1687 (30% sequence identity) viral proteins were categorised into single (1366), double (167) and multiple (154) sites. Single, double and multiple locations further comprised of eight, four and six categories, respectively. Viral protein locations include the nucleus, cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum, extracellular, single-pass membrane, multi-pass membrane, capsid, remaining others and combinations thereof. Support vector machine based models were developed using sequence features like amino acid composition, dipeptide composition, physicochemical properties and their hybrids. We have employed "one-versus-one" as well as "one-versus-other" strategies for multiclass classification. The performance of "one-versus-one" is better than the "one-versus-other" approach during 10-fold cross-validation. For the 90% data set, we achieved an accuracy, a Matthew's correlation coefficient (MCC) and a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) of 99.99%, 1.00, 1.00; 100.00%, 1.00, 1.00 and 99.90%; 1.00, 1.00 for single, double and multiple locations, respectively. Similar results were achieved for a 30% sequence identity data set. Predictive models for each SCL performed equally well on the independent dataset. The MSLVP web server () can predict subcellular locations i.e. single (8; including single and multi-pass membrane), double (4) and multiple (6). This would be helpful for elucidating the functional annotation of viral proteins and potential drug targets.

Current Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreaks that spread in several areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, and in pacific islands is declared as a global health emergency by World Health Organization (WHO). It causes Zika fever and illness ranging from severe autoimmune to neurological complications in humans. To facilitate research on this virus, we have developed an integrative multi-omics platform; ZikaVR (http://bioinfo.imtech.res.in/manojk/zikavr/), dedicated to the ZIKV genomic, proteomic and therapeutic knowledge. It comprises of whole genome sequences, their respective functional information regarding proteins, genes, and structural content. Additionally, it also delivers sophisticated analysis such as whole-genome alignments, conservation and variation, CpG islands, codon context, usage bias and phylogenetic inferences at whole genome and proteome level with user-friendly visual environment. Further, glycosylation sites and molecular diagnostic primers were also analyzed. Most importantly, we also proposed potential therapeutically imperative constituents namely vaccine epitopes, siRNAs, miRNAs, sgRNAs and repurposing drug candidates.

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) technology has vast potential for functional genomics and development of therapeutics. However, it faces many obstacles predominantly instability of siRNAs due to nuclease digestion and subsequently biologically short half-life. Chemical modifications in siRNAs provide means to overcome these shortcomings and improve their stability and potency. Despite enormous utility bioinformatics resource of these chemically modified siRNAs (cm-siRNAs) is lacking. Therefore, we have developed siRNAmod, a specialized databank for chemically modified siRNAs. Currently, our repository contains a total of 4894 chemically modified-siRNA sequences, comprising 128 unique chemical modifications on different positions with various permutations and combinations. It incorporates important information on siRNA sequence, chemical modification, their number and respective position, structure, simplified molecular input line entry system canonical (SMILES), efficacy of modified siRNA, target gene, cell line, experimental methods, reference etc. It is developed and hosted using Linux Apache MySQL PHP (LAMP) software bundle. Standard user-friendly browse, search facility and analysis tools are also integrated. It would assist in understanding the effect of chemical modifications and further development of stable and efficacious siRNAs for research as well as therapeutics. siRNAmod is freely available at: http://crdd.osdd.net/servers/sirnamod.

Calcifying aponeurotic fibroma is a benign tumor with a predilection for distal parts of the extremities; it is very rare in the head and neck region. It commonly affects young patients—hence the term juvenile in the name. It is fibroblastic in origin and considered a cartilage analogue of fibromatosis, but its exact etiology remains unknown. Clinically, this tumor needs to be differentiated from fibromatosis, nodular fasciitis, chondroma, schwannoma, and rheumatoid nodule. A 24-year-old woman presented with swelling in the forehead for the previous 6 months. Wide surgical excision of the lesion was performed, and histopathologic examination revealed a calcifying aponeurotic fibroma. We reviewed the literature on this rare clinical entity and present our hypothesis on its etiology.

Ectopic eruption of a tooth is common in the dental arch, palate, and nose, but it is rare in the maxillary antrum. We present the case of a 35-year-old man with an ectopic canine and an associated dentigerous cyst in the maxillary sinus that masqueraded as an antrochoanal polyp.