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Overexpression of murine double minute 2 (MDM2) results in the inactivation of p53 and causes cancer which is a leading cause of death in recent era. In recent decades, much attention has been paid to discover potential inhibitors against MDM2 in order to cure cancer. Outcomes from studies proposes that the MDM2 is a hot target to screen potent antagonists. Thus, this study aims at discovering natural compounds using several computational approaches to inhibit the MDM2 and to eliminate p53-MDM2 interaction, which would result in the reactivation of p53 activity. A library of 500 terpenes was prepared and several virtual screening approaches were employed to find out the best hits which could serve as p53-MDM2 antagonists. On the basis of the designed protocol, three terpenes were selected. In the present study, for the stability and validation of selected three protein-ligand complexes 20 ns molecular dynamics simulations and principal component analyses (PCA) were performed. Results found that the selected terpenes hits (3-trans-p-coumaroyl maslinic acid, Silvestrol and Betulonic acid) are potential inhibitors of p53–MDM2 interaction and could serve as potent antagonists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The research information would enable clinicians and public health professionals to formulate proper interventions for diabetic people according to age, gender, and race., Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between diabetes-related mortality, hospitalization and emergency department discharge, and sociodemographic characteristics, in addition to age-standardized mortality rate analysis., Method: A population-based cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out to determine the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and diabetes-related risk factors of the San Diego County residents in 2018, including 49,283 individuals (27,366 males and 21,917 females)., Results: The outcomes were found to be statistically significant. Hospitalization and emergency department discharges among males and females were statistically significant. The statistical differences between gender and mortality were not significant. The mortality was not significant in the male group, while it was statistically significant in the female group. The noted agestandardized mortality rate of diabetes stood at 85.8 deaths per 100,000 standard population., Conclusion: This study found that mortality increases as people age, and 85% of deaths were found to be of people older than 65 years. The mortality was two times higher among white and Hispanic males than females. Findings from this study are important in understanding the sociodemographic characteristics at the county level, which can inform diabetes mortality prevention efforts., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Aromatic stacking interactions arise from the attractive force between the π-electron clouds in the neighboring aromatic groups. The aromatic stacking is common between proteins and small molecules. The stacking interactions at the interfaces of proteins and other macromolecules are relatively rare. However it contributes to a significant portion of the stabilizing forces. In the proteinprotein complexes, aromatic interactions are involved in the protein oligomerization, such as dimer, trimer and tetramer formation. Also, aromatic residues can bind to nanoparticles through stacking interactions which offer them stronger affinity than other residues. These interactions play crucial roles in proteinnanoparticle conjugation. In the protein-nucleotide complexes, the specific recognitions are realized through stacking interactions between aromatic residues and the bases in the nucleotides. Many nucleoproteins use aromatic stacking to recognize binding site on DNA or RNA. Stacking interactions are involved in the process of mismatch repair, strand separation, deadenylation, degradation and RNA cap binding. They are proved to be important for the stability of complexes. The aromatic stacking is also the underlying reasons of many fatal diseases such as Alzheimer, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The chemicals that can block the stacking interactions could have potential pharmaceutical values. In this review, we summarize recent finding regarding the functions of aromatic stacking interactions in the protein-macromolecule complexes. Our aim is to understand the mechanisms underlying the stacking-mediated complex formation and facilitate the development of drugs and other bio-products.

Rab9 is required for the transport of mannose 6-phosphate receptors to the trans-Golgi network from late endosomes through the interaction with its effector: RhoBTB3. Earlier research indicates the C-terminus of RhoBTB3 (Rho_Cterm) is used for the interaction with Rab9. We used the homology modeling along with the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to study the binding pattern of Rho_Cterm and Rab9 at atomic level. Both modeled structures, Rab9 and Rho_Cterm, are of high quality as suggested by the Ramachandran plot and ProCheck. The complex of Rab9-Rho_Cterm was generated by unrestrained pairwise docking using ZDOCK server. The interface of complex is consistent with the previous experimental data. The results of MD simulation indicate that the binding interface is stable along the simulation process.