@article {47009,
	title = {Development of multiple reaction monitoring assay for quantification of carnosine in human plasma},
	journal = {RSC Advances},
	volume = {10},
	year = {2020},
	month = {JAN },
	pages = {763-769},
	type = {Article},
	abstract = {<p>Carnosine, a histidine containing dipeptide, exerts beneficial effects by scavenging reactive carbonyl compounds (RCCs) that are implicated in pathogenesis of diabetes. However, the reduced carnosine levels may aggravate the severity of diabetes. The precise quantification of carnosine levels may serve as an indicator of pathophysiological state of diabetes. Therefore, we have developed a highly sensitive targeted multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) method for quantification of carnosine in human plasma samples. Various mass spectrometry parameters such as ionization of precursor, fragment abundance and stability, collision energy, tube lens offset voltage were optimized to develop a sensitive and robust assay. Using the optimized MRM assay, the lower limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for carnosine were found to be 0.4 nM and 1.0 nM respectively. Standard curves were constructed ranging from 1.0 nM to 15.0 mu M and the levels of carnosine in mice and human plasma were determined. Further, the MRM assay was extended to study carnosine hydrolyzing activity of human carnosinases, the serum carnosinase (CN1) and the cytosolic carnosinase (CN2). CN1 showed three folds higher activity than CN2. The MRM assay developed in this study is highly sensitive and can be used for basal plasma carnosine quantification, which can be developed as a novel marker for scavenging of RCCs in diabetes.</p>
},
	doi = {10.1039/c9ra08532g},
	author = {Pandya, Vaibhav Kumar and Sonwane, Babasaheb and Rathore, Rajeshwari and Unnikrishnan, A. G. and Kumaran, Sangaralingam and Kulkarni, Mahesh J.}
}
@article {46869,
	title = {Discovery of potential multi-target-directed ligands by targeting host-specific SARS-CoV-2 structurally conserved main protease},
	journal = {Journal of Biomolecular Structure \& Dynamics},
	year = {2020},
	month = {MAY},
	type = {Article; Early Access 2020},
	abstract = {<p>Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has resulted in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Worldwide this disease has infected over 2.5 million individuals with a mortality rate ranging from 5 to 10\%. There are several efforts going on in the drug discovery to control the SARS-CoV-2 viral infection. The main protease (M-Pro) plays a critical role in viral replication and maturation, thus can serve as the primary drug target. To understand the structural evolution of M-Pro, we have performed phylogenetic and Sequence Similarity Network analysis, that depicted divergence of Coronaviridae M-Pro in five clusters specific to viral hosts. This clustering was corroborated with the comparison of M-Pro structures. Furthermore, it has been observed that backbone and binding site conformations are conserved despite variation in some of the residues. These attributes can be exploited to repurpose available viral protease inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 M-Pro. In agreement with this, we performed screening of similar to 7100 molecules including active ingredients present in the Ayurvedic anti-tussive medicines, anti-viral phytochemicals and synthetic anti-virals against SARS-CoV-2 M-Pro as the primary target. We identified several natural molecules like delta-viniferin, myricitrin, taiwanhomoflavone A, lactucopicrin 15-oxalate, nympholide A, afzelin, biorobin, hesperidin and phyllaemblicin B that strongly binds to SARS-CoV-2 M-Pro. Intrestingly, these molecules also showed strong binding with other potential targets of SARS-CoV-2 infection like viral receptor human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE-2) and RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). We anticipate that our approach for identification of multi-target-directed ligand will provide new avenues for drug discovery against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma</p>
},
	keywords = {Coronavirus, COVID-19, hACE-2, MPro, multi-target-directed ligand, protease inhibitor, RdRp, SARS-CoV-2 virus},
	issn = {0739-1102},
	doi = {10.1080/07391102.2020.1760137, Early Access Date = MAY 2020},
	author = {Joshi, Rakesh S. and Jagdale, Shounak S. and Bansode, Sneha B. and Shankar, S. Shiva and Tellis, Meenakshi B. and Pandya, Vaibhav Kumar and Chugh, Anita and Giri, Ashok P. and Kulkarni, Mahesh J.}
}
