@article {46291,
	title = {In vitro and in silico studies on membrane interactions of diverse Capsicum annuum flower gamma-thionin peptides},
	journal = {Proteins-Structure Function and Bioinformatics},
	year = {2019},
	month = {AUG},
	type = {Article; Early Access},
	abstract = {<p>Thionins are small, cysteine-rich peptides that play an important role in plant defense, primarily through their interactions with membranes. Eight novel gamma-thionin peptides (CanThio1-8) were isolated from the flower of Capsicum annuum. Sequence analysis revealed that the peptides cluster into three groups. A representative peptide from each group (CanThio1, 2, and 3) was used for experimental characterization. Interestingly, peptides were found to possess some cytotoxic activity against normal human embryonic kidney cell line but higher cytotoxicity against cancer cell line MCF-7. CanThio3 peptide was chosen as a representative peptide to study the molecular mechanism of action on membranes. Microsecond timescale atomistic simulations of CanThio3 were performed in the presence of a POPC (1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine) lipid bilayer. Simulations revealed that CanThio3 interacts with the bilayer and causes lipid thinning in the vicinity. Nonpolar amino acids specific to the alpha-core region of CanThio3 along with nonpolar residues in the gamma-core region are seen to interact with the lipid tails. The differences in the amino acid sequence of CanThio peptides in these regions explain the variability in cytotoxic activities. In summary, our results demonstrate the membrane-mediated activity of a novel series of gamma-thionin peptides from C. annuum.</p>
},
	keywords = {Capsicum annuum, Cytotoxicity, gamma-thionin, MD simulations, Membrane},
	issn = {0887-3585},
	doi = {10.1002/prot.25791},
	author = {Nikte, Siddhanta and Gahankari, Apurva and Mulla, Javed and Sengupta, Durba and Joshi, Manali and Tamhane, Vaijayanti}
}
@article {47806,
	title = {Identification of a novel series of potent organosilicon mosquito repellents},
	journal = {ACS Omega},
	volume = {6},
	year = {2021},
	month = {NOV},
	pages = {31236-31243},
	type = {Article},
	abstract = {Mosquito control by personal protection is one of the most efficient ways of curtailing deadly diseases such as malaria and dengue with the potential to save millions of lives per year. DEET (N,N-diethyl-3-methyl benzamide) is currently considered as the gold standard for mosquito repellents, being used for the past several decades. Control by DEET, however, is being threatened by emerging resistance among mosquitoes. To address this concern and also to improve protection times, we synthesized a novel series of 25 silicon-containing acyl piperidines using acid{\textendash}amine coupling protocol and tested their activity against Aedes aegypti in mosquito-repellent assays. Several compounds from this series appear to possess good mosquito-repellent properties. Most notably, at 0.5 mg/cm2 concentrations, the mean protection time for NDS100100 was 756 min, which was higher than that of DEET (616 min). The details of design, synthesis, and biological evaluation are discussed herein.},
	doi = {10.1021/acsomega.1c04961},
	author = {Kulkarni, Akshay S. and Ramesh, Remya and Walia, Safal and Sayyad, Shahebaz I. and Gathalkar, Ganesh B. and Balamkundu, Seetharamsing and Joshi, Manali and Sen, Avalokiteswar and Reddy, D. Srinivasa}
}
