Inappropriate activation of the Hh signaling pathway has been implicated in the development of several types of cancers including prostate, lung, pancreas, breast, brain and skin. Present study identified the binding affinities of eight established inhibitors viz., Cyclopamine, Saridegib, Itraconazole, LDE-225, TAK-441, BMS-833923 (XL139), PF-04449913 and Vismodegib targeting SMO receptor - a candidate protein involved in hedgehog pathway and sought to identify the best amongst the established inhibitors through by molecular docking. Exelxis® BMS 833923 (XL 139) demonstrated superior binding affinity aided by MolDock scoring docking algorithm. Further BMS 833923 (XL 139) was evaluated for pharmacophoric features which revealed appreciable ligand receptor interactions.

Since the discovery of Hsp90, a decade ago, it has surfaced as a potential target in breast cancer therapy along with other cancers. In present study, we have selected seven established Hsp inhibitors viz., PU3, CCT-018159, CNF-2024, SNX-5422, NVP (AUY-922), EGCG and IPI-504 used in the treatment of cancer. Considering these seven inhibitors as a parent compound, ligand based search was carried out with 90% similarity in Pubchem database (31 million compounds). All the similar molecules belonging to respective parent compound along with similar compound were subjected to virtual screening using MolDock and PLP algorithm aided molecular docking. Compounds with highest docking rerank scores were selected and filtered through Lipinski's drug-likeness filters and toxicity parameters. New candidate (Pubchem CID: 11363378) qualified to demonstrate considerable affinity towards Hsp90. The selected compound was further pharmcophorically incited for receptor- ligand interactions like H-bond, electrostatic, hydrophobic interactions etc.

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16S rDNA sequencing which has gained wide popularity amongst microbiologists for the molecular characterization and identification of newly discovered isolates provides accurate identification of isolates down to the level of sub-species (strain). Its most important advantage over the traditional biochemical characterization methods is that it can provide an accurate identification of strains with atypical phenotypic characters as well. The following work is an application of 16S rRNA gene sequencing approach to identify a novel species of Probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus. The sample was collected from pond water samples of rural and urban areas of Krishna district, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India. Subsequently, the sample was serially diluted and the aliquots were incubated for a suitable time period following which the suspected colony was subjected to 16S rDNA sequencing. The sequence aligned against other species was concluded to be a novel, Probiotic L. acidophilus bacteria, further which were named L. acidophilus strain EMBS081 & EMBS082. After the sequence characterization, the isolate was deposited in GenBank Database, maintained by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information NCBI. The sequence can also be retrieve from EMBL and DDBJ repositories with accession numbers JX255677 and KC150145.

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