A Ten-Year Review of the Pattern and Outcome of Childhood Diabetes in Two State Teaching Hospitals in South-West Nigeria.

Background: Childhood diabetes mellitus is a poorly researched topic in Nigeria. Its contribution to morbidity and mortality is vague. This study intends to provide additional information to the background data in Nigeria and hopefully proffers strategies to improving the outcome of this disease.

Relationship between serum insulin and point-of-admission blood glucose of ill neonates at a tertiary health facility in Nigeria.

Introduction: Optimal glucose metabolism is important in neonatal survival especially in the first days of life. Insulin play a significant role in maintaining blood glucose homeostasis. This study set out to determine the serum insulin levels of ill neonates as related to their point-of-admission blood glucose estimation at the Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa, Nigeria.

Carpopedal spasm in a 4 year old boy with persisted vomiting and dyselectrolytemia in Wesley Guild Hospital Ilesa.

Carpopedal spasm have various causes ranging from dsyselecrolytemia, syndromic, metabolic or endocrine causes. Any of these could cause a decrease in ionized calcium and tetany. Excessive vomiting leading to alkalosis, hypokaleamia and decreased ionised calcium should be kept in mind for early etiological diagnosis of carpopedal spasm.

Covalent simulations of covalent/irreversible enzyme inhibition in drug discovery: a reliable technical protocol.

Aim: Irreversible covalent inhibition of biological targets in disease pathogenesis is an emerging field in drug design. Computational techniques have assumed a critical role in understanding covalent enzyme inhibition. However, a gap currently exists with regards to the reliability and reproducibility of currently available protocols available in literature and open scientific forums.

An update on the discovery and development of selective heat shock protein inhibitors as anti-cancer therapy.

Over the years, not a single HSP inhibitor has progressed into the post-market phase of drug development despite the success recorded in various pre-clinical and clinical studies. The inability of existing drugs to specifically target oncogenic HSPs has majorly accounted for these setbacks. Recent combinatorial strategies that incorporated computer-aided drug design (CADD) techniques are geared towards the development of highly specific HSP inhibitors with increased activities and minimal toxicities.

Probing Gallate-Mediated Selectivity and High-Affinity Binding of Epigallocatechin Gallate: a Way-Forward in the Design of Selective Inhibitors for Anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 Proteins.

Selective inhibition is a key focus in the design of chemotherapeutic compounds that can abrogate the oncogenic activities of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins. Although recent efforts have led to the development of highly selective BH3 mimetics, setbacks such as toxicities have limited their use in cancer therapy. Epigallocatechingallate (EGCG) has been widely reported to selectively inhibit Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL compared to other green tea phenols due to its gallate group.

Covalent Inhibition in Drug Discovery: Filling the Void in Literature.

The serendipitous discovery of covalent inhibitors and their characteristic potency of inducing irreversible and complete inhibition in therapeutic targets have caused a paradigm shift from the use of non-covalent drugs in disease treatment. This has caused a significant evolution in the field of covalent targeting to understand their inhibitory mechanisms and facilitate the systemic design of novel covalent modifiers for 'undruggable' targets. Computational techniques have evolved over the years and have significantly contributed to the process of drug discovery by mirroring the pattern of biological occurrences thereby providing insights into the dynamics and conformational transitions associated with biomolecular interactions.

Exploring the Lapse in Druggability: Sequence Analysis, Structural Dynamics and Binding Site Characterization of K-RasG12C Variant, a Feasible Oncotherapeutics Target.

Background: The difficulty in druggability of K-Ras variant has presented a challenge in the treatment of cancer diseases associated with its dysfunctionality. Despite the identification of different binding sites, limited information exists in the literature about their characteristics. Therefore, identification, crossvalidation and characterization of its druggable sites would aid the design of chemical compounds that will arrest its dysfunctionality related oncogenesis.

Alcohol Metabolic Inefficiency: Structural Characterization of Polymorphism-Induced ALDH2 Dysfunctionality and Allosteric Site Identification for Design of Potential Wildtype Reactivators.

Liver mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) enzyme is responsible for the rapid conversion of acetaldehyde to acetic acid. ALDH2 (E487K) polymorphism results in an inactive allele (ALDH2*2) which cause dysfunctional acetaldehyde metabolism. The 3D structure of an enzyme is crucial to its functionality and a disruption in its structural integrity could result in its metabolic inefficiency and dysfunctionality.

Rural-urban disparity in lung function parameters of Nigerian children: effects of socio-economic, nutritional and housing factors.

Introduction: The effect of socio-demographic and nutritional factors on lung functions of African children is poorly studied. This study set out to determine the effects of these factors on lung functions of Nigerian school children.

Methods: Rural and urban secondary schools students in Ilesa, Nigeria were selected by multistage sampling.