Publications by authors named "Esteban G Vega-Hissi"

Antioxidants agents play an essential role in the food industry for improving the oxidative stability of food products. In the last years, the search for new natural antioxidants has increased due to the potential high toxicity of chemical additives. Therefore, the synthesis and evaluation of the antioxidant activity in peptides is a field of current research.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The escalating prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria poses a grave threat to human health, necessitating the exploration of novel alternatives to conventional antibiotics. This study investigated the impact of extracts derived from the supernatant of four lactic acid bacteria strains on factors contributing to the pathogenicity of three strains. The study evaluated the influence of lactic acid bacteria supernatant extracts on the growth, biofilm biomass formation, biofilm metabolic activity, and biofilm integrity of the strains.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The present study aims at understanding the effect of organic solvents on the specific proteolytic activity and operational stability of asclepain cI in aqueous-organic media, using correlations between geometrical and structural parameters of asclepain cI. These correlations were determined by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and the secondary structure of the enzyme validated by Fourier-transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Asclepain cI exhibited significantly higher catalytic potential in 29 of the 42 aqueous-organic media tested, composed by 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A library of structurally related coumarins was generated through synthesis reactions and chemical modification reactions to obtain derivatives with antiproliferative activity both and . Out of a total of 35 structurally related coumarin derivatives, seven of them showed inhibitory activity in tests against DNA polymerase with IC values lower than 250 μM. The derivatives 4-(chloromethyl)-5,7-dihydroxy--chromen-2-one () and 4-((acetylthio)methyl)-2-oxo--chromen-7-yl acetate () showed the most promising anti-polymerase activity with IC values of 20.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this work, we report a derivative of N-(piperidin-4-yl)-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxamide as a new inhibitor for adenylyl cyclase of Giardia lamblia which was obtained from a study using structural data of the nucleotidyl cyclase 1 (gNC1) of this parasite. For such a study, we developed a model for this specific enzyme by using homology techniques, which is the first model reported for gNC1 of G. lamblia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although many sulfur containing garlic compounds present antioxidant activity, little is known about molecular mechanisms through which these compounds react with reactive oxygen species. In this work, the reactivity and the hydrogen peroxide scavenger reaction mechanisms (including thermodynamics and kinetics aspects) of allyl methyl disulfide in aqueous phase are studied employing density functional theory computational methods. Three reactive sites susceptible for electrophilic attack are found over sulfur atoms and the double bond allyl moiety.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sorption of l- and d-Tyrosine (Tyr) from aqueous solutions on chiral membranes of chitosan (CH) was studied. A high adsorption in the membrane, with a marked enantioselectivity to l-Tyr, was found. Computational calculations carried out by docking and molecular dynamics (MD) showed a difference in the affinity of the enantiomers and two regions of adsorption in the polymer matrix.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR and 3D-QSAR) have been applied in the last decade to obtain a reliable statistical model for the prediction of the anticonvulsant activities of new chemical entities. However, despite the large amount of information on QSAR, no recent review has published and discussed this data in detail.

Areas Covered: In this review, the authors provide a detailed discussion of QSAR studies that have been applied to compounds with anticonvulsant activity published between the years 2003 and 2013.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lacosamide is an anticonvulsant drug which presents carbonic anhydrase inhibition. In this paper, we analyzed the apparent relationship between both activities performing a molecular modeling, docking and QSAR studies on 18 lacosamide derivatives with known anticonvulsant activity. Docking results suggested the zinc-binding site of carbonic anhydrase is a possible target of lacosamide and lacosamide derivatives making favorable Van der Waals interactions with Asn67, Gln92, Phe131 and Thr200.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The pKa, the negative logarithm of the acid dissociation equilibrium constant, of the carboxylic acid groups of unconjugated bilirubin in water is a discussed issue because there are quite different experimental values reported. Using quantum mechanical calculations we have studied the conformational behavior of unconjugated bilirubin species (in gas phase and in solution modeled implicitly and explicitly) to provide evidence that may clarify pKa values because of its pathophysiological relevance. Our results show that rotation of carboxylate group, which is not restricted, settles it in a suitable place to establish stronger interactions that stabilizes the monoanion and the dianion to be properly solvated, demonstrating that the rationalization used to justify the high pKa values of unconjugated bilirubin is inappropriate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A combined molecular docking and molecular structure in silico analysis on the substrate and product of leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H) was performed. The molecular structures of the substrate leukotriene A4 (LTA4) and product leukotirene B4 (LTB4) were studied through density functional theory (DFT) calculations at the B3LYP/6-31 + G(d) level of theory in both gas and condensed phases. The whole LTB4 molecule was divided into three fragments (hydrophobic tail, triene motif, and a polar acidic group) that were subjected to a full conformational study employing the most stable conformations of them to build conformers of the complete molecule and geometry optimize further.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Quantum chemical methods have been used to study the conformational and electronic properties of sulfanilamide and derivatives with antibacterial activity. Calculations at B3LYP/6-311++G(3df,2p) level of theory predict the existence of four conformers for sulfanilamide depending on the orientation of p-amino and amide groups. Focusing on the sulfonamide moiety, amide NH(2) and SO(2) groups could exist either in an eclipsed or staggered arrangement.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF