Drug Development.

Background: TAR-DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP43), is a pathologic marker in neurodegenerative diseases including frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The aggregation of TDP-43, a crucial RNA-binding protein, is a consequence of post-translational modifications (PTMs) that disrupt its normal function. PTMs such as phosphorylation and ubiquitination contribute to the aberrant accumulation of TDP-43 aggregates, leading to neurodegenerative disorders like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).

Drug Development.

Background: Neurological disorders are at epidemic levels in the world today. Various proteins are being targeted for the development of novel molecular therapeutics; however, no small-molecule inhibitors have been discovered. Recent studies suggest that there are few molecules in clinical trials for various secretase (α, β, and γ), caspase, and calpain inhibitors.

EARLY NONINVASIVE EVALUATION OF LIVER FIBROSIS AFTER HEPATITIS C TREATMENT: THE IMPACT OF INFLAMMATION.

Background: Liver biopsy (LB) is still the gold standard method for assessing hepatic fibrosis (HF), associated diseases, and liver inflammation. Nowadays, noninvasive techniques such as Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography have been introduced instead of liver biopsy. However, there are controversies about the time it should be performed after treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Alignment-Free Viral Sequence Classification at Scale.

Background: The rapid increase in nucleotide sequence data generated by next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies demands efficient computational tools for sequence comparison. Alignment-based methods, such as BLAST, are increasingly overwhelmed by the scale of contemporary datasets due to their high computational demands for classification. This study evaluates alignment-free (AF) methods as scalable and rapid alternatives for viral sequence classification, focusing on identifying techniques that maintain high accuracy and efficiency when applied to extremely large datasets.