Publications by authors named "W L Morrill"

Quinoline-based scaffolds have been the mainstay of antimalarial drugs, including many artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), over the history of modern drug development. Although much progress has been made in the search for novel antimalarial scaffolds, it may be that quinolines will remain useful, especially if very potent compounds from this class are discovered. We report here the results of a structure-activity relationship (SAR) study assessing potential unsymmetrical bisquinoline antiplasmodial drug candidates using in vitro activity against intact parasites in cell culture.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers have continued their work by simplifying the structure of a chemosensitizer attached to a known drug, CQ (Chloroquine).
  • The simplified version replaces two aromatic rings with a single ring, and this change does not seem to negatively impact the antimalarial effectiveness of the compounds.
  • Lab tests indicate that the new single-ring compounds still exhibit activity comparable to CQ, but other mechanisms could also play a role in their effectiveness.
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The wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Norton (Hymenoptera: Cephidae), is a key pest of wheat in the northern Great Plains of North America, and damage resulting from this species has recently expanded southward. Current pest management practices are inadequate and uncertainty regarding geographic origin, as well as limited data on population structure and dynamics across North America impede progress towards more informed management. We examined the genetic divergence between samples collected in North America and northeastern Asia, the assumed native range of C.

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The ability to consume wood as food (xylotrophy) is unusual among animals. In terrestrial environments, termites and other xylotrophic insects are the principle wood consumers while in marine environments wood-boring bivalves fulfill this role. However, the evolutionary origin of wood feeding in bivalves has remained largely unexplored.

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The mussel Mytilus trossulus can develop a neoplasia of the haemolymph, which occurs with high frequency (up to 40%) in nature. Associated with this disease are pro-apoptotic tumor-suppressor protein p53 isoforms, which are highly conserved between molluscs and vertebrates. The vertebrate wildtype p53 protein is maintained at low levels by the MDM2 protein in non-stressed cells to prevent undesired apoptosis.

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