Different properties of successful and error saccades in marmosets.

Various oculomotor tasks have been used to study eye movements, cognitive control, attention, and neurological disorders. Typically, analysis focuses on successful trials, where the saccade lands very close to the intended target, in both humans or non-human primates (NHPs). Error trials, in which the saccade fails to land on the intended target, are often excluded from these analyses.

Modeling saccade reaction time in marmosets: the contribution of earlier visual response and variable inhibition.

Marmosets are expected to serve as a valuable model for studying the primate visuomotor system due to their similar oculomotor behaviors to humans and macaques. Despite these similarities, differences exist; challenges in training marmosets on tasks requiring suppression of unwanted saccades, having consistently shorter, yet more variable saccade reaction times (SRT) compared to humans and macaques. This study investigates whether the short and variable SRT in marmosets is related to differences in visual signal transduction and variability in inhibitory control.

Recent updates in utilizing prodrugs in drug delivery (2013-2015).

Introduction: Utilizing the prodrug approach as a method to overcome various pharmaceutical and pharmacokinetic barriers to drug delivery is significantly accelerating and achieving successes. In contrast to the older traditional prodrugs which suffer from decreased bioavailability and a high profile of side effects, due to activation at undesired sites, the targeted prodrug approach utilizes delivery systems to improve delivery for a wide range of therapeutics including anti-cancer, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory drugs.

Areas Covered: Recent updates in utilization of prodrugs in drug delivery between 2013 and 2015 are discussed.

Computationally designed prodrugs of statins based on Kirby's enzyme model.

DFT calculations at B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) for intramolecular proton transfer in Kirby's enzyme models 1-7 demonstrated that the reaction rate is dependent on the distance between the two reacting centers, rGM, and the hydrogen bonding angle, α, and the rate of the reaction is linearly correlated with rGM and α. Based on these calculation results three simvastatin prodrugs were designed with the potential to provide simvastatin with higher bioavailability. For example, based on the calculated log EM for the three proposed prodrugs, the interconversion of simvastatin prodrug ProD 3 to simvastatin is predicted to be about 10 times faster than that of either simvastatin prodrug ProD 1 or simvastatin ProD 2.