Clinicopathological correlation of aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio (APRI) and aspartate aminotransferase-to-alanine aminotransferase ratio (AAR) with survival in esophageal carcinoma patients: a retrospective cohort analysis of 951 patients.

Esophageal cancer is the eighth most prevalent cancer globally. Previously, several biomarkers have been used to predict the prognosis, although with variable reliability. Interestingly, it is noted that changes in liver function tests levels before and after neoadjuvant treatment are predictive in terms of cancer recurrence. Objectives: The objectives of the current study were to associate novel markers, including aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio (APRI) and aspartate aminotransferase-to-alanine aminotransferase ratio (AAR) with survival in esophageal malignancy. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study in a tertiary care hospital (single-center) included 951 patients having diagnosed esophageal carcinoma of any age group. Results: The median (interquartile range) age of study participants were 50 (38-60) years, including 43% males and 57% female patients, while the median (interquartile range) levels of AAR and APRI were 0.97 (0.81-1.25) and 0.19 (0.13-0.29), respectively. AAR was found to be higher in dysphagia for solids only and dysphagia for both liquids and solids rather than liquids only (P=0.002), while other associations included well-differentiated tumor grade (P=0.011), finding of esophageal stricture on esophagogastroduodenoscopy (P=0.015), and characteristic of mass on computerized tomography scan being both circumferential and mural (P=0.005). APRI was found to be higher in adenocarcinoma (P=0.038), and finding of circumferential±ulcerated mass on esophagogastroduodenoscopy (P<0.001). On survival analysis, adenocarcinoma (P<0.001), luminal narrowing (P=0.002), AAR greater than 1.0 (P=0.006), and APRI greater than 0.2 (P=0.007) were found to be poor survival predictors. On Cox proportional hazards regression, APRI was found to be more associated with poor survival than AAR (Hazard ratio: 1.682, 1.208-2.340, P=0.002). Conclusion: This study correlated clinical and pathological features of esophageal malignancy with noninvasive markers of hepatic function.

Identification of novel urease inhibitors by high-throughput virtual and in vitro screening.

Ureases are important in both agriculture and human health. Bacterial ureases are directly involved in many farm-field problems and pathological conditions. Here, we report a structure-based virtual screening of an in-house compound bank of about 6000 molecular entities by computational docking and binding free energy calculations followed by in vitro screening. Applied protocol leads to the identification of novel urease inhibitors, which can serve as starting points for structural optimization.

3-(3-Bromo-benz-yl)-1H-isochromen-1-one.

In the title compound, C(16)H(11)BrO(2), the isocoumarin ring system is planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.015 Å) and subtends a dihedral angle of 88.90 (2)° with the bromo-benzene ring. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked, forming a three-dimensional packing pattern involving C-H⋯O inter-actions, Br⋯O contacts [3.4734 (10) Å] and π-π stacking inter-actions with centroid-centroid distances ranging from 3.667 (2) to 3.765 (2) Å.

3-(3-Bromo-benz-yl)isoquinolin-1(2H)-one.

In the title compound, C(16)H(12)BrNO, the ring systems subtend an inter-planar dihedral angle of 75.95 (3)°. In the crystal packing, mol-ecules are linked to form centrosymmetric pairs by pairs of classical N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds.