Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

About: Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology is a education organization based out in Dolgoprudnyy, Russia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Laser & Plasma. The organization has 8594 authors who have published 16968 publications receiving 246551 citations. The organization is also known as: MIPT & Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University).

Inhibitors of Tick-Borne Flavivirus Reproduction from Structure-Based Virtual Screening

Abstract: Flaviviruses form a large family of enveloped viruses affecting millions of people over the world. To date, no specific therapy was suggested for the infected people, making the treatment exclusively symptomatic. Several attempts were performed earlier for the design of fusion inhibitors for mosquito-borne flaviviruses, whereas for the tick-borne flaviviruses such design had not been performed. We have constructed homology models of envelope glycoproteins of tick-transmitted flaviviruses with the detergent binding pocket in the open state. Molecular docking of substituted 1,4-dihydropyridines and pyrido[2,1-b][1,3,5]thiadiazines was made against these models, and 89 hits were selected for the in vitro experimental evaluation. Seventeen compounds showed significant inhibition against tick-borne encephalitis virus, Powassan virus, or Omsk hemorrhagic fever virus in the 50% plaque reduction test in PEK cells. These compounds identified through rational design are the first ones possessing reproduction inhibition activity against tick-borne flaviviruses.

Spectral Duality Between Heisenberg Chain and Gaudin Model

Abstract: In our recent paper we described relationships between integrable systems inspired by the AGT conjecture. On the gauge theory side an integrable spin chain naturally emerges while on the conformal field theory side one obtains some special reduced Gaudin model. Two types of integrable systems were shown to be related by the spectral duality. In this paper we extend the spectral duality to the case of higher spin chains. It is proved that the N-site GL(k) Heisenberg chain is dual to the special reduced k+2-points gl(N) Gaudin model. Moreover, we construct an explicit Poisson map between the models at the classical level by performing the Dirac reduction procedure and applying the AHH duality transformation.

Measurements of the center-of-mass energies at BESIII via the di-muon process*

Abstract: From 2011 to 2014, the BESIII experiment collected about 5 fb(-1) data at center-of-mass energies around 4 GeV for the studies of the charmonium-like and higher excited charmonium states. By analyzing the di-muon process e(+)e(-)->gamma ISR/FSR mu(+)mu(-), the center-of-mass energies of the data samples are measured with a precision of 0.8 MeV. The center-of-mass energy is found to be stable for most of the time during data taking.

Human Secreted Ly-6/uPAR Related Protein-1 (SLURP-1) Is a Selective Allosteric Antagonist of α7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor

Abstract: SLURP-1 is a secreted toxin-like Ly-6/uPAR protein found in epithelium, sensory neurons and immune cells. Point mutations in the slurp-1 gene cause the autosomal inflammation skin disease Mal de Meleda. SLURP-1 is considered an autocrine/paracrine hormone that regulates growth and differentiation of keratinocytes and controls inflammation and malignant cell transformation. The majority of previous studies of SLURP-1 have been made using fusion constructs containing, in addition to the native protein, extra polypeptide sequences. Here we describe the activity and pharmacological profile of a recombinant analogue of human SLURP-1 (rSLURP-1) differing from the native protein only by one additional N-terminal Met residue. rSLURP-1 significantly inhibited proliferation (up to ~ 40%, EC50 ~ 4 nM) of human oral keratinocytes (Het-1A cells). Application of mecamylamine and atropine,—non-selective inhibitors of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, respectively, and anti-α7-nAChRs antibodies revealed α7 type nAChRs as an rSLURP-1 target in keratinocytes. Using affinity purification from human cortical extracts, we confirmed that rSLURP-1 binds selectively to the α7-nAChRs. Exposure of Xenopus oocytes expressing α7-nAChRs to rSLURP-1 caused a significant non-competitive inhibition of the response to acetylcholine (up to ~ 70%, IC50 ~ 1 μM). It was shown that rSLURP-1 binds to α7-nAChRs overexpressed in GH4Cl cells, but does not compete with 125I-α-bungarotoxin for binding to the receptor. These findings imply an allosteric antagonist-like mode of SLURP-1 interaction with α7-nAChRs outside the classical ligand-binding site. Contrary to rSLURP-1, other inhibitors of α7-nAChRs (mecamylamine, α-bungarotoxin and Lynx1) did not suppress the proliferation of keratinocytes. Moreover, the co-application of α-bungarotoxin with rSLURP-1 did not influence antiproliferative activity of the latter. This supports the hypothesis that the antiproliferative activity of SLURP-1 is related to ‘metabotropic’ signaling pathway through α7-nAChR, that activates intracellular signaling cascades without opening the receptor channel.