Uji Aktivitas Anti Cacing dengan Ekstrak Etanol Buah Mengkudu (Morinda Citrifolia Linn.) pada Cacing Gelang Babi (Ascaris Suum Goeze) secara In Vitro

Prevalensi infeksi Ascaris suum pada babi di Bali yang tinggi menimbulkan kerugian diantaranya adalah terjadinya penurunan hasil produksi akibat terhambatnya pertumbuhan ternak serta bertambahnya biaya yang harus dikeluarkan untuk pengobatan ternak yang terinfeksi penyakit. Pemberian anti cacing albendazole pada ternak mudah menimbulkan resistensi. Mengkudu diketahui berpotensi sebagai obat cacingan, sehingga perlu dilakukan uji anti cacing. Penelitian diawali dengan melakukan determinasi tumbuhan, penetapan kadar air simplisia dan ekstrak, serta skrining fitokimia. Uji aktivitas anti cacing dilakukan terhadap 7 kelompok perlakuan dengan 3 kali pengulangan. Kelompok I (kontrol negatif) diberikan CMC-Na 0,5%; kelompok II (kontrol positif) diberikan suspensi albendazole 0,01%b/v; kelompok III-VII diberikan suspensi ekstrak etanol buah mengkudu konsentrasi 1%b/v, 2,5%b/v, 5%b/v, 7,5%b/v, 10%b/v. Pengamatan dilakukan setiap 2 jam selama 40 jam. Aktivitas anti cacing ekstrak etanol mengkudu ditentukan melalui uji Kruskal-Wallis. Hasil skrining fitokimia menunjukkan ekstrak etanol buah mengkudu mengandung alkaloid, saponin, glikosida, terpenoid, dan tanin. Ekstrak etanol buah mengkudu pada konsentrasi 1%b/v, 2,5%b/v, 5%b/v, 7,5%b/v, 10%b/v memiliki aktivitas anti cacing secara in vitro pada cacing Ascaris suum Goeze secara bermakna dibandingkan dengan kontrol negatif (p<0,05)

Study of optical band gap and carbon cluster sizes formed in 100 MeV Si8+ and 145 MeV Ne6+ ions irradiated polypropylene polymer

A wide variety of material modifications in polymers have been studied by using ion irradiation techniques. Extensive research has focused on to Swift Heavy Ions (MeV's energy), probably because of good controllability and the large penetration length in polymers. High energy ion irradiation tends to damage polymers significantly by electronic excitation and ionization. It may result into the creation of latent tracks and can also cause formation of radicals such as ablation, sputtering, chain scission and intermolecular cross-linking, creation of triple bonds and unsaturated bonds and loss volatile fragments. Polypropylene polymer films of thickness 50 μm were irradiated to the fluences of 1 × 1010, 3 × 1010, 1 × 1011, 3 × 1011, 6 × 1011 and 1 × 1012 ions/cm2 with Si8+ ions of 100 MeV energy from Pelletron accelerator at Inter University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), New Delhi and Ne6+ ions of 145 MeV to the fluences of 108, 1010, 1011, 1012 and 1013 ions/cm3 from Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata. Optical modifications were characterized by UV towards the red end of the spectrum with the increase of the fluence. Value of optical band gap Eg shows a decreasing trend with ion fluence irradiated with both kinds of ions. Cluster size N, the number of carbon atoms per conjugation length increases with increasing ion dose. Cluster size also increases with the increase of electronic stopping power.Rajesh Kumar1*, S Asad Ali1, A. H. Naqvi1, H. S. Virk2, Udayan De3, D K Avasthi4 and Rajendra Prasad1 1Department of Applied Physics, Z. H. College of Engineering & Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202 002, Uttar Pradesh, India 2360 Sector-71, SAS Nagar (Mohali), Chandigarh-160 071, Punjab, India 3Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, 1/AF, Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata-700 064, India 4Inter-University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi-110 067, India E-mail : [email protected] of Applied Physics, Z. H. College of Engineering & Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202 002, Uttar Pradesh, India 2360 Sector-71, SAS Nagar (Mohali), Chandigarh-160 071, Punjab, India Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, 1/AF, Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata-700 064, India Inter-University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi-110 067, Indi

Warfarin-related nephropathy occurs in patients with and without chronic kidney disease and is associated with an increased mortality rate

An acute increase in the international normalized ratio (INR; a comparison of prothrombin time to monitor the effects of warfarin) over 3 in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is often associated with an unexplained acute increase in serum creatinine (SC) and an accelerated progression of CKD. Kidney biopsy in a subset of these patients showed obstruction of the renal tubule by red blood cell casts, and this appears to be the dominant mechanism of the acute kidney injury. We termed this warfarin-related nephropathy (WRN), and previously reported cases of WRN only in patients with CKD. We now assess whether this occurs in patients without CKD, its risk factors, and consequences. In 15,258 patients who initiated warfarin therapy during a 5-year period, 4006 had an INR over 3 and SC measured at the same time; however, the large data set precluded individual patient clinical assessment. A presumptive diagnosis of WRN was made if the SC increased by over 0.3mg/dl within 1 week after the INR exceeded 3 with no record of hemorrhage. WRN occurred in 20.5% of the entire cohort, 33.0% of the CKD cohort, and 16.5% of the no-CKD cohort. Other risk factors included age, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. The 1-year mortality was 31.1% with compared with 18.9% without WRN, an increased risk of 65%. Thus, WRN may be a common complication of warfarin therapy in high-risk patients and CKD doubles this risk. The mechanisms of these risks are unclear

Inhibition of HIV Env binding to cellular receptors by monoclonal antibody 2G12 as probed by Fc-tagged gp120

During natural HIV infection, an array of host receptors are thought to influence virus attachment and the kinetics of infection. In this study, to probe the interactions of HIV envelope (Env) with various receptors, we assessed the inhibitory properties of various anti-Env monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in binding assays. To assist in detecting Env in attachment assays, we generated Fc fusions of full-length wild-type gp120 and several variable loop-deleted gp120s. Through investigation of the inhibition of Env binding to cell lines expressing CD4, CCR5, DC-SIGN, syndecans or combinations thereof, we found that the broadly neutralizing mAb, 2G12, directed to a unique carbohydrate epitope of gp120, inhibited Env-CCR5 binding, partially inhibited Env-DC-SIGN binding, but had no effect on Env-syndecan association. Furthermore, 2G12 inhibited Env attachment to primary monocyte-derived dendritic cells, that expressed CD4 and CCR5 primary HIV receptors, as well as DC-SIGN, and suggested that the dual activities of 2G12 could be valuable in vivo for inhibiting initial virus dissemination and propagation

Regulation of Liver Regeneration by Hepatocyte O-GlcNAcylation in Mice

A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Background & Aims The liver has a unique capacity to regenerate after injury in a highly orchestrated and regulated manner. Here, we report that O-GlcNAcylation, an intracellular post-translational modification regulated by 2 enzymes, O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and O-GlcNAcase (OGA), is a critical termination signal for liver regeneration following partial hepatectomy (PHX). Methods We studied liver regeneration after PHX on hepatocyte specific OGT and OGA knockout mice (OGT-KO and OGA-KO), which caused a significant decrease (OGT-KO) and increase (OGA-KO) in hepatic O-GlcNAcylation, respectively. Results OGA-KO mice had normal regeneration, but the OGT-KO mice exhibited substantial defects in termination of liver regeneration with increased liver injury, sustained cell proliferation resulting in significant hepatomegaly, hepatic dysplasia, and appearance of small nodules at 28 days after PHX. This was accompanied by a sustained increase in expression of cyclins along with significant induction in pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic gene expression in the OGT-KO livers. RNA-sequencing studies revealed inactivation of hepatocyte nuclear 4 alpha (HNF4α), the master regulator of hepatic differentiation and a known termination signal, in OGT-KO mice at 28 days after PHX, which was confirmed by both Western blot and immunohistochemistry analysis. Furthermore, a significant decrease in HNFα target genes was observed in OGT-KO mice, indicating a lack of hepatocyte differentiation following decreased hepatic O-GlcNAcylation. Immunoprecipitation experiments revealed HNF4α is O-GlcNAcylated in normal differentiated hepatocytes. Conclusions These studies show that O-GlcNAcylation plays a critical role in the termination of liver regeneration via regulation of HNF4α in hepatocytes

Bioengineering and Semisynthesis of an Optimized Cyclophilin Inhibitor for Treatment of Chronic Viral Infection.

Inhibition of host-encoded targets, such as the cyclophilins, provides an opportunity to generate potent high barrier to resistance antivirals for the treatment of a broad range of viral diseases. However, many host-targeted agents are natural products, which can be difficult to optimize using synthetic chemistry alone. We describe the orthogonal combination of bioengineering and semisynthetic chemistry to optimize the drug-like properties of sanglifehrin A, a known cyclophilin inhibitor of mixed nonribosomal peptide/polyketide origin, to generate the drug candidate NVP018 (formerly BC556). NVP018 is a potent inhibitor of hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV-1 replication, shows minimal inhibition of major drug transporters, and has a high barrier to generation of both HCV and HIV-1 resistance

Traditional use of medicinal plants by the Jaintia tribes in North Cachar Hills district of Assam, northeast India

The study of ethnobotany relating to any tribe is in itself a very intricate or convoluted process. This paper documents the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants that are in use by the indigenous Jaintia tribes residing in few isolated pockets of northeast India. The present study was done through structured questionnaires in consultations with the tribal practitioners and has resulted in the documentation of 39 medicinal plant species belonging to 27 families and 35 genera. For curing diverse form of ailments, the use of aboveground plant parts was higher (76.59%) than the underground plant parts (23.41%). Of the aboveground plant parts, leaf was used in the majority of cases (23 species), followed by fruit (4). Different underground plant forms such as root, tuber, rhizome, bulb and pseudo-bulb were also found to be in use by the Jaintia tribe as a medicine. Altogether, 30 types of ailments have been reported to be cured by using these 39 medicinal plant species. The study thus underlines the potentials of the ethnobotanical research and the need for the documentation of traditional ecological knowledge pertaining to the medicinal plant utilization for the greater benefit of mankind

Sense-making strategies in explorative intelligence analysis of network evolutions

Visualising how social networks evolve is important in intelligence analysis in order to detect and monitor issues, such as emerging crime patterns or rapidly growing groups of offenders. It remains an open research question how this type of information should be presented for visual exploration. To get a sense of how users work with different types of visualisations, we evaluate a matrix and a node-link diagram in a controlled thinking aloud study. We describe the sense-making strategies that users adopted during explorative and realistic tasks. Thereby, we focus on the user behaviour in switching between the two visualisations and propose a set of nine strategies. Based on a qualitative and quantitative content analysis we show which visualisation supports which strategy better. We find that the two visualisations clearly support intelligence tasks and that for some tasks the combined use is more advantageous than the use of an individual visualisation

Occurrence of deep-water spider crab Paramaya mulli Ng, Prema & Ravichandran, 2018 from the Southwest coast of India

This study documents the occurrence of deep-water spider crab, Paramaya mulli, along the Southwest coast of India. Initially described in 2018 from Tamil Nadu on the east coast, this species was subsequently noted in 2020 in Gujarat on the west coast. The specimen was retrieved from by-catch discarded by commercial fishing trawlers at Sakthikulangara fishing harbour off Kollam, Kerala. Identification as Paramaya mulli was established through a combination of morphological and molecular data. Both 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) and cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) sequences from the current specimen were compared with the NCBI sequences of previously identified specimens. Phylogenetic analysis, using mitochondrial gene sequences (16S: OQ456467, OQ456468) from the present specimen and sequences obtained from NCBI GenBank, was conducted to elucidate the relationships of genus Paramaya

HSV Neutralization by the Microbicidal Candidate C5A

Genital herpes is a major risk factor in acquiring human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) infection and is caused by both Herpes Simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2. The amphipathic peptide C5A, derived from the non-structural hepatitis C virus (HCV) protein 5A, was shown to prevent HIV-1 infection but neither influenza nor vesicular stomatitis virus infections. Here we investigated the antiviral function of C5A on HSV infections. C5A efficiently inhibited both HSV-1 and HSV-2 infection in epithelial cells in vitro as well as in an ex vivo epidermal infection model. C5A destabilized the integrity of the viral HSV membrane. Furthermore, drug resistant HSV strains were inhibited by this peptide. Notably, C5A-mediated neutralization of HSV-1 prevented HIV-1 transmission. An in vitro HIV-1 transmigration assay was developed using primary genital epithelial cells and HSV infection increased HIV-1 transmigration. Treatment with C5A abolished HIV-1 transmigration by preventing HSV infection and by preserving the integrity of the genital epithelium that was severely compromised by HSV infection. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that C5A represents a multipurpose microbicide candidate, which neutralizes both HIV-1 and HSV, and which may interfere with HIV-1 transmission through the genital epithelium