FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF CLOBETASOL-17-PROPIONATE-LOADED CARBOXYMETHYL CHITOSAN NANOPARTICLE

Objective: Formulation and evaluation of clobetasol-17-propionate-loaded carboxymethyl chitosan nanoparticle. Psoriasis is a chronic skin disorder caused due to the autoimmune factors. It has a detrimental psychological and physiological impact on patients due to the emergence of apparent skin. The systemic therapy with anti-psoriatic drugs such corticosteroids, immunosuppressant, and gene suppressors causes severe side effects. As a result, increasing the effectiveness and safety of the aforementioned medicines when applied topically would be extremely useful in avoiding the side effects associated with the systemic route of administration. Methods: Chitosan (CS) has not been widely used in the clinic applications but due to its limited solubility and poor mechanical characteristics. CS, on the other hand, is chemically changed to form carboxymethyl (CMC), which is soluble at both neutral and basic pH. Chemical modifications can also be used to attach different functional groups and control hydrophobic, cationic, and anionic properties. CMC is a promising carrier that might possibly traverse the thick scales of psoriatic skin since it is a penetration enhancer that allows drug diffusion through either the transcellular or paracellular pathways. Comparative study is done using CMC as a polymer and CD as a polymer. Results: CP-loaded CMC nanoparticles show better result results than CP-loaded CD polymer. Conclusion: Clobetasol-17-propionate-loaded carboxymethyl chitosan nanoparticle shows better results with improved solubility

Nutritional Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices among HIV-positive Individuals in India

This descriptive study investigated the nutrition-related knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) in India. Data relating to nutritional KAP and sociodemographic profile were gathered from a sample of 400 PLHIV from New Delhi, India, using preset multiple-choice questionnaire. The knowledge on HIV/AIDS was low; nutritional knowledge was moderate as 80% of respondents could answer 4 out of 7 questions correctly. The attitude toward disease and food was positive but the application of nutritional knowledge was lacking as indicated by the moderate practice score of 8.1\ub12.3 out of a total score of 15. There were no significant differences in scores between genders. The PLHIV had knowledge about importance of nutrition during infection, had positive attitude toward the disease and the importance of nutrition during the course of the disease but translation of this knowledge into practice was low. Thus, there is a need for continuous interventions primarily aiming at behaviour change to convert knowledge into healthy dietary practices

Smart grading of diabetic retinopathy: an intelligent recommendation-based fine-tuned EfficientNetB0 framework

Diabetic retinopathy is a condition that affects the retina and causes vision loss due to blood vessel destruction. The retina is the layer of the eye responsible for visual processing and nerve signaling. Diabetic retinopathy causes vision loss, floaters, and sometimes blindness; however, it often shows no warning signals in the early stages. Deep learning-based techniques have emerged as viable options for automated illness classification as large-scale medical imaging datasets have become more widely available. To adapt to medical image analysis tasks, transfer learning makes use of pre-trained models to extract high-level characteristics from natural images. In this research, an intelligent recommendation-based fine-tuned EfficientNetB0 model has been proposed for quick and precise assessment for the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy from fundus images, which will help ophthalmologists in early diagnosis and detection. The proposed EfficientNetB0 model is compared with three transfer learning-based models, namely, ResNet152, VGG16, and DenseNet169. The experimental work is carried out using publicly available datasets from Kaggle consisting of 3,200 fundus images. Out of all the transfer learning models, the EfficientNetB0 model has outperformed with an accuracy of 0.91, followed by DenseNet169 with an accuracy of 0.90. In comparison to other approaches, the proposed intelligent recommendation-based fine-tuned EfficientNetB0 approach delivers state-of-the-art performance on the accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score criteria. The system aims to assist ophthalmologists in early detection, potentially alleviating the burden on healthcare units

Kinase profiling of liposarcomas using RNAi and drug screening assays identified druggable targets.

BackgroundLiposarcoma, the most common soft tissue tumor, is understudied cancer, and limited progress has been made in the treatment of metastatic disease. The Achilles heel of cancer often is their kinases that are excellent therapeutic targets. However, very limited knowledge exists of therapeutic critical kinase targets in liposarcoma that could be potentially used in disease management.MethodsLarge RNAi and small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor screens were performed against the proliferative capacity of liposarcoma cell lines of different subtypes. Each small molecule inhibitor was either FDA approved or in a clinical trial.ResultsScreening assays identified several previously unrecognized targets including PTK2 and KIT in liposarcoma. We also observed that ponatinib, multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, was the most effective drug with anti-growth effects against all cell lines. In vitro assays showed that ponatinib inhibited the clonogenic proliferation of liposarcoma, and this anti-growth effect was associated with apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase as well as a decrease in the KIT signaling pathway. In addition, ponatinib inhibited in vivo growth of liposarcoma in a xenograft model.ConclusionsTwo large-scale kinase screenings identified novel liposarcoma targets and a FDA-approved inhibitor, ponatinib with clear anti-liposarcoma activity highlighting its potential therapy for treatment of this deadly tumor

Yolk sac tumour in pre-pubertal girl: a case report

The commonest malignant ovarian tumour in the adolescent group is yolk sac tumour. It is commonly encountered in adolescents and young women. Incidence is 1% of all ovarian tumours. We reported a case of yolk sac tumour in a 9-year-old girl who presented with intermittent lower abdominal pain, not settling with medical management. Abdominal ultrasonogram showed a left adnexal echogenic mass measuring 5×6 cm with cystic spaces and internal vascularity. MRI abdomen showed T2/STIR hetero intense mass indenting the uterus and posterior bladder wall, multiple bilateral internal iliac, external iliac, left common iliac, aortic and bilateral inguinal nodes along with minimal ascites were seen. She underwent laparoscopy with trucut biopsy which showed moderate nuclear atypia with occasional Schiller-Duval body. Medical oncologist opinion was obtained and she was advised 4 cycles of chemotherapy with carboplatin, bleomycin and etoposide. Later she was planned for laparoscopic cytoreductive surgery. Laparoscopy showed rudimentary uterus, residual left ovarian mass, bilateral normal tubes and small pre-pubertal right ovary. Hence, left salpingo-oophorectomy, infra colic omentectomy and suspicious residual deposits of 1×1 cm near the right broad ligament were removed. Histopathological report of ovary showed no evidence of any residual malignancy. Peritoneum and omentum were free of tumour. Following laparoscopic cytoreductive surgery she is on follow up with AFP till date which is in declining levels and almost reached a normal value

Production and characterisation of monoclonal antibodies against immunoglobulins of Cirrhinus mrigala (Hamilton 1822)

Serum immunoglobulins (Ig) of mrigal Cirrhinus mrigala (Hamilton 1822) immunised with bovine serum albumin (BSA), were purified by affinity chromatography using BSA-CL agarose column. The purified mrigal Ig (m-Ig) was characterised under reducing condition by Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) which revealed two bands of 85 and 26 kDa corresponding to heavy and light chain, respectively. Following fusion of splenocytes from Balb/c mice immunised with purified m-Ig with myeloma cells, three hybridomas showing reactivity with m-Ig were cloned by limiting dilution. The monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) generated by these clones were designated as 3B2-E12, 3B2-F9 and 4C3-B2 and characterised by western blotting and isotyping. Western blot analysis of the supernatant from the three clones with purified m-Ig indicated that, all the three MAbs were specific to heavy chain. Isotyping revealed that 3B2-E12 MAb was of IgG1 isotype whereas the other two MAbs were of IgG2a isotype. Cross reactivity of anti-mrigal Ig MAb (3B2-E12) was observed with serum Ig of Catla catla and Labeo rohita indicating semi-conserved nature of Ig in Indian major carps

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged jet production in root s(NN)=2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

We present measurements of the azimuthal dependence of charged jet production in central and semi-central root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the second harmonic event plane, quantified as nu(ch)(2) (jet). Jet finding is performed employing the anti-k(T) algorithm with a resolution parameter R = 0.2 using charged tracks from the ALICE tracking system. The contribution of the azimuthal anisotropy of the underlying event is taken into account event-by-event. The remaining (statistical) region-to-region fluctuations are removed on an ensemble basis by unfolding the jet spectra for different event plane orientations independently. Significant non-zero nu(ch)(2) (jet) is observed in semi-central collisions (30-50% centrality) for 20 <p(T)(ch) (jet) <90 GeV/c. The azimuthal dependence of the charged jet production is similar to the dependence observed for jets comprising both charged and neutral fragments, and compatible with measurements of the nu(2) of single charged particles at high p(T). Good agreement between the data and predictions from JEWEL, an event generator simulating parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium, is found in semi-central collisions. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe