Development and Evaluation of Nanoemulsifying Preconcentrate of Curcumin for Colon Delivery

The present study aimed to develop and optimize a nanoemulsifying preconcentrate formulation of curcumin with good emulsification ability and optimal globule size, for controlled targeting in colon. Content of formulation variables, namely, X1 (Peceol), X2 (Cremophor-EL), and X3 (Transcutol HP), were optimized by Box-Behnken design of experiments for its impact on mean globule size (Y1), emulsification time (Y2), and time required for drug release (85%) in phosphate buffer (pH 7.2), t85% (Y3). Transmission electron micrographs confirmed that there is no coalescence among globules, with size range concordant with the globule size analysis by dynamic light scattering technique (100 nm). 3D plots indicated that concentration of formulation ingredients significantly influences the formulation properties (globule size, emulsification time, and drug release). In vitro release profile (in phosphate buffer; pH 7.2) represents the fact that more than 50% of the drug was released within initial 15 min whereas in vivo release showed limited systemic absorption (Cmax 200 ng/mL) of curcumin. Stability study ensures the protection of drug in alkaline media which may further confirm the localised delivery of drug to colonic region. Study demonstrated that the nanoemulsifying preconcentrate can be a promising system for the colon specific delivery of curcumin to treat local pathologies

Variation in brachial plexus formation, branching pattern and relation with major vessels

Background: Anatomical variations in the formation, branching pattern and relations of the brachial plexus have been described in humans by many authors; however these have not been extensively catalogued. The aim of the study was to describe variations in brachial plexus formation, branching pattern and relation with major vessels.Methods: This study included thorough dissection of 60 brachial plexuses which belonged to 30 cadavers (male: female ratio = 28:02 ) with age range of 20-60 years, obtained from the Department of Anatomy, College of Medical Sciences (CMS-TH), following standard guidelines. Results: Out of 60 limbs dissected in present study, the variation in formation was found in 20 limbs (33.3%), out of which 12 limbs (20%) had variations in the trunk and 8 limbs (13.3%) had variations in the cord, remaining 40 limbs (66.6%) were normal in the formation of brachial plexus. Normal branching pattern of the posterior cord was encountered in 52 (86.67%) limbs, the remaining 8 (13.33%) being variants in one form or the other. The upper subscapular nerve, the thoracodorsal nerve, the lower subscapular nerve and the axillary nerve were found to arise normally in 91.66%, 96.66%, 96.66% and 98.33% of the limbs respectively.Conclusion: The present study carried out on adult human cadavers revealed some rare variations in the formation, branching pattern and relations of the brachial plexus. These variations are of clinical significance for the surgeons, radiologists and the anesthesiologists.

Bioactive food components and their inhibitory actions in multiple platelet pathways

In addition to hemostasis and thrombosis, blood platelets are involved in various processes such as inflammation, infection, immunobiology, cancer metastasis, wound repair and angiogenesis. Platelets\u27 hemostatic and non-hemostatic functions are mediated by the expression of various membrane receptors and the release of proteins, ions and other mediators. Therefore, specific activities of platelets responsible for the non-hemostatic disease are to be inhibited while leaving the platelet\u27s hemostatic function unaffected. Platelets\u27 anti-aggregatory property has been used as a primary criterion for antiplatelet drugs/bioactives; however, their non-hemostatic activities are not well known. This review describes the hemostatic and non-hemostatic function of human blood platelets and the modulatory effects of bioactive food components. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: In this review, we have discussed the antiplatelet effects of several food components. These bioactive compounds inhibit both hemostatic and non-hemostatic pathways involving blood platelet. Platelets have emerged as critical biological factors of normal and pathologic vascular healing and other diseases such as cancers and inflammatory and immune disorders. The challenge for therapeutic intervention in these disorders will be to find drugs and bioactive compounds that preferentially block specific sites implicated in emerging roles of platelets\u27 complicated contribution to inflammation, tumour growth, or other disorders while leaving at least some of their hemostatic function intact

Health, education, and social care provision after diagnosis of childhood visual disability

Aim: To investigate the health, education, and social care provision for children newly diagnosed with visual disability.Method: This was a national prospective study, the British Childhood Visual Impairment and Blindness Study 2 (BCVIS2), ascertaining new diagnoses of visual impairment or severe visual impairment and blindness (SVIBL), or equivalent vi-sion. Data collection was performed by managing clinicians up to 1-year follow-up, and included health and developmental needs, and health, education, and social care provision.Results: BCVIS2 identified 784 children newly diagnosed with visual impairment/SVIBL (313 with visual impairment, 471 with SVIBL). Most children had associated systemic disorders (559 [71%], 167 [54%] with visual impairment, and 392 [84%] with SVIBL). Care from multidisciplinary teams was provided for 549 children (70%). Two-thirds (515) had not received an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP). Fewer children with visual impairment had seen a specialist teacher (SVIBL 35%, visual impairment 28%, χ2p < 0.001), or had an EHCP (11% vs 7%, χ2p < 0 . 01).Interpretation: Families need additional support from managing clinicians to access recommended complex interventions such as the use of multidisciplinary teams and educational support. This need is pressing, as the population of children with visual impairment/SVIBL is expected to grow in size and complexity.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Fludarabine, cytarabine, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, and idarubicin with gemtuzumab ozogamicin improves event-free survival in younger patients with newly diagnosed aml and overall survival in patients with npm1 and flt3 mutations

Purpose To determine the optimal induction chemotherapy regimen for younger adults with newly diagnosed AML without known adverse risk cytogenetics. Patients and Methods One thousand thirty-three patients were randomly assigned to intensified (fludarabine, cytarabine, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, and idarubicin [FLAG-Ida]) or standard (daunorubicin and Ara-C [DA]) induction chemotherapy, with one or two doses of gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO). The primary end point was overall survival (OS). Results There was no difference in remission rate after two courses between FLAG-Ida + GO and DA + GO (complete remission [CR] + CR with incomplete hematologic recovery 93% v 91%) or in day 60 mortality (4.3% v 4.6%). There was no difference in OS (66% v 63%; P = .41); however, the risk of relapse was lower with FLAG-Ida + GO (24% v 41%; P < .001) and 3-year event-free survival was higher (57% v 45%; P < .001). In patients with an NPM1 mutation (30%), 3-year OS was significantly higher with FLAG-Ida + GO (82% v 64%; P = .005). NPM1 measurable residual disease (MRD) clearance was also greater, with 88% versus 77% becoming MRD-negative in peripheral blood after cycle 2 (P = .02). Three-year OS was also higher in patients with a FLT3 mutation (64% v 54%; P = .047). Fewer transplants were performed in patients receiving FLAG-Ida + GO (238 v 278; P = .02). There was no difference in outcome according to the number of GO doses, although NPM1 MRD clearance was higher with two doses in the DA arm. Patients with core binding factor AML treated with DA and one dose of GO had a 3-year OS of 96% with no survival benefit from FLAG-Ida + GO. Conclusion Overall, FLAG-Ida + GO significantly reduced relapse without improving OS. However, exploratory analyses show that patients with NPM1 and FLT3 mutations had substantial improvements in OS. By contrast, in patients with core binding factor AML, outcomes were excellent with DA + GO with no FLAG-Ida benefit

Phytoremedial effect of fruit extract of Moringa oleifera on alloxan induced diabetic model in Swiss albino mice : Phytoremedial effect of fruit extract of Moringa oleifera on Alloxan induced Diabetes

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder and global health issue. It arises because of an absolute or relative insulin deficiency that causes hyperglycemia. The study aimed to assess the antihyperglycemic, hepatoprotective, and renal protective effects of ethanolic fruit extract of Moringa oleifera, on alloxan-induced diabetic mice. Four mice were assigned to each group.  Alloxan was injected at the dose of 10mg/kg/body weight intraperitoneally to make the diabetic model in mice. Control and diabetic control mice received drinking water as a placebo, while the diabetic model mice group was administered with ethanolic extract of moringa fruit at the dose of 150mg/kg/bodyweight for 12 weeks. After that, animals were sacrificed, and their blood and tissue samples were collected for biochemical and histopathological examination. The glucose level markedly (p&lt;0.0001) increased many folds in Group I (80.73± 1.24 to 221.5±13.4) and Group II (80.73 ± 1.24 from to 221.9±6.88). The level of insulin markedly (P&lt; 0.0001) decreased in both groups (6.8±0.42 to1.378±0.19) and (6.8±0.42 to1.138±0.08) respectively. Serum hepatic and renal marker enzymes increased in the diabetic group of mice. Glucose level was meaningfully (p&lt;0.0001) decreased in the M. oleifera administered group while serum insulin level significantly (p&lt;0.0001) increased. The level of liver marker enzyme and renal marker also decreased as compared to the diabetic control group. Histopathological study revealed that alloxan treatment caused damage to the liver, kidney, and pancreatic tissues while the M. oleifera administered group exhibited significant improvement in the architecture of the liver, kidney, and pancreas. Hence, M. oleifera has great potential to rejuvenate the damaged tissue and consequently can restore all the serum enzymatic and hormonal parameters

Monitoring solution for cloud-native DevSecOps

Abstract Software development and operations are increasingly adopting cloud-native environments. The popularity of development practices such as DevSecOps is one of the reasons for this change. It is identified that monitoring is one essential practice in DevSecOps and currently, a wide variety of tool offerings are available on the market to address this new transformation. However, an automated monitoring solution that covers both the infrastructure and application level is not available yet. We have developed a repeatable solution based on the popular microservice architectural style that monitors the cloud-native infrastructure and application level to address this gap. Furthermore, we have also added automation capability to this monitoring solution for easy deployment and event-triggered alerting. In the future, we plan to do a detailed evaluation and extend the proposed solution with more data collection features in order to enhance the monitoring solution

Organo-phosphate induced delayed neuropathy: report of two cases

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No-till is more of sustaining the soil than a climate change mitigation option

No-till is often referred to as a climate change mitigation option, possibly with a stronger conviction, than as a practice to manage soil organic C (SOC) content. We conducted a global meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of no-till (NT) on SOC concentration (SOCc, g C kg−1 soil) and stock (SOCs, Mg C ha−1 land) across climate, soil texture, cropping systems, and no-till duration to appraise the priority-setting. Compared to conventional tillage, NT favoured a significant rise (ΔSOCc) of 38% in the 0–5 cm soil layer and a much lesser 6% increase in the 5–10 cm layer and no change beyond 10 cm. The temperate climate had nearly twice ΔSOCc in the 0–5 cm layer compared to other climates, while the tropical climate favoured sub-surface accumulation. Coarse- and medium-textured soils and the inclusion of legumes in crop rotation facilitated larger positive ΔSOCs under NT. The microbial biomass C was the most abundant C pool, with 61% and 23% increases under NT in 0–5 and 5–10 cm layers. A large ΔSOCc in aggregates also characterized the top 0–5 cm layer. The difference in SOCs was realized to a maximum 30 cm depth (5.4 Mg ha−1 or 14%) in favour of NT, although varying with the duration of its adoption. The contribution of NT in mitigating global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is meagre, although it can substantially offset emissions from agriculture (17–58%). The benefit of NT in improving SOC is primarily restricted to the surface layer, which is potentially exposed, and therefore an increase could be short-lived. Nevertheless, a short-term gain in SOC is likely to enhance soil quality and crop productivity. Thus, NT may be promoted as a sustainable agricultural management practice rather than emphasizing its role as a potential climate change mitigation option

Effect of Aqueous Extracts of Green Tea in Arsenic induced Toxicity in Mice

Ground water arsenic contamination is a global problem affecting thousands of people worldwide, thus present study was aimed to evaluate the hypothesis that green tea extracts, having high polyphenolic content, might be able to combat the oxidative cellular damage caused by arsenic toxicity and to prevent further development of free radicals.In the present study treatment groups received sodium arsenite orally at the dose of 3 mg kg-1 body weight daily for 4 weeks followed by administration of Camellia sinensis (green tea) 300 mg kg-1 body weight daily by gavage method for 6 weeks. Their biochemical levels like liver and kidney function tests were assayed and were found with elevated levels. Furthermore, their free radical assessment like lipid peroxidation levels were assayed which was found to be many folds higher. But, after administration of aqueous extract of green tea, there was signifi cant amelioration in the biochemical and lipid peroxidation levels. The protective effect of these antioxidants was shown in the form of normalization of enzymatic and non-enzymatic activities represented by normalization of liver and kidney functions.</p