Prevalence of hypertension and its associated risk factors in the rural field practice area of a tertiary care teaching hospital of Coastal Andhra Pradesh, India

Background: Hypertension is a major public health challenge in present phase of socio-demographic and epidemiological transition leading to various complications causing high mortality and morbidity. This study was carried out to observe changing trends prevalence of hypertension and its association with major risk factors in rural community.Methods: A community based cross sectional study was carried out among 1500 individuals (654 men and 846 women) aged 18-65 years living in villages under rural field practice area of Dr. Pinnamaneni Siddhartha Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Foundation, Chinaoutpally, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh. Information on socio-demographic data and risk factors was obtained. Height, weight and blood pressure were measured.Results: The mean systolic blood pressure was 130±19mmHg and diastolic blood pressure was 86±11mmHg. The mean age, waist circumference and BMI are 40±13 years, 85±11cm’s and 24±4kg/m2 respectively. The prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension in the age group of 18-65 years was reported to be 27.7% and 24.3% respectively. The prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher with increasing age, BMI, positive family history and low physical activity.Conclusions: Hypertension is one of the major public health problems in India with a long preclinical phase i.e. pre hypertension. Sedentary lifestyle, obesity and tobacco consumption are the modifiable risk factors associated with high prevalence of hypertension. These observations re-emphasize the need to follow effective preventive interventions such as healthy life style with regular physical activity and healthy dietary practices to be adopted to prevent hypertension

Mn-doped ZnO microspheres prepared by solution combustion synthesis for room temperature NH3 sensing

Despite being the most favorable ammonia (NH3) gas sensors, metal oxide semiconductors fail to deliver high selectivity and room temperature (RT) sensing. Tuning the metal oxide with doping is an attractive way of overcoming these disadvantages. Herein, we report Mn-doped ZnO microspheres as promising sensors for highly sensitive and selective RT sensing of NH3. ZnO and 2 wt% Mn-doped ZnO microspheres were synthesized by a low-cost and fast solution combustion synthesis, and their structure, morphology, and gas sensing properties were investigated. Mn-doping resulted in a change in the lattice parameters, an increase in the oxygen vacancies, and surface acidity of ZnO as confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Temperature programmed desorption (TPD), respectively. Mn-doped ZnO showed a response (Ra/Rg) of 20.2 in 100 ppm NH3, which is significantly higher than ZnO. The sensor showed high selectivity, three times higher than that of ZnO, and good stability. Improvement in the sensing performance of Mn-doped ZnO is attributed to the increase in the defects and surface acidity with Mn-doping. © 2022 The Author(s

Deep Sequence Analysis of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Integrated Analysis of Gene Expression, Alternative Splicing, and Single Nucleotide Variations in Lung Adenocarcinomas with and without Oncogenic KRAS Mutations

KRAS mutations are highly prevalent in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and tumors harboring these mutations tend to be aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy. We used next-generation sequencing technology to identify pathways that are specifically altered in lung tumors harboring a KRAS mutation. Paired-end RNA-sequencing of 15 primary lung adenocarcinoma tumors (8 harboring mutant KRAS and 7 with wild-type KRAS) were performed. Sequences were mapped to the human genome, and genomic features, including differentially expressed genes, alternate splicing isoforms and single nucleotide variants, were determined for tumors with and without KRAS mutation using a variety of computational methods. Network analysis was carried out on genes showing differential expression (374 genes), alternate splicing (259 genes), and SNV-related changes (65 genes) in NSCLC tumors harboring a KRAS mutation. Genes exhibiting two or more connections from the lung adenocarcinoma network were used to carry out integrated pathway analysis. The most significant signaling pathways identified through this analysis were the NFκB, ERK1/2, and AKT pathways. A 27 gene mutant KRAS-specific sub network was extracted based on gene–gene connections from the integrated network, and interrogated for druggable targets. Our results confirm previous evidence that mutant KRAS tumors exhibit activated NFκB, ERK1/2, and AKT pathways and may be preferentially sensitive to target therapeutics toward these pathways. In addition, our analysis indicates novel, previously unappreciated links between mutant KRAS and the TNFR and PPARγ signaling pathways, suggesting that targeted PPARγ antagonists and TNFR inhibitors may be useful therapeutic strategies for treatment of mutant KRAS lung tumors. Our study is the first to integrate genomic features from RNA-Seq data from NSCLC and to define a first draft genomic landscape model that is unique to tumors with oncogenic KRAS mutations

TREAT: a bioinformatics tool for variant annotations and visualizations in targeted and exome sequencing data

Summary: TREAT (Targeted RE-sequencing Annotation Tool) is a tool for facile navigation and mining of the variants from both targeted resequencing and whole exome sequencing. It provides a rich integration of publicly available as well as in-house developed annotations and visualizations for variants, variant-hosting genes and host-gene pathways

An overview of anti-diabetic plants used in Gabon: Pharmacology and Toxicology

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Ethnopharmacological relevance: The management of diabetes mellitus management in African communities, especially in Gabon, is not well established as more than 60% of population rely on traditional treatments as primary healthcare. The aim of this review was to collect and present the scientific evidence for the use of medicinal plants that are in currect by Gabonese traditional healers to manage diabetes or hyperglycaemia based here on the pharmacological and toxicological profiles of plants with anti-diabetic activity. There are presented in order to promote their therapeutic value, ensure a safer use by population and provide some bases for further study on high potential plants reviewed. Materials and methods: Ethnobotanical studies were sourced using databases such as Online Wiley library, Pubmed, Google Scholar, PROTA, books and unpublished data including Ph.D. and Master thesis, African and Asian journals. Keywords including ‘Diabetes’ ‘Gabon’ ‘Toxicity’ ‘Constituents’ ‘hyperglycaemia’ were used. Results: A total of 69 plants currently used in Gabon with potential anti-diabetic activity have been identified in the literature, all of which have been used in in vivo or in vitro studies. Most of the plants have been studied in human or animal models for their ability to reduce blood glucose, stimulate insulin secretion or inhibit carbohydrates enzymes. Active substances have been identified in 12 out of 69 plants outlined in this review, these include Allium cepa and Tabernanthe iboga. Only eight plants have their active substances tested for anti-diabetic activity and are suitables for further investigation. Toxicological data is scarce and is dose-related to the functional parameters of major organs such as kidney and liver. Conclusion: An in-depth understanding on the pharmacology and toxicology of Gabonese anti-diabetic plants is lacking yet there is a great scope for new treatments. With further research, the use of Gabonese anti-diabetic plants is important to ensure the safety of the diabetic patients in Gabon.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Windborne long-distance migration of malaria mosquitoes in the Sahel

Over the past two decades efforts to control malaria have halved the number of cases globally, yet burdens remain high in much of Africa and the elimination of malaria has not been achieved even in areas where extreme reductions have been sustained, such as South Africa1,2. Studies seeking to understand the paradoxical persistence of malaria in areas in which surface water is absent for 3–8 months of the year have suggested that some species of Anopheles mosquito use long-distance migration3. Here we confirm this hypothesis through aerial sampling of mosquitoes at 40–290 m above ground level and provide—to our knowledge—the first evidence of windborne migration of African malaria vectors, and consequently of the pathogens that they transmit. Ten species, including the primary malaria vector Anopheles coluzzii, were identified among 235 anopheline mosquitoes that were captured during 617 nocturnal aerial collections in the Sahel of Mali. Notably, females accounted for more than 80% of all of the mosquitoes that we collected. Of these, 90% had taken a blood meal before their migration, which implies that pathogens are probably transported over long distances by migrating females. The likelihood of capturing Anopheles species increased with altitude (the height of the sampling panel above ground level) and during the wet seasons, but variation between years and localities was minimal. Simulated trajectories of mosquito flights indicated that there would be mean nightly displacements of up to 300 km for 9-h flight durations. Annually, the estimated numbers of mosquitoes at altitude that cross a 100-km line perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction included 81,000 Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto, 6 million A. coluzzii and 44 million Anopheles squamosus. These results provide compelling evidence that millions of malaria vectors that have previously fed on blood frequently migrate over hundreds of kilometres, and thus almost certainly spread malaria over these distances. The successful elimination of malaria may therefore depend on whether the sources of migrant vectors can be identified and controlled

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Chemistry of 1,2-dialkynylimidazoles: rearrangements to cyclopentapyrazines and imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines

textA series of 1,2-dialkynylimidazoles (1,2-DAIs) intended as azaenediynes wherein the nitrogen is part of a heterocyclic imidazole ring were synthesized and their chemistry studied. The key N-alkynyl group was introduced using iodonium salts followed by a palladium coupling to add the 2-alkynyl side chain. Upon thermolysis in neat 1,4- cyclohexadiene, all of the 1,2-DAIs underwent an unprecedented molecular rearrangement to cyclopentapyrazine carbenes. These carbenes participated in hydrogen atom abstraction, cyclopropanation and C-H insertion. In benzene, all of the cyclopentapyrazine carbenes react with benzene, by presumably first forming a ix norcaradiene intermediate that rearranges to the phenyl adduct without any detection of cycloheptatriene intermediates. The carbene was also found to perform intramolecular olefin addition and C-H insertion forming interesting three- and four-membered ring pyrazines, yields of which were were maximized upon thermolysis in hexafluorobenzene. The rearrangement mechanisms of 1,2-DAIs were transformed in halogenated solvents. When compound 2.12 with an N-phyenylethynyl group was thermolyzed in chlorobenzene, a chloroimidazopyridine product derived from the 2,3-didehydropyridine intermediate was isolated. N-Ethynylated 1,2-DAIs, however, underwent a rearrangement to chlorinated imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines via a electrocyclic rearrangement of an α- chloroenamine intermediate. This rearrangement also occurred when an amine was the nucleophile while compounds in which the 2-alkynyl side chain is sterically demanding do not cyclize. Inclusion of the ynamine into an imidazole ring reversed the electronics of the N-alkynyl group in a few cases, with nucleophilic attack occurring at the β carbon of the ynamine.Pharmac