Histopathology of gill, liver, muscle and brain of Cyprinus carpio communis L. exposed to sublethal concentration of lead and cadmium

Histological studies in organs like gill, liver, muscle and brain of Cyprinus carpio communis were made to assess tissue damage due to sublethal concentration of heavy metals lead and cadmium after 28 days of exposure. In lead treated gill, disintegration and fusion of primary lamellae, extensive vacuolization with disruption of epithelial lining was observed, whereas on sublethal exposure to cadmium, hyperplasia of branchial arch, vacuolization and congestion of blood vessels were well marked. Metal accumulation was clearly visible in treated liver with degeneration and severe necrosis. Both lead and cadmium treated fish showed marked thickening and separation of muscle bundles with severe intramuscular oedema more pronounced in sublethal treatment of cadmium. Neuronal cell degeneration, swelling of pyramidal cells, vacuolization and dystrophic changes were characteristic features observed in treated brain.Key words: Lead, cadmium, histopathology, Cyprinus carpio communis

Lectins as possible candidates towards anti-microbial defense in silkworm, Bombyx mori L

Unlike vertebrates, insects do not have acquired immunity and therefore rely totally on innate immunity towards defense against invading microorganisms. Insect innate immunity consists of cellular and humoral reactions and both reactions work in concert in preventing insects acquiring infections. The most likely candidates for recognizing foreign material in insects are the lectins, which have already been shown to be important in mammalian innate immunity. Several reports of endogenous serum lectins having opsonic activity for invading pathogens have been circumstantiated in several insect specimens and therefore have been continuously explored for binding to wide range of microorganisms, obviating the necessity of antibodies in these animals. Silkworm, Bombyx mori L. is an important economic insect with unparalleled significance to the prosperity of weaker sections of the society and also has been promoted as a powerful laboratory model involving basic research in biology. It therefore merits immediate attention towards proper understanding of host-pathogen interactions, defensive mechanisms evolved in the host body in response to infection, anti-defensive molecules released by pathogen to suppress host immunity before reflecting on aspects of disease control. In this regard, lectins have been implicated as pattern recognition molecules serving as biosensors for detecting carbohydrate components on the microbial cells, thus triggering signaling cascade for immune activation. Understanding of such silkworm agglutinins, most specifically their binding specificities and pattern of recognition with identifiable gene families have been discussed towards establishment of its candidate role as immune defense molecules.Key words: Bombyx mori, lectins, innate immunity, carbohydrate-binding domains

Altered Immune Responses in Rhesus Macaques Co-Infected with SIV and Plasmodium cynomolgi: An Animal Model for Coincident AIDS and Relapsing Malaria

BACKGROUND:Dual epidemics of the malaria parasite Plasmodium and HIV-1 in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia present a significant risk for co-infection in these overlapping endemic regions. Recent studies of HIV/Plasmodium falciparum co-infection have reported significant interactions of these pathogens, including more rapid CD4+ T cell loss, increased viral load, increased immunosuppression, and increased episodes of clinical malaria. Here, we describe a novel rhesus macaque model for co-infection that supports and expands upon findings in human co-infection studies and can be used to identify interactions between these two pathogens. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:Five rhesus macaques were infected with P. cynomolgi and, following three parasite relapses, with SIV. Compared to macaques infected with SIV alone, co-infected animals had, as a group, decreased survival time and more rapid declines in markers for SIV progression, including peripheral CD4+ T cells and CD4+/CD8+ T cell ratios. The naïve CD4+ T cell pool of the co-infected animals was depleted more rapidly than animals infected with SIV alone. The co-infected animals also failed to generate proliferative responses to parasitemia by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells as well as B cells while also having a less robust anti-parasite and altered anti-SIV antibody response. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:These data suggest that infection with both SIV and Plasmodium enhances SIV-induced disease progression and impairs the anti-Plasmodium immune response. These data support findings in HIV/Plasmodium co-infection studies. This animal model can be used to further define impacts of lentivirus and Plasmodium co-infection and guide public health and therapeutic interventions

Human malarial disease: a consequence of inflammatory cytokine release

Malaria causes an acute systemic human disease that bears many similarities, both clinically and mechanistically, to those caused by bacteria, rickettsia, and viruses. Over the past few decades, a literature has emerged that argues for most of the pathology seen in all of these infectious diseases being explained by activation of the inflammatory system, with the balance between the pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines being tipped towards the onset of systemic inflammation. Although not often expressed in energy terms, there is, when reduced to biochemical essentials, wide agreement that infection with falciparum malaria is often fatal because mitochondria are unable to generate enough ATP to maintain normal cellular function. Most, however, would contend that this largely occurs because sequestered parasitized red cells prevent sufficient oxygen getting to where it is needed. This review considers the evidence that an equally or more important way ATP deficency arises in malaria, as well as these other infectious diseases, is an inability of mitochondria, through the effects of inflammatory cytokines on their function, to utilise available oxygen. This activity of these cytokines, plus their capacity to control the pathways through which oxygen supply to mitochondria are restricted (particularly through directing sequestration and driving anaemia), combine to make falciparum malaria primarily an inflammatory cytokine-driven disease

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

A Genetic Algorithm for Channel Routing Using Inter-Cluster Mutation

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for the channel routing problem based on genetic approach that uses a new type of mutation, called inter-cluster mutation . The performance of genetic algorithm-based channel router is improved by incorporating problem-specific knowledge into the inter-cluster mutation operators. A solution of the channel routing problem is represented by horizontal non-constraint graph(HNCG). The clusters information in the graph of the routing solution is used in the proposed inter-cluster mutation operators. The inter-cluster mutation integrates the concept of gradient descendent method, implicitly, into the genetic algorithm based channel router. We have implemented the inter- cluster mutation operators in C, and the results of the experiment show improved performance for genetic algorithm-based channel router using inter-cluster mutation

An extended evolutionary programming algorithm for VLSI channel routing

Channel routing is an important part of circuit layout in VLSI design. This paper presents an evolutionary programming-based two-layer channel router (EPCHR) that uses an integer representation. Adaptive mutation, solution refinement, and relabeling schemes are proposed. The combination of these schemes reduces the number of generations required to find the global optimum solution of a channel routing problem. EPCHR is demonstrated on six standard benchmark problems

Parallel Genetic Algorithm for Channel Routing

In this paper, we propose a new channel routing algorithm based on genetic approach. This involves designing a new encoding scheme and an evaluation function used by the genetic algorithm (GA) for channel routing problem. The algorithm has been implemented as both sequential and distributed CA. The speedup achieved is positive and encouraging