Profile of congenital defects in foetuses: incidence and risk factors: a prospective observational study

Background: Perinatal outcome is one of the major indicators of evaluating health care system of a country. Congenital defects form important components of this parameter. The aim of the study was to determine the risk factors associated with congenital malformations in foetuses.Methods: All antenatal mothers whose foetuses were detected to have congenital defects on ultrasonography irrespective of period of gestation were enrolled for the study.Results: Eighty-six pregnant women with prenatally diagnosed fetal anomalies were enrolled for the study, out of which, 87.2% (N=75) belonged to 20-30 years age group. Majority of the subjects were educated till secondary school. Compared to primigravidae, the incidence of malformations was significantly higher in the multigravida group (69.8% vs 30.2% respectively). Thirty-eight (44.2%) mothers with malformed foetuses missed folic acid intake during early pregnancy. Only 40% mothers had prior history of abortions. Smoking was seen in 9% of subjects with malformations. Seven (8.3%) mothers had previous history of malformations and 5 (5.8%) reported a family history of malformations. Consanguineous marriage was observed in 4.7% of couples. Oligohydramnios or anhydramnios was associated with 11.6% foetuses, while polyhydramnios was seen in 53.5%. CNS malformations were seen in 57% of foetus, followed by genitourinary system malformations (9.2%).Conclusions: Tertiary level hospitals need to be upgraded with a dedicated multidisciplinary team of foetal medicine to cater to medical, clinical, surgical, preventive and therapeutic needs of malformed foetuses

Trends of human influenza infection in Chhattisgarh: a retrospective observational study

Background: Human influenza virus was recognized as a pandemic in 2009 by the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then many newer incidences was recognized in India, but there was no sufficient data from all state of India. This study will provide data from the Chhattisgarh state of India.Methods: It was a retrospective observational study from December 2015 to November 2017. All patient samples with suspected influenza infection were collected and analysed by Real-time reverse polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).Results: 341 patients’ sample was collected and analysed; among these samples, 07.9% of patients have all three serotype of influenza positive. Raipur district has the highest incidence of influenza A followed by Durg and Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh. There was no significant difference between male and female who was affected by the influenza virus.Conclusions: The incidence of Human influenza virus is lesser in Chhattisgarh as compare to the average states of India and the state capital has a higher rate of sample collection as well as positive influenza infection

Antagonistic Compounds Producing Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria: A Tool for Management of Plant Disease

Agriculture is facing struggle to meet the various confront of reducing plant diseases for an increasing world population food security. Great quantities of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are required for high productivity which can damage ecosystem structures and functions, including the soil microbial community which plays an important role in agriculture sustainability. Soil is an excellent niche of growth of much plant growth promoting rhizobacteria. PGPR are naturally occurring soil bacteria that aggressively colonize in plant roots and play a vital role in crop protection, growth promotion and in the improvement of soil health. Scientific researchers involve multidisciplinary approaches to understand adaptation of PGPR, effects on plant physiology and growth induced systemic resistance, biocontrol of plant pathogens and biofertilization. The primary mechanism of biocontrol by PGPR involves the production of antibiotics such as carboxylic acid, 2,4-diacetyl phloroglucinoloomycin,pyoluteorin,pyrrolnitrin,kanosamine,zwittemycin-A and pantocin. A cascade of endogenous signals such as sensor kinases, N-acyl homoserine lactones and sigma factors regulates the synthesis of antibiotics. Some of these antibiotics have broad spectrum against many plant pathogens like fungi, viruses and bacteria, affecting crop plants. These antibiotics also serve as determinants in triggering induced systemic resistance (ISR) in the plant system

A world health organization core drug use indicator based prescription study in the dermatology outpatient department of a tertiary care teaching hospital of central South India

Background: Irrational prescribing is a universal problem that may lead to inadequate response to medication therapy, poor patient compliance and increased adverse drug reactions ultimately leading to frequent hospital admissions. Hence this study was done to assess the drug utilization pattern using WHO core drug use indicators so that the recommendation can be made towards the rational prescribing.Methods: A sample of 3650 prescriptions was analysed prospectively to assess the drug utilization patterns in the dermatology OPD of a tertiary care teaching hospital of central south India.Results: The average number of drugs per prescription was 2.74 whereas 79.26% drugs were prescribed by generic names. Percentage of encounters with an antibiotic prescribed was 18.68%. Regarding use of injections, 3.26% prescriptions contains one or more injections. Percentage of drugs prescribed from essential drugs list was 78.37%. Average consultation time was lower (2.9 minutes) than recommended.Conclusions: The data from the present study indicates that prevalence of polypharmacy, inadequate consultation and dispensing time along with poor patient’s knowledge are the areas of medication therapy to be improved. Availability of essential drugs and key drugs in stock should be improved to achieve rational therapeutic goal. Further, continued medical education regarding the rational prescribing will definitely improve the standards of health care delivery

Genetic variability and divergence analysis for yield and yield contributing traits in released varieties of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) under partially reclaimed saline sodic soil

Genetic variability is the back bone of crop improvement programme, effectiveness of selection depends upon nature and magnitude of genetic variability present in the genetic material. The aim of the present study was that to identify the potential genotypes performing well under partially reclaimed saline- sodic soil (pH 8.6-8.9, EC = 4-4.2 dSm-1, ESP = > 15). Sixty four released varieties of barley collected from Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal were grown during rabi season 2010-11, showing wide spectrum of variation for various characters. The characters studied were yield and yield contributing traits; namely plant height, days to maturity, fertile tillers / plant, length of main spike, grains per main spike, 1000-grains weight, grain yield per plant. The data on 7 characters was utilized for estimation of mean, range and least significant differences. The varieties RD-2552(8.52), HBL-276(8.35), RD- 2592(8.17), PL-419(8.15), Kedar(8.11), PL-751(8.10), JB-58(8.06), K-508(7.96) produced higher grain yield per plant and showed high to very high mean performance for several other yield component also. These selected varieties can be used in breeding program and can be recommended direct cultivation under partially reclaimed salinesodic soil

Genotypic correlation and path coefficient analysis for yield and yield contributing traits in released varieties of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) under partially reclaimed saline sodic soil

This research sought to determine the correlations between grain yield and its contributing traits and to measure the direct and indirect effects on grain yield in barley. Sixty four released varieties were grown under par-tially reclaimed saline- sodic soil, under irrigated conditions during rabi 2010-11. The grain yield per plant showed highly significant and positive correlation with 1000 grain weight (0.517), plant height (0.460), length of main spike (0.459), fertile tillers per plant (0.385), and grains per main spike (0.366). On the basis of relationship of grain yield with yield contributing traits, we can select the best genotype and can be utilised in breeding program

Dynamics of HEV viremia, fecal shedding and its relationship with transaminases and antibody response in patients with sporadic acute hepatitis E

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is paucity of data regarding duration of fecal excretion and viremia on sequential samples from individual patients and its correlation with serum transaminases and antibody responses in patients with acute hepatitis E. This prospective study was undertaken at a tertiary care center in Northern India over 15 months. Only those patients of sporadic acute hepatitis E who were in their first week of illness and followed up weekly for liver function tests, IgM anti HEV antibody and HEV RNA in sera and stool were included. HEV RNA was done by RT - nPCR using two pairs of primers from RdRp region of ORF 1 of the HEV genome.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Over a period of 15 months 60 patients met the inclusion criterion and were enrolled for the final analysis. The mean age of the patients was 29.2 ± 8.92 years, there were 39 males. The positivity of IgM anti HEV was 80% at diagnosis and 18.3% at 7th week, HEV RNA 85% at diagnosis and 6.6% at 7th week and fecal RNA 70% at the time of diagnosis and 20% at 4th week. The maximum duration of viremia detected was 42 days and fecal viral shedding was 28 days after the onset of illness.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Present study reported HEV RNA positivity in sera after normalization of transaminases. Fecal shedding was not seen beyond normalization of transaminases. However, viremia lasted beyond normalization of transaminases suggesting that liver injury is independent of viral replication.</p

Identification of a major QTL, Parth6.1 associated with parthenocarpic fruit development in slicing cucumber genotype, Pusa Parthenocarpic Cucumber-6

Parthenocarpy is an extremely important trait that revolutionized the worldwide cultivation of cucumber under protected conditions. Pusa Parthenocarpic Cucumber-6 (PPC-6) is one of the important commercially cultivated varieties under protected conditions in India. Understanding the genetics of parthenocarpy, molecular mapping and the development of molecular markers closely associated with the trait will facilitate the introgression of parthenocarpic traits into non-conventional germplasm and elite varieties. The F1, F2 and back-crosses progenies with a non-parthenocarpic genotype, Pusa Uday indicated a single incomplete dominant gene controlling parthenocarpy in PPC-6. QTL-seq comprising of the early parthenocarpy and non-parthenocarpic bulks along with the parental lines identified two major genomic regions, one each in chromosome 3 and chromosome 6 spanning over a region of 2.7 Mb and 7.8 Mb, respectively. Conventional mapping using F2:3 population also identified two QTLs, Parth6.1 and Parth6.2 in chromosome 6 which indicated the presence of a major effect QTL in chromosome 6 determining parthenocarpy in PPC-6. The flanking markers, SSR01148 and SSR 01012 for Parth6.1 locus and SSR10476 and SSR 19174 for Parth6.2 locus were identified and can be used for introgression of parthenocarpy through the marker-assisted back-crossing programme. Functional annotation of the QTL-region identified two major genes, Csa_6G396640 and Csa_6G405890 designated as probable indole-3-pyruvate monooxygenase YUCCA11 and Auxin response factor 16, respectively associated with auxin biosynthesis as potential candidate genes. Csa_6G396640 showed only one insertion at position 2179 in the non-parthenocarpic parent. In the case of Csa_6G405890, more variations were observed between the two parents in the form of SNPs and InDels. The study provides insight about genomic regions, closely associated markers and possible candidate genes associated with parthenocarpy in PPC-6 which will be instrumental for functional genomics study and better understanding of parthenocarpy in cucumber

Curcumin―The Paradigm of a Multi-Target Natural Compound with Applications in Cancer Prevention and Treatment

As cancer is a multifactor disease, it may require treatment with compounds able to target multiple intracellular components. We summarize here how curcumin is able to modulate many components of intracellular signaling pathways implicated in inflammation, cell proliferation and invasion and to induce genetic modulations eventually leading to tumor cell death. Clinical applications of this natural compound were initially limited by its low solubility and bioavailability in both plasma and tissues but combination with adjuvant and delivery vehicles was reported to largely improve bio-availability of curcumin. Moreover, curcumin was reported to act in synergism with several natural compounds or synthetic agents commonly used in chemotherapy. Based on this, curcumin could thus be considered as a good candidate for cancer prevention and treatment when used alone or in combination with other conventional treatments

The use of plants in the traditional management of diabetes in Nigeria: Pharmacological and toxicological considerations

Ethnopharmacological relevance: The prevalence of diabetes is on a steady increase worldwide and it is now identified as one of the main threats to human health in the 21st century. In Nigeria, the use of herbal medicine alone or alongside prescription drugs for its management is quite common. We hereby carry out a review of medicinal plants traditionally used for diabetes management in Nigeria. Based on the available evidence on the species׳ pharmacology and safety, we highlight ways in which their therapeutic potential can be properly harnessed for possible integration into the country׳s healthcare system. Materials and methods: Ethnobotanical information was obtained from a literature search of electronic databases such as Google Scholar, Pubmed and Scopus up to 2013 for publications on medicinal plants used in diabetes management, in which the place of use and/or sample collection was identified as Nigeria. ‘Diabetes’ and ‘Nigeria’ were used as keywords for the primary searches; and then ‘Plant name – accepted or synonyms’, ‘Constituents’, ‘Drug interaction’ and/or ‘Toxicity’ for the secondary searches. Results: The hypoglycemic effect of over a hundred out of the 115 plants reviewed in this paper is backed by preclinical experimental evidence, either in vivo or in vitro. One-third of the plants have been studied for their mechanism of action, while isolation of the bioactive constituent(s) has been accomplished for twenty three plants. Some plants showed specific organ toxicity, mostly nephrotoxic or hepatotoxic, with direct effects on the levels of some liver function enzymes. Twenty eight plants have been identified as in vitro modulators of P-glycoprotein and/or one or more of the cytochrome P450 enzymes, while eleven plants altered the levels of phase 2 metabolic enzymes, chiefly glutathione, with the potential to alter the pharmacokinetics of co-administered drugs. Conclusion: This review, therefore, provides a useful resource to enable a thorough assessment of the profile of plants used in diabetes management so as to ensure a more rational use. By anticipating potential toxicities or possible herb–drug interactions, significant risks which would otherwise represent a burden on the country׳s healthcare system can be avoided