Osteoarthritis: insights into pathogenesis and futuristic treatment strategies

Osteoarthritis is the most common musculoskeletal condition world over that causes significant health, economic, and societal burdens. Till date, no therapeutic approaches have been able to stop or delay the progression of osteoarthritis satisfactorily. Structural and clinical features of the disease are characterized by a high inter-patient variability. This heterogeneity is believed to be a major factor associated with the complexity of osteoarthritis and the on-going difficulty to identify a single therapy for all sub-groups. The objective of this review is to highlight recent advances in the understanding of the pathophysiology of osteoarthritis and latest biological treatments available, their limitations and to bring to notice the latest state-of-the-art on-going research on novel therapies. For this study we searched different online databases such as PubMed and Cochrane Library from inception to January 2022. We identified eligible studies on the pathophysiologic findings, prevalence, or incidence of knee osteoarthritis, available treatments, and current research for future therapies. Besides the availability of vast literature on cartilage extracellular matrix and its changes in osteoarthritis, the complicated mechanism of the disease still has missing links in the chain. Presently, biological treatments such as platelet rich plasma, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and autologous fragmented adipose tissue containing structural vascular fraction are commonly used. In future, gene therapy could become a potential option for treating the disease. More extensive insights into the pathophysiology of osteoarthritis will be helpful in designing therapies that can curb structural progression and promote cartilage regeneration thus providing more potent relief from painful and disabling condition associated with osteoarthritis

Domestic violence against women: a crossectional study in rural area of Amravati district of Maharashtra, India

Background: Domestic violence against women is a matter of serious public health concern in most of the communities and culture. In India, the problem has been highlighted after legislation against domestic violence in 2005, popularly known as the protection of women from domestic violence act. Main objectives of the study were to assess the prevalence of domestic violence against women, to study the sociodemographic factors in females suffering from domestic violence and to identify causes of domestic violence in them.Methods: A crossectional study was carried in the field practice area of rural health training centre of Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Memorial Medical College, Nerpinglai in Amravati district of Maharashtra state for a period of 3 months. Simple random sampling method was used for the selection of samples. The study participants were interviewed using a predesigned pretested questionnaire. Proportion, Chi square test were calculated for the analysis of the study.Results: Out of 400 study participants interviewed, 161 (40.25%) reported some type of violence i.e. either in the form of physical, emotional or sexual violence in their life time or in recent past. The most common type of violence reported was physical violence. The most common cause of domestic violence reported in our study was financial problems followed by influence under alcohol.  Conclusions: The prevalence of domestic violence was 40.25% which is still high and necessary measures should be taken to strengthen the laws for women and to empower them

Natural Killer Cell Degranulation Defect: A Cause for Impaired NK-Cell Cytotoxicity and Hyperinflammation in Fanconi Anemia Patients

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare inherited syndrome characterized by progressive bone marrow failure (BMF), abnormal skin pigmentation, short stature, and increased cancer risk. BMF in FA is multifactorial and largely results from the death of hematopoietic stem cells due to genomic instability. Also, inflammatory pathology in FA has been previously reported, however the mechanism is still not clear. In literature, decreased NK-cell count and/or impaired NK-cell activity, along with other immunological abnormalities have been described in FA-patients (1). However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report showing a defective degranulation mechanism leading to abnormal NK-cell cytotoxicity in FA-patients, which may explain the development of a hyperinflammatory response in these patients. This may predispose some patients to develop Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) which manifests with prolonged fever, progressive cytopenias and organomegaly. Early diagnosis and initiation of immunosuppressive therapy in these patients will help to better manage these patients. We also propose FA genes to be listed as a cause of familial HLH

Formulation and In Vitro Evaluation of Sun Protection Factor of Herbal Sunscreen Cream Containing Butea monosperma, Neolamarckia cadama and Punica granatum Extracts

Sun radiations are the primary source of light & energy and the main causative factor in various skin conditions such as sunburn, photoaging, skin cancer development.These harmful effects may be due to the production of free radicals(Reactive oxygen species). Physical sun protection is not sufficient to get rid of such unwanted changes skin appearance and physiology. Now a day’s cosmetics and pharmaceuticals are added with natural sunscreens protecting reagents to provide health benefit apart from beautification. The aim of the present study is to formulate and evaluate natural sun protective topical formulation comprising methanolic extract of Butea monosperma (Lam.) flower, Neolamarckia cadama (Roxb.) leaves and Punica granatum (Linn) peel. The formulated cream was evaluated for its Total flavonoid and phenolic content, In vitro sun protecting activity and physicochemical parameters. The Total flavonoid and Phenolic content were found to be 42.07  mg QE/g and 57.03 ± 3.06 mg GAE/g respectively. While the SPF values were found to be 1.75,2.94,3.87 for the concentration 20 µg/ml, 30 µ g/ml and 40 µ g/ml respectively. From the study we can conclude that cream containing herbal extracts will enhance the sun protection property and it will significantly contribute to UV absorbing property of conventional herbal sunscreen formulations. It will provide the great advantage of avoiding the adverse and undesirable effects pf synthetic compounds. Keywords: Butea monosperma (Lam.),Neolamarckia cadama (Roxb.), Punica granatum (Linn), sun protection factor and antioxidant .&nbsp

A prospective study comparing diathermy and steel scalpel in abdominal incisions

Background: Diathermy is increasingly used for underlying tissue dissection, cutting, and hemostasis although fears of excessive scarring and poor wound healing have curtailed its widespread use for skin incision. Only few surgeons employ diathermy in making a skin incision with fear of producing deep burns and resultant scarring. Aims and Objectives: This prospective study was done to compare the outcome of diathermy incisions versus steel scalpel incisions in general surgery with regard to incision time, early postoperative pain, postoperative wound infection rate, and scar assessment. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at Department of General Surgery. A total of 76 patients who underwent steel scalpel incision (group A: 38 patients) or diathermy incision (group B: 38 patients) were analyzed. Variables analyzed were incision time, early postoperative pain, post operative wound infection rate, and scar assessment. All patients aged from 15 years to 60 years who underwent elective surgery (appendectomy and cholecystectomy) were included in the study. The exclusion criteria were (1) emergency surgery, (2) surgically scarred tissues, (3) immune compromised patients, (4) pregnant patients, (5) patients with pacemaker device, (6) lost to follow up. Standard antiseptic protocol was followed for both the groups. Results: The results showed significantly less incision time as well as less pain scores associated with diathermy incisions over scalpel incisions. Incision time was significantly lower for patients in the diathermy group (P 0.05) was almost the same for both groups and was statistically insignificant. Conclusion: Diathermy skin incision in elective surgery has significant advantages over scalpel use as it results in less incision time, less early postoperative pain, and analgesia requirement

Sustainable biobutanol production from pineapple waste by using Clostridium acetobutylicum B 527: Drying kinetics study

Present investigation explores the use of pineapple peel, a food industry waste, for acetone-butanol- ethanol (ABE) production using Clostridium acetobutylicum B 527. Proximate analysis of pineapple peel shows that it contains 35% cellulose, 19% hemicellulose, and 16% lignin on dry basis. Drying experiments on pineapple peel waste were carried out in the temperature range of 60–120 C and experimental drying data was modeled using moisture diffusion control model to study its effect on ABE production. The pro- duction of ABE was further accomplished via acid hydrolysis, detoxification, and fermentation process. Maximum total sugar release obtained by using acid hydrolysis was 97 g/L with 95–97% and 10–50% removal of phenolics and acetic acid, respectively during detoxification process. The maximum ABE titer obtained was 5.23 g/L with 55.6% substrate consumption when samples dried at 120 C were used as a substrate (after detoxification).Peer reviewe

Adsorptive removal of unsaturated fatty acids using ion exchange resins

The main aim of the present investigation was to elucidate the efficacy of silver ion chromatography for selective separation of unsaturated (oleic, linoleic, and linolenic) fatty acids on a preparative scale. Accordingly, the present work was predominantly divided into two parts. In the first part, adsorption of oleic acid was carried out using commercially available ion exchange resins and silver-ion-loaded resins (R-Ag+) prepared in the laboratory from nonpolar and polar solvents in a batch mode. The maximum adsorption of oleic acid was found on R-Ag+ (454.55 g·kg−1) compared with other commercially available ion exchange resins from heptane at ambient temperature (303 K). The effect of temperature on the adsorption of oleic acid on R-Ag+ from heptane was investigated at 303, 313, and 323 K. The adsorption of oleic acid was favored at 303 K and decreased with a further increase in temperature. Experimental batch equilibrium data were modeled using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Further, thermodynamic parameters viz., ΔGads0, ΔHads0, and ΔSads0, were estimated. The negative values of ΔGads0 and ΔHads0 show that the adsorption of oleic acid on R-Ag+ was spontaneous and exothermic in nature. Based on the results obtained in the first part, the R-Ag+ resin was subjected to adsorption of fatty acids from industrial fatty acids mixture using heptane as a solvent at 303 K. A multicomponent Freundlich isotherm was used to model experimental batch equilibrium data. Linolenic acid and linoleic acid were preferentially adsorbed over oleic acid with selectivities of 1.40 and 1.16, respectively, from industrial fatty acids mixture.Peer reviewe