Apoptotic Effects of Prunus persica (L) Batsch Leaves against Breast Cancer Cell Line (MDA-MB-231) and Cervical Cancer Cell Line (HeLa) In Vitro

Background: Apoptosis is a normal physiological phenomenon that plays a pivotal role during embryonic development, retention of tissue homeostasis and pathology. The experimental investigation of apoptotic processes is still challenging and routinely based on the assessment of molecular events like chromatin fragmentation and caspase enzyme activity. The present study was conducted to evaluate the apoptosis inducing effect of the Methanol, aqueous and chloroform extracts of Prunus persica leaves. Methods: Different extracts were obtained by cold extraction process using Methanol, water and Chloroform as solvents. Crude extracts were screened for different phytochemical constituents like flavonoids, tannins, sugars, saponins, and glycosides etc. The apoptotic effect of Prunus persica leaves was examined by DAPI staining assay against MDA-MB-231 (Human breast cancer cell line) and HeLa (Human cervical cancer cell line). Results: The results of the studies revealed that the Chloroform extract have tremendous apoptotic activity on MDA-MB-231 cells and methanolic extract have good apoptotic activity on HeLa cells. Nuclear morphological changes assessed by DAPI shows changes in morphology, apoptotic body formation, cell shrinkage, nuclei that were broken into discrete fragments and cell budding that resulted  in cells of various sizes. Conclusion: The phytochemical screening reveals the presence of alkaloids, tannins, Saponins, steroids and flavonoids. The Chloroform extract has shown more effectiveness and less toxicity against MDA-MB-231 and Methanol extract was more apoptotic against HeLa in comparison to others. The present findings clearly indicated that Prunus persica leaves showed dose dependant cytotoxicity

US Presence in Afghanistan and its Impact on Central Asia.

The US war in Afghanistan and the controversial attack on Iraq and insurgency are examples of contemporary globalization. The US and her allies have made their presence not only in Afghanistan but different parts of the world are under siege. The US initiated military action in Afghanistan with two aims: firstly, to defeat al-Qaeda and their Taliban allies, and secondly, in concert with the Afghan people and the international community, to facilitate the creation of democratic conditions which would thwart the terrorist sanctuaries within Afghanistan. The overarching US government strategy for winning the war on terrorism and rebuilding the state of Afghanistan is predicated on six lines of operation that include: a) improving governance ; b) defeating the terrorist threat; c) improving political stability; d) enhancing economic and social development; e) implementing regional and donor strategies; and f) integrating the US government actions. The US led coalition in Afghanistan was strong with forty countries involved in so-called Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. The US military had nearly 30,000 troops under Enduring Freedom, and about 20,000 coalition troops from 18 nations, the total was over 25,000.Digital copy of Thesis.University of Kashmir

Musculoskeletal Tuberculosis: Two Year Experience at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of Northern India and Review of Literature

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the present trend of osteo-articular tuberculosis at a teaching hospital in North India.Methods: All the cases of skeletal tuberculosis that were diagnosed and managed either on outdoor or in-hospital stay basis over a period of two years were evaluated with respect to age, gender, anatomical location of lesion, laboratory parameters (ESR, Mantoux test, HIV screening), concomitant skeletaltuberculous lesions, associated pulmonary tuberculosis, and other associated clinical features.Results: A total of 84 skeletal tuberculous lesions in 80 patients were enrolled for the study. The age of the patients ranged from 2 to 70 years with a mean of 29.1±19.1 years. 55% patients were in second and third decade of life and 63.7% were males. ESR was elevated in 61.25% and 56.25% tested positive forMantoux skin test. 21.25% patients had associated active or healed focus of tuberculosis in the lungs. Spine was the most common site involved (58.75%) followed by hip (13.1%), knee (8.3%), foot (4.7%) and shoulder joint (3.5%). Lumbar spine was the most common site affected in the spine followed by lowerdorsal spine. 3.75% cases had multifocal skeletal tuberculous lesions.Conclusion: Prevalence of osteo-articular tuberculosis continues to be high in North India with the disease predominantly affecting young population. Spine is the most common site for skeletal tuberculosis followed by hip, knee, foot and shoulder. Lumbar region followed by lower dorsal spine is much more affected.Multifocal skeletal lesions incidence is lower than expected. And one-fifth of the patients have associated pulmonary tubercular lesion

Neonatal acute kidney injury in a tertiary care hospital in Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common entity in neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Neonatal AKI is associated with increased morbidity and mortality and a greater risk of chronic kidney disease among the affected ones in future. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to study the incidence and outcome of neonatal AKI in our NICU. Materials and Methods: This single-center retrospective study included all infants who were admitted in a tertiary care hospital, J and K, from June 2013 to May 2014. Neonates, who had known congenital kidney diseases or if they did not survive beyond the first 48 h of life or had a hospital stay for <24 h, were excluded from the study. AKI was defined according to the kidney disease: Improving global outcomes criteria. Both AKI and non-AKI neonates were followed up until NICU discharge. Outcomes studied included mortality and length of NICU stay. Results: A total of 1439 neonates were studied among whom 72.89% (1049/1439) were normal weight, 11.46% (165/1439) were low birth weight, and 15.63% (225/1439) were very low birth weight. Of 1436 studied, 72% (1036) were term babies and 28% (403) were preterm babies. Perinatal asphyxia accounted for 43% (620/1439), seconded by neonatal sepsis 31.6% (455/1439) as a cause of NICU admission. Incidence of neonatal AKI in our study was 8.33% (120/1439). Mortality rate among the neonatal AKI patients was 34.1% (41/120). Conclusion: Our study shows an incidence of 8.3% among the NICU patients with a high mortality rate of 34.1%, implying a heightened awareness and very close monitoring of renal function during hospitalization and after discharge in such infants

Medical thoracoscopy in evaluation of undiagnosed pleural effusion

Background: Medical thoracoscopy or pleuroscopy, in recent past has received lot of interest for diagnostic as well as therapeutic purposes. In the evaluation of undiagnosed pleural effusion, it has become a key diagnostic modality as it is a cost effective and safe procedure. The aim of present study was to assess the diagnostic yield of medical thoracoscopy in patients with undiagnosed exudative pleural effusion.Methods: This prospective study was conducted at government chest diseases hospital Srinagar between December 2016 to June 2018. One hundred and twenty-five (125) patients who fulfilled inclusion criteria were included in this study. Thoracoscopy was done using rigid thoracoscope under local anesthesia.  Thoracoscopic and histopathological data of enrolled patients was collected prospectively and analysed.Results: Patients enrolled in the study were in the age range of 17 to 82 years and consisted of 80 males and 45 females. Most common thoracoscopic finding was multiple variable sized nodules (53.6%) followed by sago grain infiltration (15.2%). Malignancy was the most common histopathological diagnosis (60.8%) with metastatic adenocarcinoma being the most common histopathological diagnosis (50%). The overall diagnostic yield of thoracoscopy was 90.4%.Conclusions: Medical thoracoscopy is a safe procedure with excellent diagnostic yield for evaluation of undiagnosed pleural effusion with minimal complication rates

P66shc and its downstream Eps8 and Rac1 proteins are upregulated in esophageal cancers

Members of Shc (src homology and collagen homology) family, p46shc, p52shc, p66shc have known to be related to cell proliferation and carcinogenesis. Whereas p46shc and p52shc drive the reaction forward, the role of p66shc in cancers remains to be understood clearly. Hence, their expression in cancers needs to be evaluated carefully so that Shc analysis may provide prognostic information in the development of carcinogenesis. In the present study, the expression of p66shc and its associate targets namely Eps8 (epidermal pathway substrate 8), Rac1 (ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate1) and Grb2 (growth factor receptor bound protein 2) were examined in fresh tissue specimens from patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and esophageal adenocarcinoma using western blot analysis. A thorough analysis of both esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma showed p66shc expression to be significantly higher in both types of carcinomas as compared to the controls. The controls of adenocarcinoma show a higher basal expression level of p66shc as compared to the controls of squamous cell carcinoma. The expression level of downstream targets of p66shc i.e., eps8 and rac1 was also found to be consistently higher in human esophageal carcinomas, and hence correlated positively with p66shc expression. However the expression of grb2 was found to be equal in both esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. The above results suggest that the pathway operated by p66shc in cancers does not involve the participation of Ras and Grb2 as downstream targets instead it operates the pathway involving Eps8 and Rac1 proteins. From the results it is also suggestive that p66shc may have a role in the regulation of esophageal carcinomas and represents a possible mechanism of signaling for the development of squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of esophagus

Acute haematogenous osteomyelitis of femur in a neonate with ‘bone within bone’ appearance: a case report

Acute osteomyelitis in infants, which was known for high mortality and morbidity in the pre-antibiotic era can be managed conservatively by intravenous antibiotics and supportive therapy if the condition is detected and treatment started early in the course of the disease. Infantile osteomyelitis is separate entity from the one seen in older children in terms of vascular anatomy, pathogenesis, radiological changes and natural history. We present a neonate with acute haematogenous osteomyelitis of femur with preceding respiratory tract infection that was managed conservatively without surgical intervention despite severe radiographic changes. The child recovered without any residual deformity and final radiographs did not show any trace of the disease though early radiographs had exuberant involucrum formation and sequestration of entire diaphysis giving it a “bone within bone” appearance. Infants have excellent capacity of re-sorption of sequestrum and remodelling of involucrum such that no trace of disease is left in the adulthood

<i>Aloe barbadensis</i> Based Bioactive Edible Film Improved Lipid Stability and Microbial Quality of the Cheese

An attempt was made to develop a bioactive edible film using carrageenan and A. vera gel for enhancing the storage quality of cheese using kalari, a popular Himalayan cheese, as a food-model system. The film was evaluated for various physicomechanical and oxidative properties (ABTS (2,2-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate)) and DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activities, total flavonoid and phenolic contents). Based on preliminary trials, 1% A. vera gel was found to be optimum. The addition of the gel resulted in a significant decrease in moisture content, transparency, solubility, and water-vapor transmission rate and increased the thickness and density of the film. The film showed antimicrobial properties against E. coli and significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the lipid-oxidation (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, free-fatty acids, and peroxide values) and increased microbial-quality (total-plate, psychrophilic, and yeast/molds) of the samples during 4-week refrigerated storage (4 ± 1 °C). The film also exhibited a significant positive impact on the sensory quality of the cheese, indicating the potential for commercial applications for quality control of cheese during storage

Mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis to characterize cisplatin induced early signaling events in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

ABSTRACTCisplatin is the commonly used chemotherapeutic drug in treatment of various cancers. However, development of resistance towards cisplatin results in tumor recurrence. Here, we aim to understand the mechanisms of action of cisplatin and emergence of resistance to cisplatin using mass spectrometry-based proteomic approach. A panel of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines were treated with cisplatin at respective IC50 for 24 h and label-free mass spectrometry analysis was carried out. Proteomic analysis of A253, FaDu, Det562 and CAL27 cell lines upon cisplatin treatment resulted in the identification of 5,060, 4,816, 4,537 and 4,142 proteins, respectively. Bioinformatics analysis of differentially regulated proteins revealed proteins implicated in DNA damage bypass pathway, translation and mRNA splicing to be enriched. Further, proteins associated with cisplatin resistance exhibited alterations following short-term cisplatin exposure. Among these, class III tubullin protein (TUBB3) was found to be upregulated in cisplatin-treated cells compared to untreated cells. Western blot analysis confirmed the elevated expression of TUBB3 in cells treated with cisplatin for 24 h, and also in cisplatin resistant HNSCC cell lines. This study delineates the early signaling events that enable HNSCC cells to counteract the cytotoxic effects of cisplatin and facilitate the development of resistance