Assessment of In Vitro Antidiabetic Potential of Purified Anthocyanin Extract from Floral Petals of Wild Balsam Species

Diabetes is a notorious and growing clinical and public health issue. The International Diabetes Federation assumes that 592 million had diabetes by 2035 and that by 2040 the number will increase to 642 million. Cardiovascular corollary accounts for four million deaths annually attributable to diabetes. Evidence reveals that certain glucose-lowering phytochemicals can improve vascular outcomes with type 2 diabetes, which, together with better understanding of using multiple therapies concurrently, offers opportunities for beneficial personalization of medication regimens. Anthocyanins are coloured pigments and are natural antioxidants. Keeping this in focus, this study was undertaken to evaluate the in vitro antidiabetic activity in the petals of wild Impatiens balsamina L. The anthocyanin was extracted from floral petals of wild balsam species and purified to homogeneity using chromatographic techniques. Evaluation of in vitro antidiabetic properties of anthocyanin extract revealed a dose-dependent increase in the inhibitory effect on the alpha-glucosidase (200 μg/ml) and alpha-amylase enzymes (500 μg/ml) and was comparable with the standard acarbose drug (189 μg/ml and 50 μg/ml). These results indicated that anthocyanin could be used as a source of functional food and nutraceuticals. This information from wild species will be useful in finding more potent antidiabetic principle from the natural resources for the clinical development of antidiabetic therapeutics. Future studies are planned to substantiate the antidiabetic power of anthocyanin using in vivo animal models. Keywords: Alpha amylase, alpha glucosidase, diabetes, herbal remedies, Impatiens balsamina L

ATR based infrared spectroscopy for the diagnosis of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome

Optical spectroscopy offers a potential non-invasive, label free and rapid method to assist clinicians to diagnose diseases for which biomarkers are known. Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (nRDS) diagnosis in preterm infants is known to be correlated with the lecithin/sphingomyelin ratio (LS ratio) in gastric aspirates, with a ratio less than 2.2 indicating that surfactant replacement therapy is needed. Currently no widespread method exists that can give clinically relevant answers in less than 2 hours from the point of sample collection as it is difficult to identify those who could benefit from prompt surfactant treatment. Various LS ratios were generated using pure dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and sphingomyelin (SM) dissolved in dichloromethane and infrared spectra generated using Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) assisted Fourier Transform InfraRed spectrometry (FTIR). Subsequent analysis obtained the LS ratio using the spectra alone. Further, we demonstrate the application of principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS) fits to measured spectra to assist in the determination of the LS ratio using a model trained with multiple runs of the different batches of the same concentration

Prediction of Neonatal Respiratory Distress Biomarker Concentration by Application of Machine Learning to Mid-Infrared Spectra

The authors of this study developed the use of attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR–FTIR) combined with machine learning as a point-of-care (POC) diagnostic platform, considering neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (nRDS), for which no POC currently exists, as an example. nRDS can be diagnosed by a ratio of less than 2.2 of two nRDS biomarkers, lecithin and sphingomyelin (L/S ratio), and in this study, ATR–FTIR spectra were recorded from L/S ratios of between 1.0 and 3.4, which were generated using purified reagents. The calibration of principal component (PCR) and partial least squares (PLSR) regression models was performed using 155 raw baselined and second derivative spectra prior to predicting the concentration of a further 104 spectra. A three-factor PLSR model of second derivative spectra best predicted L/S ratios across the full range (R2: 0.967; MSE: 0.014). The L/S ratios from 1.0 to 3.4 were predicted with a prediction interval of +0.29, −0.37 when using a second derivative spectra PLSR model and had a mean prediction interval of +0.26, −0.34 around the L/S 2.2 region. These results support the validity of combining ATR–FTIR with machine learning to develop a point-of-care device for detecting and quantifying any biomarker with an interpretable mid-infrared spectrum

Fumarate Analogs Act as Allosteric Inhibitors of the Human Mitochondrial NAD(P)+-Dependent Malic Enzyme

Human mitochondrial NAD(P)+-dependent malic enzyme (m-NAD(P)-ME) is allosterically activated by the four-carbon trans dicarboxylic acid, fumarate. Previous studies have suggested that the dicarboxylic acid in a trans conformation around the carbon-carbon double bond is required for the allosteric activation of the enzyme. In this paper, the allosteric effects of fumarate analogs on m-NAD(P)-ME are investigated. Two fumarate-insensitive mutants, m-NAD(P)-ME_R67A/R91A and m-NAD(P)-ME_K57S/E59N/K73E/D102S, as well as c-NADP-ME, were used as the negative controls. Among these analogs, mesaconate, trans-aconitate, monomethyl fumarate and monoethyl fumarate were allosteric activators of the enzyme, while oxaloacetate, diethyl oxalacetate, and dimethyl fumarate were found to be allosteric inhibitors of human m-NAD(P)-ME. The IC50 value for diethyl oxalacetate was approximately 2.5 mM. This paper suggests that the allosteric inhibitors may impede the conformational change from open form to closed form and therefore inhibit m-NAD(P)-ME enzyme activity

Structural, thermal, dielectric and optical properties of Li2B4O7.SrBi2Ta2O9Li_2B_4O_7.SrBi_2Ta_2O_9 glasses

Transparent glasses of various compositions in the system (100-x) $Li_2B_4O_7.xSrBi_2Ta_2O_9$ (0<or=x<or=22.5) were prepared via a melt quenching technique. The amorphous nature of all the compositions of the as-quenched glasses was confirmed by x-ray powder diffraction (XRD) studies. The glassy nature of the as-quenched glasses was established by differential thermal analysis (DTA). DTA data were used to determine the crystallisation, glass transition temperatures, glass formation parameter and thermal stability of the glasses. The dielectric constant as well as dielectric loss decrease with increase in frequency (100 Hz-10 MHz) at 300 K. The dielectric constant increases with increase in x while the dielectric loss decreases. The optical properties, namely transmission, optical band gap and Urbach energy of these transparent glasses have been found to be compositional dependent

Complementary Raman and IR spectroscopies for Rapid Diagnosis of Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Aqueous lipid solutions were analyzed by mid-IR and Raman spectroscopies to establish a diagnosis approach for neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. We show the ability to predict lipid ratios around the diagnostic cutoff of 2.2