Autocrine regulation of asthmatic airway inflammation: role of airway smooth muscle

Chronic airway inflammation is one of the main features of asthma. Release of mediators from infiltrating inflammatory cells in the airway mucosa has been proposed to contribute directly or indirectly to changes in airway structure and function. The airway smooth muscle, which has been regarded as a contractile component of the airways responding to various mediators and neurotransmitters, has recently been recognised as a rich source of pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. In this review, we discuss the role of airway smooth muscle cells in the regulation and perpetuation of airway inflammation that contribute to the pathogenesis of asthma

Design and Construction of a Railway Yard, Embankment and Foundations under Difficult Groundwater Conditions

This paper describes four design and construction cases that were identified, investigated and solved at the site of a major industrial project located in Central Alberta, Canada. These consisted of cases where: (i) high artesian water pressures were encountered in a stratum that was planned to be excavated during cut and fill operations for a railway yard area, (ii) an embankment was to be built over an area that became waterlogged due to over excavation, (iii) a year round drainage system was to be provided below a railway embankment where an icing (pingo shaped) problem was encountered in winter, and (iv) bored, belled, cast-in-place concrete pile design had to be revised due to the existence of artesian pressures in layered and fractured bedrock stratum where pile bases were to be founded

Interconversion of Octacyanides of Molybdenum in +4 & +5 Oxidation States by Photodecomposition & Radiolysis

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Regional characterization of pigeonpea sterility mosaic disease and exploring broad-based resistance

Pigeonpea sterility mosaic disease (SMD) caused by Pigeonpea sterility mosaic virus (PPSMV) is a serious threat to pigeonpea production in the Indian-subcontinent. Recent reports on the possible existence of two different viruses associated with the SMD further complicate the etiology of this difficult to manage viral disease. In this regard, a comprehensive and systematic survey was taken up across several pigeonpea growing areas in southern India to know the disease prevalence and variability in virus isolates. Further, selected pigeonpea elite genotypes were screened in different locations for their broad-based resistance. Results indicate huge variation in SMD incidence among the surveyed states. The highest disease incidence (9.38 percent) was observed in Karnataka, followed by Tamil Nadu state with 8.44 per cent incidence. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states recorded disease incidences of 4.51 and 2.08 per cent respectively. Samples collected from Patancheru location and tested using viral-specific RNA-3 segment primers were all positive for both the viruses. However, one of the samples collected from Bengaluru location and four samples from Coimbatore location had a positive reaction for PPSMV-2 only. In order to identify broad-based resistance to SMD, 20 pigeonpea genotypes were screened in three different locations (Patancheru, Bengaluru and Coimbatore) in southern-India during rainy seasons of 2017 and 2018. Among them, ICPL- 16078, ICPL-16086 and ICPL-16087 showed resistance reaction ((≤10 % incidence) in all the three locations, whereas, ICPL-16072, ICPL-16077 and ICPL-16083 showed resistance to Patancheru and Coimbatore isolates but highly susceptible (≥40 % incidence) to Bengaluru isolate

Angiotensin II induces hypertrophy of human airway smooth muscle cells: expression of transcription factors and transforming growth factor-beta1

Increased smooth muscle mass due to hyperplasia and hypertrophy of airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells is a common feature in asthma. Angiotensin II (Ang II), a potent vasoconstrictor and mitogen for a wide variety of cells, has recently been implicated in bronchoconstriction in asthmatics. However, a possible mitogenic role as well as underlying molecular mechanisms of this octapeptide in human ASM cells are not yet known. We studied the effects of Ang II on ASM cell proliferation and growth and on the expression of three transcription factors, egr-1, c-fos, and c-jun, as well as a cytokine, transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1). Human ASM cells were isolated by enzymatic digestion of bronchial smooth muscle obtained from lung resection tissue. Confluent cells were growth-arrested and subsequently incubated with Ang II (100 nM) for different time periods and processed for the measurement of cell growth and gene expression. Ang II significantly induced DNA and protein synthesis in human ASM cells at 8 h, resulting in a net increase in the accumulation of protein over DNA (i.e., cellular hypertrophy) at 16 h of incubation. Cell counts and MTT-reduction assay, however, showed no increase in cell number as a result of Ang II stimulation. Ang II stimulated the expression of egr-1 and c-fos as early as 15 min, reaching maximum levels at 45 min, whereas the expression of c-jun peaked at 2 h of Ang II exposure. Furthermore, steady-state mRNA levels of TGF-beta1 were upregulated by Ang II after 4 h and reached peak levels at 16 h of incubation. Secretion of biologically active TGF-beta1 from human ASM cells was significantly (P <= 0.02) enhanced by Ang II incubation after 8 h, which remained elevated until 24 h. Our results suggest that the Ang II-induced transient early expression of transcription factors may regulate autocrine genes like TGF-beta1, of which the subsequent late upregulation could contribute to cellular hypertrophy during, for example, airway remodeling in asthma

Advancement in biomarker based effective diagnosis of neonatal sepsis

Neonatal sepsis is considered as alarming medical emergency and becomes the common global reason of neonatal mortality. Non-specific symptoms and limitations of conventional diagnostic methods for neonatal sepsis mandate fast and reliable method to diagnose disease for point of care application. Recently, disease specific biomarkers have gained interest for rapid diagnosis that led to the development of electrochemical biosensor with enhanced specificity, sensitivity, cost-effectiveness and user-friendliness. Other than conventional biomarker C-reactive protein to diagnose neonatal sepsis, several potential biomarkers including Procalcitonin (PCT), Serum amyloid A (SAA) and other candidates are extensively investigated. The present review provides insights on advancements and diagnostic abilities of protein and nucleotide based biomarkers with their incorporation in developing electrochemical biosensors by employing novel fabrication strategies. This review provides an overview of most promising biomarker and its capability for neonatal sepsis diagnosis to fulfil future demand to develop electrochemical biosensor for point-of-care applications.</p

Spectrophotometric study of ferric dimethylglyoxime complex

This article does not have an abstract

Rapid production of therapeutic proteins using plant system

Plant molecular farming is simply defined as the production of proteins therapeutics (PT) in plants, which involves transient gene expression in plants and purification of expressed protein to a great scale for diagnosis, treatment and other applications.  This is therapid,economical, safe and reproducible approach for the production of PTas compared to bacterial and mammalian systems. Protein yield and post-translational modifications are the major roadblocks that can be overcome byhigh expression strategies includes over expression constructs, suitable plant host systems and glycoengineering of proteins. The inherent ability of ideally producing safe, functional protein is the most striking phenomenon recognized by the pharmaceutical industries and developed many therapeutic products within few weeks to meet escalating demands during pandemic/epidemic outbreaks recentl