A Response to the Symposium on Sri Dharampal\u27s Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala

The symposium on Sri Dharampal\u27s Bharatiya Chitta manas and Kala, organized by Prof. Fancis Clooney and carried in the last issue of the Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin (Vol. 8, 1995), is indeed a significant contribution to the debate Sri Dharampal\u27s essay sought to initiate. We are grateful to Prof. Clooney and the four learned commentators who, with their diverse academic and cultural backgrounds, clearly grasped the essence and importance of Sri Dharampal\u27s effort, which in brief is to help launch a new Indian enterprise to comprehend and re-assert the essential civilizational genius of India within the present-day reality of the world

Prophylactic Effect of Butea monosperma against Cisplatin-Induced Nephrotoxicity in Rats

Cisplatin is an effective chemotherapeutic agent for solid tumors; however its use is limited by nephrotoxicity. The current study investigated the effect of Butea monosperma in cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity and oxidative stress in rats. Kidneys have a vital role in the normal physiology of humans. Worldwide chronic kidney disease has become a major cause for disability and in worst circumstances leads to death. Major renal disorders occur due to diabetes and its complications termed as diabetic nephropathy (DN). The animals were divided into four groups of six rats each (n=6). The control group (Group 1) received 1%CMC, Group 2 received only cisplatin, a 7 days of extract of Butea monosperma (200 mg/kg bwt) pre-treatment was applied to the animals in Group 3 before administration of cisplatin; a 7 days of extract of Butea monosperma was performed following administration of cisplatin for the animals in Group 4. Cisplatin (6 mg/kg) was intraperitoneally injected as a single dose and extract of Butea monosperma (200 and 400 mg/kg bwt) was administered by gavage in 1%CMC. Biochemical and histopathological methods were utilized for evaluation of the nephrotoxicity. The concentrations of creatinine, uric acid and blood urine nitrogen, in plasma and levels of malondialdehyde and reduced glutathione as well as glutathione peroxidase and catalase activities were determined in kidney tissue. Administration of cisplatin to rats induced a marked renal failure, characterized with a significant increase in plasma creatinine and uric acid and Blood urea nitrogen. levels of rats received cisplatin alone were significantly different compared to control group but they had higher kidney malondialdehyde, and lower reduce glutathione concentrations, superoxide dismutase and catalase activities. Extract of B. monosperma administration produced amelioration in biochemical indices of nephrotoxicity in both serum and kidney tissues when compared to toxic inducer group; pre-treatment with extract of Butea monosperma being more effective. Results from this study indicated that the novel natural antioxidant extract of B. monosperma might have protective effect against cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity and oxidative stress in rat. &nbsp

Image-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology of Pulmonary Lesions at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Patients usually present at an advanced stage, so early diagnosis is important for better prognosis and management. Ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is the diagnostic procedure of choice in lung lesions for timely diagnosis and better prognosis. Our study aimed to determine the specificity and sensitivity of FNAC in the diagnosis of pulmonary tumors and to assess the morphological features of various lung tumors. A retrospective study was carried out from June 2020 to August 2021 at a tertiary care center in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. A total of 81 cases presenting with clinical and radiological features suggestive of lung malignancies were studied. Image-guided FNAC was done in all cases, and smears were stained using PAP and Giemsa stain. Typing was conducted on cytological evaluation, and histopathological correlation was obtained wherever possible. Immunohistochemistry was performed in a few cases where necessary. Eighty-one cases of ultrasound-guided FNAC of lung lesions were studied. Lung cancers were found to be more common in males, with a male-to-female ratio of 5.75:1, and the mean age at presentation was 55 years. Neoplastic lesions were 86.41%, and non-neoplastic lesions were 7.40%. Squamous cell carcinoma (60.49%) was found to be most common malignancy, followed by adenocarcinoma (11.11%) and small cell carcinoma (8.64%). Diagnostic specificity and sensitivity of FNAC were 100% and 95.65%, respectively. Image-guided FNAC is a safe, rapid, inexpensive, highly sensitive, and specific diagnostic procedure with fewer complications when performed by trained personnel. It helps in the early diagnosis and management of patients with pulmonary lesions leading to a better prognosis

Eradicating Potential of Achyranthes aspera

The antioxidant activity of Achyranthes aspera methanolic aerial part extracts was investigated using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical-scavenging and ferric-reducing antioxidant power assays. Quantitative estimation of total flavonoid and phenolic content was performed followed by thin layer chromatography (TLC) to confirm the presence of secondary metabolites in the extract. From results of DPPH and ferric-reducing antioxidant power assays, it was found that methanolic aerial part extracts of Achyranthes aspera precipitates strong antioxidant (P < 0.005) activity compared to the ascorbic acid. The concentrations of total flavonoid and total phenolic content were found to be 47.6 mg RuE/g and 28.66 mg GAE/g respectively. The TLC study showed distinguished spots and revealed the presence secondary metabolites

A novel human TPIP splice-variant (TPIP-C2) mRNA, expressed in human and mouse tissues, strongly inhibits cell growth in HeLa cells.

Alternative splicing of mRNAs is known to involve a major regulation of gene expression at RNA level in mammalian cells. The PTEN (Phosphatase and TENsin homologue deleted from the human chromosome 10), TPTE (Transmembrane Phosphatase with TEnsin homology) and TPIP (TPTE and PTEN homologous Inositol lipid Phosphatase) belong to a family of dual-specific lipid and protein phosphatases. PTEN is a well characterized tumor suppressor, which plays crucial role in cell survival, cell cycle regulation, cell proliferation as well as adhesion, motility and migration of cells. The C2-domain of PTEN is essential for PTEN-functions. We have isolated a novel 1019 bp human TPIP cDNA (TPIP-C2) from a human testis cDNA library. In silico analysis of the cDNA revealed that it is produced from the TPIP-locus on the human chromosome 13 by alternative RNA-splicing. It has a unique 5'-Alu sequence, a LINE sequence followed by a 582 bp Open Reading Frame (ORF) encoding a 193 aa polypeptide with a partial phosphatase domain and a C2-domain. TPIP-C2 mRNA is expressed in human testis and in mouse tissues. Mouse testis and brain showed higher levels of TPIP-C2 mRNA in comparison to the heart, liver and kidney under normal physiological conditions. TPIP-C2 mRNAs from human and mouse testes show extensive sequence identity. Over-expression of TPIP-C2 cDNA in HeLa cells strongly (up to 85%) inhibited cell growth/proliferation and caused apoptosis in a caspase 3-dependent manner. These findings suggest for the first time that a TPIP splice-variant mRNA with a partial phosphatase domain and a C2-domain is expressed in cells and tissues of human and murine origins under normal physiological conditions. Inhibition of cell growth/proliferation and induction of apoptosis by overexpression of TPIP-C2 mRNA in HeLa cells suggest that it may be involved in negative regulation of cell growth/proliferation

QSAR Study of Novel Benzothiophene Derivatives as Potent Anticancer Agent

Benzo[b]thienyl hydroxamic acids, a novel class of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, were identified via a targeted screen of small molecule hydroxamic acids. Quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) analysis was performed on a series of Benzo[b]thiophene-based histone deacetylase inhibitors for their anticancer activity by using VLife MDS software. QSAR models were generated based on various statistical methods like Multiple Regression, Principal Component Regression, Partial Least Squares Regression etc. QSAR study revealed that steric, electrostatic interactions, electro-topological parameters, estate numbers and alignment independent descriptors are primarily responsible for anticancer activity. QSAR model demonstrated that anticancer activity is correlated with some of the parameters viz. T_2_N_1, PolarSurfaceAreaIncluding P and S, T_2_S_7, T_C_C_4, T_C_N_4, SaaCHE-Index, T_N_S_4, and SaasCE-Index etc. The best model showed r2 value = 0.9412 and this model was obtained from Multiple Regression method with good predictive ability. The results obtained from QSAR studies could be used in designing better anticancer agents among the congeners in future.Keywords: HDAC, Histone deacetylase inhibitor, HDAC inhibitor, Anticancer drug, SAHA, Hydroxamic acids, Benzo[b]thiophene

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA" lang="EN-GB">Utilization of EST-derived SSRs in the genetic characterization of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Artemisia annua </i>L.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i>genotypes from Ladakh, India</span>

464-472Artemisia annua L. is an important medicinal plant that produces substantial quantity of artemisinin, an antimalarial agent. In India, it grows wild in the Ladhak region and has harboured considerable variability over the years. EST-derived SSR markers were used to measure the genetic diversity among the A. annua germplasm collected from geographically separated <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: GillSans" lang="EN-GB">Leh (11,500 ft) and Nubra (9600 ft) valleys (Ladakh, India). <span style="mso-bidi-font-family:GillSans;mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN">After analysing 68,974 non-redundant (of 3,60,906 available) ESTs of A. annua, 4,342 SSR markers were developed. On an average, one SSR was found per 8.9<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:GillSans;mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language: EN-IN"> kb of EST sequence with <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: GillSans" lang="EN-GB">di<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:GillSans;mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN">nucleotide motifs in highest frequency (52.2<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:GillSans;mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language: EN-IN">%), followed by tri <span style="mso-bidi-font-family:GillSans;mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN">(<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: GillSans" lang="EN-GB">42.4%), tetra <span style="mso-bidi-font-family:GillSans; mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN">(3.6<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: GillSans;mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN">%), hexa (1.2<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:GillSans;mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language: EN-IN">%) and pentanucleotide (0.<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: GillSans" lang="EN-GB">6<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:GillSans;mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN">%) repeat types. A set of 16 primer pairs were designed by considering only the SSR-containing ESTs from the artemisinin biosynthetic pathway. <span style="mso-bidi-font-family:GillSans;mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN">In total, 38 alleles were identified from 13 polymorphic SSR loci, ranging from 1-7<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: GillSans"> <span style="mso-bidi-font-family:GillSans;mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN">alleles per locus and displayed moderate genetic diversity with an average of 0.24. <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: ArialMT" lang="EN-GB">It was found that the genetic diversity among individual from Nubra valley was narrower than that of Leh valley, <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: ArialMT;mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN">suggesting the importance and feasibility of introducing elite genotypes from different origins for Artemisia germplasm conservation and breeding programmes. <span style="mso-bidi-font-family:ArialMT;mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN"> </span

Antidepressant activity of Spathodea campanulata in mice and predictive affinity of spatheosides towards type A monoamine oxidase

The antidepressant activity of Spathodea campanulata flowers was evaluated in mice and in silico. When tested at doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg, the methanol extract of S. campanulata (MESC) showed dose-dependent antidepressant activity in the force swim test (FST), tail suspension test (TST), lithium chloride-induced twitches test and the open field test. In FST and TST, animals treated with MESC demonstrated a significant decrease in the immobility period compared to the control group. The lithium chloride-induced head twitches were significantly reduced following administration of MESC. The latter, at the dose of 400 mg/kg, also significantly reduced locomotor activity. Following administration of MESC, changes in the levels of serum corticosterone, and of norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylglycol (MHPG), 4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC), and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) were measured in different brain regions using HPLC. The presence of spatheoside A (m/z 541) and spatheoside B (m/z 559) in MESC was detected using HPLC/ESI-MS. These two iridoids demonstrated a high predictive binding affinity for the active site of the type A monoamine oxidase (MAO-A) enzyme with scores of 99.40 and 93.54, respectively. These data suggest that S. campanulata flowers warrants further investigation as a source of novel templates for antidepressive drugs

The Resurgence of India

Recent economic growth in India has raised its potential to be an economic giant, along with the United States and China. One unique aspect of the Indian economy is that tremendous economic growth has been achieved despite weak infrastructure, resource shortages, and other travails that restrict growth in emerging economies. Recent economic explanations suggest that institutions supporting the economy and economic development are vital to sustained economic growth and may even be more important than infrastructure development. Examining the historic context of the Indian economy, we contend that vital market institutions were always present in India and that economic reforms have unleashed the full potential of these institutions. Using some industry examples, the authors argue that economic policies that strengthen market institutions may be more important compared to conventional policies geared toward infrastructure development