ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS OF AYURVEDIC DRUGS (BHASMAS) BY ATOMIC ABSORPTION SPECTROMETER

Objective: Ayurvedic drugs/bhasmas are very potent and promising drugs for the treatment of various ailments. Bhasmas are the multielement samples, and the present work deals the analysis of the concentration of metallic elements in three ayurvedic bhasmas of four different brands, to compare and know the quality of commercial bhasma in market. Methods: Commercially available abhraka bhasma (AB), mandoor bhasma (MB), and godanti bhasma (GB) in market from four different manufacturing companies were procured, and bhasma sample solution was prepared to analyze the elemental concentrations in bhasma; the solution is subjected to flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS) technique and determined elemental concentration in bhasmas of four different commercial brands. Results: FAAS analysis explores the presence of Mg, Al, K, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mo, and Cd elements’ concentration in three bhasmas/drugs by four manufacturers. AB is rich in Al and Fe following the other elements in low concentrations, MB is rich in Fe, Ca, Mn, Cu, K, and Al and other elements are present in less quantity, and GB is rich in Ca and all other elements were very less in quantity. Conclusion: FAAS analysis showed that there is a difference in quantity/concentration of elements present in bhasma, aluminum (Al) is found high in Patanjali brand bhasmas compared to other three brands, and the toxic metal cadmium (Cd) is found in Dhootapapeshwar mandoor bhasma (DMB) (0.0458 mg/l), except DMB, all bhasmas found free from toxic metals, which reveal that there is a variation in quality of bhasmas from different manufacturers, and the elements present in bhasmas are found to be in permissible range for human intakes. As the mineral elements are essential in human diet, if the amount of any elements becomes too high in body, then it can affect the functioning of other important minerals in body causing the severe health problems, so it is must, to balance all nutrients in human diet, either through food or medicines. Hence, the present analysis work focuses on the variation of concentrations of elements present in bhasma of different manufacturers, which will help in practitioners to compare and refer good quality bhasmas or drugs in terms of their ingredients/elements, which plays a major role in functioning of human body normally. Further work is necessary to carry out on bhasmas and ayurvedic formulations in order to get good of diet supplementation

Pre- and Post-WTO Changes in Oilseed Economy of Karnataka: A Case of Groundnut

The growth in exports, economics of production and global competitiveness of groundnut has been reported over the period of 20 years (1984-85 to 2004-05) in Karnataka by collecting data from various published sources. Techniques used for the analysis are growth functions, tabular function, nominal protection coefficient and domestic resource cost. The analysis of export trends of groundnut from 1985-86 to 2004-05 has shown that quantity of groundnut export has grown annually at a compound growth rate of 9.52 per cent, whereas the value of groundnut exported has grown at a much higher rate of 13.13 per cent. Structural changes in costs are due to changes in quantity and quality of inputs associated with the technological process and also due to their prices. Groundnut has shown competitive disadvantage during the pre-WTO period, as values of NPC and DRC are more than one. But, during the post-WTO period, the competitiveness has increased as is evident from the NPC and DRC values which turned out be less than one. The study has suggested to exploit the competitiveness of Karnataka in groundnut and other oilseed crops.International Relations/Trade,

Synthesis, characterization and molecular docking studies of novel S-substituted phenacyl-1,3,4-thiadiazole-thiol derivatives as antimicrobial agents

In the present study, synthesis and antimicrobial activity of 2,5-disubstituted 1,3,4-thiadiazole derivatives 5a-f are described. The structures of the newly synthesized compounds were confirmed by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass and elemental analysis. All compounds were screened for antitubercular and antimicrobial activity. Molecular modeling studies were performed to dock compounds into the ecKAS III binding site, which suggested probable inhibition mechanism. The results revealed that most of the compounds showed high to moderate biological activity against tested microorganisms

Interaction of c-Cbl with Myosin IIA Regulates Bleb Associated Macropinocytosis of Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus

KSHV is etiologically associated with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), an angioproliferative endothelial cell malignancy. Macropinocytosis is the predominant mode of in vitro entry of KSHV into its natural target cells, human dermal microvascular endothelial (HMVEC-d) cells. Although macropinocytosis is known to be a major route of entry for many viruses, the molecule(s) involved in the recruitment and integration of signaling early during macropinosome formation is less well studied. Here we demonstrate that tyrosine phosphorylation of the adaptor protein c-Cbl is required for KSHV induced membrane blebbing and macropinocytosis. KSHV induced the tyrosine phosphorylation of c-Cbl as early as 1 min post-infection and was recruited to the sites of bleb formation. Infection also led to an increase in the interaction of c-Cbl with PI3-K p85 in a time dependent manner. c-Cbl shRNA decreased the formation of KSHV induced membrane blebs and macropinocytosis as well as virus entry. Immunoprecipitation of c-Cbl followed by mass spectrometry identified the interaction of c-Cbl with a novel molecular partner, non-muscle myosin heavy chain IIA (myosin IIA), in bleb associated macropinocytosis. Phosphorylated c-Cbl colocalized with phospho-myosin light chain II in the interior of blebs of infected cells and this interaction was abolished by c-Cbl shRNA. Studies with the myosin II inhibitor blebbistatin demonstrated that myosin IIA is a biologically significant component of the c-Cbl signaling pathway and c-Cbl plays a new role in the recruitment of myosin IIA to the blebs during KSHV infection. Myosin II associates with actin in KSHV induced blebs and the absence of actin and myosin ubiquitination in c-Cbl ShRNA cells suggested that c-Cbl is also responsible for the ubiquitination of these proteins in the infected cells. This is the first study demonstrating the role of c-Cbl in viral entry as well as macropinocytosis, and provides the evidence that a signaling complex containing c-Cbl and myosin IIA plays a crucial role in blebbing and macropinocytosis during viral infection and suggests that targeting c-Cbl could lead to a block in KSHV infection

NLRP3 inflammasome activation by mycobacterial ESAT-6 and dsRNA in intraocular tuberculosis

The molecular basis of intraocular tuberculosis (TB) is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the role of two constituents of viable Mycobacterium tuberculosis - Early Secreted Antigenic Target-6 (ESAT-6), and mycobacterial RNA- in inflammasome activation in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) - a key site of inflammation in intraocular TB. We found that ESAT-6 induced caspase-1 activation and inflammasome priming in mouse RPE cells, significantly more in wild-type than in Tlr2/3/4/7/9-/-, Myd88-/- and Nlrp3-/- RPE cells. Sub-retinal ESAT-6 injection resulted in greater RPE degeneration in wild-type than Nlrp3-/- mice. In human ocular TB tissue sections, NLRP3 staining was noted in retina as well as RPE. Mycobacterial RNA, specifically its double stranded component, also induced caspase-1 activation, and the double stranded RNA was immunolocalized to human ocular TB sections. Our observations suggest that inflammasome activation in RPE by viable M. tuberculosis could potentially contribute to human intraocular TB

Association of biotic factors with indigenous knowledge of farmers on rainfall predictions

Farmers use different factors (biotic and abiotic) around them to predict rainfall. Several Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) practices followed by farmers in different parts of the country are documented and published. ITKs collected from flood and drought prone areas of south India along with documented ITKs were analysed to know the biotic indicators used by farmers to predict rainfall. These biotic factors were classified as insects, birds and animals. Farmers use 19 types of insects, 17 types of birds and 10 types of animals as indicators to predict rainfall. Various behaviour types of these biotic factors are observed by farmers based on which they make decisions about possibility of rain occurring and in some cases the intensity of rain. These are grassroots innovations which are time tested and facilitated farmers to make their farming decisions

Retinal Angiogenesis Suppression through Small Molecule Activation of p53

Neovascular age-related macular degeneration is a leading cause of irreversible vision loss in the Western world. Cytokine-targeted therapies (such as anti-vascular endothelial growth factor) are effective in treating pathologic ocular angiogenesis, but have not led to a durable effect and often require indefinite treatment. Here, we show that Nutlin-3, a small molecule antagonist of the E3 ubiquitin protein ligase MDM2, inhibited angiogenesis in several model systems. We found that a functional p53 pathway was essential for Nutlin-3-mediated retinal antiangiogenesis and disruption of the p53 transcriptional network abolished the antiangiogenic activity of Nutlin-3. Nutlin-3 did not inhibit established, mature blood vessels in the adult mouse retina, suggesting that only proliferating retinal vessels are sensitive to Nutlin-3. Furthermore, Nutlin-3 inhibited angiogenesis in nonretinal models such as the hind limb ischemia model. Our work demonstrates that Nutlin-3 functions through an antiproliferative pathway with conceivable advantages over existing cytokine-targeted antiangiogenesis therapies

Repurposing Anti-Inflammasome NRTIs for Improving Insulin Sensitivity and Reducing Type 2 Diabetes Development

Innate immune signaling through the NLRP3 inflammasome is activated by multiple diabetes-related stressors, but whether targeting the inflammasome is beneficial for diabetes is still unclear. Nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI), drugs approved to treat HIV-1 and hepatitis B infections, also block inflammasome activation. Here, we show, by analyzing five health insurance databases, that the adjusted risk of incident diabetes is 33% lower in patients with NRTI exposure among 128,861 patients with HIV-1 or hepatitis B (adjusted hazard ratio for NRTI exposure, 0.673; 95% confidence interval, 0.638 to 0.710; P \u3c 0.0001; 95% prediction interval, 0.618 to 0.734). Meanwhile, an NRTI, lamivudine, improves insulin sensitivity and reduces inflammasome activation in diabetic and insulin resistance-induced human cells, as well as in mice fed with high-fat chow; mechanistically, inflammasome-activating short interspersed nuclear element (SINE) transcripts are elevated, whereas SINE-catabolizing DICER1 is reduced, in diabetic cells and mice. These data suggest the possibility of repurposing an approved class of drugs for prevention of diabetes