Plant Nanobionics and Its Applications for Developing Plants with Improved Photosynthetic Capacity

In the present scenario, the ever-growing human population, a decreasing availability of land resources and loss of agricultural productivity are the major global concerns, and these possess a challenge for scientific community. To feed the increasing world population, an increase in the crop productivity with available land resources is one of the essential needs. Crop productivity can be increased by engineering the crop plants for tolerance against various environmental stresses and improving the yield attributes, especially photosynthetic efficiency. Nanomaterials have been developed with new functional properties like improved solar energy harvest. With these nanomaterials, nanobionic plants were developed by the facilitated kinetic trapping of nanomaterials within photosynthetic organelle, that is, chloroplast. The trapping of nanomaterials/nanotubes improved chloroplast carbon capture, that is, photosynthesis by improving chloroplast solar energy harnessing and electron transport rate. Besides improving photosynthesis, nanotubes like poly(acrylic acid) nanoceria (PAA-NC) and single-walled nanotube-nanoceria (SWNT-NC) decrease the amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) inside extracted chloroplast and influence the sensing process in plants, and these are beneficial for a number of physiological processes. The nanobionic approach to engineer plant functions would lead to an era of plant research at the interface of nanotechnology and plant biology. In this chapter, nanobionic approach, transfer of nanomaterial to plants and their offspring and its potential applications to improve photosynthesis will be discussed

Suppression of Chronically Induced Breast Carcinogenesis and Role of Mesenchymal Stem-like Cells

Sporadic breast cancers are mainly attributable to long-term exposure to environmental factors, via a multi-year, multi-step, and multi-path process of tumorigenesis involving cumulative genetic and epigenetic alterations in the chronic carcinogenesis of breast cells from a non-cancerous stage to precancerous and cancerous stages. Epidemiologic and experimental studies have suggested that various dietary compounds like green tea and grape seed may be used as preventive agents for breast cancer control. In this research, I have developed a cellular model that mimics breast cell carcinogenesis chronically induced by cumulative exposures to low doses of environmental carcinogens. I used the chronic carcinogenesis model as a target system to investigate the activity of dietary compounds at non-cytotoxic levels in intervention of cellular carcinogenesis induced by cumulative exposures to pico-molar 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) and benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P). I used various cancer-associated properties like, reduced dependence on growth factors, anchorage-independent growth, increased cell mobility, and acinar-conformational disruption as measurable endpoints of carcinogenesis. The first part (Part-I) of this dissertation focuses on the understanding the breast cancer progression, importance of environmental carcinogens, role of diet in cancer prevention and importance of epithelial to mesenchymal transition and stem-like cells in chronic carcinogenesis. The next three parts (Part II-IV) focus on understanding the role and mechanisms of dietary compounds in prevention of carcinogenesis and stem-like cell properties. Results in part II revealed the green tea extract at bio-achievable concentration can suppress carcinogen-induced cancerous properties. In Part-III, I compared the four major catechins in green tea extract in suppressing chronic carcinogenesis and the results revealed that epicatechin gallate to be most effective. I also identified that short-term exposure to NNK and B[a]P resulted in elevation of reactive oxygen species, ERK pathway activation and induction of cell proliferation and DNA damage, which can be blocked by green tea catechins. Results in Part-IV describe the roles of properties and markers associated with stem-like cells and the epithelial to mesenchymal transition induced by chronic carcinogenesis and their suppression by green tea catechins and grape seed proanthocyanidin extract. The last section (Part-V) summarizes the findings with their importance and discusses future directions

Analysis to Assess the Prevalence and Causes of Low Back Pain in a Known Population at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background:Low back pain (LBP) is a significant health issue in all developing nations. It is also the most frequently treated health issue in healthcare sector. Hence; the present study was undertaken for assessing the prevalence and causes of low back pain in a known population.Materials & Methods: A total of 500 patients who reported to the Department of Orthopedics, S.P. Medical College and Associated Groups of P.B.M. Hospitals, Bikaner, Rajasthan (India) were enrolled. Complete demographic data of all the patients was obtained. Thorough clinical and medical history of all the patients was assessed. Chief complaint was recorded and radiographic examination of all the patients was done. Diagnosis of low back pain was established and prevalence of CLB pain was recorded. A Performa was framed and various etiologic factors of CLB were assessed.Results: Overall prevalence of LBP was 42.4 percent. Lumbar herniated disc was present in 11.79 percent of the patients while degenerative disc disease was present in 13.68 percent of the patients. Spinal stenosis and osteoarthritis were seen in 16.04 percent and 13.21 percent of the patients respectively. Tumour and compression fracture were seen in 10.38 percent and 8.49 percent of the patients.Conclusion: LBP is a significant health issue affecting major proportion of world’s population. Degenerative disc disease, Spinal stenosis and Osteoarthritis are the major factor responsible for its occurrence

To Find Out the Incidence of Osteoporosis Among Smokers: An Institutional Based Study

Background: Osteoporosis is a complex heterogeneous disorder. Smoking is well known to cause various health problems, including osteoporosis and bone fracture. Hence; the present study was undertaken for assessing the incidence of osteoporosis among smokers.Materials &Methods: A total of 500 smokers with smoking history of minimum of 10 cigarettes per day for a minimum of past 5 years were included. Also, a total of 500 normal controls (non-smokers) were also enrolled. Complete demographic and clinical data of all the patients was obtained. Detailed medical and personal history of all the subjects was also recorded. Thorough clinical and oral examination of all the subjects was done. Incidence of osteoporosis was also recoded. Results: Overall incidence of osteoporosis among smokers and non-smokers was 31.6 percent and 4.2 percent respectively. Incidence of osteoporosis was significantly higher in smokers in comparison to non-smokers. In the smoker’s group, 50.63 percent of the patients with osteoporosis belonged to the age group of more than 45 years while 34.81 percent of the patients belonged to the age group of 30 to 45 years. In the non-smokers group, 47.62 percent of the patients with osteoporosis belonged to the age group of more than 45 years while 38.09 percent of the patients belonged to the age group of 30 to 45 years. In the smokers and non-smokers group, 66.46 percent and 61.91 percent of the patients with osteoporosis were females.Conclusion: Smoking is a significant risk factor for osteoporosis. Keywords: Osteoporosis, Smokers

Diffusion Tensor and Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging Correlate with Molecular Markers of Inflammation in the Synovium

Objectives: It is difficult to capture the severity of synovial inflammation on imaging. Herein we hypothesize that diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) derived metrics may delineate the aggregation of the inflammatory cells and expression of inflammatory cytokines and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) imaging may provide information regarding vascularity in the inflamed synovium. Patients and methods: Patients with knee arthritis (>3-months duration) underwent conventional (T2-weighted fast spin echo and spin echo T1-weighted images) as well as DTI and DCE MRI and thereafter arthroscopic guided synovial biopsy. DCE and DTI metrics were extracted from the masks of the segments of the inflamed synovium which enhanced on post-contrast T1-weighted MRI. These metrics were correlated with immunohistochemistry (IHC) parameters of inflammation on synovium. Statistical analysis: Pearson’s correlation was performed to study the relationship between DTI- and DCE-derived metrics, IHC parameters, and post-contrast signal intensity. Linear regression model was used to predict the values of IHC parameters using various DTI and DCE derived metrics as predictors. Results: There were 80 patients (52 male) with mean age 39.78 years and mean disease duration 19.82 months. Nineteen patients had tuberculosis and the rest had chronic undifferentiated monoarthritis (n = 31), undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy (n = 14), rheumatoid arthritis (n = 6), osteoarthritis (n = 4), reactive arthritis (n = 3), ankylosing spondylitis (n = 2), and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (n = 1). Fractional anisotropy (FA), a metric of DTI, had significant correlation with number of immune cells (r = 0.87, p < 0.01) infiltrating into the synovium and cytokines (IL-1β, r = 0.55, p < 0.01; TNF-α, r = 0.42, p < 0.01) in all patients and also in each group of patients and adhesion molecule expressed on these cells in all patients (CD54, r = 0.51, p < 0.01). DCE parameters significantly correlated with CD34 (blood flow, r = 0.78, p < 0.01; blood volume, r = 0.76, p < 0.01) in each group of patients, a marker of neo-angiogenesis. FA was the best predictor of infiltrating inflammatory cells, adhesion molecule and proinflammatory cytokines. Amongst the DCE parameters, blood volume, was best predictor of CD34. Conclusion: DTI and DCE metrics capture cellular and molecular markers of synovial inflammation in patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis

Spo0B of Bacillus anthracis - a protein with pleiotropic functions

Spo0B is an important component of the phosphorelay signal transduction pathway, the pathway involved in the initiation of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis. Bioinformatic, phylogenetic and biochemical studies showed that Spo0B of Bacillus anthracis has evolved from citrate/malate kinases. During the course of evolution, Spo0B has retained the characteristic histidine kinase boxes H, N, F, G<SUB>1</SUB> and G<SUB>2</SUB>, and has acquired nucleotide-binding domains, Walker A and Walker B, of ATPases. Owing to the presence of these domains, autophosphorylation and ATPase activity was observed in Spo0B of B. anthracis. Mutational studies showed that among the six histidine residues, His13 of the H-box is involved in the autophosphorylation activity of Spo0B, whereas Lys33 of the Walker A domain is associated with the ATPase activity of the protein. Thermodynamic and binding studies of the binding of Mg-ATP to Spo0B using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) suggested that the binding is driven by favorable entropy changes and that the reaction is exothermic, with an apparent dissociation constant (K<SUB>d</SUB>) equal to 0.02 mM. The value of the dissociation constant (K<SUB>d</SUB> = 0.05 mM) determined by the intrinsic fluorescence of trytophan of Spo0B was similar to that obtained by ITC studies. The purified Spo0B of B. anthracis also showed nucleoside diphosphate kinase-like activity of phosphate transfer from nucleoside triphosphate to nucleoside diphosphate. This is the first evidence for Spo0B of B. anthracis as an enzyme with histidine kinase and ATPase activities, which may have important roles to play in sporulation and pathogenesis