A CORRELATION BETWEEN THYROID STIMULATING HORMONE AND BODY MASS INDEX IN WOMEN WITH SUBCLINICAL HYPOTHYROIDISM IN NCR

ABSTRACTObjective: Weight gain is a characteristic feature of hypothyroidism. People with subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) are also characterized by the sameis still unclear.Methods: Height and weight were calculated of SCH women as well as normal healthy adult women. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as perWHO guidelines. The thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), FT4, and T3 were measured by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay technique.Results: Thyroid profile (TSH and T3) was significantly (<0.05) different between subclinical hypothyroidism women and normal women. Womenwith subclinical hypothyroidism were having higher TSH (13.01±4.41 vs. 2.61±0.79) compared with normal healthy control group along with differentT3 (0.94±0.17±1.09±0.26) between the groups. The serum concentration of FT4 was not significant between the groups. The body mass index, higher(28.81±3.47 vs. 22.62±1.57) in subclinical hypothyroidism women, was highly significant (<0.001). BMI was positively correlated with TSH in SCH(0.36) group as well as normal control (0.50) group. The correlation was significant (<0.05) in both the groups.Conclusion: People with subclinical hypothyroidism were characterized by increased weight gain. Thereby it is concluded that Thyroid StimulatingHormone affects the Body Mass Index in SCH women. Our result suggests that estimation of thyroid profile, also within the normal range, could be oneof several factors acting in concert to determine body weight. However, this parallel increase in BMI due to weight gain along with increase in TSH mayfurther leads to overt hypothyroidism if left untreated. Obesity itself could produce various metabolic disorders in coming future.Keywords: Subclinical hypothyroidism, Body mass index, Thyroid stimulating hormone

Prevalence of Oral Manifestations and Their Association with CD4/CD8 Ratio and HIV Viral Load in South India

The objective of the present research was to determine the prevalence of oral manifestations in an HIV infected population from south India and evaluate their association with HIV viral load and CD4/CD8 ratio. Intraoral examination of 103 patients, whose CD4/CD8 ratio was available, were conducted. HIV viral loads were available for thirty patients only. The prevalence of oral manifestations was 80.6% (83/103). The most common oromucosal lesion was erythematous candidiasis (EC) (38.8%) followed by melanotic hyperpigmentation (35.9%). Patients having any oral manifestation had a mean CD4/CD8 ratio of 0.24. EC had positive predictive value of 85.0% for CD4/CD8 ratio <0.30. The prevalence of oral manifestations in patients taking ART was lesser (78.6%) as compared to patients not taking ART (82%). Patients having any oral manifestation had a higher HIV viral load as compared to patients not having any oral manifestations (P < 0.05). Pseudomembranous candidiasis (PC) was significantly associated with higher HIV viral loads (>20,000 copies/mL) (P < 0.05). Patients having EC had 4 times greater chance of having CD4/CD8 ratio <0.30. PC can be considered as a marker of immune suppression (HIV viral load >20,000 copies/mL)

Spin-lattice coupling mediated giant magnetodielectricity across the spin reorientation in Ca2FeCoO5

The structural, phonon, magnetic, dielectric, and magneto dielectric responses of the pure bulk Brownmillerite compound Ca2FeCoO5 are reported. This compound showed giant magneto dielectric response (10%-24%) induced by strong spin-lattice coupling across its spin reorientation transition (150-250 K). The role of two Debye temperatures pertaining to differently coordinated sites in the dielectric relaxations is established. The positive giant magneto-dielectricity is shown to be a direct consequence of the modulations in the lattice degrees of freedom through applied external field across the spin reorientation transition. Our study illustrates novel control of magneto-dielectricity by tuning the spin reorientation transition in a material that possess strong spin lattice coupling.Comment: 7 pages, 12 figure

High-Resolution Transcriptome Maps Reveal Strain-Specific Regulatory Features of Multiple Campylobacter jejuni Isolates

Campylobacter jejuni is currently the leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in humans. Comparison of multiple Campylobacter strains revealed a high genetic and phenotypic diversity. However, little is known about differences in transcriptome organization, gene expression, and small RNA (sRNA) repertoires. Here we present the first comparative primary transcriptome analysis based on the differential RNA–seq (dRNA–seq) of four C. jejuni isolates. Our approach includes a novel, generic method for the automated annotation of transcriptional start sites (TSS), which allowed us to provide genome-wide promoter maps in the analyzed strains. These global TSS maps are refined through the integration of a SuperGenome approach that allows for a comparative TSS annotation by mapping RNA–seq data of multiple strains into a common coordinate system derived from a whole-genome alignment. Considering the steadily increasing amount of RNA–seq studies, our automated TSS annotation will not only facilitate transcriptome annotation for a wider range of pro- and eukaryotes but can also be adapted for the analysis among different growth or stress conditions. Our comparative dRNA–seq analysis revealed conservation of most TSS, but also single-nucleotide-polymorphisms (SNP) in promoter regions, which lead to strain-specific transcriptional output. Furthermore, we identified strain-specific sRNA repertoires that could contribute to differential gene regulation among strains. In addition, we identified a novel minimal CRISPR-system in Campylobacter of the type-II CRISPR subtype, which relies on the host factor RNase III and a trans-encoded sRNA for maturation of crRNAs. This minimal system of Campylobacter, which seems active in only some strains, employs a unique maturation pathway, since the crRNAs are transcribed from individual promoters in the upstream repeats and thereby minimize the requirements for the maturation machinery. Overall, our study provides new insights into strain-specific transcriptome organization and sRNAs, and reveals genes that could modulate phenotypic variation among strains despite high conservation at the DNA level

The Ex Vivo Human Translaminar Autonomous System to Study Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome Pathogenesis

Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS) is a significant unexplained adverse reaction to long-duration spaceflight. We employ an ex vivo translaminar autonomous system (TAS) to recreate a human ocular ground-based spaceflight analogue model to study SANS pathogenesis. To recapitulate the human SANS conditions, human ocular posterior segments are cultured in the TAS model for 14 days. Translaminar pressure differentials are generated by simulating various flow rates within intracranial pressure (ICP) and intraocular (IOP) chambers to maintain hydrostatic pressures of ICP: IOP (12:16, 15:16, 12:21, 21:16 mmHg). In addition, optic nerves are mechanically kinked by 6- and 10-degree tilt inserts for the ICP: IOP;15:16 mmHg pressure paradigm. The TAS model successfully maintains various pressure differentials for all experimental groups over 14 days. Post culture, we determine inflammatory and extracellular component expression changes within posterior segments. To further characterize the SANS pathogenesis, axonal transport capacity, optic nerve degeneration and retinal functional are measured. Identifiable pathogenic alterations are observed in posterior segments by morphologic, apoptotic, and inflammatory changes including transport and functional deficits under various simulated SANS conditions. Here we report our TAS model provides a unique preclinical application system to mimic SANS pathology and a viable therapeutic testing device for countermeasures

Emerging trends in clinical implications of bio-conjugated silver nanoparticles in drug delivery

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. From nanopharmaceutics to renewable energy, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) present innumerable applications in the contemporary era. However, the associated toxicity to the biosystems limits their application. Effective utilization of AgNPs, therefore, requires their surface conjugation with biologically benevolent moieties that enhance the bio-acceptability of silver-based nanosystems, and supplementary functionalities for further extension of their unique applications. The clinical importance of AgNPs was established long ago, but their clinical utilization has been explored only recently with the phenomenon of bio-conjugation. The biomolecule-conjugated AgNPs present operable solutions for tedious clinical complications of the present era, such as multidrug resistance, designing of pharmaceuticals with improved bioavailability, superior drug delivery vehicles and in situ bio imaging of important metabolites that utilize the biomolecule-anchored surface engineered AgNPs. This review epigrammatically discusses some interesting clinical applications of surface conjugated AgNPs with biomolecules such as peptides, nucleic acids, amino acids and antibodies in the current nanopharmaceutical paradigm

Nutrient intake, digestibility and performance of Gaddi kids supplemented with tea seed or tea seed saponin extract

Objective An experiment was conducted to determine the nutrient intake, digestibility, microbial protein synthesis, haemato-biochemical attributes, immune response and growth performance of Gaddi kids fed with oat fodder based basal diet supplemented with either tea seed or tea seed saponin (TSS) extract. Methods Eighteen male kids, 7.03±0.16 months of age and 19.72±0.64 kg body weight, were distributed into three groups, T0 (control), T1, and T2, consisting of 6 animals each in a completely randomized design. The kids were fed a basal diet consisting of concentrate mixture and oat fodder (50:50). Animals in group III (T2) were supplemented with TSS at 0.4% of dry matter intake (DMI), and group II (T1) were supplemented with tea seed at 2.6% of DMI to provide equivalent dose of TSS as in T2. Two metabolism trials were conducted, 1st after 21 days and 2nd after 90 days of feeding to evaluate the short term and long term effects of supplementation. Results The tea seed (T1) or TSS (T2) supplementation did not affect DMI as well as the digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fibre, and acid detergent fibre. Nutritive value of diet and plane of nutrition were also comparable for both the periods. However, the average daily gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were improved (p<0.05) for T1 and T2 as compared to T0. The microbial protein supply was also higher (p<0.05) for T1 and T2 for both the periods. There was no effect of supplementation on most blood parameters. However, the triglyceride and low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels decreased (p<0.05) and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol level increased (p<0.05) in T2 as compared with T0 and T1. Supplementation also did not affect the cell mediated and humoral immune response in goats. Conclusion Tea seed at 2.6% of DMI and TSS at 0.4% DMI can be fed to Gaddi goats to improve growth rate, FCR and microbial protein synthesis