The relationship between objectively measured physical activity and parameters of disease control in an African population of type 2 diabetes mellitus

Background: The incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is increasing rapidly. This is possibly due to increasing obesity, reduced level of activity, sedentary lifestyle, ageing population and industrialisation.Aim: The primary objective of this study was to ascertain the level of activity using a pedometer. The secondary objectives were: (1) to correlate the baseline level of activity with body mass index (BMI), HbA1c and blood pressure (BP), (2) to assess whether 7 000 steps a day influence HbA1c and BP over a three-month period.Method: A total of 110 patients were screened; 95 patients (n = 95) completed the study. At the first visit HbA1c, BMI and BP were measured. At the end of the first month baseline physical activity was recorded using pedometers. Patients were divided into two groups: active (n = 50) and control (n = 45). Patients in the active group were asked to walk a minimum of 7 000 steps/day. The control group were asked to continue their usual activity. These patients were followed up monthly over a period of three months. At each visit BMI, BP and step counts were recorded. HbA1c was measured only at the first and last visit.Result: Activity levels increased significantly in the active group throughout the study. Mean step count for the control group at baseline was 2 923.1 ± 1 136.9, which increased to 3 431.2 ± 1 251.7 by the end of the study. Mean step count for the active group at baseline was 4 609.9 ± 1 702.1, which increased to 7 244.8 ± 1 419.4 by the end of the study. The difference between control and active group was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Systolic and diastolic BP decreased significantly in both groups (p = 0.017) for systolic BP and (p = 0.002) for diastolic BP but no interaction was found between the groups as systolic and diastolic BP decreased at the same rate over time in both groups. HbA1c decreased by 1.04% in the active group; this difference was statistically highly significant (p < 0.001).Conclusion: Increase in activity levels decreases HbA1c by 1.04 percentage point over three months in T2DM (p < 0.001), which is statistically significant.Keywords: BMI, HbA1c, pedometers, physical activity, T2D

Pulmonary arterial hypertension: molecular genetic basis and emerging treatments

YesPulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare cardiovascular disorder caused by narrowing of blood vessels in the lung and in the absence of therapy leads to right heart failure and death. No cure for this devastating disorder is known. The major objective of the current treatments is to improve symptoms and these therapies were developed prior to the discovery that this disease has substantial genetic components. In this review, we discuss molecular genetic basis of PAH together with pathobiology, current and future therapeutic interventions

Development of chitosan based composite matrices for Bone tissue engineering

The thesis work deals with the development of chitosan (CS) based composite scaffold matrices with improved material and osteogenic differentiation property for bone tissue engineering. Pure CS and CS/ β-TCP composite scaffolds reinforced with micro and nano sized β-TCP with different CS:β-TCP ratios were successfully prepared by freeze gelation method and characterized for morphological, structural, mechanical, swelling, wettability and degradation. Pure CS and composite scaffolds possess interconnected open pore microstructure with desired pore size and porosity. The compressive strength of CS scaffold was remarkably increased by the incorporation of micro and nano sized β-TCP. However, the highest compressive strength of 2.67±0.21 MPa was achieved with CS/nano β-TCP composite scaffold at optimal CS:β-TCP ratio of 60:40. The scaffold also exhibited favourable biodegradation and improved bioactivity. The biocompatibility of the scaffold is confirmed by in-vitro cell culture study using human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) seeded on the scaffold. Conjugation with fibrin is shown to be beneficial for improving cellular affinity of the scaffold which is evident by the enhanced cell attachment (FE-SEM), metabolic activity (MTT assay), proliferation (DNA quantification) and osteogenic differentiation (ALP), bio-mineralization, total calcium content and expression of osteogenic specific genes (semi quantitative RT-PCR) of seeded hMSCs. CS/nano β-TCP scaffold was cross-linked with genipin (GN) and sodium tri poly phosphate (TPP) with the aim of controlling rapid degradation rate of CS scaffold and improving mechanical strength. Thus the developed GN cross-linked CS/nano β-TCP composite scaffold has shown favourable degradation (8%) and higher compressive strength (2.78±0.11) than the scaffold cross-linked with TPP. CS/nano β-TCP/GN scaffold was further coated with fibrin thereby a significant improvement of cellular responses such as cell attachment, proliferation, metabolic activity and osteogenic differentiation was achieved. The enhanced osteogenic differentiation ability of the fibrin coated scaffold was further evident by Semi Quantitative RT-PCR study that has revealed up regulation in the expression of osteogenic specific genes like collagen 1 (COL1), osteocalcein (OC), bone sialo protein (BSP), osteonectin (ON), β-actin and ALP. In-vivo biocompatibility of the CS/nano β-TCP/GN/F composite scaffold was confirmed by animal testing using mice model. All together, the study has demonstrated that the developed CS composite scaffolds in particular CS/nano β-TCP/GN/F can be used as potential artificial ECM (extra cellular matrix) for various non-load bearing bone tissue engineering applications

Footwear-integrated force sensing resistor sensors: A machine learning approach for categorizing lower limb disorders

Lower limb disorders are a substantial contributor to both disability and lower standards of life. The prevalent disorders affecting the lower limbs include osteoarthritis of the knee, hip, and ankle. The present study focuses on the use of footwear that incorporates force-sensing resistor sensors to classify lower limb disorders affecting the knee, hip, and ankle joints. The research collected data from a sample of 117 participants who wore footwear integrated with force-sensing resistor sensors while walking on a predetermined walkway of 9 meters. Extensive preprocessing and feature extraction techniques were applied to form a structured dataset. Several machine learning classifiers were trained and evaluated. According to the findings, the Random Forest model exhibited the highest level of performance on the balanced dataset with an accuracy rate of 96%, while the Decision Tree model achieved an accuracy rate of 91%. The accuracy scores of the Logistic Regression, Gaussian Naive Bayes, and Long Short-Term Memory models were comparatively lower. K-fold cross-validation was also performed to evaluate the models’ performance. The results indicate that the integration of force-sensing resistor sensors into footwear, along with the use of machine learning techniques, can accurately categorize lower limb disorders. This offers valuable information for developing customized interventions and treatment plans

A systematic review of physiological signals based driver drowsiness detection systems.

Driving a vehicle is a complex, multidimensional, and potentially risky activity demanding full mobilization and utilization of physiological and cognitive abilities. Drowsiness, often caused by stress, fatigue, and illness declines cognitive capabilities that affect drivers' capability and cause many accidents. Drowsiness-related road accidents are associated with trauma, physical injuries, and fatalities, and often accompany economic loss. Drowsy-related crashes are most common in young people and night shift workers. Real-time and accurate driver drowsiness detection is necessary to bring down the drowsy driving accident rate. Many researchers endeavored for systems to detect drowsiness using different features related to vehicles, and drivers' behavior, as well as, physiological measures. Keeping in view the rising trend in the use of physiological measures, this study presents a comprehensive and systematic review of the recent techniques to detect driver drowsiness using physiological signals. Different sensors augmented with machine learning are utilized which subsequently yield better results. These techniques are analyzed with respect to several aspects such as data collection sensor, environment consideration like controlled or dynamic, experimental set up like real traffic or driving simulators, etc. Similarly, by investigating the type of sensors involved in experiments, this study discusses the advantages and disadvantages of existing studies and points out the research gaps. Perceptions and conceptions are made to provide future research directions for drowsiness detection techniques based on physiological signals. [Abstract copyright: © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL STUDIES OF Polypodium vulgare Linn. : A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

Polypodium vulgare Linn. commonly called as Bisfaij is a medicinal plant which is used in various ailments. It is one of the most archaic and essential plant, belonging to the family Polypodiaceae. It contains organic substances such as resin, tannins, steroids, flavonoids, alkaloids, glycosides, protein, reducing sugar and inorganic substances like calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulphur, iron and chloride. It is used in Unani system of medicine for the treatment of sorethroat, stomach-aches, leprosy, melancholia, spleenomegaly, haemorrhoids, rheumatic swelling of the joints etc. Besides this, it has other pharmacological activities too such as antiepileptic, neuro-psychopharmacological, antipyretic, antibiotic, antiviral etc. This review paper discuses the medicinal values of Polypodium vulgare Linn. in Unani medicine as well as its modern pharmacology and gives a new impetus to utilize Bisfaij in various disorders. Keywords: Bisfaij, Polypodium vulgare Linn, Phytopharmacology, Unani Medicine

Synthesis and molecular docking of new hydrazones derived from ethyl isonipecotate and their biological activities

Purpose: To investigate the antibacterial and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities of hydrazone derivatives (8a-h) of ethyl isonipecotate.Methods: The reaction of ethyl isonipecotate (2) with 3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxybenzenesulfonyl chloride (1) in an aqueous basic medium yielded ethyl 1-[(3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxyphenyl)sulfonyl]piperidin-4- carboxylate (3). Compound 3 was subsequently converted to ethyl 1-[(3,5-dichloro-2-ethoxyphenyl) sulfonyl]piperidin-4-carboxylate (5) via O-alkylation. Compound 5 on reaction with hydrated hydrazine yielded 1-[(3,5-dichloro-2-ethoxyphenyl)sulfonyl]piperidin-4-carbohyrazide (6) in MeOH. Target compounds 8a-h were synthesized by stirring 6 with different aromatic aldehydes (7a-h) in MeOH. All the synthesized compounds were structurally elucidated by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), electron impact mass spectrometry (EI-MS) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy. For antibacterial activity, solutions of the synthesized compounds were mixed with bacterial strains, and the change in absorbance before and after incubation was determined. For enzyme inhibitory activity, change in the absorbance of mixtures of synthesized compounds and enzyme before and after incubation with substrate was determined.Results: The target compounds were synthesized in appreciable yields and well characterized by spectral data analysis. Salmonella typhi was inhibited by 8e (MIC 8.00 ± 0.54 μM), Escherichia coli by 8f (8.21 ± 0.83 μM), Bacillus subtilis by 8c (8.56 ± 0.63 μM) and Staphylococcus aureus by 8c (8.86 ± 0.29 μM). Two compounds, 8e and 8d, were very effective inhibitors of α-glucosidase with IC50 values of 40.62 ± 0.07 and 48.64 ± 0.08 μM, respectively.Conclusion: Low IC50  values of the synthesized compounds against α-glucosidase demonstrates their potential in type-2 diabetes treatment. Furthermore, these compounds exhibit substantial antibacterial activity against the bacterial strains tested.Keywords: Antibacterial activity, α-Glucosidase inhibition, Ethyl isonipecotate, Hydrazo

Biological screening and docking studies of unique hybrids synthesized by conventional versus microwave assisted techniques

Purpose: To carry out the synthesis of various hybrids of 1,2,4-triazole in search of potential therapeutic enzyme inhibitory agents, and carry out docking and bovine serum albumin (BSA) binding studies on docking and bovine serum albumin (BSA) binding studies on the hybrids. Methods: The target compounds were synthesized by following a multistep protocol. Compound 1 was synthesized from 4-methoxybenzenesulfonyl chloride (a) and ethyl isonipecotate (b). Compound 1 was refluxed with hydrazine to synthesize compound 2, which was converted to compound 3 through two consecutive steps. Compound 4 and different amines (5a-5i), were utilized to synthesize an array of electrophiles (6a-6i). A series of 1,2,4-triazole hybrids (7a-7i) were synthesized at room temperature by stirring together 3 and 6a-6i. The final structures of 7a-7i were elucidated through 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and EI-MS spectroscopy. The BSA binding studies were performed by fluorometric titration. Furthermore, antioxidant and enzyme inhibition activities were determined colorimetrically. Results: Compound 7d was the most active antioxidant agent, compared to butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), while compounds 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g and 7i proved to be potent urease inhibitors with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 19.5 ± 0.12, 21.1 ± 0.68, 18.2 ± 0.78, 19.9 ± 0.77 and 17.9 ± 0.10 µM, respectively, compared to thiourea with an IC50 of 24.3 ± 0.24 µM. Compounds 7a, 7b, 7d, and 7e exhibited high butyrylcholinesterase inhibition potential, compared to eserine. Conclusion: The synthesized compounds require studies further as potential therapeutic enzyme inhibitory agents in view of their urease inhibition as well as antioxidant activity