Non-invasive evaluation of endothelial function in healthy Indian participants using tonometry

Background: Vascular endothelium releases number of biological active mediators, including nitric oxide (NO) that regulates vessel tone. Endothelial dysfunction is independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The study was done to assess endothelial function by augmentation index (AIx) calculated from derived aortic wave forms using radial pulse wave analysis (PWA) with provocative pharmacological testing, measured in response to endothelium independent, direct stimulus with nitrovasodilator nitroglycerine (NTG) and endothelium dependent activation of L-arginine-NO-pathway by salbutomol.Methods: Eighteen healthy subjects participated in the study. Radial artery wave forms were recorded with a high-fidelity tonometer (Sphygmocor, AtCor medicals, Australia). Recordings were taken at baseline and after 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes of NTG (0.5 mg) sublingual administration, and at baseline and after 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes of salbutomol (400 µg) inhalation.Results: Mean age was 25±2.4 years and body mass index 24±2.5 kg/m2 of study subjects. Salbutomol and NTG significantly reduced AIx at all-time points (salbutomol: baseline 7.6%, 5 minutes -3.6%, 10 minutes -5.8%, 15 minutes -7.8% and 20 minutes -3.6%, p ≤0.05 and NTG baseline 8.4%, 3 minutes -3.2%, 5 minutes -7.7%, 10 minutes -9.7%, 15 minutes -11.2% and 20 minutes -8.6%, p ≤0.001). The effect of provocative pharmacological testing on heart rate, aortic and radial pressures, mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure was not altered (p≥0.05).Conclusions: This method of assessing endothelial function, which appears before onset of clinical signs and symptoms and is a simple, convenient, quick method

APPROACH TO INTEGRATIVE MASTER HEALTH CHECK COMBINING HEALTH SCREENING PARAMETERS OF AYURVEDA AND BIOMEDICINE – A NARRATIVE REVIEW

Health check-up is an annual program that attempts to reduce health care costs by early detection of disease symptoms before its usual clinical presentation that can encourage adoption of preventive measures or early treatment. There is a concern among clinicians that the standard tests under health screening packages could be off target in terms of detection of relevant symptoms as far as a few individual groups are concerned and end-up in wastage of money of the end customer. The article presents a review of the current evidences for and against screening of healthy volunteers enlists some of the key challenges that have been reported in health check-up programs and argues the need to give individualized advice on diet and lifestyle through suitable integration of concepts of Ayurveda. It outlines the components of an integrated health screening parameter developed from the ten-fold clinical examination procedure recommended in Ayurveda (called Dasavidhapareeksha) and argues the case for critically drawing from the strengths of both systems of medicine

A bacterial cysteine protease effector protein interferes with photosynthesis to suppress plant innate immune responses

The bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato DC3000 suppresses plant innate immunity with effector proteins injected by a type III secretion system (T3SS). The cysteine protease effector HopN1, which reduces the ability of DC3000 to elicit programmed cell death in non-host tobacco, was found to also suppress the production of defence-associated reactive oxygen species (ROS) and callose when delivered by Pseudomonas fluorescens heterologously expressing a P. syringae T3SS. Purified His 6 -tagged HopN1 was used to identify tomato PsbQ, a member of the oxygen evolving complex of photosystem II (PSII), as an interacting protein. HopN1 localized to chloroplasts and both degraded PsbQ and inhibited PSII activity in chloroplast preparations, whereas a HopN1 D299A non-catalytic mutant lost these abilities. Gene silencing of NtPsbQ in tobacco compromised ROS production and programmed cell death

A simple thermal pain model for the evaluation of analgesic activity in healthy subjects

Objective : Assessment of the analgesic effect of an agent in an experimental pain model permits a level of control not possible in a clinical pain setting and is an ideal approach for evaluation of analgesic drugs. The aim of the present study was to establish a simple and reliable method of producing experimental pain, which can be used for screening of various analgesic agents. Materials and Methods: The standardized method was followed in all cases, by recording thermal pain threshold in seconds in 24 healthy volunteers using hot air source at two different speeds, which is equipped in an acrylic-made chamber adjustable to three different levels. Reproducibility of the test procedure was evaluated by recording the thermal threshold parameter by a single observer on two sessions (interday reproducibility) and second observer on one session (interobserver reproducibility) separately. Validity of model was further tested by evaluating the analgesic effect of tramadol on 12 healthy volunteers. Results: Thermal pain model was found to produce low variability with coefficient of variation (CV) less than 10%. Interobserver and interday reproducibility were very good, as shown by Bland-Altman plot, with most of the values within ± 2SD. There was a significant increase in pain threshold time with use of tramadol as compared to placebo which was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The newly developed pain model offers a stable and sensitive method for the early assessment of analgesic activity

Anatomy of an ionized bubble: NIRCam grism spectroscopy of the z=6.6 double-peaked Lyman-alpha emitter COLA1 and its environment

The increasingly neutral intergalactic gas at z>6 impacts the Lyman-alpha (Lyalpha ) flux observed from galaxies. One luminous galaxy, COLA1, stands out because of its unique double-peaked Lyalpha line at $z=6.6$, unseen in any simulation of reionization. Here, we present JWST/NIRCam wide-field slitless spectroscopy in a 21 arcmin2 field centered on COLA1. We find 141 galaxies spectroscopically selected through the doublet at 5.35<z<6.95, with 40 of these sources showing Hbeta . For COLA1, we additionally detect $as well as Hgamma . We measure a systemic redshift of$z=6.5917$for COLA1, confirming the classical double-peak nature of the Lyalpha profile. This implies that it resides in a highly ionized bubble and that it is leaking ionizing photons with a high escape fraction of$f_ esc (LyC) =20$--$50<!PCT!>, making it a prime laboratory to study Lyman continuum escape in the Epoch of Reionization. COLA1 shows all the signs of a prolific ionizer with a Lyalpha escape fraction of 81 Balmer decrement indicating no dust, a steep UV slope ($UV 0.4$), and a star-formation surface density $that of typical galaxies at similar redshift. We detect five galaxies in COLA1's close environment ($ z&lt;0.02$). Exploiting the high spectroscopic completeness inherent to grism surveys, and using mock simulations that fully mimic the selection function, we show that the number of detected companions is very typical for a normal similarly UV-bright UV galaxy -- that is, the ionized bubble around COLA1 is unlikely to be due to an excessively large over-density. Instead, the measured ionizing properties suggest that COLA1 by itself might be powering the bubble required to explain its double-peaked Lyalpha profile ion 0.7$ pMpc), with only minor contributions from detected neighbors ($-19.5 UV</jats:p