Infuence of chemically synthesized copper nanoparticles and cupric ions on oxalate oxidation system in germinating Sorghum grain

58-63We have earlier reported the effects of chemically synthesized copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) on oxalate oxidase (OxOx) activity, extracted from the shoot tissue of germinating grain sorghum i.e. in vitro. Here, we tried to study this effect in vivo and compare it with those of Cu2+. We describe herein, characterization of CuNPs and their effects on oxalate oxidation system i.e. OxOx activity, total oxalate and H2O2 content in vivo i.e. in shoot tissues/leaves of germinating grain Sorghum (Sorghum vulgare L). To achieve it, grain sorghum seeds were grown up to 10 days in laboratory, irrigated with Hoagland’s solution containing either CuNPs (1.0 ppm) or Cu2+ (1.0 ppm) after 4 days of germination. Control were irrigated with Hoagland solution only. The shoot/leaves of the seedling plants were harvested at 4, 6, 8 and 10 day of germination and analysed quantitatively for OxOx activity, soluble protein, H2O2 and total oxalate. The growth of the Sorghum seedling plants supplemented with CuNPs and Cu2+ was decreased significantly (P 2+. CuNPs decreased the activity of OxOx but Cu2+ had no effect at day 10. Both CuNPs and Cu2+ decreased the specific activity of OxOx and H2O2 content but increased total oxalate content at day 10. The decrease in H2O2 content in both CuNPs and Cu2+ supplemented shoot tissues with concomitant increase in oxalate content confirmed the decreased activity of OxOx in CuNPs and Cu2+ supplemented seedling plants

Phosphorylation of the androgen receptor is associated with reduced survival in hormonerefractory prostate cancer patients

Cell line studies demonstrate that the PI3K/Akt pathway is upregulated in hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) and can result in phosphorylation of the androgen receptor (AR). The current study therefore aims to establish if this has relevance to the development of clinical HRPC. Immunohistochemistry was employed to investigate the expression and phosphorylation status of Akt and AR in matched hormone-sensitive and -refractory prostate cancer tumours from 68 patients. In the hormone-refractory tissue, only phosphorylated AR (pAR) was associated with shorter time to death from relapse (<i>P</i>=0.003). However, when an increase in expression in the transition from hormone-sensitive to -refractory prostate cancer was investigated, an increase in expression of PI3K was associated with decreased time to biochemical relapse (<i>P</i>=0.014), and an increase in expression of pAkt<sup>473</sup> and pAR<sup>210</sup> were associated with decreased disease-specific survival (<i>P</i>=0.0019 and 0.0015, respectively). Protein expression of pAkt<sup>473</sup> and pAR<sup>210</sup> also strongly correlated (<i>P</i><0.001, c.c.=0.711) in the hormone-refractory prostate tumours. These results provide evidence using clinical specimens, that upregulation of the PI3K/Akt pathway is associated with phosphorylation of the AR during development of HRPC, suggesting that this pathway could be a potential therapeutic target

Treatment-seeking for febrile illness in north-east India: an epidemiological study in the malaria endemic zone

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This paper studies the determinants of utilization of health care services, especially for treatment of febrile illness in the malaria endemic area of north-east India.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An area served by two districts of Upper Assam representing people living in malaria endemic area was selected for household survey. A sample of 1,989 households, in which at least one member of household suffered from febrile illness during last three months and received treatment from health service providers, were selected randomly and interviewed by using the structured questionnaire. The individual characteristics of patients including social indicators, area of residence and distance of health service centers has been used to discriminate or group the patients with respect to their initial and final choice of service providers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 1,989 surveyed households, initial choice of treatment-seeking for febrile illness was self-medication (17.8%), traditional healer <it>(Vaidya)</it>(39.2%), government (29.3%) and private (13.7%) health services. Multinomial logistic regression (MLR) analysis exhibits the influence of occupation, area of residence and ethnicity on choice of health service providers. The traditional system of medicine was commonly used by the people living in remote areas compared with towns. As all the febrile cases finally received treatment either from government or private health service providers, the odds (Multivariate Rate Ratio) was almost three-times higher in favour of government services for lower households income people compared to private.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The study indicates the popular use of self-medication and traditional system especially in remote areas, which may be the main cause of delay in diagnosis of malaria. The malaria training given to the paramedical staff to assist the health care delivery needs to be intensified and expanded in north-east India. The people who are economically poor and living in remote areas mainly visit the government health service providers for seeking treatment. So, the improvement of quality health services in government health sector and provision of health education to people would increase the utilization of government health services and thereby improve the health quality of the people.</p

Regional mitochondrial DNA and cell-type changes in post-mortem brains of non-diabetic Alzheimer’s disease are not present in diabetic Alzheimer’s disease

Background: Mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in both diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and diabetes also increases the risk of AD, however the combined impact of AD and diabetes on brain mitochondria is unknown. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the combination of both diabetes and AD exacerbates mitochondrial dysfunction. Methods: Post-mortem human brains (n=74), were used to determine mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content of cerebellum, frontal cortex and parietal cortex by quantifying absolute mtDNA copy number/cell using real time qPCR. mtDNA content was compared between diabetic and non-diabetic cases representing non-cognitively impaired controls (NCI), mildly cognitively impaired (MCI) and AD. A subset of parietal cortex samples was used to quantify mRNAs corresponding to cell types and mitochondrial function. Immune-staining of parietal cortex sections followed by semi-automated stereological assessment was performed to assess cell types. Results. Using mtDNA as an indicator of mitochondrial content, we observed significant regional variation, being highest in the parietal cortex, and lowest in the cerebellum. In the absence of diabetes, AD cases had decreased parietal cortex mtDNA, reduced MAP2 (neuronal) mRNA and increased GFAP (astrocyte) mRNA, relative to NCI. However, in the presence of both diabetes and AD, we did not observe these changes in the parietal cortex. Irrespective of cognitive status, all 3 brain regions in diabetic cases had significantly higher mtDNA than the non-diabetic cases. Conclusion. Our data show that the parietal cortex has the highest mitochondrial content but is also the most vulnerable to changes in AD, as shown by reduced mtDNA and neurones in this region. In contrast, when patients have both diabetes and AD, the AD associated parietal cortex changes are no longer seen, suggesting that the pathology observed in diabetic AD may be different to that seen in non-diabetic AD. The lack of clear functional changes in mitochondrial parameters in diabetic AD suggest that there may be different mechanisms contributing to cognitive impairment in diabetes and their impact on the respective disease neuro-pathologies remain to be fully understood

Microevolution of Helicobacter pylori during prolonged infection of single hosts and within families

Our understanding of basic evolutionary processes in bacteria is still very limited. For example, multiple recent dating estimates are based on a universal inter-species molecular clock rate, but that rate was calibrated using estimates of geological dates that are no longer accepted. We therefore estimated the short-term rates of mutation and recombination in Helicobacter pylori by sequencing an average of 39,300 bp in 78 gene fragments from 97 isolates. These isolates included 34 pairs of sequential samples, which were sampled at intervals of 0.25 to 10.2 years. They also included single isolates from 29 individuals (average age: 45 years) from 10 families. The accumulation of sequence diversity increased with time of separation in a clock-like manner in the sequential isolates. We used Approximate Bayesian Computation to estimate the rates of mutation, recombination, mean length of recombination tracts, and average diversity in those tracts. The estimates indicate that the short-term mutation rate is 1.4×10−6 (serial isolates) to 4.5×10−6 (family isolates) per nucleotide per year and that three times as many substitutions are introduced by recombination as by mutation. The long-term mutation rate over millennia is 5–17-fold lower, partly due to the removal of non-synonymous mutations due to purifying selection. Comparisons with the recent literature show that short-term mutation rates vary dramatically in different bacterial species and can span a range of several orders of magnitude

Overweight and lifestyle behaviors of low socioeconomic elementary school children in Buenos Aires

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is growing interest in understanding the role that lifestyle behaviors play in relation to children's weight status. The objective of the study was to determine the association between children s BMI and dietary practices and maternal BMI.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>330 students (168M) aged 8.9 + 2 y from 4 suburban Buenos Aires elementary schools, and their mothers aged 36.2 + 7 y were examined between April and September 2007. Mothers were asked about their children s lifestyle. Data included parental education levels socioeconomic status, mothers and children s BMI, and Tanner stage.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All families were in the low socio-economic class. 79% of parents had an elementary education or less. 61 (18.5%) of children were obese (OB) (BMI>95%ile per CDC norms), and 53 (16.1%) overweight (OW) (BMI>85<95%ile). 103 (31.2%) of mothers were OB (BMI>30 kg/m2), and102 (30.9%) OW (BMI>25<30). 63% the children were pre-pubertal. 40% had a TV set in their bedroom. 13% of the children skipped breakfast and only 38% watched TV ≤2 hours daily, as recommended. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed a positive association between children s OW/OB and drinking sweetened beverages (OR = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.02–1.52), TV viewing (OR = 1.30; 95% CI,1.05–1.62), and maternal BMI (OR: 1.07; 95% CI,1.02–1.12), and a negative association with eating breakfast (OR = 0.43; 95% CI, 0.19–0.97) adjusted for fruit and vegetables consumption, milk consumption, maternal educational level and socioeconomic class.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that TV viewing, drinking sweet beverages, skipping breakfast, and maternal BMI are important predictive variables for childhood OW/OB.</p

Source of Previous Treatment for Re-Treatment TB Cases Registered under the National TB Control Programme, India, 2010

BACKGROUND: In 2009, nearly half (289,756) of global re-treatment TB notifications are from India; no nationally-representative data on the source of previous treatment was available to inform strategies for improvement of initial TB treatment outcome. OBJECTIVES: To assess the source of previous treatment for re-treatment TB patients registered under India's Revised National TB control Programme (RNTCP). METHODOLOGY: A nationally-representative cross sectional study was conducted in a sample of 36 randomly-selected districts. All consecutively registered retreatment TB patients during a defined 15-day period in these 36 districts were contacted and the information on the source of previous treatment sought. RESULTS: Data was collected from all 1712 retreatment TB patients registered in the identified districts during the study period. The data includes information on 595 'relapse' cases, 105 'failure' cases, 437 'treatment after default (TAD)' cases and 575 're-treatment others' cases. The source of most recent previous anti-tuberculosis therapy for 754 [44% (95% CI, 38.2%-49.9%)] of the re-treatment TB patients was from providers outside the TB control programme. A higher proportion of patients registered as TAD (64%) and 'retreatment others' (59%) were likely to be treated outside the National Programme, when compared to the proportion among 'relapse' (22%) or 'failure' (6%). Extrapolated to national registration, of the 292,972 re-treatment registrations in 2010, 128,907 patients would have been most recently treated outside the national programme. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly half of the re-treatment cases registered with the national programme were most recently treated outside the programme setting. Enhanced efforts towards extending treatment support and supervision to patients treated by private sector treatment providers are urgently required to improve the quality of treatment and reduce the numbers of patients with recurrent disease. In addition, reasons for the large number of recurrent TB cases from those already treated by the national programme require urgent detailed investigation

Is respiratory viral infection really an important trigger of asthma exacerbations in children?

We performed a prospective cohort study from September 2003 to December 2004 to delineate attributing the effect of different respiratory viral infections including newly discovered ones to asthma exacerbations in children in Hong Kong. One hundred and fourteen children aged 6–14 years with chronic stable asthma and on regular inhaled steroid were monitored for respiratory symptoms over a full calendar year from recruitment. They would attend the study clinic if peak expiratory flow rate decreased to below 80% of their baselines, if they met a predefined symptom score, or if parents subjectively felt them developing a cold. Virological diagnosis using virus culture, antigen detection, and polymerase chain reaction methods on nasal swab specimens would be attempted for all these visits irrespective of triggers. Physician diagnosed outcome of each episode was documented. Three hundred and five episodes of respiratory illnesses were captured in the cohort. Nasal specimens were available in 166 episodes, 92 of which were diagnosed as asthma exacerbations, and 74 non-asthma related episodes. Respiratory viruses were detected in 61 of 166 episodes (36.7%). There was no significant difference in virus detection rate between asthma exacerbations (32 out of 97 episodes, 34.8%) and non-asthma respiratory illnesses (29 out of 79 episodes, 39.2%). Although newly discovered respiratory viruses were identified in these episodes, rhinovirus was the commonest organism associated with both asthma exacerbations and non-asthma related episodes. Plausible explanations for much lower virus detection rate than previously reported include improved personal hygiene and precautionary measures taken during respiratory tract infections in the immediate post-severe acute respiratory syndrome period together with a significant contribution of other adverse factors like environmental air pollution. We conclude that not all viral infections in children with asthma lead to an asthma exacerbation and the attributing effect of different triggers of asthma exacerbations in children vary across different time periods and across different localities

Reproducibility of Heart Rate Variability Indices in Children with Cystic Fibrosis

Fundamental to the potential utilisation of heart rate variability (HRV) indices as a prognostic tool is the reproducibility of these measures. The purpose of the present study was therefore to investigate the reproducibility of 24-hour derived HRV indices in a clinical paediatric population. Eighteen children (10 boys; 12.4 ± 2.8 years) with mild to moderate Cystic Fibrosis (CF; FVC: 83 ± 12% predicted; FEV1: 80 ± 9% predicted) and eighteen age- and sex-matched controls (10 boys; 12.5 ± 2.7 years) wore a combined ECG and accelerometer for two consecutive days. Standard time and frequency domain indices of HRV were subsequently derived. Reproducibility was assessed by Bland-Altman plots, 95% limits of agreement and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC). In both groups, there was no systematic difference between days, with the variables demonstrating a symmetrical, homoscedastic distribution around the zero line. The time domain parameters demonstrated a good to excellent reproducibility irrespective of the population considered (ICC: 0.56 to 0.86). In contrast, whilst the frequency domain parameters similarly showed excellent reproducibility in the healthy children (ICC: 0.70 to 0.96), the majority of the frequency domain parameters illustrated a poor to moderate reproducibility in those with CF (ICC: 0.22 to 0.43). The exceptions to this trend were the normalised LF and HF components which were associated with a good to excellent reproducibility. These findings thereby support the utilisation of time and relative frequency domain HRV indices as a prognostic tool in children with CF. Furthermore, the present results highlight the excellent reproducibility of HRV in healthy children, indicating that this may be a useful tool to assess intervention effectiveness in this population