Application of Radiation Technology: A Novel Vaccine Approach to Induce Protective Immunity against Malaria Infection

Among the numerous infectious diseases, malaria remains a major health challenge. Despite the various approaches adopted for the vector control and availability of antimalarial drugs, the success of malaria eradication is dampened by the spread of drug and insecticide resistance, unavailability of proper diagnostic treatment and successful vaccine. Among the various approaches, vaccination with the aim of developing protective immunity is the most suited, safe and reliable approach for the entire mankind. Numerous approaches are in use for vaccine development; however, they suffer from the drawbacks that immunity developed is short lived and are both species- and stage-specific. Of late, radiation sterilization has drawn the attention in the vaccine development due to its advantages over the conventional methods, and successful clinical trials of irradiated vaccines against the pathogens and tumor. Recently, a novel approach of genetically attenuated sporozoites (PfRAS, PfSPZ, PFSPZ-GA1 sporozoites vaccines) has shown promising results by generating protective immunity against the homologous and heterogenous infection in the clinical trials. Radiation techniques have also been beneficial in controlling the insects by sterility technique. In this chapter, we have recapitulated the role of radiation biology in the malaria vaccine development with its current status and future challenges associated with the development of radiation attenuated parasite vaccine

Office hysteroscopy prior to ART cycle-analysis and outcome at a private IVF clinic setup in Surat, Gujarat, India

Background: Hysteroscopy is a gold standard test for assessing the uterine cavity. The presence of uterine pathology may negatively affect the chance of implantation .This study investigated the use of routine office hysteroscopy and correction of any intrauterine pathologies prior to starting IVF cycle on treatment outcome in women seeking IVF treatment for primary infertility and recurrent implantation failure.Methods: This was a retrospective study of 100 women who attended our infertility clinic from July 2016 to December 2016 and who were willing for office hysteroscopy. The main outcomes measured were clinical pregnancy rates achieved in the index IVF cycle, multiple pregnancy rate, ectopic pregnancy rate, miscarriage rate and failure rate.Results: Of the 100 patients who participated in the study, 75 patients conceived, 25 patients failed to conceive. 80.64% patients with normal findings on diagnostic hysteroscopy conceived after the procedure, 58.33% patients conceived after polypectomy, 68.42% conceived after septal resection, 71.42% conceived after adhesiolysis, 50% conceived after lateral metroplasty and 73.07% of recurrent implantation failure conceived after local endometrial injury was done on hysteroscopy.Conclusions: Hysteroscopy in infertile women prior to their IVF cycle when performed atleast 3 months in advance could improve treatment outcome

α- and β-Tubulin Lattice of the Axonemal Microtubule Doublet and Binding Proteins Revealed by Single Particle Cryo-Electron Microscopy and Tomography

SummaryMicrotubule doublet (MTD) is the main skeleton of cilia/flagella. Many proteins, such as dyneins and radial spokes, bind to MTD, and generate or regulate force. While the structure of the reconstituted microtubule has been solved at atomic resolution, nature of the axonemal MTD is still unclear. There are a few hypotheses of the lattice arrangement of its α- and β-tubulins, but it has not been described how dyneins and radial spokes bind to MTD. In this study, we analyzed the three-dimensional structure of Tetrahymena MTD at ∼19 Å resolution by single particle cryo-electron microscopy. To identify α- and β-tubulins, we combined image analysis of MTD with specific kinesin decoration. This work reveals that α- and β-tubulins form a B-lattice arrangement in the entire MTD with a seam at the outer junction. We revealed the unique way in which inner arm dyneins, radial spokes, and proteins inside MTD bind and bridge protofilaments

A comparative study of pregnancy outcome of sequential versus day 3 versus only blastocyst (day 6) transfer at a single IVF center over one year

Background: The recent introduction of sequential media has refocused attention upon the role of human blastocyst in IVF.  For optimisation of extended cycles, one needs to give importance to all the aspects of treatment cycle like the stimulation regimens, medium composition, endometrial quality and uterine receptivity. This study was done to know the pregnancy outcomes of Day 3 transfer vs Day3/Day 6 transfer vs only Day 6 transfer.Methods: It was a retrospective study in which 342 patients undergoing ICSI were included. 199 women underwent Day 3/Day 6 sequential transfers, 112 underwent only Day 3 transfer and only 30 women were given only Blastocyst i.e. day 6 transfer. Pregnancy outcomes of all the three groups were studied.Results: Sequential transfer was found to give maximum pregnancy rate and highest implantation rate. But it was also associated with highest number of multiple pregnancies.Conclusions: Sequential transfer is a very good efficacious approach in ART cycles if extended media are available as it gave maximum pregnancy rate and implantation rate. However it is associated with multiple pregnancies. Thus the ultimate goal is to have a single blastocyst transfer with better outcomes and lower multiple pregnancy rates

Co-Benefits of Largescale Organic farming On huMan health (BLOOM)::Protocol for a cluster-randomised controlled evaluation of the Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming programme in India

The BLOOM study (co-Benefits of Largescale Organic farming On huMan health) aims to determine if a government-implemented agroecology programme reduces pesticide exposure and improves dietary diversity in agricultural households. To achieve this aim, a community-based, cluster-randomised controlled evaluation of the Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF) programme will be conducted in 80 clusters (40 intervention and 40 control) across four districts of Andhra Pradesh state in south India. Approximately 34 households per cluster will be randomly selected for screening and enrolment into the evaluation at baseline. The two primary outcomes, measured 12 months post-baseline assessment, are urinary pesticide metabolites in a 15% random subsample of participants and dietary diversity in all participants. Both primary outcomes will be measured in (1) adult men ≥18 years old, (2) adult women ≥18 years old, and (3) children <38 months old at enrolment. Secondary outcomes measured in the same households include crop yields, household income, adult anthropometry, anaemia, glycaemia, kidney function, musculoskeletal pain, clinical symptoms, depressive symptoms, women’s empowerment, and child growth and development. Analysis will be on an intention-to-treat basis with an a priori secondary analysis to estimate the per-protocol effect of APCNF on the outcomes. The BLOOM study will provide robust evidence of the impact of a large-scale, transformational government-implemented agroecology programme on pesticide exposure and dietary diversity in agricultural households. It will also provide the first evidence of the nutritional, developmental, and health co-benefits of adopting agroecology, inclusive of malnourishment as well as common chronic diseases

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONITORING FRAUDELENT TRANSACTIONS AT MERCHANT LEVEL IN REAL TIME PAYMENT

Disclosed herein is a method and system providing Merchants direct access to the powerful issuer authorization rules engine to evaluate and block card payment transaction in real-time from potential fraud at checkout. The access to the intelligent rules can be made by enabling a secure connection to the Risk Manager (RM). The real-time data will empower the Merchant to not forward the fraudulent transaction onto the acquirer for further processing, saving the transaction processing fees as eliminating back-office overheads on failed payments

A comprehensive curated resource for follicle stimulating hormone signaling

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) is an important hormone responsible for growth, maturation and function of the human reproductive system. FSH regulates the synthesis of steroid hormones such as estrogen and progesterone, proliferation and maturation of follicles in the ovary and spermatogenesis in the testes. FSH is a glycoprotein heterodimer that binds and acts through the FSH receptor, a G-protein coupled receptor. Although online pathway repositories provide information about G-protein coupled receptor mediated signal transduction, the signaling events initiated specifically by FSH are not cataloged in any public database in a detailed fashion.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>We performed comprehensive curation of the published literature to identify the components of FSH signaling pathway and the molecular interactions that occur upon FSH receptor activation. Our effort yielded 64 reactions comprising 35 enzyme-substrate reactions, 11 molecular association events, 11 activation events and 7 protein translocation events that occur in response to FSH receptor activation. We also cataloged 265 genes, which were differentially expressed upon FSH stimulation in normal human reproductive tissues.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We anticipate that the information provided in this resource will provide better insights into the physiological role of FSH in reproductive biology, its signaling mediators and aid in further research in this area. The curated FSH pathway data is freely available through NetPath (<url>http://www.netpath.org</url>), a pathway resource developed previously by our group.</p