Antioxidants from Natural Sources

Antioxidants are the defense system of the body against the damage of reactive oxygen species, which is normally produced during the various physiological processes in the body. There are various sources of these antioxidants like endogenous antioxidant present in the body and exogenous food source. In recent decades, alternate of synthetic food antioxidants by natural ones has fostered interest on vegetable sources and the screening of inexpensive raw materials particularly from the agriculture for identifying new antioxidants. Polyphenols are the significant plant compounds with antioxidant activity, though not the only ones. Some but not only restricted to biological properties such as anticarcinogenicity, antimutagenicity, antiallergenicity, and antiaging activity have been reported for natural and synthetic antioxidants. Among the sources of natural antioxidants, the most important are those coming from routinely consuming vegetables and fruits; however, antioxidant from other plant and agriculture waste should not be ignored

Gut Microbiome: A New Organ System in Body

The gut microbiome is comprised of various types of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses naturally occurring in humans and animals as normal microflora. Gut microorganisms are typically host specific, and their number and type vary according to different host species and environment. Gut microbes contribute directly and/or indirectly to various physiological processes including immune modulation, regulation of various neurotransmitter, and hormones, as well as production of many antioxidants and metabolites. They also play a role as antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and anti-carcinogenic agents. Moreover, the ability of gut microbes to attenuate various systemic diseases like coronary heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome, metabolic diseases like diabetes mellitus, and infectious diseases like diarrhea has recently been reported. Current research findings have enough evidence to suggest that gut microbiome is a new organ system mainly due to the microorganisms’ specific biochemical interaction with their hosts and their systemic integration into the host biology. Investigations into the potential ability of gut microbiome to influence metabolism inside their host via biochemical interaction with antibiotics and other drugs has recently been initiated. This chapter specifically focuses on the importance of gut microorganisms as a new organ system

YB-1 expression promotes epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in prostate cancer that is inhibited by a small molecule fisetin

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays an important role in prostate cancer (PCa) metastasis. The transcription/translation regulatory Y-box binding protein-1 (YB-1) is known to be associated with cancer metastasis. We observed that YB-1 expression increased with tumor grade and showed an inverse relationship with E-cadherin in a human PCa tissue array. Forced YB-1 expression induced a mesenchymal morphology that was associated with down regulation of epithelial markers. Silencing of YB-1 reversed mesenchymal features and decreased cell proliferation, migration and invasion in PCa cells. YB-1 is activated directly via Akt mediated phosphorylation at Ser102 within the cold shock domain (CSD). We next identified fisetin as an inhibitor of YB-1 activation. Computational docking and molecular dynamics suggested that fisetin binds on the residues from β1 - β4 strands of CSD, hindering Akt’s interaction with YB-1. Calculated free binding energy ranged from -11.9845 to -9.6273 kcal/mol. Plasmon Surface Resonance studies showed that fisetin binds to YB-1 with an affinity of approximately 35 µM, with both slow association and dissociation. Fisetin also inhibited EGF induced YB-1 phosphorylation and markers of EMT both in vitro and in vivo. Collectively our data suggest that YB-1 induces EMT in PCa and identify fisetin as an inhibitor of its activation

Detection of Paracetamol as substrate of the gut microbiome

Gut microbiome, a new organ; represent targets to alter pharmacokinetics of orally administered drugs. Recently, in vitro trials endorsed the idea that orally administered drugs interact and some of their quantity may be taken up by normal microbiome during transit through gut. Such transport mechanisms in microbiome may compete for drug with the host itself. Currently, no data confirms specific transport system for paracetamol uptake by gut microbiome. In vivo trial was conducted in normal healthy male rats (n=36). Paracetamol was administered orally in a single dose of 75mg/kg to isolate microbial mass after transit of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 hours post drug administration. Paracetamol absorbance by microbiome was pursued by injecting extracted microbial lysate in RP-HPLC-UV with C18 column under isocratic conditions at 207nm using acetonitrile and water (25:75 v/v) pH 2.50 as mobile phase. Paracetamol absorbance (14.10±0.75μg/mg of microbial mass) and percent dose recovery (13.16±0.55%) seen at transit of 4 hours was significantly higher (P<0.05) compared to other groups. Study confirms the hypothesis of homology between membrane transporters of the gut microbiome and intestinal epithelium. Orally administered drugs can be absorbed by gut microbes competitively during transit in small intestine and it varies at various transit times

Study protocol of DIVERGE, the first genetic epidemiological study of major depressive disorder in Pakistan

INTRODUCTION: Globally, 80% of the burdenof major depressive disorder (MDD) pertains to low- and middle-income countries. Research into genetic and environmental risk factors has the potential to uncover disease mechanisms that may contribute to better diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, yet has so far been largely limited to participants with European ancestry from high-income countries. The DIVERGE study was established to help overcome this gap and investigate genetic and environmental risk factors for MDD in Pakistan. METHODS: DIVERGE aims to enrol 9000 cases and 4000 controls in hospitals across the country. Here, we provide the rationale for DIVERGE, describe the study protocol and characterise the sample using data from the first 500cases. Exploratory data analysis is performed to describe demographics, socioeconomic status, environmental risk factors, family history of mental illness and psychopathology. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Many participants had severe depression with 74% of patients who experienced multiple depressive episodes. It was a common practice to seek help for mental health struggles from faith healers and religious leaders. Socioeconomic variables reflected the local context with a large proportion of women not having access to any education and the majority of participants reporting no savings. CONCLUSION: DIVERGE is a carefully designed case-control study of MDD in Pakistan that captures diverse risk factors. As the largest genetic study in Pakistan, DIVERGE helps address the severe underrepresentation of people from South Asian countries in genetic as well as psychiatric research

Study protocol of DIVERGE, the first genetic epidemiological study of major depressive disorder in Pakistan.

INTRODUCTION: Globally, 80% of the burdenof major depressive disorder (MDD) pertains to low- and middle-income countries. Research into genetic and environmental risk factors has the potential to uncover disease mechanisms that may contribute to better diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, yet has so far been largely limited to participants with European ancestry from high-income countries. The DIVERGE study was established to help overcome this gap and investigate genetic and environmental risk factors for MDD in Pakistan. METHODS: DIVERGE aims to enrol 9000 cases and 4000 controls in hospitals across the country. Here, we provide the rationale for DIVERGE, describe the study protocol and characterise the sample using data from the first 500 cases. Exploratory data analysis is performed to describe demographics, socioeconomic status, environmental risk factors, family history of mental illness and psychopathology. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Many participants had severe depression with 74% of patients who experienced multiple depressive episodes. It was a common practice to seek help for mental health struggles from faith healers and religious leaders. Socioeconomic variables reflected the local context with a large proportion of women not having access to any education and the majority of participants reporting no savings. CONCLUSION: DIVERGE is a carefully designed case-control study of MDD in Pakistan that captures diverse risk factors. As the largest genetic study in Pakistan, DIVERGE helps address the severe underrepresentation of people from South Asian countries in genetic as well as psychiatric research

LASER POINTER DETECTION BASED ON INTENSITY PROFILE ANALYSIS FOR APPLICATION IN TELECONSULTATION

Telemedicine is application of electronic communication to deliver medical care remotely. An important aspect of telemedicine is teleconsultation which involves obtaining the professional opinion of a healthcare provider. One of the ways to improve eleconsultation is to equip the remote specialist via control of a laser pointer, located in the consultation area to provide a means of gesture. As such, accurate detection of laser spot is crucial in such systems as they rely on visual feedback, which enables the specialist in a remote site to control and point the laser in the active location using a standard mouse. The main issue in laser spot detection in a natural environment is the distinguishability of a laser point image from other bright regions and glare due to camera saturation. This problem remains unsolved without extensive computing and use of hardware filters. In this paper a hybrid algorithm is described which is aimed to work with natural indoor environment while limiting computation. This algorithm combines thresholding and blob evaluation methods with a novel image intensity profile comparison method based on linear regression. A comparison of the algorithm has been done with existing approaches. The developed algorithm shows a higher accuracy and faster execution time making it an ideal candidate for real time detection applications