3-Hydroxy-3-Methylglutaryl-CoA Reductase (HMGR) Enzyme of the Sterol Biosynthetic Pathway: A Potential Target against Visceral Leishmaniasis

Sterol biosynthetic pathway is explored for its therapeutic potential for Visceral Leishmaniasis. In Leishmania, this pathway produces ergosterol which is absent in host and therefore is a promising strategy to combat proliferation of both extracellular and intracellular forms of the parasite with minimal host toxicity. The present chapter focuses on 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR) enzyme which is the rate-limiting enzyme of the ergosterol biosynthesis. HMGR gene of L. donovani was biochemically and biophysically characterized for the first time. HMGR over expressing transgenic parasites were generated to evaluate its role in parasite growth and infection ability. A series of statins like atorvastatin, simvastatin and mevastatin were evaluated for its therapeutic efficacy and mode of action elucidated. Atorvastatin and mevastatin were found to be killing both the promastigote and amastigote forms of the parasite without exhibiting host cytotoxicity. Besides, non-statin class of molecules like resveratrol and glycyrrhizic acid were also analyzed for antileishmanial potential. Two antidepressants, ketanserin and mianserin were found to kill both L. donovani promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes with no apparent toxicity to the host cells. Since targeting of the sterol biosynthetic pathway enzymes may be useful therapeutically, the present work may have implications in treatment of Leishmaniasis

Fixed-removable partial denture - A case report

One of the most common stigmas prevalent in dental practice is quackery. This targets the practice from both the ends: The service provider and patient population. This article reports a case where such a practice permanently damaged the patient’s teeth finally making the patient completely edentulous at an early age and also discusses the various hazards caused by quackery in dentistry

IMAGE FORGERY DETECTION USING DYADIC WAVELET TRANSFORM

In this paper, we propose a blind copy move image forgery detection method using dyadic wavelet transform (DyWT). DyWT is shift invariant and therefore more suitable than discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for data analysis. First we decompose the input image into approximation (LL1) and detail (HH1) subbands. Then we divide LL1 and HH1 subbands into overlapping blocks and measure the similarity between blocks. The key idea is that the similarity between the copied and moved blocks from the LL1 subband should be high, while the one from the HH1 subband should be low due to noise inconsistency in the moved block. We sort pairs of blocks based on high similarity using the LL1 subband and high dissimilarity using the HH1 subband. Using thresholding, we obtain matched pairs from the sorted list as copied and moved blocks. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method over competitive methods using DWT and the LL1 or HH1 subbands only

MICROCONTROLLER BASED WASTE SEGREGATOR AND MANAGEMENT OF WET WASTE TO PRODUCE ORGANIC FERTILIZER

Industrialization, modernization, rapid advancements and increase in population have led to large generation of waste. It is possible to reuse and recycle the waste effectively by segregation. This paper, proposes an prototype model forwaste separator, which is used to separate the dumped waste spontaneously, leads to the production of fertilizer from food waste recycling. The smart-bin is programmed to give the information aboutandumped waste, so that the respective action would be-taken. Many motors& sensors both are interfaced with the Arduino-board in the system [5]. The smart-bin is divided into 3 sections. Everysection has itsrespective function and waste is segregated into dry, metaland wet waste. The research aims to produce organic fertilizer through providing the suitable environment to decompose the wet waste in to Organic Fertilizer

Antimicrobial property of bioactive factor isolated from Parmelia perlata

Parmelia is previously mentioned in India Materia Medica as a treatment for a number of ailments and hence they are being used in large quantities as a food supplement in India. The crude hot extracts of Parmelia perlata and the isolated compounds were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity. The antibacterial activity of Parmelia perlata crude hot extracts revealed that the extracts showed significant effect against Clavibacter michiganensis (33 ± 0.06), moderate against Pseudomonas solanacearum (33 ± 0.32) and less potent against Escherichia coli (28 ± 0.10) when compared to the standard drug Streptomycin. The Fusarium oxysporum (26 ± 0.38) and Rhizopus nigricans (20 ± 0.06) were more susceptibility to wards the treatment of hot extracts, whereas Aspergillus niger (18 ± 0.15)  demonstrated less susceptibility to crude hot extracts, but stardard antifungal drug bavistin was potent against all the fungal pathogens used in the study. Compound-I and compound-II isolated from the crude extract of Parmelia perlata showed efficient antibacterial activity. The antibacterial activity of compound-II was significant against to Clavibacter michiganensis (22 ± 0.17) and Pseudomonas solanacearum (44 ± 0.21), but less against to Escherichia coli (11 ± 0.17). Compound-I were more active against Pseudomonas solanacearum (31 ± 0.06) and moderately active against Clavibacter michiganensis (28 ± 0.05) and less active against to Escherichia coli (21 ± 0.23) when compared to Streptomycin. The antifungal activity of compound-II was better than compound-I. Compound-II was significant against Fusarium oxysporum (40 ± 0.05), Rhizopus nigricans (27 ± 0.02) and less active against to Aspergillus niger (18 ± 0.02) than compared to compound-I. The compound-I did not impotent against Aspergillus niger. The present investigation indicated that the crude hot extracts and the isolated compounds of Parmelia perlata have potential antimicrobial property.Â