IN VITRO ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND HEPATOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF TURMESAC®

Objective: In this study, we investigated the hepatoprotective activity of Turmesac® on Human liver cells (HepG2 cell line) and anti-inflammatory effect on Murine macrophages (Raw 264.7 cell line) by flow Cytometry. Methods: Cell viability of HepG2 and Raw 264.7 cells determined by the MTT [3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide] assay to identify a non-cytotoxic concentration of Turmesac® for the respective cell lines after 24 h exposure period. Further hepatoprotective effect of Turmesac® was performed in H2O2 treated liver cells using H2DCF-DA staining by flow cytometry. The anti-inflammatory potency of Turmesac® was evaluated in Lipopolysaccharide (LPS 2µg/ml) stimulated Murine Raw 264.7 macrophages by measuring the relative fluorescence intensity of 2 cytokines, Interleukin-8(IL-8) and (Interleukin-12) IL-12 by flow cytometric analysis. Results: Turmesac® concentrations of less than 50μg/ml did not show significant cytotoxicity on both HepG2 and Raw 264.7, cell lines following the treatment period of 24 h and selected 50μg/ml as the optimum concentration for hepatoprotective and anti-inflammatory models. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) study revealed that Turmesac® (50μg/ml) effectively suppressed the H2DCF-DA expression in HepG2 cells. Secondly, Turmesac® significantly suppressed the anti-inflammatory cytokine expressions of IL-8 and IL-12 in LPS pre-stimulated cells categorising as a potentially potent anti-inflammatory drug. The mean fluorescence intensity percentage of IL-8 is control 8.86, LPS 50.49, Turmesac® 19.63 and IL12 is control 10.41, LPS 68.94, and Turmesac® 15.79 respectively. Conclusion: This study highlighted that Turmesac® could be considered as a promising hepatoprotective and anti-inflammatory compound and a therapeutic agent in curing liver-related and inflammation-related diseases

Modified Huo-Luo-Xiao-Ling Dan Suppresses Adjuvant Arthritis by Inhibiting Chemokines and Matrix-Degrading Enzymes

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the joints that can lead to deformities and disability. The prolonged use of conventionally used drugs is associated with severe adverse reactions. Therefore, safer and less expensive therapeutic products are continually being sought. Huo-Luo-Xiao-Ling dan (HLXL), a traditional Chinese herbal mixture, and its modified versions possess anti-arthritic activity. In this paper, we examined the influence of modified HLXL on two of the key mediators of arthritic inflammation and tissue damage, namely, chemokines and matrix-metalloproteinases (MMPs) in the rat adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) model of RA. We treated arthritic Lewis rats with HLXL (2.3 g/kg) by daily gavage beginning at the onset of AA. The control rats received the vehicle. At the peak phase of AA, rats were sacrificed and their draining lymph node cells (LNC) and spleen adherent cells (SAC) were tested. The HLXL-treated rats showed a significant reduction in the levels of chemokines (RANTES, MCP-1, MIP-1α, and GRO/KC), MMPs (MMP 2 and 9), as well as cytokines (IL-6 and IL-17) that induce them, compared to the control vehicle-treated rats. Thus, HLXL controls arthritis in part by suppressing the mediators of immune pathology, and it might offer a promising alternative/adjunct treatment for RA

Antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity of Curkolin® (Curcuma longa and Coleus forskohlii formulation)

751-756The aim of this study was to screen the in vitro antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxicity effect of Curkolin®, a combination of curcumin and C. forskolin in the ratio 4:1. Curcuma longa L. is the source of curcumin while C. forskohlii has been used in traditional ayurvedic medicine for curing various disorders and therefore the forskolin is the source of the diterpenoids. The medicinal properties of plants are investigated throughout the world for scientific advancement for their important pharmacological activities, user convenient, economically viable with low toxicity. The antioxidant property of Curkolin® was determined to be 55.42 µg/ml using (Diphenyl picryl hydrazine) DPPH assay and was then compared with standard Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). The antimicrobial activity was assessed by calculating the MIC and MBC using microplate serial dilution technique. It exhibited 250 µg/ml, the least MIC value of Bacillus cereus as compared to the rest Gram-positive (Streptococcus mutans and Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi) bacteria. Further, it was analyzed for cytotoxic screening on MCF-7 breast cancer cell line by MTT assay, which has shown a strong anti-proliferative activity. The IC50 values of Curkolin® were found 135.8 μg/ml. Together these results suggest the combination to be an effective antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic agent

Antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity of Curkolin® (Curcuma longa and Coleus forskohlii formulation)

The aim of this study was to screen the in vitro antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxicity effect of Curkolin®, a combination of curcumin and C. forskolin in the ratio 4:1. Curcuma longa L. is the source of curcumin while C. forskohlii has been used in traditional ayurvedic medicine for curing various disorders and therefore the forskolin is the source of the diterpenoids. The medicinal properties of plants are investigated throughout the world for scientific advancement for their important pharmacological activities, user convenient, economically viable with low toxicity. The antioxidant property of Curkolin® was determined to be 55.42 µg/ml using (Diphenyl picryl hydrazine) DPPH assay and was then compared with standard Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). The antimicrobial activity was assessed by calculating the MIC and MBC using microplate serial dilution technique. It exhibited 250 µg/ml, the least MIC value of Bacillus cereus as compared to the rest Gram-positive (Streptococcus mutans and Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi) bacteria. Further, it was analyzed for cytotoxic screening on MCF-7 breast cancer cell line by MTT assay, which has shown a strong anti-proliferative activity. The IC50 values of Curkolin® were found 135.8 μg/ml. Together these results suggest the combination to be an effective antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic agent

Decrease of CD68 Synovial Macrophages in Celastrol Treated Arthritic Rats

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disease characterized by cellular infiltration into the joints, hyperproliferation of synovial cells and bone damage. Available treatments for RA only induce remission in around 30% of the patients, have important adverse effects and its use is limited by their high cost. Therefore, compounds that can control arthritis, with an acceptable safety profile and low production costs are still an unmet need. We have shown, in vitro, that celastrol inhibits both IL-1β and TNF, which play an important role in RA, and, in vivo, that celastrol has significant anti-inflammatory properties. Our main goal in this work was to test the effect of celastrol in the number of sublining CD68 macrophages (a biomarker of therapeutic response for novel RA treatments) and on the overall synovial tissue cellularity and joint structure in the adjuvant-induced rat model of arthritis (AIA).FCT fellowship: (SFRH/BPD/92860/2013)

Usability of parallel processing computers in numerical weather prediction

On 23 November 1992, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) convened a meeting; to discuss 'Future Supercomputing Strategies for Medium Range Weather Forecasting'. Subsequently it was decided to invite developers of indigenous parallel processing systems (PPS) to evolve suitable strategies of implementation of weather forecasting codes on their respective parallel machines. The aim of this project, as correctly stated by Bass in a recent report in this journal', was to demonstrate amongst the scientific community whether the PPS developed in India are capable of handling large applications with reasonable case and also to benchmark the different PPS machines by running the same application code (namely the spectral model at T80 resolution) with identical initial and boundary conditions provided by a common agency (the NCMRWF). DST realized that India might have a head start in the field of parallel computing. and its attempt to enhance and augment the indigenous technological base in this (then) emerging Field for a well defined national task was indeed commendable.13; Basu was the co-ordinator of this exercise and his paper summarizes his findings and views. In the present note, we present certain aspects, which appear to have been overlooked by the author and therefore makes his assessment13; misleading, and offer a different per spective on the project and its international counterparts hosed on personal experience of one of us (RSN) in India and the US.13

Impact of modern software engineering practices on the capabilities of an atmospheric general circulation model

In this note, we discuss the relevance and impact of a software engineering effort at NAL on the forecast model in operation at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF). The code has been re-written exploiting the features of Fortran 90. As a direct consequence of appropriate reengineering efforts on the code, it is both easy to comprehend and modify. The reengineered code is appreciably shorter (number of lines in the code reduced by 55%) and can run on a variety of computing platforms including a PC, without the need for any further modifications to the cod

Simulation of Monsoon on Flosolver

The global climate model developed to study intraseasonal variation of monsoons has been solved on Flosolver using the technique of domain - decomposition

Secondary instability as a possible mechanism for clear-air turbulence: a case study

Many theories and mechanisms have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of clear-air turbulence (CAT), and some of them have been successful in predicting light, moderate and, in some cases, severe turbulence. It is only recently that skill in the forecasting of the severe form of CAT, which could lead to injuries to passengers and damage to aircraft, has improved. Recent observations and simulations suggest that some severe to extreme turbulence could be caused by horizontal vortex tubes resulting from secondary instabilities of regions of high shear in the atmosphere. We have conducted direct numerical simulations to understand the scale relationship between primary structures (larger-scale structures related to one of the causes mentioned above) and secondary structures (smaller-sized, shear structures of the size of aircraft). From shear layer simulations, we find that the ratio of sizes of primary and secondary vortices is of the right order to generate aircraft-scale vortex tubes from typical atmospheric shear layers. We have also conducted simulations with a mesoscale atmospheric model, to understand possible causes of turbulence experienced by a flight off the west coast of India. Our simulations show the occurrence of primary flow structures related to synoptic conditions around the time of the incident. The evidence presented for this mechanism also has implications for possible methods of detection and avoidance of severe CAT