Potential of Biocatalysis in Pharmaceuticals

Biocatalysis has been continuously evolving as an essential tool which is playing a significant role in the industrial synthesis of chemicals, active pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical intermediates, etc. where the high-yielding chemo-, regio-, and enantioselective reactions are needed. Despite its vital importance, industrial biocatalysis is facing certain limitations such as operational stability, economic viability, efficient recovery, and reusability. The limitations mentioned can be overcome by the isolation of specific enzyme producers from extreme environment by protein engineering, bioinformatics, and recombinant DNA technologies. Recently, chemoenzymatic pathway and biological cascade reactions have also been developed and designed to perform the synthesis of pharmaceuticals. In this chapter, we compile the broad applications of biocatalysts in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals

Influence of medium constituents on the biosynthesis of cephalosporin-C

Acremonium chrysogenum NCIM 1069 was used for the biosynthesis of cephalosporin-C (CPC) in batch mode of cultivation. The effect of different medium constituents for better yield of CPC was thoroughly investigated. From the results of the fermentation, it was found that ammonium sulphate as inorganic nitrogen source and methionine at the concentration of 0.4% are most suitable for higher yield of antibiotic. The variation in the C/N ratio on the biosynthesis of CPC showed that a C/N ratio of 8.0 is most suitable for maximum production of CPC

SCREENING AND SELECTION OF WHITE ROT FUNGI FOR BIOLOGICAL DELIGNIFICATION OF AGRICULTURAL RESIDUES

ABSTRACT Rapid industrialization and population explosion are some of the major causes which has depleted and polluted the natural resources like never before. The large availability of agricultural and agro industrial residues makes it possible to use these materials for energy applications and as chemical feedstock . The major steps in the conversion system are pre-treatment and enzymatic saccharification, to convert into fermentable sugars. Delignification is necessary since the presence of lignin makes the residue more resistant to enzymatic attack. Cellulose is available in great abundance in agricultural crop residues and forestry wastes, and offers a great scope for bioconversion. Among the biological delignification methods white-rot fungi belonging to the class Basidiomycetes are mainly used. In the present study 20 known white rot fungi were used for screening using bagasse, rice straw and wheat straw. Out of which five cultures i.e. Phanerochaetes chrysosporium, Ganoderma applanatum, Lenzites adusta , Lenzites acuta and Dadela flavida were found significant in lignin removal. Preferential substrate for all selected white rot fungi are bagasse in comparison to rice straw and wheat straw. Phanerochaetes chrysosporium showed maximum delignification upto 40% among all the tested isolates

Extraction of bulk DNA from Thar Desert soils for optimization of PCR-DGGE based microbial community analysis

A reliable method for characterizing microbial communities on the basis of their differences in the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences in the hot arid zone sandy soils has been optimized. A desert plant ( Calligonum polygonoides ) was chosen to provide the rhizospheric soil samples, collected from three different agro-ecological locations. Total community DNA was efficiently extracted at small-scale level using direct lysis with hot sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), glass bead beating and finally subjecting the sandy soil to liquid nitrogen freeze-thaw cycles. To amplify V3 region of bacterial 16S rRNA gene, universal conserved primers were used. Second round polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was attempted to increase product concentration and to minimize the effect of inhibitory substances. To enhance the detection sensitivity of the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), the effect of change in template DNA concentration was studied. The separation of bands were greatly enhanced in the fingerprints obtained after the second round of PCR representing low abundant species which were not differentiated at single optimized concentration of DNA

Sample selection bias in machine learning for healthcare

While machine learning algorithms hold promise for personalised medicine, their clinical adoption remains limited. One critical factor contributing to this restraint is sample selection bias (SSB) which refers to the study population being less representative of the target population, leading to biased and potentially harmful decisions. Despite being well-known in the literature, SSB remains scarcely studied in machine learning for healthcare. Moreover, the existing techniques try to correct the bias by balancing distributions between the study and the target populations, which may result in a loss of predictive performance. To address these problems, our study illustrates the potential risks associated with SSB by examining SSB's impact on the performance of machine learning algorithms. Most importantly, we propose a new research direction for addressing SSB, based on the target population identification rather than the bias correction. Specifically, we propose two independent networks (T-Net) and a multitasking network (MT-Net) for addressing SSB, where one network/task identifies the target subpopulation which is representative of the study population and the second makes predictions for the identified subpopulation. Our empirical results with synthetic and semi-synthetic datasets highlight that SSB can lead to a large drop in the performance of an algorithm for the target population as compared with the study population, as well as a substantial difference in the performance for the target subpopulations that are representative of the selected and the non-selected patients from the study population. Furthermore, our proposed techniques demonstrate robustness across various settings, including different dataset sizes, event rates, and selection rates, outperforming the existing bias correction techniques

Production and characterization of alkaline protease from <em>Halobacillus dabanensis</em>

601-610An alkaline protease producing bacteria identified as Halobacillus dabanensis by 16S rDNA gene analysis was evaluated for production and characterization of its various properties. The maximum alkaline protease production was found by incubating the production media of pH 9.0 at 37°C under shaking condition at 180 rpm in presence of 4.0 g/l of casein. The alkaline protease exhibited its maximum activity at pH 9.0 and temperature of 50°C respectively. The enzyme showed excellent thermal stability at 50°C by retaining 79% of its original activity up to 8 h. Similarly, the enzyme was highly stable at pH 9.0 and 7.0 by retaining 93% of its original activity up to 5 h. Km and Vmax values towards casein as substrate were as 24.87 mg and 81.30 U respectively. The zinc sulphate, manganese chloride and mercury chloride inhibited the alkaline protease activity as compared to control. Residual activity 83.41% and 62.26% was achieved in presence of EDTA and β-mercaptoethanol at 5 mM concentration suggesting its operational stability. The alkaline protease also showed excellent stability in presence of Triton X-100, Tween-80, detergents like Tide and Rin and hence could be exploited in detergent and leather processing units

PARAMETRIC OPTIMIZATION OF FERULIC ACID ESTERASE PRODUCTION FROM MUCOR HIEMALIS NCIM 837PARAMETRIC OPTIMIZATION OF FERULIC ACID ESTERASE PRODUCTION FROM MUCOR HIEMALIS NCIM 837

Objective: To optimize the parametric conditions for the production of ferulic acid esterase from Mucor hiemalis NCIM837 using HPLC for quantification. Methods: The experiments were conducted to determine the influence of pH and temperature on ferulic acid esterase production. To optimize the suitable agricultural waste, carbon source and the nitrogen source, different agricultural wastes, nitrogen sources and carbon sources were examined. Released ferulic acid was confirmed using HPLC.Results: Among the different agricultural waste residues screened, maize bran was identified as most suitable for ferulic acid esterase production with activity 143U/mg. Soyabean meal as the nitrogen source and sucrose as the additional carbon source was observed as the most effective in Ferulic acid ester production. Overall enzyme production increased by 2.2-fold as compared with un-optimized conditions. One unit of FAE was defined as the amount of enzyme required for release of 1µmole of FA per minute.Conclusion: Mucor hiemalis, to the best of our knowledge, is the new addition in the list of FAE producing microorganisms. No detailed studies on FAE production using Mucor hiemalis have been published so far.Â

CLINICAL-COMPARATIVE STUDY OF VIRECHAN & PAKSHAGHATARI GUGGULU ON PAKSHAGHAT W.R.S. TO HEMPIPLIGIA.

In the present era due to speeder change of the civilization, human habits and life style continuously changing without any consideration of their benefits or harms Adaptation of new diets, movement with fast moving vehicles, maintenance of wrong postures, avoidance or over-indulgence of exercise, suppression of natural urges, anxiety strain etc. of the present life are becoming responsible for increasing incidence of Vatavyadhi like Pakshaghat (Hemiplegia.) These diseases mostly treated by allopathic medicines(high dose of corticosteroids) which are having considerable side effects and could not be used on long term basis. So conclusion is that in these disease, the dose of allopathic medicines and disease gradually progresses and in addition due to the side effects of allopathic medicines, it is better that these diseases should be treated by Ayurvedic medicines.Â