Telomerase Structure and Function, Activity and Its Regulation with Emerging Methods of Measurement in Eukaryotes

The telomerase reverse transcriptase has an essential role in telomere maintenance which is very important in aging process and cancer biology. Recent studies have revealed three-dimensional architecture of both human and ciliate telomerase at about 25 Å resolution, using single particle electron microscopy (EM). Telomerase supplements the tandem array of simple-sequence repeats at chromosome ends to compensate for the DNA erosion inherent in genome replication which makes it to be distinct among polymerases. Telomeres are found at the end of eukaryotic linear chromosomes and proteins that bind to them and help to protect DNA from being recognized as double-strand breaks thus preventing end-to-end fusions. The activity of telomerase is tightly regulated at multiple levels of cellular development, from transcriptional regulation of the telomerase components to holoenzyme biogenesis and recruitment to the telomere site for activation and processing. Commonly used methods in telomere biology are telomere restriction fragment (TRF), telomere repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) and telomere dysfunction induced foci (TIF) analysis. This chapter summarizes our current knowledge on the mechanisms of telomerase recruitment and activation using insights from studies in mammals and budding and fission yeasts. Finally, we discuss the differences in telomere homeostasis between different cell types and non-telomerase telomere maintenance mechanisms

A basic leucine zipper transcription factor, G-box-binding factor 1, regulates blue light-mediated photomorphogenic growth in Arabidopsis

Several transcriptional regulators have been identified and demonstrated to play either positive or negative regulatory roles in seedling development. However, the regulatory coordination between hypocotyl elongation and cotyledon expansion during early seedling development in plants remains unknown. We report the identification of a Z-box binding factor (ZBF2) and its functional characterization in cryptochrome-mediated blue light signaling. ZBF2 encodes a G-box binding factor (GBF1), which is a basic leucine zipper transcription factor. Our DNA-protein interaction studies reveal that ZBF2/GBF1 also interacts with the Z-box light-responsive element of light-regulated promoters. Genetic analyses of gbf1 mutants and overexpression studies suggest that GBF1 acts as a repressor of blue light-mediated inhibition in hypocotyl elongation, however, it acts as a positive regulator of cotyledon expansion during photomorphogenic growth. Furthermore, whereas GBF1 acts as a positive regulator of lateral root formation, it differentially regulates the expression of light-inducible genes. Taken together, these results demonstrate that GBF1 is a unique transcriptional regulator of photomorphogenesis in blue light

Efficacy of cartridge based nucleic acid amplification test to diagnose tubercular pleural effusion

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major health concern worldwide. Extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) in India accounts up to 20% of all tuberculosis cases. EPTB often remains undetected and untreated due to variable clinical presentation and lack of diagnostic means. Early detection of TB and drug resistance is important in the management of TB. The aim of present study was to assess the role of cartridge based nucleic acid amplification test in rapid diagnosis of tubercular pleural effusion.Methods: The study screened 211 symptomatic patients. The patients with clinical and radiological presentations suggestive of pleural effusion were analyzed using light’s criteria to make a diagnosis of tubercular pleural effusion; these patients submitted pleural fluid sample for smear microscopy after concentration for presence of acid fast bacilli under light emitting diode based fluorescent microscopy (LED-FM), and for cartridge based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) using GX4 GeneXpert MTB/Rif test system. The results were statistically analyzed.Results: Out of patients who had pleural effusion without any pulmonary tuberculosis, pleural fluid biochemistry analyses using light’s criteria detected 20 tubercular pleural effusions (11 male and 9 female). Seven patients had history of extrapulmonary tuberculosis in past, all of them received treatment with effective treatment compliance in past. Pleural fluid microscopic examination for detection of acid-fast bacilli was not able to detect acid-fast bacilli in any of these 20 patients diagnosed with tubercular pleural effusion. CBNAAT could authentically detect M. tuberculosis in 5/20 patients diagnosed with tubercular pleural effusion. There was no impact of gender, previous history of tuberculosis, history of anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT) intake, or compliance to ATT on CBNAAT status in this study.Conclusions: CBNAAT has the potential to significantly authenticate tubercular etiology in some of smear-negative pleural fluid specimens with rapid test results. It has an added advantage to assess the rifampicin drug sensitivity. All this contribute hugely in diagnosis and management of tubercular pleural effusion

A bZIP transcription factor, G-box binding factor 1, regulates blue light mediated photomorphogenic growth in Arabidopsis

Several transcriptional regulators have been identified and demonstrated to play either positive or negative regulatory roles in seedling development. However, the regulatory coordination between hypocotyl elongation and cotyledon expansion during early seedling development in plants remains unknown. We report the identification of a Z-box binding factor (ZBF2) and its functional characterization in cryptochrome mediated blue light signaling. ZBF2 encodes a G-box binding factor (GBF1), which is a basic leucine zipper transcription factor. Our DNA-protein interaction studies reveal that ZBF2/GBF1 also interacts with the Z-box light responsive element of light regulated promoters. Genetic analyses of gbf1 mutants and overexpression studies suggest that GBF1 acts as a repressor of blue light mediated inhibition in hypocotyl elongation, however it acts as a positive regulator of cotyledon expansion during photomorphogenic growth. Furthermore, whereas GBF1 acts as a positive regulator of lateral root formation, it differentially regulates the expression of light inducible genes. Taken together, these results demonstrate that GBF1 is a unique transcriptional regulator of photomorphogenesis in blue light

Therapeutic and medicinal uses of lycopene: a systematic review

Lycopene is a carotenoid present in fruits and vegetables. The richest sources of lycopene are tomatoes and tomato products. The beneficial effects of lycopene in human health and disease are mainly associated with its antioxidant properties. Lycopene is a carotenoid with strongest antioxidant property because of its capability of quenching the singlet oxygen. Eleven conjugated double bonds of lycopene give it a deep red color and are responsible for its antioxidant activity which is major functional feature of lycopene. Dietary intakes of tomatoes and tomato products containing lycopene have been shown to be associated with decreased risk of chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases in numerous studies. Although there are evidences from many epidemiological and cell culture and animal studies explaining the inverse relationship between lycopene and cancer or cardiovascular disease risk, more clinical trial data is needed to support this hypothesis. In this article we outline the possible mechanisms of action of lycopene and review the current understanding of its role in human health and disease prevention

Forensic Identification of Air Freshener Components from the Toxicological Samples by GC-MS : A Case Report

Indoor air fresheners are commonly used to deodorize rooms and cars. A case of air freshener intoxication by oral ingestion was forwarded to the forensic laboratory to determine the components and cause of death. The presumptive tests were conducted for organo-phosphorus and organo-chloro compounds, formaldehyde, carbolic acid, drugs and aromatic compounds. Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) was used as a confirmatory test for all these compounds. Presence of toxic substances like dichlorvos (2,2 di-chlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate), phenol, formaldehyde, naphthalene was confirmed in the air freshener that led to the person’s death. Laboratory analysis also confirmed the presence of alprazolam in the viscera as per case history. The methodology used can be utilized as a reference for TLC and GC-MS based analysis of such case

10 years after the birth of India’s first cloned farm animal, where is buffalo cloning heading

191-192India owns the best buffalo breeds, particularly Murrah which is famous all over the world for high milk production. India’s white and pink revolution cannot be imagined without the contribution of buffalo and to achieve these, the best productive animals need to be produced through scientific interventions. Animal cloning is a technique used to produce multiple copies of the best animals without normal reproduction. In India, buffalo cloning has already happened and India’s first cloned buffalo was produced in 2009. Later, several buffalo clones were produced and attempts are ongoing to produce stock of more elite animals. Buffalo cloning has made its way from scientific curiosity to farmer’s farm. In this viewpoint article, we provide an overview of the progress of buffalo cloning and we discuss some of the public perceptions of animal cloning such as aging and food safety of cloned animal products

Data Congestion Prediction in Sensors Based IoT Network

1091-1095Internet of Things (IoT) becoming the major part of human life and make the life simpler. IoT uses sensor nodes to monitors certain phenomena and transmitting the collected information to the IoT gateway. The size of the network is increase rapidly and causing congestion in the network and results in network delay, loss of data packets, a decrease in throughput, and poor energy efficiency. It is important to predict the congestion and mitigate the data accordingly. To resolve the problem of congestion, our focus is on predicting the congested node effectively. We propose an optimized deep neural network - Restricted Boltzmann machine (DNN-RBM) based data congestion prediction approach which is used for analyzing and predicting the congested node in the sensors based IoT environment. To enhance the performance of DNN, the weight parameters of DNN are optimized using the Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM)-algorithm. The dataset is used to train the model and enable the prediction to find the congested nodes in the network with more accuracy to enhance the performance of the network. The performance factors congestion window, throughput, propagation delay, RTT, number of packets sent, and packet loss are given as input by using DNN-RBM. Predicted results show that the proposed DNN-RBM model predicts congestion with more than 95% accuracy as compared with other models like ANN, DNN-GA

Pattern of dyslipidaemia in human immunodeficiency virus infected patients- a study from rural tertiary care hospital in central India

Background: HIV/AIDS is a major health problem affecting the whole globe. With introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy longevity of HIV patient have increased and they are subjected to high cardiovascular risk as age increases due to various risk factors. Of these dyslipidaemia is one of important risk factor and HIV patients have different degree of deranged lipid profile. Various studies have shown different lipid derangement in these patients but most of them were conducted in urban areas, so this study was conducted to look for lipid profile in HIV patients who are resident of rural areas. Methods: This study was conducted on 66 HIV infected or AIDS cases. Each case was subjected to history taking, through clinical examination and fasting lipid levels. Dyslipidaemia was a classified using NCEP/ATP III guideline.Results: Of total 66 cases, there were 39 male and 27 female with average age of 37 years. Hypercholesterolemia was present in 50% of patients, hypertriglyceridemia in 36.4%. LDL and VLDL were raised in 37.9% and 36.4% respectably while HDL was found below 40 mg/dl in 37.9% of the patients. S. total cholesterol, HDL and LDL was found to have positive correlation while S. TG and VLDL have no significant correlation with CD4 count.Conclusions: Present studies have shown high prevalence of dyslipidaemia in different WHO clinical stage with variable correlation with CD4 count

Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in a rural population- a cross sectional study from Western Uttar Pradesh, India

Background: Prevalence of non-communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease is on the rise due to the change in lifestyle, unfavourable dietary habits and obesity. Metabolic syndrome is a simple tool by which we can predict the future risk of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Studies showed that prevalence of metabolic syndrome is rising in Indian population, but majority of them were done in urban population. This study was conducted to look into the current status of the metabolic syndrome in rural population.Methods: The study was conducted among a population of 2982. Each participant was subjected to clinical examination, anthropometric measurements and necessary laboratory investigations. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed based on modified NCEP: ATP III criteria.Results: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was found to be 11.7% and was higher among female population (13.8%) as compared to males (9.6%). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome increased with increasing age. 28.3% of the participants over the age of 50 years had metabolic syndrome whereas it was only 0.4% below the age of 20 years. Nearly half (47.1%) of the obese individuals were suffering from metabolic syndrome implicating obesity as one of the most important risk factors in the etiopathogenesis of metabolic syndrome. The prevalence was only 1.1% among the underweight group.Conclusions: Present study has shown moderate prevalence of metabolic syndrome among the rural population of Western Uttar Pradesh, India with a more female predisposition