IN VITRO AND IN VIVO PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF AMBREX, A POLYHERBAL FORMULATION, AGAINST METHOTREXATE INDUCED DAMAGES IN HEPATIC CELLS

Objective: To evaluate the hepatoprotective effect of Ambrex, a poly herbal formulation against methotrexate (MTX) induced hepatotoxicity in Swiss albino mice as well as in Chang liver cell lines.Methods: Ambrex was exposed to MTX intoxicated chang liver cells and cells were harvested for studying the gene expressions of Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) and Bcl-2-associated X protein (BAX). In in vivo study, Ambrex was administered orally for a period of 7 days at two dose levels (250 and 500 mg/kg b. wt) and MTX (20 mg/kg b. wt, i. p) was injected one hour after the last test drug administration. Protective effect of Ambrex was evaluated by measuring aspartate transaminase (SGOT), alanine transaminase (SGPT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), γ–glutamyl transferase (γGT) and total bilirubin. Its effect on superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), reduced glutathione (GSH) and lipid peroxide (LPO) was also determined.Results: Data revealed that Ambrex was able to restore the levels of antioxidants such as SOD, Catalase, and Glutathione to near normal and reduced the elevated plasma levels of SGOT, SGPT, ALP, γ–GT and total bilirubin. It also inhibited the formation of hepatic malondialdehyde induced by MTX. In vitro studies revealed that Ambrex protected MTX induced hepatotoxicity at the dose of 50 and 500ng/ml. Further, mRNA expression also illustrated that Ambrex inhibited the over expression of BAX and suppressed BCL2 and DHRF expressions.Conclusion: Results suggest that Ambrex has potent hepatoprotective effect which was evident from both in vivo and in vitro results.Â

Phytochemical constituent and antioxidant activity of extract from the leaves of Ocimum basilicum

Ocimum basilicum leaf extracts of were investigated for phytochemical constituent and antioxidant activity. Tests for tannins, steroids, terpenoids, flavonoids and cardiac glycosides were positive in both ethanolic and aqueous extracts. The ethanolic extract of O. basilicum had a DPPH scavenging activity of 85.2% at 250μg/ml and a reductive potential of 0.79 at 100 μg/ml. These values were comparable with those of gallic acid, 91.1% at 250 μg/ml and ascorbic acid, 0.76 at 60 μg/ml as standards for DPPH scavenging activity and reductive potential, respectively. These findings suggest that the rich phytochemical content of O. basilicum and its good antioxidant activity may be responsible for its popular and wide traditional use

Exploring the Anti-dandruff Potential of Selected Medicinal Plants

ABSTRACT Dandruff is the most common problem that affects many people leading to an embarrassing condition. It results from three main factors namely: Malassezia fungi, sebaceous secretion and individual sensitivity. The liphophillic yeast Malassezia furfur is the most common dandruff causing agent in India. In this study dandruff flakes were isolated from patient and cultured in appropriate media like Potato dextrose agar and Sabouraud's dextrose agar. The antidandruff activity of three selected medicinal plants-Piper cubeba, Cissus quadrangularis and Bauhinia vahlii was studied by well diffusion and broth dilution assay. On screening, methanol extract of Piper cubeba showed good activity and further on broth dilution assay gave a Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) at 100µg/ml and IC50 at 800µg/ml. On partial purification through TLC and bio-autography an R f value of 0.705 was obtained where the active compound had activity against dandruff

High pressure structural behavior of YGa2: A combined experimental and theoretical study

High pressure structural stability studies were carried out on YGa2 (AlB2 type structure at NTP, space group P6/mmm) up to a pressure of ~35 GPa using both laboratory based rotating anode and synchrotron X-ray sources. An isostructural transition with reduced c/a ratio, was observed at ~6 GPa and above ~17.5 GPa, the compound transformed to orthorhombic structure. Bulk modulus B0 for the parent and high pressure phases were estimated using Birch–Murnaghan and modified Birch–Murnaghan equation of state. Electronic structure calculations based on projector augmented wave method confirms the experimentally observed two high pressure structural transitions. The calculations also reveal that the ‘Ga’ networks remains as two dimensional in the high pressure isostructural phase, whereas the orthorhombic phase involves three dimensional networks of ‘Ga’ atoms interconnected by strong covalent bonds

RPS: Repeats in Protein Sequences

Repeats are two or more contiguous segments of amino acid residues that are believed to have arisen as a result of intragenic duplication, recombination and mutation events. These repeats can be utilized for protein structure prediction and can provide insights into the protein evolution and phylogenetic relationship. Therefore, to aid structural biologists and phylogeneticists in their research, a computing resource (a web server and a database), Repeats in Protein Sequences (RPS), has been created. Using RPS, users can obtain useful information regarding identical, similar and distant repeats (of varying lengths) in protein sequences. In addition, users can check the frequency of occurrence of the repeats in sequence databases such as the Genome Database, PIR and SWISS-PROT and among the protein sequences available in the Protein Data Bank archive. Furthermore, users can view the three-dimensional structure of the repeats using the Java visualization plug-in Jmol. The proposed computing resource can be accessed over the World Wide Web at http://bioserver1.physics.iisc.ernet.in/rps/