Alcohol stress on cardiac tissue – Ameliorative effects of Thespesia populnea leaf extract

AbstractBackgroundCells are naturally equipped with antioxidant defenses to counterbalance free radical production. Overproduction of free radicals is one of the reasons for a variety of diseases. The current investigation was planned to evaluate chronic alcohol- (for 30 days) induced oxidative stress in the cardiac tissue of rat and to explore the effectiveness of Thespesia populnea (TP)-induced cardio-protection in rat heart by utilizing an in vivo model of cardiac injury by alcohol.MethodsTen groups of rats were maintained and were divided into different groups. Alcohol 20% was administered and Thespesia leaf extracts (TPE) were administered at a dose of 250mg/kg to chronic alcoholic rats for 30 days. The heart tissue was isolated and processed for further analysis, and also blood for estimation of blood alcohol level and serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK). The activities/levels of antioxidant enzymes, malondialdehyde (MDA), and protein carbonyls (PC) were estimated using established protocols. Histopathology was performed as evidence for the work and to establish the results.ResultsActivities of antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), and reduced glutathione content (GSH) showed a decrease, while glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity, MDA, and PC recorded an elevation due to alcohol treatment in the cardiac tissue compared to the control rats. Alcohol-induced myocardial injury was observed, indicated by a significant increase in serum CPK, a well-known biomarker of myocardial injury, and histopathological evidence supported these observations by revealing predominantly extensive edema with vacuolization and severe necrosis.ConclusionTreatment with TPE confers protection on the heart tissue during alcohol-induced oxidative stress, and thereby minimizes oxidative damage to the cardiac tissue as clearly marked in histopathology

Antimagnetic rotation and sudden change of electric quadrupole transition strength in 143Eu

Lifetimes of the states in the quadrupole structure in 143Eu have been measured using the Doppler shift attenuation method as well as parity of the states in the sequence has been firmly identified from polarization measurement using the Indian National Gamma Array. The decreasing trends of the deduced quadrupole transition strength B(E2) with spin, along with increasing J (2) /B(E2) values before band crossing, conclusively establish the origin of these states as arising out of antimagnetic rotation. The abrupt increase in the B(E2) values after the band crossing in the quadrupole band, a novel feature observed in the present experiment, may indicates the crossing of different shears configurations resulting in re-opening of shears structure. The results are well reproduced by numerical calculation within the framework of semi-classical geometric model.Comment: 6 pages, 4 postscript figure

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for the rapid identification of yeasts causing bloodstream infections

AbstractFew studies have systematically standardised and evaluated matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for identification of yeasts from bloodstream infections. This is rapidly becoming pertinent for early identification of yeasts and appropriate antifungal therapy. We used 354 yeast strains identified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) sequencing for standardisation and 367 blind clinical strains for validation of our MALDI-TOF MS protocols. We also evaluated different sample preparation methods and found the on-plate formic acid extraction method as most cost- and time-efficient. The MALDI-TOF assay correctly identified 98.9% of PCR-sequenced yeasts. Novel main spectrum projections (MSP) were developed for Candida auris, C. viswanathii and Kodamaea ohmeri, which were missing from the Bruker MALDI-TOF MS database. Spectral cut-offs computed by receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis showed 99.4% to 100% accuracy at a log score of ≥1.70 for C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis, C. pelliculosa, C. orthopsilosis, C. albicans, C. rugosa, C. guilliermondii, C. lipolytica, C. metapsilosis, C. nivariensis. The differences in the species-specific scores of our standardisation and blind validation strains were not statistically significant, implying the optimal performance of our test protocol. The MSPs of the three new species also were validated. We conclude that MALDI-TOF MS is a rapid, accurate and reliable tool for identification of bloodstream yeasts. With proper standardisation, validation and regular database expansion, its efficiency can be further enhanced

Effect of neutron alignments on the structure of Tl 197

The excited states of 197Tl have been studied via 19 Au(4He, 4n)197 Tl reaction at a beam energy of 50 MeV from the K-130 cyclotron at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC). The γ rays were detected using the VECC array for Nuclear Spectroscopy (VENUS) with six Compton-suppressed clover HPGe detectors. An improved level scheme of 197 Tl has been proposed from this work, which has been extended to 5.1 MeV of excitation energy and 39/2 ℏ of spin from the placement of 28 new γ-ray transitions. Band crossings in the known one- and three-quasiparticle (qp) bands have been identified for the first time in this work. Two new bands, based on 3-qp and 5-qp configurations, have been observed for the first time in this nucleus; both of which are identified as the magnetic rotational (MR) in nature. The excitation energies of these bands are similar to that of the doubly degenerate bands observed for the similar 3-qp and 5-qp configurations in 195 Tl. These indicate a transition from an aplanar geometry of the neutron, proton, and the core angular momentum vectors to a planar one for neutron number N≥116 in Tl isotopes. The total Routhian surface calculations suggest a change in shape from oblate for the 1-qp configuration to a near-spherical one for the 3- and 5-qp configurations. This is consistent with the observed MR nature of the bands with multi-qp configuration. The MR bands are well reproduced by a model calculations in the frame work of the shears mechanism with the principal axis cranking.One of the authors (H.P.) is grateful for the support from the Ramanujan Fellowship Research Grant under SERB-DST Grant No. SB/S2/RJN-031/2016

Shape evolution in the rapidly rotating 140^{140}Gd nucleus

Ground state band of $^{140}$Gd has been investigated following their population in the $^{112}$Sn($^{35}$Cl,~$\alpha$p2n)$^{140}$Gd reaction at 195 MeV of beam energy using a large array of Compton suppressed HPGe clovers as the detection setup. Apart from other spectroscopic measurements, level lifetimes of the states have been extracted using the Doppler Shift Attenuation Method. Extracted quadrupole moment along with the pairing independent cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky model calculations for the quadrupole band reveal that the nucleus preferably attains triaxiality with $\gamma$ = -30$^\circ$. The calculation though shows a slight possibility of rotation around the longest possible principal axis at high spin $\sim$ 30$\hbar$ which is beyond the scope of the present experiment