STEROID-INDUCED ANAPHYLAXIS

  To report a severe adverse drug reaction (ADR) due to administration of injection hydrocortisone sodium succinate and to explore the possibility of an association between injection hydrocortisone and the severe ADR. After getting ethics approval from the institution, ADR form and patient's clinical record from the Department of Cardiology, in a Private Medical College was received. In that, it was recorded as a 75-year-old male patient, a case of unstable angina with troponin T - positive, was posted for coronary angiogram developed a severe reaction to intravenous (IV) hydrocortisone 100 mg stat, given to prevent allergy to contrast dye used in the procedure. 5 minutes after drug administration, he developed sudden itching all over the body, hypotension blood pressure: 60 mmHg and swelling of lips. No other drugs had been given at that time. The patient was already on aspirin 150 mg, clopidogrel 75 mg, and atorvastatin 80 mg, and enoxaparin 40 mg. The procedure was abandoned, and the patient was given injection pheniramine maleate 45.5 mg IV, injection dopamine 10 mcg/kg/min IV. He symptomatically improved within 6 hrs. Causality analysis using the WHO scale categorizes it as probable, as anaphylaxis occurred immediately after administration of hydrocortisone, no other drugs were given at that time, and rechallenge was not done. Very few cases of various steroid-induced anaphylaxis have been reported worldwide. This one among the rare ADR report may be due to the steroid or the excipients in the preparation. Skin prick test or in vitro (radioallergosorbent test assay) test can be done immediately to confirm the causative allergen in this case and would also help in identifying specific agents that will be tolerated in the future treatment

Recoganisation and security guidance of data integrity in cloud storage

Cloud computing has been envisioned as the de-facto solution to the rising storage costs of IT Enterprises. With the high costs of data storage devices as well as the rapid rate at which data is being generated it proves costly for enterprises or individual users to frequently update their hardware. Storage outsourcing of data to cloud storage helps such firms by reducing the costs of storage, maintenance and personnel. It can also assure a reliable storage of important data by keeping multiple copies of the data thereby reducing the chance of losing data by hardware failures. The study deal with the problem of implementing a protocol for obtaining a proof of data possession in the cloud sometimes referred to as Proof of irretrievability (POR). The problem tries to obtain and verify a proof that the data that is stored by a user at remote data storage in the cloud (called cloud storage archives or simply archives) is not modified by the archive and thereby the integrity of the data is assured. The verification systems prevent the cloud storage archives from misrepresenting or modifying the data stored at it without the consent of the data owner by using frequent checks on the storage archives.&nbsp

Toxicity and the effect of Zineb on the rate of development of Drosophila melanogaster

Zineb, (zinc ethylene bis (dithiocarbamate), a carbamate fungicide was analysed for its toxicity on Drosophila meanogaster . Different concentrations of the chemical were added to the food medium and fed to the larvae. Based on this, the LC50 was calculated to be 58·26 mg/100 ml food medium. The toxic efficacy, of Zineb on the rate of development and viability of D. melanogaster compared to Dithan M-45, a related carbamate, are discussed

Pathogenic changes due to inoculation of gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MTCC 1688) on host tissue proteins and enzymes of the giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man)

Abstract: The freshwater giant prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC 1688 revealed pathogenic symptoms in certain tissue biochemical parameters. The tissue proteins showed proteolysis. The chitinase and phenol oxidase activity in tissues revealed marked inhibition. The culmination of these biochemical changes is attributed to the tissue pathological changes characteristic of bacterial inoculation. The chitinoclastic nature of the opportunistic bacterial pathogen inducing the above symptoms reveal that the disease outbreak in shrimps is the outcome of a pathogenic chain linkage involving environment (medium)-bacterial population (opportunistic/endemic)-shrimp population. The delinking of the above chain bywater quality maintenance, selection of shrimp species and by keeping the bacterial population below that of damage threshold would have far reaching implications in enhancing productivity in this under water agriculture

Association Between Obesity and Asthma among Adults: A Hospital Based Case-Control Study

The aim is to study the association between obesity and asthma among adults by gender. The prevalences of both asthma and obesity have increased substantially in recent decades, leading to speculation that obese individuals might be at risk of asthma. However, the evidence of a relationship between obesity and asthma is not fully conclusive among adults. Hence we investigate the association between obesity and asthma among men and women using both measured weight and height and self-reported weight and height while controlling for the effects of the demographic and environmental factors. This case-control study involves a total of 159 adults; 53 cases and 106 controls enrolled in the month of July 2009 at PSG Hospitals. Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated based on measured weight and height. The Odds Ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval for obese individuals was estimated using logistic regression analysis with SPSS 11.5 for windows software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois). Multivariate logistic regression model was used to adjust all risk estimates for covariates. Obese women were found to have 9.14 times the risk of asthma than non obese women (95% confidence interval (CI):1.38, 35.68) after adjusting for covariates, such as age, education, environmental tobacco smoke and pet keeping. No significant association was observed among men although the direction of association is positive; adjusted odds ratio was 1.06 (95% CI: 0.12, 9.70). No significant association was observed between self-reported prevalence of obesity and asthma; among women, adjusted odds ratio = 4.33 (95% CI: 0.69, 27.37); and among men, adjusted odds ratio = 0.89 (95% CI: 0.11, 7.12). The study indicates a strong positive association between obesity and asthma among adult Indian women. The causal links between obesity and asthma by gender need to be further examined using prospective cohort studies

E5501: phase II study of topotecan sequenced with etoposide/cisplatin, and irinotecan/cisplatin sequenced with etoposide for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer.

PURPOSE: Sequence-dependent improved efficacy of topoisomerase I followed by topoisomerase 2 inhibitors was assessed in a randomized phase II study in extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). METHODS: Patients with previously untreated extensive-stage SCLC with measurable disease, ECOG performance status of 0-3 and stable brain metastases were eligible. Arm A consisted of topotecan (0.75 mg/m(2)) on days 1, 2 and 3, etoposide (70 mg/m(2)) and cisplatin (20 mg/m(2)) (PET) on days 8, 9 and 10 in a 3-week cycle. Arm B consisted of irinotecan (50 mg/m(2)) and cisplatin (20 mg/m(2)) on days 1 and 8 followed by etoposide (85 mg/m(2) PO bid) on days 3 and 10 (PIE) in a 3-week cycle. RESULTS: We enrolled 140 patients and randomized 66 eligible patients to each arm. Only 54.5 % of all patients completed the planned maximum 6 cycles. There were grade ≥3 treatment-related adverse events in approximately 70 % of the patients on both arms including 6 treatment-related grade 5 events. The overall response rates (CR + PR) were 69.7 % (90 % CI 59.1-78.9, 95 % CI 57.1-80.4 %) for arm A and 57.6 % (90 % CI 46.7-67.9, 95 % CI 44.8-69.7 %) for arm B. The median progression-free survival and overall survival were 6.4 months (95 % CI 5.4-7.5 months) and 11.9 months (95 % CI 9.6-13.7 months) for arm A and 6.0 months (95 % CI 5.4-7.0 months) and 11.0 months (95 % CI 8.6-13.1 months) for arm B. CONCLUSION: Sequential administration of topoisomerase inhibitors did not improve on the historical efficacy of standard platinum-doublet chemotherapy for extensive-stage SCLC

Seaweed resources of the Tuticorin-Tiruchendur coast, Tamil Nadu, India

The southern coast of Tamil Nadu (Mandapam to Kanyakumari) supports luxuriant growth of economic seaweeds. The entire indigenous phycocoUoid industry of the country gets the raw material from this region and during the last two decades, due to indiscriminate harvesting, there has been over-exploitation of the resource. The present paper deals with survey conducted in the first sector from Tuticorin to Tiruchendur during December 1986—March 1987. In this study 58 species of marine algae were recorded of which 7 belong to Chlorophyta, 12 to Phaeophyta and 39 to Rhodophyta besides 3 species of seagrasses namely Cymodocea seiriilata, Halophila ovalis and //. ovata within 650 sq. km area surveyed. The total standing crop of the seaweeds was estimated at 9,100 tonnes (wt.). The estimates for the dominant species are Dictyota maxima 530 t, Sargassum tenerrium 640 t, D. bartayresiana 8601, Selieria rebusta 2,0901 and Hypnea valemiae 2,4301. The seaweed potential for commercial exploitation has been briefly discussed

Seaweeds

Research works oti various aspects of seaweeds have been caried out since last five decades. They inchide resources survey, studies on distribution, Uixonomy, ecology, biology, phycocolioids, biochemicals, culture and utilisation of marine algae growing in Tamil Nadu, Kercda, Lakshadwe^p and Andaman-Nicobar Islands. Information was also gathered since 1978 on the quantity of seaweeds commercially exploited from the natural seaweed beds occurring in Tamil Nadu coast. The results obtained on these aspects are reviewed in this paper. The prospects of seaweed research, industry and utilisation in India are also briefly described

Seaweed resources off Tamil Nadu coast: Sector II. Alanthali - Manapad and Vembar – Nallathanni Thivu

The seaweeds are used for the production of polysaccharides such as agar, algin, carragennan and they are harvested from intertidal regions along the southeast shores of India. The resource potential from intertidal regions was estimated (Anon 1978

Rapid production of therapeutic proteins using plant system

Plant molecular farming is simply defined as the production of proteins therapeutics (PT) in plants, which involves transient gene expression in plants and purification of expressed protein to a great scale for diagnosis, treatment and other applications.  This is therapid,economical, safe and reproducible approach for the production of PTas compared to bacterial and mammalian systems. Protein yield and post-translational modifications are the major roadblocks that can be overcome byhigh expression strategies includes over expression constructs, suitable plant host systems and glycoengineering of proteins. The inherent ability of ideally producing safe, functional protein is the most striking phenomenon recognized by the pharmaceutical industries and developed many therapeutic products within few weeks to meet escalating demands during pandemic/epidemic outbreaks recentl