Key ingredients and recycling strategy of personal protective equipment (PPE): Towards sustainable solution for the COVID-19 like pandemics.

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the complications of plastic trash management and disposal. The current situation of living in fear of transmission of the COVID-19 virus has further transformed our behavioural models, such as regularly using personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and single-use applications for day to day needs etc. It has been estimated that with the passage of the coronavirus epidemic every month, there is expected use of 200 billion pieces of single-use facemasks and gloves. PPE are well established now as life-saving items for medicinal specialists to stay safe through the COVID-19 pandemic. Different processes such as glycolysis, hydrogenation, aminolysis, hydrolysis, pyrolysis, and gasification are now working on finding advanced technologies to transfer waste PPE into value-added products. Here, in this article, we have discussed the recycling strategies of PPE, important components (such as medical gloves, gowns, masks & respirators and other face and eye protection) and the raw materials used in PPE kits. Further, the value addition methods to recycling the PPE kits, chemical & apparatus used in recycling and recycling components into value-added products. Finally, the biorenewable materials in PPE for textiles components have been discussed along with concluded remarks

Development and validation of a novel method for simultaneous quantification of enzalutamide, darolutamide and their active metabolites in mice dried blood spots using LC-MS/MS: Application to pharmacokinetic study in mice

A simple, sensitive and rapid assay method has been developed and validated for the estimation of enzalutamide, N-desmethylenzalutamide (active metabolite of enzalutamide), darolutamide and ORM-15341 (active metabolite of darolutamide) on mice dried blood spots (DBS) using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry with electro spray ionization in the positive-ion mode. The method utilizes liquid extraction of enzalutamide, N-desmethylenzalutamide, darolutamide and ORM-15341 from 3 mm punched disks from DBS cards (spiked or study samples). The extracted sample was chromatographed using an isocratic mobile phase (0.2 % formic acid : acetonitrile; 30:70, v/v) on an Atlantis dC18 column. The total run time was 2.5 min. The MS/MS ion transitions monitored were m/z 465 → m/z 209, m/z 451 →  m/z 195, m/z 399 → m/z 178, m/z 397 →  m/z 194 and m/z 481 → m/z 453 for enzalutamide, N-desmethyl­enzalutamide, darolutamide, ORM-15341 and the IS (apalutamide-d3), respectively. Method validation was performed as per regulatory guideline. The assay had a good linearity over the range of 0.93-2000 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-batch accuracy and precision (%RE & RSD) across quality controls met the acceptance criteria for all the analytes. Stability studies showed that all the analytes were stable on DBS cards for one month. This novel method has been applied to analyze the DBS samples of enzalutamide, N-desmethylenzalutamide, darolutamide and ORM-15341 obtained from a pharmacokinetic study in mice

Interferon Alpha Characterization and Its Comparative Expression in PBM Cells of Capra hircus and Antelope cervicapra Cultured in the Presence of TLR9 Agonist

TLR9 plays pivotal role in innate immune responses through upregulation of costimulatory molecules and induction of proinflammatory cytokines like type I interferons including interferon alpha (IFNA). The present study characterized IFNA cDNA and predicted protein sequences in goat and black buck. Response of the PBM cells to TLR9 agonist CpG ODN C and Phorbol Myristate Acetate (PMA) was evaluated by realtime PCR. IFNA coding sequences were amplified from leukocyte cDNA and cloned in pGEMT-easy vector for nucleotide sequencing. Sequence analysis revealed 570 bp, IFNA ORF encoding 189 amino acids in goat and black buck. Black buck and goat IFNA has 92.1% to 94.7% and 93% to 95.6% similarity at nucleotide level, 86.3% to 89.5% and 70.9% to 91.6% identity at amino acid level with other ruminants, respectively. Nonsynonymous substitutions exceeding synonymous substitutions indicated IFNA evolved through positive selection among ruminants. In spite of lower total leukocyte count, the innate immune cells like monocytes and neutrophils were more in black buck compared to goat. In addition, CpG ODN C-stimulated PBM cells revealed raised IFNA transcript in black buck than goat. These findings indicate sturdy genetically governed immune system in wild antelope black buck compared to domestic ruminant goat

Identification and genetic diversity analysis of Memecylon species using ISSR, RAPD and Gene-Based DNA barcoding tools

Background: Memecylon species are commonly used in Indian ethnomedical practices. The accurate identification is vital to enhance the drug's efficacy and biosafety. In the present study, PCR based techniques like RAPD, ISSR and DNA barcoding regions, such as 5s, psbA-trnH, rpoC1, ndh and atpF-atpH, were used to authenticate and analyze the diversity of five Memecylon species collected from Western Ghats of India. Results: Phylogenetic analysis clearly distinguished Memecylon malabaricum from Memecylon wightii and Memecylon umbellatum from Memecylon edule and clades formed are in accordance with morphological keys. In the RAPD and ISSR analyses, 27 accessions representing five Memecylon species were distinctly separated into three different clades. M. malabaricum and M. wightii grouped together and M. umbellatum, M. edule and Memecylon talbotianum grouped in the same clade with high Jaccard dissimilarity coefficient and bootstrap support between each node, indicating that these grouped species are phylogenetically similar. Conclusion: Data from the present study reveals that chloroplast psbA-trnH region could be used as a potential candidate region for identifying Memecylon species, and ISSR marker system could be used for estimating genetic diversity since it has high percent polymorphism compared to RAPD marker

Comparative analysis of Magnesium Sulphate Versus Clonidine as an Adjuvant to Epidural Bupivacaine 0.5% in Lower Abdominal and Lower Limb Surgeries

Introduction: A prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial was carried out to evaluate the effects ofMagnesium sulphate as an adjuvant to epidural bupivacaine and compared with clonidine along with epidural bupivacaine.Aims and Objective: Main objective to evaluate the efficacy of epidural magnesium sulphate& clonidineused as an adjuvant to bupivacaine.Material and method: After approval from institutional ethical committee 60 patients undergoing lowerabdominal &lower limb surgeries selected and divided in 2 groups Clonidine group and Magnesium group and different parameters observed.Observation: Co-administration of inj. Magnesium sulphate 50 mg. or Clonidine 3μg/kg (150μg maximum) to epidural bupivacaine produced predictable rapid onset of surgical anaesthesia without significant side effects. Addition of clonidine to epidural bupivacaine produced prolonged duration of analgesia with mild sedation compared to magnesium sulphate.Conclusion: From the study it is suggested that magnesium sulphate can be a useful alternative as anadjuvant to epidural bupivacaine without any side effects

Power Spectral Analysis of Short-Term Heart Rate Variability in Healthy and Arrhythmia Subjects by the Adaptive Continuous Morlet Wavelet Transform

Power spectral analysis of short-term heart rate variability (HRV) can provide instant valuable information to understand the functioning of autonomic control over the cardiovascular system. In this study, an adaptive continuous Morlet wavelet transform (ACMWT) method has been used to describe the time-frequency characteristics of the HRV using band power spectra and the median value of interquartile range. Adaptation of the method was based on the measurement of maximum energy concentration. The ACMWT has been validated on synthetic signals (i.e. stationary, non-stationary as slow varying and fast changing frequency with time) modeled as closest to dynamic changes in HRV signals. This method has been also tested in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) to show its robustness towards the noise. From the results of testing on synthetic signals, the ACMWT was found to be an enhanced energy concentration estimator for assessment of power spectral of short-term HRV time series compared to adaptive Stockwell transform (AST), adaptive modified Stockwell transform (AMST), standard continuous Morlet wavelet transform (CMWT) and Stockwell transform (ST) estimators at statistical significance level of 5%. Further, the ACMWT was applied to real HRV data from Fantasia and MIT-BIH databases, grouped as healthy young group (HYG), healthy elderly group (HEG), arrhythmia controlled medication group (ARCMG), and supraventricular tachycardia group (SVTG) subjects. The global results demonstrate that spectral indices of low frequency power (LFp) and high frequency power (HFp) of HRV were decreased in HEG compared to HYG subjects (p<0.0001). While LFp and HFp indices were increased in ARCMG compared to HEG (p<0.00001). The LFp and HFp components of HRV obtained from SVTG were reduced compared to other group subjects (p<0.00001)

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Not AvailablePearl millet and clusterbean foliar sprayed with 100 µg/ mL Zn as nano-zinc oxide increased shoot while root biomass decreased. The amount of total C exuded through roots also decreased. Reduction in root biomass and exudates together accounted for only about 16 and 38% of the additional C accumulated in shoot biomass. Therefore there is all likelihood that part of the enhanced C accumulated in shoot may be due to enhanced photosynthesis. Such a positive influence of nano-ZnO could have been due to protection of the cellular membrane from the UV-radiation as evident from less malondialdehyde content in the treated plants in our experiment.Not Availabl

Astaxanthin Sensitizes Low SOD2-Expressing GBM Cell Lines to TRAIL Treatment via Pathway Involving Mitochondrial Membrane Depolarization

Carotenoids have been suggested to have either anti- or pro-oxidative effects in several cancer cells, and those effects can trigger an unbalanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production resulting in an apoptotic response. Our study aimed to evaluate the effect of the well-known carotenoid 3, 3&prime;-dihydroxy-&beta;, &beta;&rsquo;-carotene-4, 4-dione (astaxanthin, AXT) on glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cells, especially as a pretreatment of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), that was previously shown to increase ROS and to induce apoptosis in cancer cells. We found that AXT by itself did not trigger apoptosis in four investigated GBM cell lines upon a 24 h treatment at various concentrations from 2.5 to 50 &micro;M. However, in U251-MG and T98-MG GBM cells, pretreatment of 2.5 to 10 &micro;M AXT sensitized cells to TRAIL treatment in a statistically significant manner (p &lt; 0.05) while it did not affect CRT-MG and U87-MG GBM cells. We further compared AXT-sensitive U251-MG and -insensitive CRT-MG response to AXT and showed that 5 &micro;M AXT treatment had a beneficial effect on both cell lines, as it enhanced mitochondrial potential and TRAIL treatment had the opposite effect, as it decreased mitochondrial potential. Interestingly, in U251-MG, 5 &micro;M AXT pretreatment to TRAIL-treated cells mitochondrial potential further decreased compared to TRAIL alone cells. In addition, while 25 and 50 ng/mL TRAIL treatment increased ROS for both cell lines, pretreatment of 5 &micro;M AXT induced a significant ROS decrease in CRT-MG (p &lt; 0.05) while less effective in U251-MG. We found that in U251-MG, superoxide dismutase (SOD) 2 expression and enzymatic activity were lower compared to CRT-MG and that overexpression of SOD2 in U251-MG abolished AXT sensitization to TRAIL treatment. Taken together, these results suggest that while AXT acts as an ROS scavenger in GBM cell lines, it also has some role in decreasing mitochondrial potential together with TRAIL in a pathway that can be inhibited by SOD2