AIDS-Related EBV-Associated Smooth Muscle Tumors: A Review of 64 Published Cases

The number of reported cases of smooth muscle tumor (SMT) arising in patients with AIDS has been increasing since the mid-1990s. The aim of this study is to characterize the epidemiology, clinical manifestations, pathologic features, prognosis and, management of Epstein-Barr virus-related SMT (EBV-SMT) in patients with AIDS. An English language literature search identified 53 articles including 64 reported cases of EBV-SMT. The majority of these reports involved patients who were young, severely immunosuppressed, and had multifocal tumors. The central nervous system was the most common site to be involved. Histologically, tumors had smooth muscle features and were immunoreactive for muscle markers and all but two tumors demonstrated the presence of EBV by either immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and/or PCR. While mitoses and/or necrosis were used to separate leiomyoma from leiomyosarcoma, these features did not correlate with clinical outcome. Treatment included primarily resection, and less often radiotherapy, chemotherapy and highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Overall, EBV-SMTs appear to have variable aggressiveness and clinical outcome and may exhibit a more favorable prognosis compared to conventional leiomyosarcoma. Tumor-related death from EBV-SMT occurred in only 4 of 51 patients

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF PARACETAMOL SUSPENSION BY USING NATURAL SUSPENDING AGENT EXTRACTED FROM BANANA PEELS

The present work was aimed to formulate and evaluate a new, cheap and effective natural suspending agent that can be used as an effective alternative for traditional suspending agent. The study procedure involved extraction of suspending agent from the Musa paradisica (Banana) fruit peels, determination of swelling index, phytochemical testing, Micromeritic properties of mucilage like Bulk density, Tapped density, Carr’s index, Hausner’s ratio, Angle of repose, Calibration of paracetamol, preparation of paracetamol suspensions and evaluated for pH determination, determination of sedimentation volume, redispersibility, determination of flow rate, measurement of viscosity, effect of temperature, drug content, particle size determination and In-vitro dissolution studies. The study showed that the extraction of suspending agent from banana fruit peels. The swelling index was found to be 40%. The photochemical test showed contains carbohydrates. As the concentration of suspending agent increases therefore viscosity of suspension increases which ultimately reduces the sedimentation of suspension

Genetic structure of the rattan Calamus thwaitesii in core, buffer and peripheral regions of three protected areas in central Western Ghats, India: do protected areas serve as refugia for genetic resources of economically important plants?

Given the increasing anthropogenic pressures on forests, the various protected areas-national parks, sanctuaries, and biosphere reserves-serve as the last footholds for conserving biological diversity. However, because protected areas are often targeted for the conservation of selected species, particularly charismatic animals, concerns have been raised about their effectiveness in conserving nontarget taxa and their genetic resources. In this paper, we evaluate whether protected areas can serve as refugia for genetic resources of economically important plants that are threatened due to extraction pressures. We examine the population structure and genetic diversity of an economically important rattan, Calamus thwaitesii, in the core, buffer and peripheral regions of three protected areas in the central Western Ghats, southern India. Our results indicate that in all the three protected areas, the core and buffer regions maintain a better population structure, as well as higher genetic diversity, than the peripheral regions of the protected area. Thus, despite the escalating pressures of extraction, the protected areas are effective in conserving the genetic resources of rattan. These results underscore the importance of protected areas in conservation of nontarget species and emphasize the need to further strengthen the protected-area network to offer refugia for economically important plant species

Conservation of sandal genetic resources in India. I. Extraction patterns and threats to sandal resources in Karnataka

Sandal is one of the most important commercial tree species in the deciduous forests of South India contributing substantially to the foreign exchange earned through the export of forest products. However, due to extensive changes in the land use patterns, deforestation and the indiscriminate exploitation of the sandal resources, the natural stock of the species has been rapidly dwindling in the country. This paper highlights on assessment of extraction patterns and threats to sandal resources in the state of Karnataka, that accounts for more than 60 to 70 per cent of the total area under sandal in the country. Our study confirms that over the years there has been a steady decrease in the availability of sandal. The decrease is mirrored in the reduction of sandal wood supplied to the factories over the years. The implications of the study with particular reference to the conservation of sandal genetic resources in the state as well as in the country has been discussed

Present status of exploitation of fish and shellfish resources: Oil sardine

Present status of exploitation of fish and shellfish resources: Oil sardine Considerable fluctuations coupled with a general decline in the oil sardine landings have been observed along the southwest coast of India during 1984-85 to 198889. The catch and effort data for oilsardine fishery during the different seasons have revealed that premonsoon period is the most productive period for the fishery. The decline in the fishery is attributed to the indiscriminate exploitation of juveniles and potential spawners by purse seiners and ring seins. T he traditional &or has k e n a diversely affected by the operations of purse seines in recent years in northern Kerala Exploitation of spawning st& of oilsardine during the b d n g from May to September is of great consequences far the conservation of the resources. Even though good m o n soon is most likely to have a positive Impact on the stock size and facilitate spawning and recruitment, the likely advantage is offset by Indiscreminate exploitation. Regulation of mesh size of boat seines and restricting the operations of purse and ring seine are expecteded to restore the fishery to its preeminent position and protect the interests of the traditional sector

A transcriptomic snapshot of early molecular communication between Pasteuria penetrans and Meloidogyne incognita

© The Author(s). 2018Background: Southern root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid and White, 1919), Chitwood, 1949 is a key pest of agricultural crops. Pasteuria penetrans is a hyperparasitic bacterium capable of suppressing the nematode reproduction, and represents a typical coevolved pathogen-hyperparasite system. Attachment of Pasteuria endospores to the cuticle of second-stage nematode juveniles is the first and pivotal step in the bacterial infection. RNA-Seq was used to understand the early transcriptional response of the root-knot nematode at 8 h post Pasteuria endospore attachment. Results: A total of 52,485 transcripts were assembled from the high quality (HQ) reads, out of which 582 transcripts were found differentially expressed in the Pasteuria endospore encumbered J2 s, of which 229 were up-regulated and 353 were down-regulated. Pasteuria infection caused a suppression of the protein synthesis machinery of the nematode. Several of the differentially expressed transcripts were putatively involved in nematode innate immunity, signaling, stress responses, endospore attachment process and post-attachment behavioral modification of the juveniles. The expression profiles of fifteen selected transcripts were validated to be true by the qRT PCR. RNAi based silencing of transcripts coding for fructose bisphosphate aldolase and glucosyl transferase caused a reduction in endospore attachment as compared to the controls, whereas, silencing of aspartic protease and ubiquitin coding transcripts resulted in higher incidence of endospore attachment on the nematode cuticle. Conclusions: Here we provide evidence of an early transcriptional response by the nematode upon infection by Pasteuria prior to root invasion. We found that adhesion of Pasteuria endospores to the cuticle induced a down-regulated protein response in the nematode. In addition, we show that fructose bisphosphate aldolase, glucosyl transferase, aspartic protease and ubiquitin coding transcripts are involved in modulating the endospore attachment on the nematode cuticle. Our results add new and significant information to the existing knowledge on early molecular interaction between M. incognita and P. penetrans.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Universal Plant DNA Barcode Loci May Not Work in Complex Groups: A Case Study with Indian Berberis Species

BACKGROUND: The concept of DNA barcoding for species identification has gained considerable momentum in animals because of fairly successful species identification using cytochrome oxidase I (COI). In plants, matK and rbcL have been proposed as standard barcodes. However, barcoding in complex genera is a challenging task. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We investigated the species discriminatory power of four reportedly most promising plant DNA barcoding loci (one from nuclear genome--ITS, and three from plastid genome--trnH-psbA, rbcL and matK) in species of Indian Berberis L. (Berberidaceae) and two other genera, Ficus L. (Moraceae) and Gossypium L. (Malvaceae). Berberis species were delineated using morphological characters. These characters resulted in a well resolved species tree. Applying both nucleotide distance and nucleotide character-based approaches, we found that none of the loci, either singly or in combinations, could discriminate the species of Berberis. ITS resolved all the tested species of Ficus and Gossypium and trnH-psbA resolved 82% of the tested species in Ficus. The highly regarded matK and rbcL could not resolve all the species. Finally, we employed amplified fragment length polymorphism test in species of Berberis to determine their relationships. Using ten primer pair combinations in AFLP, the data demonstrated incomplete species resolution. Further, AFLP analysis showed that there was a tendency of the Berberis accessions to cluster according to their geographic origin rather than species affiliation. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We reconfirm the earlier reports that the concept of universal barcode in plants may not work in a number of genera. Our results also suggest that the matK and rbcL, recommended as universal barcode loci for plants, may not work in all the genera of land plants. Morphological, geographical and molecular data analyses of Indian species of Berberis suggest probable reticulate evolution and thus barcode markers may not work in this case

Discovery and fine-mapping of adiposity loci using high density imputation of genome-wide association studies in individuals of African ancestry: African Ancestry Anthropometry Genetics Consortium

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified >300 loci associated with measures of adiposity including body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (adjusted for BMI, WHRadjBMI), but few have been identified through screening of the African ancestry genomes. We performed large scale meta-analyses and replications in up to 52,895 individuals for BMI and up to 23,095 individuals for WHRadjBMI from the African Ancestry Anthropometry Genetics Consortium (AAAGC) using 1000 Genomes phase 1 imputed GWAS to improve coverage of both common and low frequency variants in the low linkage disequilibrium African ancestry genomes. In the sex-combined analyses, we identified one novel locus (TCF7L2/HABP2) for WHRadjBMI and eight previously established loci at P < 5×10−8: seven for BMI, and one for WHRadjBMI in African ancestry individuals. An additional novel locus (SPRYD7/DLEU2) was identified for WHRadjBMI when combined with European GWAS. In the sex-stratified analyses, we identified three novel loci for BMI (INTS10/LPL and MLC1 in men, IRX4/IRX2 in women) and four for WHRadjBMI (SSX2IP, CASC8, PDE3B and ZDHHC1/HSD11B2 in women) in individuals of African ancestry or both African and European ancestry. For four of the novel variants, the minor allele frequency was low (<5%). In the trans-ethnic fine mapping of 47 BMI loci and 27 WHRadjBMI loci that were locus-wide significant (P < 0.05 adjusted for effective number of variants per locus) from the African ancestry sex-combined and sex-stratified analyses, 26 BMI loci and 17 WHRadjBMI loci contained ≤ 20 variants in the credible sets that jointly account for 99% posterior probability of driving the associations. The lead variants in 13 of these loci had a high probability of being causal. As compared to our previous HapMap imputed GWAS for BMI and WHRadjBMI including up to 71,412 and 27,350 African ancestry individuals, respectively, our results suggest that 1000 Genomes imputation showed modest improvement in identifying GWAS loci including low frequency variants. Trans-ethnic meta-analyses further improved fine mapping of putative causal variants in loci shared between the African and European ancestry populations

Tumor associated PD-L1 expression pattern in microscopically tumor positive sentinel lymph nodes in patients with melanoma

Background: Characterization of PD-L1 expression within clinically/radiologically negative but microscopically tumor positive sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) is important to our understanding of the relevance of this immune checkpoint pathway for adjuvant therapy. Methods: Patients included had primary cutaneous melanoma, Breslow thickness of 2.01-4.0 or >4mm with or without tumor ulceration (T3a, T3b, T4a, T4b). All patients had microscopically tumor positive SLN. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was performed, followed by PD-L1 immunohistochemical (IHC) staining using a preliminary IHC assay with anti-PD-L1 antibody clone 22C3. The slides were separately evaluated by two pathologists (JY and CG). Samples containing metastatic melanoma lesions were scored separately for PD-L1 expression in intratumoral and peritumoral locations, by utilizing two scoring methods. Results: Twenty-four patients where metastatic melanoma presence in the SLN was confirmed by H&E review of the cut sections were included in the final analysis of PD-L1 expression. SLN tumor size ranged from 1 to 2mm. For three patients, the melanin content was too high to confidently assign a PD-L1 score. For the remaining 21 patients, all had some evidence of either intratumoral or peritumoral PD-L1 expression. The frequency of intratumoral tumor-associated PD-L1 expression was: 0% of tumor cells (3pts, 14%); 10% (7pts, 33%). Conclusions: Tumor-associated PD-L1 expression is readily detectable within melanoma micrometastases in the SLN of the majority of patients. These results support the testing of a therapeutic role for PD1/PD-L1 inhibition in the adjuvant setting, targeting melanoma micrometastases