EVALUATION OF ANTICANCER ACTIVITY OF CUCUMIS CALLOSUS AGAINST EHRLICH'S ASCITES CARCINOMA BEARING MICE

Objective: Our previous research isolated Cucurbitacin B (CuB) and ebenone leucopentaacetate (ELP) from methanolic fruit extract of Cucumis callosus (MFCC). The fruits of C. callosus (Rottl.) Cogn. (Family: Cucurbitaceae) plant have been traditionally used for antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic actions. The objective of this research was to evaluate in vitro and in vivo anticancer effect of MFCC on Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) cell lines.Methods: In vitro anticancer assay of MFCC and standard drug, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was evaluated using Trypan blue and 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide methods. In vivo anticancer activity of MFCC and 5-FU was also performed after 24h of EAC cells (2×106cells/ mouse) inoculation based on toxicity study for 9 consecutive days. The activity of the extract was assessed by the study of tumor volume, tumor weight, viable and non-viable cell count, hematological parameters, and biochemical estimations.Results: The MFCC showed the direct antitumor effect on EAC cells in a dose-dependent manner with an IG50 value of 0.61 mg/ml. Furthermore, MFCC (350 mg/kg) exhibited significant (p<0.01) decrease in tumor volume, tumor weight, and viable cell count of EAC-treated mice. Hematological profile, biochemical estimation assay significantly (p<0.01) reverted to normal level in MFCC, and 5-FU treated mice.Conclusion: The anticancer activity of fruits of C callosus is may be either due to the presence of CuB or/and ELP as phytoconstituent and the activity is comparable to standard drug 5-FU

Current Management of Patients With Acquired Solitary Kidney.

Persons with acquired solitary kidney, including those who have had a unilateral nephrectomy for living kidney donation, renal malignancies, or trauma, have decreased renal mass that leads to increased intraglomerular pressure and glomerular hyperfiltration. These physiologic adaptations of solitary kidney may exacerbate other preexisting and genetic conditions that could create a predisposition to or worsen glomerular pathologies, leading to unfavorable renal outcomes. Hence, these persons may benefit from special care and lifestyle modifications, including nutritional interventions. There is a lack of consensus and evidence for proper surveillance and management after nephrectomy, and misconceptions in both directions of having a "normal" versus "abnormal" kidney status may cause confusion among patients and healthcare providers pertaining to long-term kidney health monitoring and management. We have reviewed available data on the impact of lifestyle modifications, particularly nutritional measures, and pharmacologic interventions, on short- and long-term outcomes after nephrectomy. We recommend avoidance of excessively high dietary protein intake (>1 g/kg per day) and high dietary sodium intake (>4 grams/d), adequate dietary fiber intake from plant-based foods, a target body mass index of <30 kg/m2 (in non-athletes and non-bodybuilders), and judicious management of risk factors of progressive chronic kidney disease (CKD), and future studies should help to better determine optimal care practices for these persons

There's no place like home: 35-year patient survival on home hemodialysis.

The vast majority of maintenance dialysis patients suffer from poor long-term survival rates and lower levels of health-related quality of life. However, home hemodialysis is a historically significant dialysis modality that has been associated with favorable outcomes as well as greater patient autonomy and control, yet only represents a small minority of the total dialysis performed in the United States. Some potential disadvantages of home hemodialysis include vascular access complications, infection-related hospitalizations, patient fatigue, and attrition. In addition, current barriers and challenges in expanding the utilization of this modality include limited patient and provider education and technical expertise. Here we report a 65-year old male with end-stage renal disease due to Alport's syndrome who has undergone 35 years of uninterrupted thrice-weekly home hemodialysis (ie, every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday evening, each session lasting 3 to 3¼ hours in length) using a conventional hemodialysis machine who has maintained a high functional status allowing him to work 6-8 hours per day. The patient has been able to liberalize his dietary and fluid intake while only requiring 3-4 liters of ultrafiltration per treatment, despite having absence of residual kidney function. Through this case of extraordinary longevity and outcomes after 35 years of dialysis and a review of the literature, we illustrate the history of home hemodialysis, its significant clinical and psychosocial advantages, as well as the barriers that hinder its widespread adaptation

A Case of Novel Coronavirus Disease 19 in a Chronic Hemodialysis Patient Presenting with Gastroenteritis and Developing Severe Pulmonary Disease.

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious, rapidly spreading viral disease with an alarming case fatality rate up to 5%. The risk factors for severe presentations are concentrated in patients with chronic kidney disease, particularly patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who are dialysis dependent. We report the first US case of a 56-year-old nondiabetic male with ESRD secondary to IgA nephropathy undergoing thrice-weekly maintenance hemodialysis for 3 years, who developed COVID-19 infection. He has hypertension controlled with angiotensin receptor blocker losartan 100 mg/day and coronary artery disease status-post stent placement. During the first 5 days of his febrile disease, he presented to an urgent care, 3 emergency rooms, 1 cardiology clinic, and 2 dialysis centers in California and Utah. During this interval, he reported nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and low-grade fevers but was not suspected of COVID-19 infection until he developed respiratory symptoms and was admitted to the hospital. Imaging studies upon admission were consistent with bilateral interstitial pneumonia. He was placed in droplet-eye precautions while awaiting COVID-19 test results. Within the first 24 h, he deteriorated quickly and developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), requiring intubation and increasing respiratory support. Losartan was withheld due to hypotension and septic shock. COVID-19 was reported positive on hospital day 3. He remained in critical condition being treated with hydroxychloroquine and tocilizumab in addition to the standard medical management for septic shock and ARDS. Our case is unique in its atypical initial presentation and highlights the importance of early testing

Incremental Hemodialysis: The University of California Irvine Experience.

Incremental hemodialysis has been examined as a viable hemodialysis regimen for selected end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Preservation of residual kidney function (RKF) has been the driving impetus for this approach given its benefits upon the survival and quality of life of dialysis patients. While clinical practice guidelines recommend an incremental start of dialysis in peritoneal dialysis patients with substantial RKF, there remains little guidance with respect to incremental hemodialysis as an initial renal replacement therapy regimen. Indeed, several large population-based studies suggest that incremental twice-weekly vs. conventional thrice-weekly hemodialysis has favorable impact upon RKF trajectory and survival among patients with adequate renal urea clearance and/or urine output. In this report, we describe a case series of 13 ambulatory incident ESRD patients enrolled in a university-based center's Incremental Hemodialysis Program over the period of January 2015 to August 2016 and followed through December 2016. Among five patients who maintained a twice-weekly hemodialysis schedule vs. eight patients who transitioned to thrice-weekly hemodialysis, we describe and compare patients' longitudinal case-mix, laboratory, and dialysis treatment characteristics over time. The University of California Irvine Experience is the first systemically examined twice-weekly hemodialysis practice in North America. While future studies are needed to refine the optimal approaches and the ideal patient population for implementation of incremental hemodialysis, our case-series serves as a first report of this innovative management strategy among incident ESRD patients with substantial RKF, and a template for implementation of this regimen

Ceacam1 separates graft-versus-host-disease from graft-versus-tumor activity after experimental allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

BACKGROUND: Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT) is a potentially curative therapy for a variety of hematologic diseases, but benefits, including graft-versus-tumor (GVT) activity are limited by graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD). Carcinoembryonic antigen related cell adhesion molecule 1 (Ceacam1) is a transmembrane glycoprotein found on epithelium, T cells, and many tumors. It regulates a variety of physiologic and pathological processes such as tumor biology, leukocyte activation, and energy homeostasis. Previous studies suggest that Ceacam1 negatively regulates inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease models. METHODS: We studied Ceacam1 as a regulator of GVHD and GVT after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT) in mouse models. In vivo, Ceacam1(-/-) T cells caused increased GVHD mortality and GVHD of the colon, and greater numbers of donor T cells were positive for activation markers (CD25(hi), CD62L(lo)). Additionally, Ceacam1(-/-) CD8 T cells had greater expression of the gut-trafficking integrin α(4)β(7), though both CD4 and CD8 T cells were found increased numbers in the gut post-transplant. Ceacam1(-/-) recipients also experienced increased GVHD mortality and GVHD of the colon, and alloreactive T cells displayed increased activation. Additionally, Ceacam1(-/-) mice had increased mortality and decreased numbers of regenerating small intestinal crypts upon radiation exposure. Conversely, Ceacam1-overexpressing T cells caused attenuated target-organ and systemic GVHD, which correlated with decreased donor T cell numbers in target tissues, and mortality. Finally, graft-versus-tumor survival in a Ceacam1(+) lymphoma model was improved in animals receiving Ceacam1(-/-) vs. control T cells. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that Ceacam1 regulates T cell activation, GVHD target organ damage, and numbers of donor T cells in lymphoid organs and GVHD target tissues. In recipients of allo-BMT, Ceacam1 may also regulate tissue radiosensitivity. Because of its expression on both the donor graft and host tissues, this suggests that targeting Ceacam1 may represent a potent strategy for the regulation of GVHD and GVT after allogeneic transplantation

Soil conservation issues in India

Despite years of study and substantial investment in remediation and prevention, soil erosion continues to be a major environmental problem with regard to land use in India and elsewhere around the world. Furthermore, changing climate and/or weather patterns are exacerbating the problem. Our objective was to review past and current soil conservation programmes in India to better understand how production-, environmental-, social-, economic- and policy-related issues have affected soil and water conservation and the incentives needed to address the most critical problems. We found that to achieve success in soil and water conservation policies, institutions and operations must be co-ordinated using a holistic approach. Watershed programmes have been shown to be one of the most effective strategies for bringing socio-economic change to different parts of India. Within both dryland and rainfed areas, watershed management has quietly revolutionized agriculture by aligning various sectors through technological soil and water conservation interventions and land-use diversification. Significant results associated with various watershed-scale soil and water conservation programmes and interventions that were effective for reducing land degradation and improving productivity in different parts of the country are discussed

Wide stripe single and dual wavelength mode semiconductor diode lasers

Wide stripe semiconductor lasers have a wide variety of applications in remote sensing, in materials processing applications such as drilling and welding, and as pumps for gas lasers. The emission spectra of simple cost-effective Fabry-Perot (F-P) lasers tends to be very broad, i.e. in the 5-10 nm range at very high power levels, making their use ineffective in some of the above mentioned applications. In order to overcome the problem faced by wide stripe diode lasers with respect to emission wavelength, external gratings such as volume Bragg gratings have been used. These external gratings not only significantly drive up the cost of such integrated systems but also have their drawbacks in that they are very sensitive to mechanical vibrations. This work has focused on the use of an internal grating, a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) grating that was monolithically inserted into the gain section of a semiconductor laser. The result is a single wavelength mode semiconductor laser capable of delivering high power levels. These lasers were made to have an emission wavelength of around 980 nm. The concept of a wide stripe, single wavelength mode laser eventually led to the creation of a wide stripe, dual wavelength mode laser. These lasers, apart from delivering high power levels, were also made to oscillate on two specific predetermined wavelengths. The laser has two different DBR gratings that were placed next to each other within the gain guided cavity. The wavelengths of interest were determined by controlling the respective pitches of the DBR gratings in accordance with the Bragg condition. The difference frequency between both wavelength modes can be tuned to be in the terahertz (THz) range, leading to interesting THz frequency generation experiments and eventual applications

Catalytic Photochemical Enantioselective α-Alkylation with Pyridinium Salts

We have developed a chiral amine catalyzed enantioselective α-alkylation of aldehydes with amino acid derived pyridinium salts as alkylating reagents. The reaction proceeds in the presence of visible light (390 nm) and in the absence of a photocatalyst via a light activated charge-transfer complex. We apply this photochemical stereoconvergent process to the total synthesis of the lignan natural products (–)-enterolactone and (–)-enterodiol. Mechanistic studies support the ground-state complex-ation of the reactive components followed by divergent charge-transfer processes involving catalyst-controlled radical chain and in-cage radical recombination steps

Bacillus cecembensis sp. nov., isolated from the Pindari glacier of the Indian Himalayas

Strain PN5<SUP>T</SUP> is a Gram-positive, aerobic, motile, rod-shaped, peritrichously flagellated bacterium that was isolated from the Pindari glacier using nutrient agar medium. Cells of PN5<SUP>T</SUP> are catalase-positive and oxidase-negative and contain lysine, glutamic acid and alanine in the peptidoglycan (peptidoglycan type A4α). Further, the cells are characterized by the presence of iso-C<SUB>15:0</SUB> and iso-C<SUB>16:1</SUB> as the predominant fatty acids and MK-7 as the isoprenoid quinone. Based on the above characteristics, strain PN5<SUP>T</SUP> was assigned to the genus Bacillus. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain PN5<SUP>T</SUP> clustered with the type strain of Bacillus silvestris with a sequence similarity of 97.2%. DNA-DNA hybridization between PN5<SUP>T</SUP> and B. silvestris DSM 12223<SUP>T</SUP> resulted in a relatedness of only 15%, clearly indicating that strain PN5T represents a novel species. Further, PN5<SUP>T</SUP> was different from B. silvestris with respect to various phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics. Therefore, strain PN5<SUP>T</SUP> is identified as a representative of a novel species of the genus Bacillus, for which the name Bacillus cecembensis sp. nov. is proposed. Bacillus cecembensis is unique among psychrotolerant Bacillus species in containing l-Lys-d-Glu in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The type strain is PN5<SUP>T</SUP> (=LMG 23935<SUP>T</SUP> =MTCC9127<SUP>T</SUP> =JCM 15113<SUP>T</SUP>)