FV peptide induces apoptosis in HEp 2 and HeLa cells: an insight into the mechanism of induction

The present study is an attempt to evaluate the antiproliferative potential of peptide (7.6 kDa) from lionfish (Pterios volitans) venom on cultured HEp2 and HeLa cells. Different dose of purified peptide (1, 2 and 4 μg/ml) at different time points (12, 24 and 36 hrs) were tested for antiproliferative index of the peptide. Among them, 2 μg/ml at 24 hrs was found to effectively inhibit cancer cell growth in vitro and did not cause any adverse effect on normal human lymphocytes. Apoptosis was examined by propidium iodide staining, confirmed by the expression of caspase-8 and caspase-3, down regulation of Bcl-2 expression and DNA fragmentation in treated cells, when compared to untreated HEp2 and HeLa cells. Thus fish venom peptide was found to selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cell

Design and Implementation of Shared Bus based Heterogeneous MPSoC

An MPSoC architecture is proposed with shared bus interconnect and its components mainly comprising of soft IPs. The proposed MPSoC architecture has four masters and four slaves communicated over a shared bus interconnect. Each master deals with two 16-bit inputs and process among an output of 32-bit. The slaves are four independent RAM soft IPs to be designed to handle 32-bit data. The main theme is to make the four masters and four slaves to get their tasks accessed through a 32-bit shared bus interconnect. Initially the soft IPs of processors and RAM memory elements are to be designed and to be verified using Modelsim simulation software. Before developing the proposed architecture, a prototype of one master to four slaves (1:4) with a simple address decoding scheme has to be developed and simulated in Modelsim simulation software. The prototype model architecture should be synthesized under target device Altera Cyclone II using Quartus synthesizing tool. The proposed architecture of 4 masters and 4 slaves with a common shared bus interconnect should be achieved and implement the entire architecture over Altera FPGA board and verify its functionality

Specificity protein, Sp1-mediated increased expression of Prdx6 as a curcumin-induced antioxidant defense in lens epithelial cells against oxidative stress

Peroxiredoxin 6 (Prdx6) is a pleiotropic oxidative stress-response protein that defends cells against reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced damage. Curcumin, a naturally occurring agent, has diversified beneficial roles including cytoprotection. Using human lens epithelial cells (hLECs) and Prdx6-deficient cells, we show the evidence that curcumin protects cells by upregulating Prdx6 transcription via invoking specificity protein 1 (Sp1) activity against proapoptotic stimuli. Curcumin enhanced Sp1 and Prdx6 mRNA and protein expression in a concentration-dependent manner, as evidenced by western and real-time PCR analyses, and thereby negatively regulated ROS-mediated apoptosis by blunting ROS expression and lipid peroxidation. Bioinformatic analysis and DNA–protein binding assays disclosed three active Sp1 sites (−19/27, −61/69 and −82/89) in Prdx6 promoter. Co-transfection experiments with Sp1 and Prdx6 promoter–chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) constructs showed that CAT activity was dramatically increased in LECs or Sp1-deficient cells (SL2). Curcumin treatment of LECs enhanced Sp1 binding to its sites, consistent with curcumin-dependent stimulation of Prdx6 promoter with Sp1 sites and cytoprotection. Notably, disruption of Sp1 sites by point mutagenesis abolished curcumin transactivation of Prdx6. Also, curcumin failed to activate Prdx6 expression in the presence of Sp1 inhibitors, demonstrating that curcumin-mediated increased expression of Prdx6 was dependent on Sp1 activity. Collectively, the study may provide a foundation for developing transcription-based inductive therapy to reinforce endogenous antioxidant defense by using dietary supplements

High Electricity Generation using Oscillations of Pendulum

Power generation is one of the major factors in the recent years. To reduce this problem resources like solar energy, wind energy, thermal energy, hydel energy, nuclear energy, etc. have been used. Since with all these above energy resources, we are facing power crisis due to many factors. Future energy sustainability depends heavily on how the renewable energy problem is addressed in the next few decades. The main problems with these energy sources are cost and availability. Wind and solar power are not always available where and when needed. So to avoid these problems renewable energy sources can be used. In this project, the simple pendulum concept is used. The simple pendulum setup with gear mechanism and wiper motor through a PIC microcontroller and relay is employed as it does not require large external energy. The gear mechanism and wiper motor is used along the simple pendulum in order to obtain continuous oscillations where the mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy