Model Ayurveda College/ Institution

The model college should provide knowledge to excel in Ayurveda as well as they should sustain in present world by acquiring current medical knowledge and updates. It should be a constituent or an affiliated college of a recognized university. Model college should be permanently affiliated and recognized by the Central Council of Indian Medicine and Ministry of AYUSH, New Delhi, from time to time. It should be entitled to avail all the financial grants and other benefits to cater to the needs of graduates as well as postgraduates and postdoctoral courses to attract the best students. The college/university must be known for its strict discipline and regularity in holding of lectures/classes and sensitive towards feelings and needs of students. It should emerge as a leader in this area in the field of Ayurveda education, research and quality patient care. It must encourage spectacular results in sports and cultural activities. It should have multi-disciplinary approach for quality research and training of students. It should conduct periodical lectures, seminars, orations and workshops on current topics to train and educate the students as per the need of the hour. The college/university should strive for excellence by all means by providing and catering to the needs of education, research and training producing graduates, postgraduates, and research scholars equipped with knowledge, skill and professional competence and good personality. The college should have a quality audit mechanism to maintain high standards

Importance of Knowledge of Mahasrotas (Gastrointestinal Tract) in the Development of Diseases

Jatharagni is the bio-fire present in the Jathara (gastrointestinal tract) and its main seat is grahani (duodenum), so called because it withholds the food for a certain period of time inside the stomach and small intestine to facilitate the digestion. Agni is responsible for the longevity, health, valour, ojas (essence of the dhatus), provides strength to remaining agni’s .i.e. bhutagni and dhatvagni. The strength of the grahani depends on status of Agni and the strength of Agni is dependent on status of grahani. When the Agni undergoes vitiation, grahani also gets vitiated and produces diseases and vice versa. Jatharagni is considered to be the chief agni among all agni’s because entry of food into the gastrointestinal tract stimulates agni as a result secretion, absorption, motor activity, growth and differentiation of the gut functions takes place normally.  According to modern science these are all modulated by a combination of neuronal and hormonal factors. GI diseases are manifestations of alterations in nutrient assimilation or waste evacuation or in the activities supporting these main functions and all these functions depend on agni and doshas. Hence Ayurveda mentioned most of the diseases arise due to disturbed functions of agni.

Physiological Understanding of Medovaha Srotas in the Current Perspective

Srota is a pathway (channel) that carries substances or energy from one place to another in the human body. Sushruta mentioned that the channels of circulation are present in intra-cellular, inter-cellular and extra cellular spaces of the human body. Acharya Charakaa has broadly described thirteen types of srotas, while Sushruta mentioned eleven pairs of srotas. Both Charakaa and Sushruta quoted medovaha srotas, which are self-explanatory to explicate the importance of medovaha srotas. According to Sushruta medovaha sroto-dushti (vitiation) lakshanas are sweda agaman (excessive sweating), snigdha angataa (oily appearance of the body), talu shosha (dryness of the palates), sthaulya (obesity), shophataa (edema) and pipasa (thirst). According to Charakaa, the vitiation of medovaha srotas will lead to prameha purvarupas. All these characters described by Sushruta are due to hyper- or hypo-secretions of epinephrine, norepinephrine, estrogen, leptin, insulin, androgens, growth hormone, ADH and aldosterone, thyroid hormone, glucagon, amylin, GIP, GLP-1, epinephrine, cortisol and insulin. From physiological point of view, all these characters either described by Charakaa or Sushruta seem to be the diseases or conditions related to hormonal imbalances

Synthesis of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 9V oligosaccharide antigens

Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP) bacteria cause serious invasive diseases. SP bacteria are covered by a capsular polysaccharide (CPS) that is a virulence factor and the basis for SP polysaccharide and glycoconjugate vaccines. The serotype 9V is part of the currently marketed conjugate vaccine and contains an acetate modification. To better understand the importance of glycan modifications in general and acetylation in particular, defined oligosaccharide antigens are needed for serological and immunological studies. Here, we demonstrate a convergent [2 + 3] synthetic strategy to prepare the pentasaccharide repeating unit of 9V with and without an acetate group at the C-6 position of mannosamine

Cross Reactive Material 197 glycoconjugate vaccines contain privileged conjugation sites

Production of glycoconjugate vaccines involves the chemical conjugation of glycans to an immunogenic carrier protein such as Cross-Reactive-Material-197 (CRM197). Instead of using glycans from natural sources recent vaccine development has been focusing on the use of synthetically defined minimal epitopes. While the glycan is structurally defined, the attachment sites on the protein are not. Fully characterized conjugates and batch-to-batch comparisons are the key to eventually create completely defined conjugates. A variety of glycoconjugates consisting of CRM197 and synthetic oligosaccharide epitopes was characterised using mass spectrometry techniques. The primary structure was assessed by combining intact protein MALDI-TOF-MS, LC-MALDI-TOF-MS middle-down and LC-ESI-MS bottom-up approaches. The middle-down approach on CNBr cleaved glycopeptides provided almost complete sequence coverage, facilitating rapid batch-to-batch comparisons, resolving glycan loading and identification of side products. Regions close to the N- and C-termini were most efficiently conjugated.Full Tex

Eucalyptus water use greater than rainfall input - possible explanation from southern India

International audienceHydrological and silvicultural studies carried out in southern India on the effects of plantations of Eucalyptus and other fast growing exotic tree species have determined the impacts of these plantations on water resources, erosion, soil nutrient status and growth rates at sites of differing rainfall and soil depth in Karnataka. Whilst providing new information on these issues, the studies also raised two important questions: what was the explanation for the anomalous result that the water use of 3400 mm from Eucalyptus plantations at Hosakote over a three year period exceeded the rainfall of 2100 mm over the same period and why were growth rates of woodlots on most farmer's fields higher than those of plantations on land owned by the Karnataka Forest Department? The records of the soil moisture depletion patterns under these plantations from the day of planting provide the basis for the answers to both questions: i) whilst roots are penetrating into deeper soil layers, they are able to extract from a reservoir of water additional to that available from the rainfall each year, ii) farmer's land on which short rooted agricultural crops have been grown previously is likely to have a much higher soil water status than land previously under forest or scrub vegetation. These new studies have also established that the development of the drying front under the Eucalyptus camaldulensis plantations is very rapid, indicating average root extension rates in excess of 2.5 m per year, whilst those under Tectona grandis and Artocarpus heterophyllus advanced at approximately half the rate. These results have obvious implications for the long term sustainability of growth rates from these plantations and the recharge of groundwater. The authors believe that this study may be the first to report neutron probe soil moisture depletion observations, from the date of planting, beneath tree plantations in a dry climate. The extent to which the roots were able to penetrate raises the question of whether other studies, which have estimated water use from soil moisture observations in dry climates, may have seriously underestimated both the actual soil moisture depletion and the water use through having soil moisture measurements located to insufficient depth

A semi-synthetic oligosaccharide conjugate vaccine candidate confers protection against Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 3 infection

The identification of immunogenic glycotopes that render glycoconjugate vaccines protective is key to improving vaccine efficacy. Synthetic oligosaccharides are an attractive alternative to the heterogeneous preparations of purified polysaccharides that most marketed glycoconjugate vaccines are based on. To investigate the potency of semi-synthetic glycoconjugates, we chose the least-efficient serotype in the current pneumococcal conjugate vaccine Prevnar 13, Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 3 (ST3). Glycan arrays containing synthetic ST3 repeating unit oligosaccharides were used to screen a human reference serum for antibodies and to define the recognition site of two ST3-specific protective monoclonal antibodies. The glycan array screens identified a tetrasaccharide that was selected for in-depth immunological evaluation. The tetrasaccharide-CRM197 carrier protein conjugate elicited protective immunity as evidenced by opsonophagocytosis assays and protection against pneumonia caused by ST3 in mice. Formulation of the defined protective lead candidate glycotope has to be further evaluated to elicit optimal long-term immunity

A semisynthetic glycoconjugate provides expanded cross-serotype protection against Streptococcus pneumoniae

Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) infections are the leading cause of child mortality globally. Current vaccines fail to induce a protective immune response towards a conserved part of the pathogen, resulting in new serotypes causing disease. Therefore, new vaccine strategies are urgently needed. Described is a two-pronged approach combining S. pneumoniae proteins, pneumolysin (Ply) and pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA), with a precisely defined synthetic oligosaccharide, whereby the carrier protein acts as a serotype-independent antigen to provide additional protection. Proof of concept in mice and swine models revealed that the conjugates inhibited colonization of the nasopharynx, decreased the bacterial load and reduced disease severity in the bacteria challenge model. Immunization of piglets provided the first evidence for the immunogenicity and protective potential of synthetic glycoconjugate vaccine in a large animal model. A combination of synthetic oligosaccharides with proteins from the target pathogen opens the path to create broadly cross-protective (“universal”) pneumococcal vaccines