Anatomic and Molecular Development of Corticostriatal Projection Neurons in Mice

Corticostriatal projection neurons (CStrPN) project from the neocortex to ipsilateral and contralateral striata to control and coordinate motor programs and movement. They are clinically important as the predominant cortical population that degenerates in Huntington's disease and corticobasal ganglionic degeneration, and their injury contributes to multiple forms of cerebral palsy. Together with their well-studied functions in motor control, these clinical connections make them a functionally, behaviorally, and clinically important population of neocortical neurons. Little is known about their development. “Intratelencephalic” CStrPN $(CStrPN_i)$, projecting to the contralateral striatum, with their axons fully within the telencephalon (intratelencephalic), are a major population of CStrPN. $CStrPN_i$ are of particular interest developmentally because they share hodological and axon guidance characteristics of both callosal projection neurons (CPN) and corticofugal projection neurons (CFuPN); $CStrPN_i$ send axons contralaterally before descending into the contralateral striatum. The relationship of $CStrPN_i$ development to that of broader CPN and CFuPN populations remains unclear; evidence suggests that $CStrPN_i$ might be evolutionary “hybrids” between CFuPN and deep layer CPN—in a sense “chimeric” with both callosal and corticofugal features. Here, we investigated the development of $CStrPN_i$ in mice—their birth, maturation, projections, and expression of molecular developmental controls over projection neuron subtype identity.Stem Cell and Regenerative Biolog

A study of thrombocytopenia in malaria and its prognostic significance

Background:Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases of tropics, affecting 300-500 million people and causing over 1 million deaths each year in the world. Malaria is a multisystem infection and can be associated with many complications. Thrombocytopenia is the most common hematological complication of malaria, but association of thrombocytopenia with different types of malaria and its prognostic implications in context with severity of low platelet count has not been evaluated in many of previous studies. Objectives of the study was to study the incidence, correlation of severity and prognostic significance of thrombocytopenia in malaria.Methods: A total of 100 cases were included in the study and identified positive for malaria parasites on peripheral smear examination with conventional microscopy and /or by rapid diagnostic test.Results: Present study includes 100 patient with malaria from which 78% were males and 22% were females. Most of the patients were suffering from P. vivax malaria (65%), and rest suffered from P. falciparum malaria (32%) and mixed infection (03%). Incidence of thrombocytopenia was 79%, of which mild, moderate and severe thrombocytopenia was 35.44%, 41.77% and 22.78% respectively. Complicated and uncomplicated malaria cases were 22.79% and 77.21% respectively.Conclusion: Clinical bleeding in severe malaria is not a common feature and occurred in 5.5% of individuals with severe disease. Unnecessary platelet transfusion is not required for mild to moderate degree of thrombocytopenia in malaria patients which further avoids an unnecessary cost burden in the poor group of patients.

Standardization and Quality Evaluation of Herbal Drugs

In recent years most, people throughout world are turning to use medicinal plant and herbal product in healthcare system. the use of herbal product as medicine by the basis of history. The identification of pure active ingredient is an important requirement for Quality and dose determination of plant related dugs. Therefore, evaluation of the parameters based upon chemical, physical, microbiological, therapeutic and toxicological studies can serve as an important tool in stability studies. Standardization of herbal drugs means confirmation of its identity, Quality and purity. The present overview covers the standardization parameters with their standards value of some herbal drugs. Keywords: Herbal medicine, Standardization, Quality control, evaluation, WHO Guidelines

Development and Validation of a RP-UPLC Method for Determination of Linezolid in Pharmaceutical Formulation

A simple, sensitive and accurate RP-UPLC method has been developed for the determination of Linezolid in Tablet formulation. The mix of the Linezolid was found to be 251nm in Acetonitrile: Buffer [40:60(v/v)]. The method shows high sensitivity with linearity 5 to 30μg/ml (regression r2 = 0.999). This method was tested and validated for various parameters according to ICH guidelines and USP. The Detection limit and quantitation limit were found to be 50mg ml–1 and 150 mg ml–1 in Acetonitrile: Buffer [40:60(v/v)] respectively. The results demonstrated that the procedure is accurate, precise and reproducible (relative standard deviation < 2%), while being simple, cheap and less time consuming and can be suitably applied for the estimation of Linezolid in Tablet pharmaceutical formulation. Keywords: linezolid, Acetonitrile: Buffer 40:60 (v/v). RP-UPLC, Methanol

Channeling macrophage polarization by rocaglates increases macrophage resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Macrophages contribute to host immunity and tissue homeostasis via alternative activation programs. M1-like macrophages control intracellular bacterial pathogens and tumor progression. In contrast, M2-like macrophages shape reparative microenvironments that can be conducive for pathogen survival or tumor growth. An imbalance of these macrophages phenotypes may perpetuate sites of chronic unresolved inflammation, such as infectious granulomas and solid tumors. We have found that plant-derived and synthetic rocaglates sensitize macrophages to low concentrations of the M1-inducing cytokine IFN-gamma and inhibit their responsiveness to IL-4, a prototypical activator of the M2-like phenotype. Treatment of primary macrophages with rocaglates enhanced phagosome-lysosome fusion and control of intracellular mycobacteria. Thus, rocaglates represent a novel class of immunomodulators that can direct macrophage polarization toward the M1-like phenotype in complex microenvironments associated with hypofunction of type 1 and/or hyperactivation of type 2 immunity, e.g., chronic bacterial infections, allergies, and, possibly, certain tumors.R35 GM118173 - NIGMS NIH HHS; R01 HL126066 - NHLBI NIH HHS; R01 GM120272 - NIGMS NIH HHS; R01 CA218500 - NCI NIH HHS; R01 HL133190 - NHLBI NIH HHS; R33 AI105944 - NIAID NIH HHSPublished versio

HCV Coinfection Associated with Slower Disease Progression in HIV-Infected Former Plasma Donors Naïve to ART

It remains controversial how HCV coinfection influences the disease progression during HIV-1 infection. This study aims to define the influence of HCV infection on the replication of HIV-1 and the disease progression in HIV-infected former plasma donors (FPDs) naïve to ART.168 HIV-1-infected FPDs were enrolled into a cohort study from Anhui province in central China, and thereafter monitored at month 3, 9, 15, 21 and 33. Fresh whole blood samples were used for CD4+ T-cell counting. Their plasma samples were collected and stored for quantification of HIV-1 viral loads and for determination of HCV and Toxoplasma. Out of 168 HIV-infected FBDs, 11.9% (20 cases), 80.4% (135 cases) and 7.7% (13 cases) were infected with HIV-1 alone, HIV-1/HCV and HIV/HCV/Toxoplasma, respectively. During the 33-month follow-up, only 35% (7 out of 20 cases) HIV-1 mono-infected subjects remained their CD4+ T-cell counts above 200 cells/µl and retained on the cohort study, which was significantly lower than 56% (75 out of 135 cases) for HIV/HCV group and 69% (9 out of 13 cases) for HIV/HCV/Toxoplasma group (p<0.05). CD4+ T cells in HIV mono infection group were consistently lower than that in HIV/HCV group (p = 0.04, 0.18, 0.03 and 0.04 for baseline, month 9, month 21 and month 33 visit, respectively). In accordance with those observations, HIV viral loads in HIV mono-infection group were consistently higher than that in HIV/HCV group though statistical significances were only reached at baseline (p = 0.04).These data indicated HCV coinfection with HIV-1 is associated with the slower disease progression at the very late stage when comparing with HIV-1 mono-infection. The coinfection of Toxoplasma with HIV and HCV did not exert additional influence on the disease progression. It will be highly interesting to further explore the underlying mechanism for this observation in the future

Thermo-electric modelling, simulation and experimental validation of powder mixed electric discharge machining (PMEDM) of BeCu alloys

Beryllium copper alloy has high strength, nonmagnetic, good wear resistance, corrosion resistance, high fatigue strength and non-sparking qualities. These properties impose machining issues when machined by conventional machining processes. Electric discharge machining is a practically viable solution to machine such materials. Recently researchers have been attracted by powder mixed electric discharge machining with the advancement in technology. Present study focuses on developing Finite Element model of Powder Mixed Electric Discharge Machining of Beryllium copper alloy with experimental validation. An axis symmetric three-dimensional model has been developed and simulated using ANSYS 15.0 software for obtaining the temperature distribution on the surface of workpiece during a single discharge machining process. And the temperature profile was utilized to estimate the material removal rate. Experiments were performed to validate the numerical results. The average percentage error of 7.8% was obtained between numerical and experimental results. Thus, a good agreement between the experimental and numerical results shows that the software model can efficiently simulate and predict the real time results. Keywords: BeCu alloys, Thermal transient analysis, Material removal rate, ANSYS, Powder mixed ED