Changes in Dickkopf-1 ( DKK1

Background. Vitamin D is important for bone health, although high loading doses have been associated with an increase in fracture risk. The mechanisms remain uncertain. Aim. We hypothesize that supraphysiological concentrations of 1,25 (OH)2 vitamin D may inhibit formation by increasing the production of Wnt inhibitors: sclerostin and DKK1. Subjects and Methods. We measured serum sclerostin and DKK1 in 34 patients (21 F, 13 M) aged mean (SD) 61.3 (15.6) years with vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency treated with a loading dose of vitamin D2 (300,000 IU) intramuscularly. Blood samples were taken at baseline and serially up to 3 months. Results. Serum 1,25 (OH)2 vitamin D increased markedly at 3 months (mean (SD) baseline 116 (63), 3 months : 229 (142) pmol/L, P<0.001). There was a significant correlation between sclerostin and DKK1 at baseline (r=0.504,  P=0.002) and at 3 months (r=0.42,  P=0.013). A significant inverse correlation was observed between sclerostin and eGFR at 3 months (r=-0.494,  P=0.007). Sclerostin increased significantly at 3 months (P=0.033). In a multilinear regression analysis with % change in sclerostin and DKK1 as dependent variable, a positive significant association was observed with % change in 1,25 (OH)2 vitamin D (P=0.038), independent of changes in PTH and following correction for confounders such as age, gender, BMI, BMD and eGFR. Conclusions. Supraphysiological concentration in 1,25 (OH)2 vitamin D achieved following a loading dose of vitamin D increases sclerostin and may inhibit Wnt signalling. This may have detrimental effects on bone

An unusual congregation of organisms in the catches off Kovalam, Madras

The fishermen belonging to Kovalam had a hectic activity in harvesting huge quantities of fish from the Kovalam bay from 26-8-'87 to 4-9-'87. Fishermen employed all available gears for catching the fish and prawns. According to them, this was due to the appearance of 'Vandal thanneer' or turbid water close to the shore. The present account embodies the results of the observations made on this unusual phenomenon

Marine fisheries of the south-east coast of India during 2008

The south-east coast of India comprising the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry have a total coastline of 2050 km which is 34% of the total coastline of the country. This region is more diverse with respect to the number of species that are landed. In 2007, it was observed that 499 species were landed in Tamil Nadu, 294 in Andhra Pradesh and 115 in Pondicherry

Sequence of ITS-2 amplified from pearl millet downy mildew samples

DNA samples were isolated from fungal spores collected from leaves of pearl millet infected with downy mildew in India, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Faso. Nested polymerase chain reaction was used to amplify the internal transcribed spacer region 2 (ITS-2) of the ribosomal RNA encoding genes. The first primers (ITS1 and ITS6) were in the conserved regions of the large and small subunit rRNA; the second pair (ITS 3 and ITS 4) flanked just the ITS-2 segment. The amplification of the ITS 2 region from presumed Sclerospora graminicola samples gave products of approximately 400 base pairs. BLAST searches of the GenBank showed that those from India and some from Africa were similar to the ITS 2 regions of other oomycetes, including Peronospora and Phytophthora species. The other African samples were clearly derived from other species. A tree constructed using the ITS 2 region of Cladosporium herbarum as an outgroup revealed the similarity of most isolates to other oomycetes, and that in general, the isolates collected from nearby locations were the most similar and that isolates from India were similar to those from Africa. However, it also showed that none of the ITS 2 sequences amplified from samples collected from Burkina Faso were from S. graminicola

Overview of marine fisheries in India during 2007

Fisheries sector in India plays an important role in the country’s economy and it supports the livelihood of millions of people. India is having 8,129 km of coastal length with 2.02 million sq. km of Exclusive Economic Zone (upto 200 m depth) and 0.452 million sq. km of continental shelf area

Methionine Sulfoxide Reductase A (MsrA) Deficient Mycoplasma genitalium Shows Decreased Interactions with Host Cells

Mycoplasma genitalium is an important sexually transmitted pathogen that affects both men and women. In genital-mucosal tissues, it initiates colonization of epithelial cells by attaching itself to host cells via several identified bacterial ligands and host cell surface receptors. We have previously shown that a mutant form of M. genitalium lacking methionine sulfoxide reductase A (MsrA), an antioxidant enzyme which converts oxidized methionine (Met(O)) into methionine (Met), shows decreased viability in infected animals. To gain more insights into the mechanisms by which MsrA controls M. genitalium virulence, we compared the wild-type M. genitalium strain (G37) with an msrA mutant (MS5) strain for their ability to interact with target cervical epithelial cell lines (HeLa and C33A) and THP-1 monocytic cells. Infection of epithelial cell lines with both strains revealed that MS5 was less cytotoxic to HeLa and C33A cell lines than the G37 strain. Also, the MS5 strain was more susceptible to phagocytosis by THP-1 cells than wild type strain (G37). Further, MS5 was less able to induce aggregation and differentiation in THP-1 cells than the wild type strain, as determined by carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE) labeling of the cells, followed by counting of cells attached to the culture dish using image analysis. Finally, MS5 was observed to induce less proinflammatory cytokine TNF-α by THP-1 cells than wild type G37 strain. These results indicate that MsrA affects the virulence properties of M. genitalium by modulating its interaction with host cells

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Highly Cited Works In Covid-19 - The Global Perspective

Research papers published covid-19 during 1989-2020 and cited at least 100 times. It is founded that 72 countries contributed a total 1000 highly cited research publications and received 227766 Citations (Average Citation Per Articles is 227.766 and Cited References 51830). United States of America (USA) topped in the table with highest citations (86603) for 432 publications followed by China with 83829 citations for 280 Publications, United Kingdom (UK) with 29372 citations for 122 publications. It is also important to note that the top 8 countries have more than 10,000 citations that include Netherlands, Germany, Canada, France, and Saudi Arabia. India stands in the list with 500 citations. University Hong Kong has the most citations (28278) followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences with 14513 GCS, Huazhong University of Science & Technology with 12294 Citations and Wuhan University with 10392 citations. LANCET’ is the journal which has got the maximum citations of 22221 (41 records) out of the total 249 Journals followed by ‘Journal of Virology’ with 22039 citations (139 records) ‘NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE’ with 21213 citations, ‘PNAS’ with 11216. The prominent journals ‘Nature’ and ‘Science’ share the table with 9639 & 9613 citations respectively. It will surprise few recently published (Feb 2020, April 2020, March 2020) that methods papers lead the list of the most cited scientific papers. “The Huang CL, Wang YM, Li XW, Ren LL, Zhao JP, et al.,” leads with 3915 Citations (Huang CL, Wang YM, Li XW, Ren LL, Zhao JP, et al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. LANCET. 2020 FEB 15; 395 (10223): 497-506). Notably, Institutes from China dominating in top 10 list, University Hong Kong has the most citations (28278) followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences with 14513 Citations