Why Self-Induced Pain Feels Less Painful than Externally Generated Pain: Distinct Brain Activation Patterns in Self- and Externally Generated Pain

Voluntary movement generally inhibits sensory systems. However, it is not clear how such movement influences pain. In the present study, subjects actively or passively experienced mechanical pain or pressure during functional MRI scanning. Pain and pressure were induced using two modified grip strengthener rings, each twined with four crystal bead strings, with polyhedral beads to induce pain, or spherical beads to induce pressure. Subjects held one ring in the left hand and were either asked to squeeze their left hand with their right hand (i.e., active pain or pressure), or to have their left hand squeezed by the experimenter (i.e., passive pain or pressure). Subjects rated the intensity and unpleasantness of the pain sensation lower in the active procedure than in the passive one. Correspondingly, pain-related brain areas were inhibited in the case of self-generated pain, including the primary somatosensory cortex (SI), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and the thalamus. These results suggest that active movement behaviorally inhibits concomitant mechanical pain, accompanied by an inhibition of pain response in pain-related brain areas such as the SI cortex. This might be part of the mechanisms underlying the kinesitherapy for pain treatment

Micropropagation and conservation of selected endangered anticancer medicinal plants from the Western Ghats of India

Globally, cancer is a constant battle which severely affects the human population. The major limitations of the anticancer drugs are the deleterious side effects on the quality of life. Plants play a vital role in curing many diseases with minimal or no side effects. Phytocompounds derived from various medicinal plants serve as the best source of drugs to treat cancer. The global demand for phytomedicines is mostly reached by the medicinal herbs from the tropical nations of the world even though many plant species are threatened with extinction. India is one of the mega diverse countries of the world due to its ecological habitats, latitudinal variation, and diverse climatic range. Western Ghats of India is one of the most important depositories of endemic herbs. It is found along the stretch of south western part of India and constitutes rain forest with more than 4000 diverse medicinal plant species. In recent times, many of these therapeutically valued herbs have become endangered and are being included under the red-listed plant category in this region. Due to a sharp rise in the demand for plant-based products, this rich collection is diminishing at an alarming rate that eventually triggered dangerous to biodiversity. Thus, conservation of the endangered medicinal plants has become a matter of importance. The conservation by using only in situ approaches may not be sufficient enough to safeguard such a huge bio-resource of endangered medicinal plants. Hence, the use of biotechnological methods would be vital to complement the ex vitro protection programs and help to reestablish endangered plant species. In this backdrop, the key tools of biotechnology that could assist plant conservation were developed in terms of in vitro regeneration, seed banking, DNA storage, pollen storage, germplasm storage, gene bank (field gene banking), tissue bank, and cryopreservation. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to critically review major endangered medicinal plants that possess anticancer compounds and their conservation aspects by integrating various biotechnological tool

The immune system and the impact of zinc during aging

The trace element zinc is essential for the immune system, and zinc deficiency affects multiple aspects of innate and adaptive immunity. There are remarkable parallels in the immunological changes during aging and zinc deficiency, including a reduction in the activity of the thymus and thymic hormones, a shift of the T helper cell balance toward T helper type 2 cells, decreased response to vaccination, and impaired functions of innate immune cells. Many studies confirm a decline of zinc levels with age. Most of these studies do not classify the majority of elderly as zinc deficient, but even marginal zinc deprivation can affect immune function. Consequently, oral zinc supplementation demonstrates the potential to improve immunity and efficiently downregulates chronic inflammatory responses in the elderly. These data indicate that a wide prevalence of marginal zinc deficiency in elderly people may contribute to immunosenescence

Outcomes of Pediatric Neurosurgical Cases Managed by General Neurosurgeons: A Retrospective Study from Eastern India

Background India is home to almost 19% of the world's children. The burden of diseases in the pediatric age group is quite high and is just the tip of the iceberg. In India, there are very few neurosurgeons who deal with cases in the pediatric age group. Most parents avoid surgical management for their child due lack of confidence in the expertise of the neurosurgeon in handling pediatric cases. Many challenges are encountered in the pediatric population during the pre-, intra- and post-operative period. Objectives The aim of this study is to study the demographic profile and respective outcomes of pediatric neurosurgical cases (below 18 years of age). Methods A retrospective study of cases over a period of 1.5 years in the Department of Neurosurgery, Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital was done. The variables analyzed were age group, sex, diagnosis, elective or emergency, neurological examination, and outcome. Data analysis was done using Version 3.0.2; 2013-09-25 for Statistical Computing (IBM Corporation's SPSS programme, version 27.0, 2020). Literature review was done through the NCBI PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Google Scholar databases. Quality of life was assessed by the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) score approved by the World Health Organization. Results The majority of the patients had significant improvement in achieving milestones with reduced morbidity and one case of mortality. Conclusion To conclude, we have managed all cases of pediatric age group in a general neurosurgery department with utmost skill and meticulous surgery, with less than 0.1% mortality. In the cases that pertain to low resourced centers, areas, and countries where general neurosurgeons are mandated and obliged to perform pediatric neurosurgical procedures, we general neurosurgeons should take it as a challenge to manage these pediatric cases as our study showed appreciable results although the need for specialized pediatric neurosurgical care cannot be overemphasized

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Not AvailableLoss of market value of shrimp is mainly due to the formation of black spot called melanosis. A study was conducted for 14 days to determine the extent of melanosis and quality changes during that period of freshly har-vested whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) under chilled storage (2℃). Among quality parameters,total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBAR-S), were varied from 13.17 mg % to 44.50 mg % and 0.04to 2.57 mg malondehaldehyde/kg of fat respectively whereas melanosis score and metric chroma (C) exhibited significant increases during chilled storage (P<0.05). There was a slight increase in moisture, crude fat and pH from 73.96 % to 74.57 %, 1.05 % to 1.14 % and 6.52 to 7.60 respectively at 14th day of storage. Loss of protein from 22.51 % to 21.28 % may be due to decrease in available amino acids during chilled storage and total plate count (TPC) showed gradual increase of bacterial load up to 1.73*107 log CFU/g at the end of chilled storage. The sensory analysis by panellists indicated, the acceptability of whiteleg shrimp was up to 6 days in chilled condition and formation of black spot is one of the major parameter for rejection by the panellistsNot Availabl

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Not AvailableTo prevent weed invasion in direct seeded rice cultivation, several new generation post emergence herbicides viz. bispyribac sodium, flucetosulfuron, ethoxysulfuron, fenoxaprop-p ethyl, penoxsulam, fenoxaprop-p-ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron and cyhalofop‑butyl plus penoxsulam are widely used in sub-tropical rice ecosystems of Eastern India. The main objective of this study was to know whether application of above listed post emergence herbicides at recommended (n1) and double recommended dose (n2) has any negative impact on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) association in rice plants. Further, the effects of herbicides on soil microbial properties viz. microbial biomass carbon (MBC), fluroscein diacetate (FDA), dehydrogenase (DHA), acid phosphatase (AcP) and alkaline phosphatase (AkP) activities were analyzed using unsupervised and supervised learning methods. Results indicated that among different herbicides evaluated only application of penoxsulam significantly (p<0.05) reduced the AMF root colonization (58.0%) at recommended dose (n1) compared to only AMF (70.3%) application. Whereas, application of bispyribac sodium (both n1 and n2 dose) enhanced AMF sporulation (1100 spores/100 g) and root colonization (86.68%) compared to other herbicides application. Unsupervised learning approaches through PCA found that application of bispyribac sodium enhanced both above ground plant growth responses and soil microbial properties, but penoxsulam had negative impact. But, the combined application of penoxsulam and cyhalofop‑butyl did not show any negative impact on AMF association in rice plants. This study concluded that selection of right type of post-emergence herbicides are very important to minimize the harmful effect or enhance AMF association in rice plantsNot Availabl

Traumatic Collet-Sicard Syndrome with Associated VIIth and VIIIth Cranial Nerve Palsy: Time for a New Nomenclature

Collet-Sicard syndrome (CSS) is a rare condition associated with the involvement of cranial nerve (CN) IX to XII due to lesions involving the jugular foramen and hypoglossal canal. The most common causes are found to be tumors (primary or metastatic), trauma, vascular lesions, inflammatory processes, and iatrogenic complications. Primary intracranial tumors are an extremely rare cause of CSS. However, CSS associated with both CN VII and VIII palsy has been not yet described in English literature. We are presenting a rare case of a 32-year-old man who met with a road traffic accident while riding a bike that resulted in traumatic left-sided involvement of CNs from VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII. The syndromes associated with CSS are mostly jugular foramen syndromes that have been tabulated. The association of CSS with facial palsy is quite rare. So much CN involvement in a traumatic case has so far not been reported in the Medical literature yet and thus, this becomes one of the first cases reported worldwide

Modulation of the mitochondrial voltage dependent anion channel (VDAC) by curcumin

Voltage dependent anion channel (VDAC) of mitochondria plays a crucial role in apoptosis. Human VDAC-1, reconstituted in planar lipid bilayer showed reduced conductance when treated with curcumin. Curcumin interacts with residues in the alpha helical N-terminus of VDAC and in the channel wall, as revealed by molecular docking, followed by mutational analysis. N-terminus mimicking peptide showed conformational changes in circular dichroism, upon curcumin treatment. We propose that the interaction of curcumin with amino acids in N-terminus and in channel wall fixes the alpha helix in closed conformation. This restricts its movement which is required for the opening of the channel. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved