Development and validation of stability indicating HPTLC method for estimation of dextromethorphan hydrobromide

A simple, sensitive and accurate stability indicating HPTLC method has been developed and validated for estimation of Dextromethorphan hydrobromide in bulk and pharmaceutical dosage form. The drug was spotted on precoated silica gel 60 F254 aluminum plates using Toluene: Methanol: Triethylamine (8.5:1:0.5 v/v/v) as mobile phase. The retention factor (Rf) was found to be 0.60±1.92. The detection of band was carried at 225 nm. The drug was subjected to different stress conditions like acid, base, neutral hydrolysis, oxidation, thermal degradation and photolysis. The method was successfully validated according to ICH guidelines Q2 (R1). The data of linear regression analysis indicated a good linear relationship over the concentration range of 2000-20000 ng/band with correlation coefficient 0.991. The method found to be accurate as results of the recovery studies are close to 100 %. The developed method was found to be simple, sensitive, selective, accurate and repeatable for analysis of and can be adopted for routine analysis of drug in bulk and pharmaceutical dosage for

Students’ Perception towards Online Learning across Multiple Disciplinary Courses in India—A Qualitative Analysis

Online learning has become essential to the teaching and learning approach during the pandemic. Due to its enormous benefits, online or e-learning can be sustained. The acceptability of online or e-learning depends on the student’s perception and the availability of infrastructure. Data from various streams and age groups has been collected from students in different institutions. After collecting the data, this research incorporates descriptive statistics for a thorough analysis and utilizes the Chi-square test to provide scientific evidence. This study finds that the majority of final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students support online education. The student’s economic status affects their preference for online or e-learning. Having a smart device and internet access also influence the decision to pursue online or e-learning. Gender is positively associated with access to Internet facilities and has a cascading effect on preferences for online or e-learning. Female students prefer online classes but require additional internet resources. Higher education institutions could enhance their online course offerings by targeting specific groups, such as female students for postgraduate programs, if they could better understand their preferences. Even though some existing studies in the literature have examined the Indian scenario to understand the factors influencing the adoption of online education, none of these studies have considered the fundamental need for online or e-learning. Moreover, the preferences were not studied based on different demographics. This research work has collected and utilized data from various educational disciplines across multiple institutes, marking the first endeavor of its kind in the literature

Histopathological spectrum of disorders of sexual development: a case series of seven cases

Disorders of sexual development (DSD) refer to cases in which there is a discordance among at least two of the following; genetic sex, gonadal sex, genital tract sex and phenotypic sex. DSDs are quite rare with reported incidence varying from 1 in 4,500 to 1 in 5,500. Ovotesticular disorder is amongst the rarest variety of DSD comprising only to 3-10% of all cases of DSD with only 500 cases reported till now worldwide. Frequency of MRKH syndrome is 1 in 4,500 cases and is the cause of amenorrhoea in 15% of cases of primary amenorrhoea. Authors present a case series of seven cases of DSDs with three cases diagnosed as androgen insensitivity syndrome, two cases of true ovotesticular DSD (true hermaphrodite), one case each of mixed gonadal dysgenesis and Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster Hauser (MRKH) syndrome. Authors received the histopathology specimen of these cases in this department which was extensively sampled to study the gonads and the other derivatives of Mullerian and Wolffian duct and to rule out presence of any malignancy

Effect of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) seed powder on lipid profile: A single blind placebo controlled study

Background: Dyslipidemia is one of the most prevalent risk factors contributing to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Clinical trials have demonstrated that treatment of dyslipidemia reduces cardiovascular events. Fenugreek seed powder supplementation has lipid-lowering activity, but has not been studied extensively. In light of this, we undertook the present study at tertiary care hospital in Amravati, Maharashtra, with the aim of studying the effect of fenugreek seed powder on serum lipid profile in patients with dyslipidemia & to determine the adverse effects of it. Methods: The study was a single blind placebo controlled study conducted on 60 patients with dyslipidemia from June 2022 to November 2022, after meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: It was found significant decrease in serum total cholesterol (237.32 to 204.51mg/dl) p value 0.05, without any major side effects. Conclusion: Fenugreek seed powder significantly lowers serum total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels in dyslipidemia patients, with no effect on serum HDL cholesterol levels. fenugreek seed powder supplementation considerably improves lipid Profile. Hence it could be well-thought-out as an effective lipid lowering nutritional supplement. Further high quality & large scale studies are needed to decisively establish the clinical efficacy of fenugreek seed powder

Innovation of System Biological Approach in Computational Drug Discovery

Computational methods like classification and network-based algorithms can be used to understand the mode of action and the efficacy of a given compound and to help elucidating the patho-physiology of a disease. In the pharmacological industry there has already been a shift from symptomatic oriented drugs that can relieve the symptoms but not the cause of the disease to pathology-based drugs whose targets are the genes and proteins involved in the etiology of the disease. Drugs targeting the affected pathway have thus the potential to become therapeutic. A network approach to drug design would examine the effect of drugs in the context of a network of relevant protein regulatory metabolic interactions resulting in the development of a drug that would hit multiple targets selected in such a way as to decrease network integrity and so completely disrupt the functioning of the network. The screening of a compound to quickly identify the proteins it interacts with gives us all the necessary tools to identify and repair the deregulated biological pathway causing the disease

Extraction, Characterization and Evaluation of Okara Mucilage

Mucilage is the thick, gluey substances produced by nearly all plant and some microorganisms. Okra mucilage is extracted from the plant of the malavaceae [A. esculantus]. Which is originally from Egypt, but it also in cropped in southern Asia elsewhere for nutritional purposes. Their use as potential reinforcement in polymer composites requires the understanding of their microstructure and mechanical properties. This work investigates the extraction methods, solubility behavior, TLC, loss on drying, ash value, FTIR spectra, surface tension, organoleptic properties. Extracted mucilage is soluble in warm water while insoluble in organic solvents. This can shows that it safely used in dosage form without causing any adverse effect. Keywords: Okara Mucilage, Pharmaceutical Excipients, Controlled-Release Formulatio

vPIF-1 is an insulin-like antiferroptotic viral peptide

Iridoviridae, such as the lymphocystis disease virus-1 (LCDV-1) and other viruses, encode viral insulin-like peptides (VILPs) which are capable of triggering insulin receptors (IRs) and insulin-like growth factor receptors. The homology of VILPs includes highly conserved disulfide bridges. However, the binding affinities to IRs were reported to be 200- to 500-fold less effective compared to the endogenous ligands. We therefore speculated that these peptides also have noninsulin functions. Here, we report that the LCDV-1 VILP can function as a potent and highly specific inhibitor of ferroptosis. Induction of cell death by the ferroptosis inducers erastin, RSL3, FIN56, and FINO2 and nonferroptotic necrosis produced by the thioredoxin-reductase inhibitor ferroptocide were potently prevented by LCDV-1, while human insulin had no effect. Fas-induced apoptosis, necroptosis, mitotane-induced cell death and growth hormone-releasing hormone antagonist-induced necrosis were unaffected, suggesting the specificity to ferroptosis inhibition by the LCDV-1 VILP. Mechanistically, we identified the viral C-peptide to be required for inhibition of lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis inhibition, while the human C-peptide exhibited no antiferroptotic properties. In addition, the deletion of the viral C-peptide abolishes radical trapping activity in cell-free systems. We conclude that iridoviridae, through the expression of insulin-like viral peptides, are capable of preventing ferroptosis. In analogy to the viral mitochondrial inhibitor of apoptosis and the viral inhibitor of RIP activation (vIRA) that prevents necroptosis, we rename the LCDV-1 VILP a viral peptide inhibitor of ferroptosis-1. Finally, our findings indicate that ferroptosis may function as a viral defense mechanism in lower organisms

Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Consortium: Accelerating Evidence-Based Practice of Genomic Medicine

Despite rapid technical progress and demonstrable effectiveness for some types of diagnosis and therapy, much remains to be learned about clinical genome and exome sequencing (CGES) and its role within the practice of medicine. The Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER) consortium includes 18 extramural research projects, one National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) intramural project, and a coordinating center funded by the NHGRI and National Cancer Institute. The consortium is exploring analytic and clinical validity and utility, as well as the ethical, legal, and social implications of sequencing via multidisciplinary approaches; it has thus far recruited 5,577 participants across a spectrum of symptomatic and healthy children and adults by utilizing both germline and cancer sequencing. The CSER consortium is analyzing data and creating publically available procedures and tools related to participant preferences and consent, variant classification, disclosure and management of primary and secondary findings, health outcomes, and integration with electronic health records. Future research directions will refine measures of clinical utility of CGES in both germline and somatic testing, evaluate the use of CGES for screening in healthy individuals, explore the penetrance of pathogenic variants through extensive phenotyping, reduce discordances in public databases of genes and variants, examine social and ethnic disparities in the provision of genomics services, explore regulatory issues, and estimate the value and downstream costs of sequencing. The CSER consortium has established a shared community of research sites by using diverse approaches to pursue the evidence-based development of best practices in genomic medicine

Piloting Upfront Xpert MTB/RIF Testing on Various Specimens under Programmatic Conditions for Diagnosis of TB & DR-TB in Paediatric Population

India accounts for one-fifth of the global TB incidence. While the exact burden of childhood TB is not known, TB remains one of the leading causes of childhood mortality in India. Bacteriological confirmation of TB in children is challenging due to difficulty in obtaining quality specimens, in the absence of which diagnosis is largely based on clinical judgement. While testing multiple specimens can potentially contribute to higher proportion of laboratory confirmed paediatric TB cases, lack of high sensitivity tests adds to the diagnostic challenge. We describe here our experiences in piloting upfront Xpert MTB/RIF testing, for diagnosis of TB in paediatric population in respiratory and extra pulmonary specimens, as recently recommended by WHO.Xpert MTB/RIF testing was offered to all paediatric (0-14 years) presumptive TB cases (both pulmonary and extra-pulmonary) seeking care at public and private health facilities in the project areas covering 4 cities of India.Under this pilot project, 8,370 paediatric presumptive TB & presumptive DR-TB cases were tested between April and-November 2014. Overall, 9,149 specimens were tested, of which 4,445 (48.6%) were non-sputum specimens. Xpert MTB/RIF gave 9,083 (99.2%, CI 99.0-99.4) valid results. Of the 8,143 presumptive TB cases enrolled, 517 (6.3%, CI 5.8-6.9) were bacteriologically confirmed. TB detection rates were two fold higher with Xpert MTB/RIF as compared to smear microscopy. Further, a total of 60 rifampicin resistant TB cases were detected, of which 38 were detected among 512 presumptive TB cases while 22 were detected amongst 227 presumptive DR-TB cases tested under the project.Xpert MTB/RIF with advantages of quick turnaround testing-time, high proportion of interpretable results and feasibility of rapid rollout, substantially improved the diagnosis of bacteriologically confirmed TB in children, while simultaneously detecting rifampicin resistance

Studies on an organocatalytic synthesis of functionalized nitrocyclohexanones and (+)-lycoperdic acid

A strategy for enantioselective double Michael addition reactions of acetone to nitroalkene 1 has been investigated. The feasibility of employing an enamine-mediated, organocatalytic route to functionalized cyclohexanones 2 was examined in this study (Scheme 1). -- [special characters omitted] -- Scheme 1: Synthesis of functionalized nitrocyclohexanones. -- Simultaneously, in continuation with the Pansare group's interest in organocatalytic conjugate addition reactions, an organocatalytic, conjugate addition based synthesis of (+)-lycoperdic acid (10) was examined. Lycoperdic acid is an unusual amino acid isolated from a mushroom (lycoperdon perlatum ). Its unique structure and potential glutamate receptor activity, makes it a challenging synthetic target. Our approach to lycoperdic acid is based on the enantioselective organocatalytic Mukaiyama-Michael addition of furan 5 to acrolein, mediated by catalysts 11 and 12 to provide the key butyrolactone 6 (Scheme 2). It is noteworthy that only a few examples of enantioselective organocatalytic Mukaiyama-Michael conjugate additions of furans related to 5 and β-substituted α,β-unsaturated aldehydes are known, and the use of acrolein as a Michael acceptor in these reactions has not previously been reported. Conversion of 6 to (S)-homocitric acid lactone (8) not only provided a new synthesis of this natural product enantiomer, and also established the stereochemistry of the Michael addition of 5 to 6. An organocatalytic α-amination of 6 using catalyst 12 provided 9 which is an advanced intermediate to lycoperdic acid. -- [special characters omitted] -- Scheme 2: Organocatalytic synthesis of (+) lycoperdic acid