Down Regulation of Plasma and Tissue Biomarkers by Homocastasterone

Homocastasterone is a ketosteroid and a member of the brassinosteroid family of plant hormones. Earlier studies with 28-homobrasslinolide, an aldosteroid, had indicated that rat blood and tissue biochemical parameters studied were affected by this compound, resulting in altered homeostasis and cellular phosphorylation status, rendering this plant oxysterol inappropriate for high energy related work activities. The use of the ketosteroid in this study presents evidence for renormalization of elevated plasma lipid content in diabetic rat, antiglycemic potency, increase in liver glycogen and glucose level and diminished ALT and AST enzyme activities. A role for this ketosteroid in rat liver gluconeogenesis and in lipid homeostasis is suggested while the aldo and keto forms regulated glucose homeostasis in the rat. The observed differences in the effects of homobrasslinolide and homocastasterone as exogenous oxysterols on normal and diabetic rat plasma lipid level suggests the possibility of differential influence by endogenous aldo and keto oxycholesterol forms on glucose and lipid homeostasis in mammalian physiology

Management of cervical heterotopic pregnancy with inevitable miscarriage

The objective is to report a case of successful treatment of heterotopic cervical pregnancy resulting from IVF–ICSI conception. Case report from Amrita Institute of Medical sciences: a tertiary care referral hospital. A 47-year-old Primigravida, diagnosed with heterotopic cervical pregnancy at 6 weeks of gestation, presented with significant first trimester vaginal bleeding. Under IV sedation, Transvaginal ligation of descending cervical branches of the uterine arteries arrested the bleeding. The cervical pregnancy was successfully aborted with minimal bleeding and the intrauterine pregnancy was successfully maintained till 32 weeks, after which she required emergency preterm LSCS in view of Severe preeclampsia superimposed on chronic hypertension a non-reassuring non-stress test (NST). The intervention applied maybe used in treatment of heterotopic cervical pregnancy in a low resource setting to control the bleeding

Incidence microbiological profile and drug resistance pattern of uropathogens causing asymptomatic bacteriuria among below poverty line diabetic male patients

Introduction: With the prevalence of DM increasing among rural population in developing countries, factors associated with diabetes and its complications also becomes more important. More than half of diabetic patients with ASB have upper urinary tract involvement and the frequency of symptomatic UTI had been significantly higher. Symptomatic UTIs tends to be more common in diabetic subjects with ASB than in those without ASB. Although ASB is of major concern in diabetic population, the long-term consequences of ASB in patients with DM are poorly documented, Almost all studies were performed among elderly women with type 2 diabetes and there is very little information on the occurrence of ASB among BPL diabetic males in our local setting. Hence in the present study the incidence and etiology of ASB among BPL diabetic male patients was monitored along with the resistance pattern of bacterial isolates to antimicrobial agents.Materials and methods: Clean catch voided midstream urine samples were collected from 1131 BPL Diabetic male patients enrolled for the study. Wet film of centrifuged urine was performed to detect the presence of pus cells, epithelial cells, erythrocytes, microorganisms, cast. Culture was performed using standard loop method and antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates was studied using Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method following CLSI guidelines.Results: Out of 1131 BPL diabetic male patients screened for ASB, 155 (13.7%) were culture positive. Among the uropathogens Gram negative bacilli was the most commonest type (72.7%) and the most prevalent organisms isolated was Klebsiella spp (35.2%), Enterococcus spp (22.4%), followed by E. coli (19.4 %) ,Pseudomonas aeruginosa ( 7.3%), etc.,. 87.5% of E.coli isolated were ESBL, followed by 77.6 % of Klebsilla spp and 11.1 % Enteroabacter spp. Pseudomonas aeruginosa reported in this study were 100% ESBL and 16.6% Metallo β lactamase (MBL) producers.8.1 % of Vancomycin resistant Enterococcus (VRE) was also found in this study.Conclusion: This study demonstrated a high occurrence of ASB in BPL diabetic males (13.7%). Klebsiella was the most commonest uropathogen found in our study followed by Enterococcus , E.coli and Pseudomonas. E.coli and Pseudomonas showed high rates of drug resistance. Nitrofurantoin and Amikacin was the most effective drugs for majority of the isolates. Hence routine monitoring and screening for ASB in this population is essential. Moreover patients in rural parts of developing countries with diabetes has to be sensitized about the complications of ASB and regarding maintenance of their glycemic control which is of major importance in prevention of the condition

HOMOCASTASTERONE: A NOVEL PLANT KETOSTEROID INDUCING HAEMATOLOGICAL CHANGES IN NORMAL AND DIABETIC MALE RAT

Objective: To study the effect of brassinosteroid keto isoform homocastasterone, in diabetic male wistar rat as an antihyperglycemic factor and to evaluate its effects on the hemodynamic parameters in rat blood.Methods: Diabetes was induced in a group (n=6) of rats with a single peritoneal injection of streptozotocin at 60 mg/kg. bw. With a treatment schedule of 15 consecutive days, control (n=6) and diabetic rats received 666µg/kg bw, of homocastasterone. Circulating blood glucose, cell count, cell indices, and MDA level was assessed.Results: Significant reduction (p<0.05) in blood glucose level and increase inRBCs, WBCs, granulocytes, lymphocytes, monocytes and platelets count(p<0.05) along with improved functional indices for HCT, PCV, MCV, MCH, MCHC, MPV, PDW, PCT in homocastasterone treated diabetic group was noted. A significant reduction in RBC-MDA level (p<0.001) in the treated group was noted.Conclusion: It is suggested that brassinosteroid keto isoform homocastasterone exhibits antiglycemic effect in diabetic rat, and improves RBC, WBC, Platelet counts, haemoglobin level, and cell indices, while reducing peroxidative cell damage in RBCs.Â

Adposition and Case Supersenses v2.5: Guidelines for English

This document offers a detailed linguistic description of SNACS (Semantic Network of Adposition and Case Supersenses; Schneider et al., 2018), an inventory of 50 semantic labels ("supersenses") that characterize the use of adpositions and case markers at a somewhat coarse level of granularity, as demonstrated in the STREUSLE corpus (https://github.com/nert-gu/streusle/; version 4.3 tracks guidelines version 2.5). Though the SNACS inventory aspires to be universal, this document is specific to English; documentation for other languages will be published separately. Version 2 is a revision of the supersense inventory proposed for English by Schneider et al. (2015, 2016) (henceforth "v1"), which in turn was based on previous schemes. The present inventory was developed after extensive review of the v1 corpus annotations for English, plus previously unanalyzed genitive case possessives (Blodgett and Schneider, 2018), as well as consideration of adposition and case phenomena in Hebrew, Hindi, Korean, and German. Hwang et al. (2017) present the theoretical underpinnings of the v2 scheme. Schneider et al. (2018) summarize the scheme, its application to English corpus data, and an automatic disambiguation task

Down Regulation of Plasma and Tissue Biomarkers by Homocastasterone

Homocastasterone is a ketosteroid and a member of the brassinosteroid family of plant hormones. Earlier studies with 28-homobrasslinolide, an aldosteroid, had indicated that rat blood and tissue biochemical parameters studied were affected by this compound, resulting in altered homeostasis and cellular phosphorylation status, rendering this plant oxysterol inappropriate for high energy related work activities. The use of the ketosteroid in this study presents evidence for renormalization of elevated plasma lipid content in diabetic rat, antiglycemic potency, increase in liver glycogen and glucose level and diminished ALT and AST enzyme activities. A role for this ketosteroid in rat liver gluconeogenesis and in lipid homeostasis is suggested while the aldo and keto forms regulated glucose homeostasis in the rat. The observed differences in the effects of homobrasslinolide and homocastasterone as exogenous oxysterols on normal and diabetic rat plasma lipid level suggests the possibility of differential influence by endogenous aldo and keto oxycholesterol forms on glucose and lipid homeostasis in mammalian physiology

Transdermal delivery of tolterodine tartrate for overactive bladder treatment: In vitro, and in vivo evaluation

The purpose of the study was to develop a transdermal tolterodine tartrate (TT) patch and to analyse its efficacy for overactive bladder (OAB) treatment. Patches were prepared using various polymers and plasticizers via the solvent casting method. The patches were characterized for tensile strength, thickness, moisture content, modulus of elasticity and water absorption capacity. Differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared analyses were also performed. To determine patch effectiveness, in vitro release, permeation and animal studies were performed. The patches showed satisfactory percentage of release, up to 89.9 %, and their mechanical properties included thickness (0.10–0.15 mm), tensile strength (4.62–9.98 MPa) and modulus of elasticity (20–29 MPa). There were no significant interactions between TT and other excipients. Animal studies indicated that the TT patch reduced the incidence of side effects; however, studies of longer duration are required to determine the effectiveness in treating OAB

Pentachlorophenol Induction of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa mexAB-oprM Efflux Operon: Involvement of Repressors NalC and MexR and the Antirepressor ArmR

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) induced expression of the NalC repressor-regulated PA3720-armR operon and the MexR repressor-controlled mexAB-oprM multidrug efflux operon of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. PCP's induction of PA3720-armR resulted from its direct modulation of NalC, the repressor's binding to PA3720-armR promoter-containing DNA as seen in electromobility shift assays (EMSAs) being obviated in the presence of this agent. The NalC binding site was localized to an inverted repeat (IR) sequence upstream of PA3720-armR and overlapping a promoter region whose transcription start site was mapped. While modulation of MexR by the ArmR anti-repressor explains the upregulation of mexAB-oprM in nalC mutants hyperexpressing PA3720-armR, the induction of mexAB-oprM expression by PCP is not wholly explainable by PCP induction of PA3720-armR and subsequent ArmR modulation of MexR, inasmuch as armR deletion mutants still showed PCP-inducible mexAB-oprM expression. PCP failed, however, to induce mexAB-oprM in a mexR deletion strain, indicating that MexR was required for this, although PCP did not modulate MexR binding to mexAB-oprM promoter-containing DNA in vitro. One possibility is that MexR responds to PCP-generated in vivo effector molecules in controlling mexAB-oprM expression in response to PCP. PCP is an unlikely effector and substrate for NalC and MexAB-OprM - its impact on NalC binding to the PA3720-armR promoter DNA occurred only at high µM levels - suggesting that it mimics an intended phenolic effector/substrate(s). In this regard, plants are an abundant source of phenolic antimicrobial compounds and, so, MexAB-OprM may function to protect P. aeruginosa from plant antimicrobials that it encounters in nature

Characterization of Cronobacter sakazakii Strains Originating from Plant-Origin Foods Using Comparative Genomic Analyses and Zebrafish Infectivity Studies

Cronobacter sakazakii continues to be isolated from ready-to-eat fresh and frozen produce, flours, dairy powders, cereals, nuts, and spices, in addition to the conventional sources of powdered infant formulae (PIF) and PIF production environments. To understand the sequence diversity, phylogenetic relationship, and virulence of C. sakazakii originating from plant-origin foods, comparative molecular and genomic analyses, and zebrafish infection (ZI) studies were applied to 88 strains. Whole genome sequences of the strains were generated for detailed bioinformatic analysis. PCR analysis showed that all strains possessed a pESA3-like virulence plasmid similar to reference C. sakazakii clinical strain BAA-894. Core genome analysis confirmed a shared genomic backbone with other C. sakazakii strains from food, clinical and environmental strains. Emerging nucleotide diversity in these plant-origin strains was highlighted using single nucleotide polymorphic alleles in 2000 core genes. DNA hybridization analyses using a pan-genomic microarray showed that these strains clustered according to sequence types (STs) identified by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). PHASTER analysis identified 185 intact prophage gene clusters encompassing 22 different prophages, including three intact Cronobacter prophages: ENT47670, ENT39118, and phiES15. AMRFinderPlus analysis identified the CSA family class C β-lactamase gene in all strains and a plasmid-borne mcr-9.1 gene was identified in three strains. ZI studies showed that some plant-origin C. sakazakii display virulence comparable to clinical strains. Finding virulent plant-origin C. sakazakii possessing significant genomic features of clinically relevant STs suggests that these foods can serve as potential transmission vehicles and supports widening the scope of continued surveillance for this important foodborne pathogen