Assessment of total phenolic and flavonoid contents and potential biological efficacy of few Pinus species growing in Northern Himalayas

Environmental interventions and ecological adaptations harbor millions of valued substances and metabolites in plants which can be employed and commercialized for human benefits. Present study encompasses the untapped potential of pine needles of Indo-Himalayan region for the production of different metabolites and their pharmacological significance in terms of antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Total phenolic and flavonoid content from the needles of ten pine species was quantified using three different solvent systems. Results revealed that out of 10 different selected Pinus species, Pinus taeda L. showed the highest concentration of total phenolics, Soluble-F phenolics and flavonoids content (approx. 147.02 mg/g, 141.08 mg/g and 21.91 mg/g, respectively) as compared to other species. On the other hand, Pinus greggii Engelm. ex Parl. showed the highest Bound-W phenolic content (approx. 3.62 mg/g). Among all the selected plant species, the needles of Pinus echinata Mill. exhibited the highest and Pinus thunbergii Parl. had the lowest ratio of total flavonoids to total phenolics. Most of these compounds were found to have effective antioxidant activities as well as antimicrobial activity, as estimated by oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and disk diffusion test, respectively

MOLECULAR DETECTION OF HUMAN RHINOVIRUS IN RESPIRATORY SAMPLES OF SWINE FLU NEGATIVE NORTH INDIAN CHILDREN WITH FLU-LIKE ILLNESS

Objectives: Flu-like illness may also be caused by different respiratory viruses other than influenza. Human rhinovirus (HRV) shows almost flu-likesymptoms. The purpose of this study is the molecular detection of HRV in throat swab of swine flu negative North Indian children during the years2012 and 2013. Reverse transcriptase (RT) - polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of 5'non-coding region (NCR) was used for HRV detectionfollowed by cell culture isolation of HRV.Methods: PCR confirmed swine flu negative throat swab samples were collected from the Department of Microbiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post GraduateInstitute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The RNA isolation of samples was done using the QIAampViral RNA Mini Kit (Qiagen),followed by single step RT-PCR amplification (AgPath-ID, Life Technologies). All PCR positive HRV samples were cell cultured in HeLa and HEp-2 celllines for viral isolation.®Results: 135 swine flu negative throat swab samples were examined. Out of which 34 samples (25.2%) were found HRV positive by RT-PCR, while onlyfour samples (11.8%) were culture positive on HeLa cell line. Younger children (0-4 year) were found more susceptible to HRV infection. This studyindicated the highest prevalence of HRV (37.0%) during the months (September-October) of the Autumn season in 2012 and 57% in Winter-springseason (February-March) during 2013.Conclusion: HRV may be a cause of flu-like symptoms in swine flu suspected North Indian children with a higher rate during Autumn and Springseason. Molecular detection of HRV using RT-PCR is more sensitive than cell culture assay.Keywords: Human rhinovirus, Swine flu, Influenza-like illness, Lower respiratory tract infections

Variaciones morfoanatómicas y sus implicaciones filogenéticas en especies nativas y exóticas de Pinus L. del Himalaya indio

Se realizó un estudio anatomico completo y detallada de agujas en diez especies de Pinus utilizando nueve rasgos morfológicos y anatómicos. Los datos pueden usarse como una herramienta para la identificación y clasificación de Pinus hasta el nivel de género y especie. También encontramos que la similitud y las diferencias en los rasgos anatómicos de la hoja respaldaban la filogenia molecular de Pinus realizada por varios investigadores.Comprehensive and detailed anatomy of needles in ten species of Pinus using four morphological traits and nine anatomical traits was carried out. The data can be used as a tool for identification and classification of Pinus upto genus and species level. We also found that similarity and differences in leaf anatomical traits supported the molecular phylogeny of genus Pinus conducted by several researchers

Assessment of total phenolic and flavonoid contents and potential biological efficacy of few Pinus species growing in Northern Himalayas

Environmental interventions and ecological adaptations harbor millions of valued substances and metabolites in plants which can be employed and commercialized for human benefits. Present study encompasses the untapped potential of pine needles of Indo-Himalayan region for the production of different metabolites and their pharmacological significance in terms of antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Total phenolic and flavonoid content from the needles of ten pine species was quantified using three different solvent systems. Results revealed that out of 10 different selected Pinus species, Pinus taeda L. showed the highest concentration of total phenolics, Soluble-F phenolics and flavonoids content (approx. 147.02 mg/g, 141.08 mg/g and 21.91 mg/g, respectively) as compared to other species. On the other hand, Pinus greggii Engelm. ex Parl. showed the highest Bound-W phenolic content (approx. 3.62 mg/g). Among all the selected plant species, the needles of Pinus echinata Mill. exhibited the highest and Pinus thunbergii Parl. had the lowest ratio of total flavonoids to total phenolics. Most of these compounds were found to have effective antioxidant activities as well as antimicrobial activity, as estimated by oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and disk diffusion test, respectively

QSAR and Docking Studies on Capsazepine Derivatives for Immunomodulatory and Anti-Inflammatory Activity

<div><p>Capsazepine, an antagonist of capsaicin, is discovered by the structure and activity relationship. In previous studies it has been found that capsazepine has potency for immunomodulation and anti-inflammatory activity and emerging as a favourable target in quest for efficacious and safe anti-inflammatory drug. Thus, a 2D quantitative structural activity relationship (QSAR) model against target tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) was developed using multiple linear regression method (MLR) with good internal prediction (r² = 0.8779) and external prediction (r²_pred = 0.5865) using Discovery Studio v3.5 (Accelrys, USA). The predicted activity was further validated by <i>in vitro</i> experiment. Capsazepine was tested in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced inflammation in peritoneal mouse macrophages. Anti-inflammatory profile of capsazepine was assessed by its potency to inhibit the production of inflammatory mediator TNF-α. The <i>in vitro</i> experiment indicated that capsazepine is an efficient anti-inflammatory agent. Since, the developed QSAR model showed significant correlations between chemical structure and anti-inflammatory activity, it was successfully applied in the screening of forty-four virtual derivatives of capsazepine, which finally afforded six potent derivatives, CPZ-29, CPZ-30, CPZ-33, CPZ-34, CPZ-35 and CPZ-36. To gain more insights into the molecular mechanism of action of capsazepine and its derivatives, molecular docking and <i>in silico</i> absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMET) studies were performed. The results of QSAR, molecular docking, <i>in silico</i> ADMET screening and <i>in vitro</i> experimental studies provide guideline and mechanistic scope for the identification of more potent anti-inflammatory & immunomodulatory drug.</p></div

Experimental <i>in vitro</i> activity for capsazepine against TNF-α.

<p><b>Note</b>: *indicate significant effect,</p><p>**IC₅₀ values was calculated from vector defined by percentage inhibition values obtained against concentration gradient ranging from 1-10 µg/mL.</p

Graphical plot between experimental and predicted activities (IC₅₀ µM) of the training and test set compounds.

<p>(A) Training data set (blue dots), (B) Test data set (orange dots).</p