EVALUATION OF GLUTATHIONE REDUCTASE (GR) ACTIVITY IN LIVER OF FISH, CHANNA PUNCTATUS (BLOCH, 1793) EXPOSED TO HEXAVALENT CHROMIUM

Antioxidant defence system is known to be a sensitive biomarker of metal exposure widely employed in predicting toxicity after sub-lethal exposure of Cr6+in fish. The present study conducted to assess the impact of Cr6+on Glutathione reductase (GR) activity in liver of fish, Channa punctatus. Fish were exposed to two different sub-lethal concentrations of Cr6+viz.,3.93 mg/L (5% of 96h LC50) (T1) and 7.85 mg/L (10% of 96h LC50) (T2) along with one control group without any toxicant exposure, for 15, 30 and 45 d. Results showa significant (p <0.05) increase in GR activity with an increase in dose and exposure period. This study emphasized the role of GR in monitoring of metal toxicity in aquatic regimes as an early warning tool

Jackiw-Teitelboim Gravity in the Second Order Formalism

We formulate the path integral for Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity in the second order formalism working directly with the metric and the dilaton. We consider the theory both in Anti-de Sitter(AdS) and de Sitter space(dS) and analyze the path integral for the disk topology and the "double trumpet" topology with two boundaries. We also consider its behavior in the presence of conformal matter. In the dS case the path integral evaluates the wavefunction of the universe which arises in the no-boundary proposal. In the asymptotic AdS or dS limit without matter we get agreement with the first order formalism. More generally, away from this limit, the path integral is more complicated due to the presence of modes from the gravity-dilaton sector and also matter sector with short wavelengths along the boundary that are smaller than the AdS or dS scales. In the double trumpet case, for both AdS and dS, we find that bosonic matter gives rise to a diverging contribution in the moduli space integral rendering the path integral ill-defined. The divergence occurs when the size of the wormhole neck vanishes and is related to the Casimir effect. For fermions this divergence can be avoided by imposing suitable boundary conditions. In this case, in dS space the resulting path integral gives a finite contribution for two disconnected universes to be produced by quantum tunneling.Comment: version 4, Minor revisions made and Typos correcte

Alteration in the histology of gonads and hormone levels of fish Channa punctatus on exposure to 17-α ethynylestradiol

It has been demonstrated that effluents discharged from sewage treatment facilities allow synthetic estrogens, widely employed in contraceptives and other pharmaceutical applications, to reach the aquatic environment. One of the most biologically active xenoestrogens in the aquatic environment is the synthetic hormone 17-α ethynylestradiol(EE2), raisingreproductive issues in the fish population. The present study chose Channa punctatus fish to study the effects of EE2 on gonad histology and the calculation of estrogen and testosterone levels. The experimental setting was separated into four groups, with Group I as control with 0 ng/L of EE2. The other three groups viz., Group II to IV, had 5 ng/L, 10 ng/L, and 20 ng/L concentrations of EE2, respectively, and samples were obtained after the durations of 7, 14, 21, and 28 days. The findings showed that as 17-α ethynylestradiol concentrations increased, testosterone levels decreased from 10.88±0.24 ng/dL to 4.91±0.24 ng/dL,while estrogen levels increased from 42.7±2.22 pg/mL to 120.18±4.54 pg/mL. The number percentage of primary growth oocytes, previtellogenic oocytes and vitellogenic oocytes in the histology of ovary decreased from 28.45±1.42 to 10.43±0.47; 16.22±0.81 to 3.15±0.16 and 14.81±0.89 to 2.14±0.11 respectively while in testis, the number percentage of spermatogonia, spermatocytes decreased from 21.4±0.86 to 15.1±0.68 and 97.1±3.88 to 54.2±3.25. In contrast, the percentage of mature spermatids increased from 20.8±0.94 to 40.2±2.41. Since synthetic estrogens adversely affect aquatic animals, especially fish, they should be treated properly before releasing them into the aquatic environment.

Genome-wide characterization, molecular evolution and mexpression profiling of the metacaspases in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Metacaspases are distant relatives of animal caspases found in plants, protozoa and fungi. Some recent studies have demonstrated that metacaspases are involved in regulating the developmental and environmentally induced programmed cell death in plants. In this study, we identified metacaspase gene family in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and analyzed their expression pattern in various developmental tissues and stress responses of plants. There were eight metacaspase genes identified in the Peptidase (Cysteine protease) C14 family and based upon sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis, a systematic nomenclature of potato metacaspases (SotubMCs) has been proposed. Three of the eight candidate genes showing homology with Arabidopsis thaliana type I metacaspase, AtMC1 were given name SotubMC1, SotubMC2 and SotubMC3 as per the degree of relatedness. Similarly, the next three being homologous to A. thaliana type I metacaspase, AtMC3 were named SotubMC4, SotubMC5, and SotubMC6. The remaining two were named SotubMC7 and SotubMC8, showing significant similarity with type II metacaspases of A. thaliana, AtMC4 and AtMC9, respectively. Evolutionary divergence analysis of SotubMCs from its orthologs in seven other members of Solanaceae family as well as with A. thaliana, Vitis vinifera and Oryza sativa was also carried out. The dN/dS ratios of the orthologous pairs suggested the SotubMCs were under purifying (negative) selection in course of plant evolution. Splicing patterns of potato metacaspases were also analyzed. Amongst all SotubMCs, SotubMC2, SotubMC4, SotubMC6 and SotubMC7 genes appeared to produce multiple alternative spliced variants of different lengths. Furthermore using protein modeling tools, we have predicted the protein structure of identified metacaspases. The cis-regulatory elements analysis was also performed exhibiting the presence of development, stress and hormones related cis-elements in the promoter regions of the SotubMCs. This indicates that potato metacaspases might be playing important roles in the development, stress and hormone responsive pathways. Moreover, relative expression analysis of identified genes was carried out using qRT-PCR in various developmental tissues that also include stolons and tubers. The eight metacaspases showed differential expression in different tissues. Some of the tissues such as leaf undergoing senescence among different leaf developmental stages (immature, mature and senescent) displayed higher relative expression of some of the metacaspases, implying their involvement in leaf senescence. The expression pattern of SotubMCs under various abiotic, biotic and hormonal stresses was also analysed. The results showed that many members of the potato metacaspase gene family displayed differential expression patterns under various stress conditions. Taken together, the study could provide crucial resources for further investigations to understand the functional roles of the identified metacaspases in potato

Efficacy and safety of panchgavya GHRIT along with flunarizine in prophylaxis for migraine patients: a comparitive study

Background: Propranolol and flunarizine have proven to be useful tools in migraine prophylaxis. This trial aims the comparison of the efficacy of flunarizine, flunarizine and placebo and flunarizine and panchgavya ghrit in migraine prophylaxis.Methods: The present study was a prospective, randomized, open-label, blinded-endpoint trial. Patients with chronic migraine were randomized (1:1:1) to flunarizine and flunarizine and placebo and flunarizine and panchgavya ghrit in three treatment groups. The study was carried out in outdoor patients in the department of Psychiatry, T.S. Mishra Medical College and Hospital, Lucknow and K.G.M.U, Ayush Department, Lucknow after clearance from Institutional Ethical Committee. Data was analysed using SPSS software.Results: The prevalence of migraine was found to be higher in the age group greater than 30 years and females. Overall there was more reduction in CGI scores in flunarizine with panchgavya ghrit and the other two groups equally at the end of 4, 6 8 and 10 weeks. Decrease in MIDAS score was observed after the therapy. Clinical Global Impression rating scale employed revealed that to start with subjects scored 7 which stands for pathology interfering in many life functions which reduced drastically in Group C as compared to Group B and Group A in descending order. Pain scales namely VAS (visual analogue scale), NPRS (Numeric Pain Rating Scale), VRS (verbal rating scale) when employed denoted there was decreased migraine frequency, decreased perception of pain, less intake of abortive medication consumed by subjects implying there were reduction in number of migraine days and there was decrease in the abortive medications taken for the same. Group C scored better on pain scales followed by Group B and Group A. Lower proportion of individuals in group C had Behavioural Toxicity and Neurological Side effects as compared to Group A and B.Conclusions: Panch gavya ghrit when administered along with flunarizine was more efficacious and safe when compared with other two groups. However large multicentric RCTs of long duration and involving more number of subjects are required to ascertain these facts

Synthesis and characterization of carbamates derivatives from 4-amino-1,2,4-triazole

Carbamate derivatives are proved to be an essential class of molecules because of their application as drugs and prodrugs. Their several derivatives also have been used to craft the drug-target interfaces by incorporating the carbamate moiety. Due to the huge demand in pharma-industries these have been extensively explored and synthesized. The synthesis and characterization of carbamate derivatives from 4-amino-1,2,4-triazoles and 3-(methylthio)-4-amino-1,2,4-triazoles are described. Carbamate derivatives of 4-amino-1,2,4-triazoles with phenyl chloroformate in CH3CN using K2CO3 at ca. ~80°C have been synthesized with good to excellent yield (~81 to 97%). The methodology has been subsequently extended for synthesis of carbamate derivatives of 3-(methylthio)-4-amino-1,2,4-triazoles in which bicarbamate derivatives are formed as major products (~39 to 47%) along with mono carbamate derivatives as minor products (~9 to 22%) in the presence of similar solvent and base. On investigating the effect of solvent and base, the reaction in CH3CN in presence of K2CO3 shows the best results