IN SILICO DESIGN AND MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDIES OF SOME 1, 2-BENZISOXAZOLE DERIVATIVES FOR THEIR ANALGESIC AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY

Objective: In silico design and molecular docking of 1,2-benzisoxazole derivatives for their analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity using computational methods.Methods: In silico molecular properties of 1,2-benzisoxazole derivatives were predicted using various software's such as Chemsketch, Molinspiration, PASS and Schrodinger to select compounds having optimum drug-likeness, molecular descriptors resembling those of standard drugs and not violating the ‘Lipinski rule of 5'. Molecular docking was performed on active site of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (PDB: 2KSR) for analgesic activity and COX-2 (PDB: 6COX) for anti-inflammatory activity using Schrodinger under maestro molecular modelling environment.Results: From the results of molecular docking studies of 1,2-benzisoxazole derivatives, all the compounds showed good binding interactions with Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and COX-2. Compounds 4a and 4c showed highest binding scores (-7.46 and-7.21 respectively) with nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and exhibited maximum analgesic activity. Compound 4a showed highest binding score (-7.8) with COX-2 and exhibited maximum anti-inflammatory activity.Conclusion: All the derivatives of 1,2-benzisoxazole showed good analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity as predicted using molecular docking on respective receptors

SYNTHESIS AND EVALUATION OF ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITIES OF SOME 1, 2-BENZISOXAZOLE DERIVATIVES

Objective: A series of 1, 2-Benzisoxazole derivatives were synthesized and characterized by various analytical techniques like Melting point, Rf, FTIR, and NMR spectra.Methods: Structures of the compounds were elucidated and evaluated for anti-inflammatory activity by HRBC membrane stabilization method, antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus by cup plate method.Results: The compounds 4a and 4e showed good anti-inflammatory activity compared with standard drug Diclofenac sodium and compounds 4b and 4d showed good antibacterial activity on compared with standard drug Gentamycin.Conclusion: These compounds may serve as future leads for anti-inflammatory and antibacterial drug discovery

Teaching Social Sciences for a Better Future

The ‘haves vs have-nots’ discourse has become a strongly grounded reality in our country with respect to access to education in the past two years. Digital divide persisting in the country is crucial evidence for this. National Sample Survey (2017-18), prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, reported that less than 15 percent of the rural Indian households have internet access whereas it is 42 percent among the urban households. The India Case Study by UNICEF 2021 reported that only 32 percent of rural and 54 percent of urban population of 12+ years have internet access. In fact, other than the role of infrastructure and geography in educational access, gender and class also plays a role. Reports also suggest that the divide between the marginalised and the privileged sections of the society has also widened, particularly in terms of their educational access

The impact of exercise in improving executive function impairments among children and adolescents with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: he goal of this work was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating and comparing exercise related improvements in various executive function (EF) domains among children and adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Methods: A systematic literature research was conducted in PubMed, CENTRAL, and PsycInfo from October 1st, 2018 through January 30th, 2019 for original peer-reviewed articles investigating the relationship between exercise interventions and improvements in three domains of executive function (working memory, attention/set shifting, and response inhibition) among children and adolescents with ADHD, ASD, and FASD. Effect sizes (ES) were extracted and combined with random-effects meta-analytic methods. Covariates and moderators were then analyzed using meta-regression and subgroup analyses. Results: A total of 28 studies met inclusion criteria, containing information on 1,281 youth (N=1197 ADHD, N= 54 ASD, N=30 FASD). For ADHD, exercise interventions were associated with moderate improvements in attention/set-shifting (ES 0.38, 95% CI 0.01-0.75, k=14) and approached significance for working memory (ES 0.35, 95%CI -0.17-0.88, k=5) and response inhibition (ES 0.39, 95%CI -0.02-0.80, k=12). For ASD and FASD, exercise interventions were associated with large improvements in working memory (ES 1.36, 95%CI 1.08-1.64) and response inhibition (ES 0.78, 95%CI 0.21-1.35) and approached significance for attention/set-shifting (ES 0.69, 95% -0.28-1.66). There was evidence of substantial methodologic and substantive heterogeneity among studies. Sample size, mean age, study design, and the number or duration of intervention sessions did not significantly moderate the relationship between exercise and executive function. Conclusion: Exercise interventions among children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders were associated with moderate improvements in executive function domains. Of note, studies of youth with ASD and FASD tended to report higher effect sizes compared to studies of youth with ADHD, albeit few existing studies. Exercise may be a potentially cost-effective and readily implementable intervention to improve executive function in these populations

Identification of Fe and Zn Responsive Genes in Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) through Whole Genome Transcriptome Approach

Micronutrient malnutrition due to iron and zinc deficiencies is a serious public health problem in developing countries. In India alone, about 80% of the pregnant women and 74% of children suffer from iron and zinc deficiency. At present, knowledge of the genes controlling specific steps in the Fe and Zn pathways is still rudimentary hence studying genes of Fe and Zn density has become important. A whole genome RNA-Seq approach was carried out to understand the genes and pathways related to Fe and Zn accumulation in pearl millet. Seedlings of a high Fe and Zn grain density pearl millet inbred ICMB 1505 were exposed to four Fe and Zn stress treatments namely, –Fe –Zn, –Fe +Zn, +Fe –Zn and +Fe +Zn in hydroponics for 12 days (Figure 1). Seedlings were expressed interveinal chlorosis in the leaves due to the non-availability of Fe and Zn compared to control during the stress treatments. At that time, the leaf and root tissues in four treatments were harvested separately. Total RNA was extracted from the treated samples followed by cDNA synthesis. Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform was used to sequence the constructed cDNA libraries. Analysis of differentially expressed genes and pathways associated Fe and Zn is underway. Simultaneously, a set of 40 genotypes with variable Fe and Zn grain density were selected and tissue samples from different plant parts such as seed, flag leaf, root, stem sheath, panicles at anthesis and panicle at milky-stage were collected. RNA was extracted from the samples to validate the genes associated with Fe and Zn homeostasis. The information will be used for accelerated breeding programmes to improve the Fe and Zn density in pearl millet

NIPAH VIRUS INFECTION-A REVIEW

Nipah viral disease is a zoonotic infection caused by Nipah virus (NiV), a paramyxovirus belonging to the genus Henipavirus of the family Paramyxoviridae. First emerged in Malaysia in 1998 and has sinces caused outbreaks in other parts of south and south east Asia. It is an emerging bat-borne pathogen. It causes severe neurological and respiratory disease which is highly lethal. Nipah virus is associated with ingestion of contaminated date palm sap and human-to-human transmission. Bats are the main reservoir for this virus, which can cause disease in humans and animals. Rapid diagnosis and implementation of infection control measures are essential to contain outbreaks. Different types of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays along with molecular methods based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have been developed for diagnostic purposes. A number of serological and molecular diagnostic techniques have been developed for diagnosis and management arise when a new area is affected. However, no effective treatment or prophylaxis is readily available, though several approaches show promise

Brain Activity Patterns Uniquely Supporting Visual Feature Integration after Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients typically respond more slowly and with more variability than controls during tasks of attention requiring speeded reaction time. These behavioral changes are attributable, at least in part, to diffuse axonal injury (DAI), which affects integrated processing in distributed systems. Here we use a multivariate method sensitive to distributed neural activity to compare brain activity patterns of patients with chronic phase moderate to-severe TBI to those of controls during performance on a visual feature integration task assessing complex attentional processes that has previously shown sensitivity to TBI. The TBI patients were carefully screened to be free of large focal lesions that can affect performance and brain activation independently of DAI. The task required subjects to hold either one or three features of a Target in mind while suppressing responses to distracting information. In controls, the multi-feature condition activated a distributed network including limbic, prefrontal, and medial temporal structures. TBI patients engaged this same network in the single-feature and baseline conditions. In multi-feature presentations, TBI patients alone activated additional frontal, parietal, and occipital regions. These results are consistent with neuroimaging studies using tasks assessing different cognitive domains, where increased spread of brain activity changes was associated with TBI. Our results also extend previous findings that brain activity for relatively moderate task demands in TBI patients is similar to that associated with of high task demands in controls

A study of role of doppler in gestational hypertension and perinatal outcome

Background: Hypertensive disorder of pregnancy is one of the most common complications that affect the human pregnancy. Hence it is important to identify women at risk of developing gestational hypertension or preeclampsia, its early diagnosis and subsequent consequences due to uteroplacental insufficiency with help of Doppler ultrasound, to improve perinatal outcome. The objective of this study was to study the application of Doppler ultrasound with analysis of blood flow velocity waveform in gestational hypertension and to examine and study the perinatal outcome in pregnancy with altered Doppler indices.Methods: A prospective study was carried out in 50 antenatal patients diagnosed to have gestational hypertension during a period of 12 months to evaluate the role of color Doppler imaging in gestational hypertension in patients more than 28 weeks of gestation, the initial scan was performed immediately after the diagnosis. This study analyzed the blood flow in umbilical artery, maternal uterine artery and fetal middle cerebral artery using Doppler ultrasound.Results: In this study approximately 76% of cases were found in 20-30 years group. 58% showed abnormal umbilical artery Doppler while 42% women had normal umbilical artery Doppler. In this study 23 cases had cerebro-placental index 1. Cases with cerebro-placental index <1 had various complications like preterm delivery, low birth weight, increased chances of still birth, intra uterine death (IUD), increased NICU admission. In this study 31 cases had abnormal uterine artery Doppler which accounts for 62% of total cases, while 38% had normal uterine artery Doppler.Conclusions: Doppler ultrasound can reliably predict any adverse fetal outcome in hypertensive pregnancies and can be a useful tool for decision making in appropriate timing of intervention for delivery