Thamodaran. P

Not AvailableUsually, most of the genes are biallelically expressed but imprinted gene exhibit monoallelic expression based on their parental origin. Genomic imprinting exhibit differences in control between flowering plants and mammals, for instance, imprinted gene are specifically activated by demethylation, rather than targeted for silencing in plants and imprinted gene expression in plant which occur in endosperm. It also displays sexual dimorphism like differential timing in imprint establishment and RNA based silencing mechanism in paternally repressed imprinted gene. Within imprinted regions, the unusual occurrence and distribution of various types of repetitive elements may act as genomic imprinting signatures. Imprinting regulation probably at many loci involves insulator protein dependent and higher-order chromatin interaction, and/or non-coding RNAs mediated mechanisms. However, placentaspecific imprinting involves repressive histone modifications and non-coding RNAs. The higher-order chromatin interaction involves differentially methylated domains (DMDs) exhibiting sex-specific methylation that act as scaffold for imprinting, regulate allelic-specific imprinted gene expression. The paternally methylated differentially methylated regions (DMRs) contain less CpGs than the maternally methylated DMRs. The non-coding RNAs mediated mechanisms include C/D RNA and microRNA, which are invovled in RNA-guided post-transcriptional RNA modifications and RNA-mediated gene silencing, respectively. The maintenance and reprogramming of imprinting are not significantly affected by reduced expression of Dicer1 and the evolution of imprinting might be related to acquisition of DNMT3L (de novo methyltransferase 3L) by a common ancestor of eutherians and marsupials. The common feature among diverse imprinting control elements and evolutionary significance of imprinting need to be identified.Not Availabl

Role of Santha Santhrothaya Mathirai (SSM), A Siddha Herbo-Mineral Formulation in the Management of Hepatic Disorders – A Review Study

Liver disorders share a larger disease burden of the world every year. Liver disorders are caused by toxic chemicals, drugs, viruses (hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E), excess alcohol intake etc., and are ranked among the top ten killer diseases in India. With only meagre number of dependable drugs available for hepatoprotective action, the present scenario has created a stage for scientific evaluation of traditional medicines in the treatment of liver disorders. The Siddha literature has provided a lot of herbal and herbo- mineral formulations as indications for the management of liver disorders. Though several studies have been done on hepatoprotective herbs in recent years, very minimal researches have been done on herbo-mineral formulations. Therefore this review focuses on the literature search involving both traditional ancient Siddha texts as well as recent researches for hepatoprotective activity on all the ingredients of Santha Santhrodhaya Mathirai (SSM) a classical herbo-mineral formulation that has been indicated for the treatment of Pitha Suram and other biliary disorders.