Yeast expressed recombinant Hemagglutinin protein of Novel H1N1 elicits neutralising antibodies in rabbits and mice

Currently available vaccines for the pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 produced in chicken eggs have serious impediments viz limited availability, risk of allergic reactions and the possible selection of sub-populations differing from the naturally occurring virus, whereas the cell culture derived vaccines are time consuming and may not meet the demands of rapid global vaccination required to combat the present/future pandemic. Hemagglutinin (HA) based subunit vaccine for H1N1 requires the HA protein in glycosylated form, which is impossible with the commonly used bacterial expression platform. Additionally, bacterial derived protein requires extensive purification and refolding steps for vaccine applications. For these reasons an alternative heterologous system for rapid, easy and economical production of Hemagglutinin protein in its glycosylated form is required. The HA gene of novel H1N1 A/California/04/2009 was engineered for expression in Pichia pastoris as a soluble secreted protein. The full length HA- synthetic gene having α-secretory tag was integrated into P. pastoris genome through homologous recombination. The resultant Pichia clones having multiple copy integrants of the transgene expressed full length HA protein in the culture supernatant. The Recombinant yeast derived H1N1 HA protein elicited neutralising antibodies both in mice and rabbits. The sera from immunised animals also exhibited Hemagglutination Inhibition (HI) activity. Considering the safety, reliability and also economic potential of Pichia expression platform, our preliminary data indicates the feasibility of using this system as an alternative for large-scale production of recombinant influenza HA protein in the face of influenza pandemic threat

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Not AvailablePromotion of women entrepreneurship is a dependable path to economic stability of women and her family. It leads to more spending on education and health, increased decision making power and reduced gender discrimination. Besides there are certain other reasons for spread of women entrepreneurship viz. its close link to social, cultural, religious and psychological variables; the flexible nature of work that combines gainful employment with domestic responsibilities; economic demands specially in rural women, and above all the modernization that snatches bread and butter of an increasing number and proportion of women. This attracted the attention of policymakers and planners towards the significance of women’s productive activities and their need of income generation through entrepreneurship. Keeping in view the above facts, All India Coordinated Research Project on Home Science, FRM component under the objective “Empowerment of Women through Capacity Building” conducted intensive training programmes in three adopted villages of Ludhiana district to improve the knowledge of women for better living and to empower them for undertaking income generating projects so that they can contribute towards family income and improve the financial status of their families. Different training programmes were conducted to impart knowledge to total 80 participants (at Bhata-Dhua village) Further, impact analysis of the training programmes was done and the results shows that almost all the respondents gain full knowledge of all the aspects of training programmes. But most of them used the knowledge gained through different trainings for making articles to fulfill their household needs or to give these items to their friends and relatives. There were only few respondents who use the knowledge of candle making for earning money for their families.Not Availabl

Towards building an intelligent decision support system for project management

Management of large projects, especially the ones in which a major component of R&D is involved and those requiring knowledge from diverse specialised and sophisticated fields, may be classified as semi-structured problems. In these problems, there is some knowledge about the nature of the work involved, but there are also uncertainties associated with emerging technologies. In order to draw up a plan and schedule of activities of such a large and complex project, the project manager is faced with a host of complex decisions that he has to take, such as, when to start an activity, for how long the activity is likely to continue, etc. An Intelligent Decision Support System (IDSS) which aids the manager in decision making and drawing up a feasible schedule of activities while taking into consideration the constraints of resources and time, will have a considerable impact on the efficient management of the project. This report discusses the design of an IDSS that helps in project planning phase through the scheduling phase. The IDSS uses a new project scheduling tool, the Project Influence Graph (PIG)

Role of electronic energy loss on the magnetic properties Of Mg0.95Mn0.05Fe2O4 nanoparticles

Effects of 100 MeV Si7+ and Ni8+ ion irradiation on Mg-Mn ferrite nanoparticles have been studied. The bulk sample was synthesized using the solid-state reaction technique. For obtaining nanoparticles, the bulk sample was milled using high-energy ball mill for 12 h. The well-characterized nanoparticles having an average particle size of similar to 6 nm were irradiated with 100 MeV Si and Ni ions at various fluences in the range 5 x 10(12)-5 x 10(13) ions/cm(2) to see the effects of increasing electronic energy loss on their magnetic properties. The magnetization measurements performed on the 100 MeV Si ion irradiated nanoparticles sample revealed that the values of coercivity and the saturation magnetization have been enhanced about two times as compared to the unirradiated sample. It is explained on the basis that after irradiation by 100 MeV Si ions, the surface states pinning of domains is released which causes enhancement in the saturation magnetization and coercivity. On the other hand, the saturation magnetization decreases slightly after irradiation by Ni ions. The results have been explained on the basis of electronic energy loss dependence in the nanoparticles. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.2481374

Role of interparticle interactions on the magnetic behavior of Mg0.95Mn0.05Fe2O4 ferrite nanoparticles

We present here a detailed investigation of the static and dynamic magnetic behavior of a Mg0.95Mn0.05Fe2O4 spinel ferrite nanoparticle system synthesized by high-energy ball milling of almost identical particle size distributions ( = 4.7, 5.1 and 6.0 +/- 0.6 nm). The samples were characterized by using x-ray diffraction, Mossbauer spectroscopy, dc magnetization and frequency dependent real. chi'(T) and imaginary chi ''(T) parts of ac susceptibility measurements. The zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) magnetization have been recorded in a low field and show a behavior typical of superparamagnetic particles above a temperature of 185 +/- 5 K, which is further supported from the temperature dependent Mossbauer measurements. The fact that the blocking temperature calculated from the ZFC magnetization and Mossbauer data are almost similar gives a clear indication of the interparticle interactions among these nanoparticle systems. This is further supported from the FC magnetization curves, which are almost flat below a certain temperature (less than the blocking temperature), as compared with the monotonically increasing behavior characteristics of non-interacting superparamagnetic particles. A shift of the blocking temperature with increasing frequency was observed in the real. chi'(T) and imaginary. chi ''(T) parts of the ac susceptibility measurements. The analysis of the results shows that the data fit well with the Vogel-Fulcher law, whereas trials using the Neel -Brown and power law are unproductive. The role of magnetic interparticle interactions on the magnetic behavior, namely superparamagnetic relaxation time and magnetic anisotropy, are discussed.202

Magnetic study of Mg0.95Mn0.05Fe2O4 ferrite nanoparticles

The magnetic properties of Mg0.95Mn0.05Fe2O4 ferrite samples with an average particle size of similar to 6.0 +/- 0.6 nm have been studied using X-ray diffraction, Mossbauer spectroscopy, dc magnetization and frequency dependent real chi'(T) and imaginary chi'(T) parts of ac susceptibility measurements. A magnetic transition to an ordered state is observed at about 195 K from Mossbauer measurements. The zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) magnetization have been recorded at low field and show the typical behavior of a small particle system. The ZFC curve displays a broad maximum at T-mean = 195 +/- 5 K, a temperature which depends upon the distribution of particle volumes in the sample. The FC curve was nearly flat below T-mean, as compared with monotonically increasing characteristics of non-interacting superparamagnetic systems indicating the existence of strong interactions among the nanoparticles. A frequency-dependent peak observcd in chi'(T) is well described by Vogel-Fulcher law, yielding a relaxation time tau(0) = 5.8 x 10(-12) s and an interaction parameter T-0 = 195 +/- 3 K. Such values show the strong interactions and rule out the possibility of spin-glass (SG) features among the nanoparticle system. On the other hand fitting with the Neel-Brown model and the power law yields an unphysical large value of tau(0) (similar to 6 x 10(-69) and 1.2 x 10(-22) s respectively). (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.141420320

Growth kinetics and immune response of chimeric foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype `O' produced through replication competent mini genome of serotype Asia 1, 63/72, in BHK cell lines

Regular vaccinations with potent vaccine, in endemic countries and vaccination to live in non-endemic countries are the methods available to control foot-and-mouth disease. Selection of candidate vaccine strain is not only cumbersome but the candidate should grow well for high potency vaccine preparation. Alternative strategy is to generate an infectious cDNA of a cell culture-adapted virus and use the replicon for development of tailor-made vaccines. We produced a chimeric `O' virus in the backbone of Asia 1 and studied its characteristics. The chimeric virus showed high infectivity titre (>10(10)) in BHK 21 cell lines, revealed small plague morphology and there was no cross reactivity with antiserum against Asia I. The virus multiplies rapidly and reaches peak at 12 h post infection. The vaccine prepared with this virus elicited high antibody titres