SYNTHESIS OF DESGLYMIDODRINE FROM MIDODRINE BY CONVENTIONAL AMIDE HYDROLYSIS METHOD

Objective:  The term prodrug involves chemically modifying inert compound which upon administration releases the active parent drug to elicit its pharmacological response within the body. Acting as a α-adrenergic agonist, desglymidodrine an active metabolite of amide prodrug midodrine is used for the treatment of essential and orthostatic hypotension. In the present study synthesis of desglymidodrine from midodrine was reported.Methods:  The synthesis was done by the conventional amide hydrolysis method.Results:  A novel synthesis of desglymidodrine was successfully achieved and spectrally elucidated by infrared spectroscopy (IR), 1H, 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass analysis.Conclusion:  The acquired results were found to be accurate, the synthetic route appeared to be simple, cost-effective and time efficient. Hence the synthesized desglymidodrine can be as a reference standard for the estimation of the same

Use of multiple media for the cultivation of mycobacteria from specimens other than sputum

An investigation was carried out on the efficacy of using multiple media in the isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from specimens other than sputum, during the period 1980-1984. Of a total of 3807 specimens examined, 818 were urine, 1428 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), 567 lymph glands, 94 pus samples, 224 operation specimens, 91 gastric aspirates, 108 ascitic fluid and 477 were other types of specimens. Each specimen was inoculated onto one set of media consisting of two slopes each of ‘Lowenstein-Jensen’ medium (LJ), LJ medium containing 0.5 per cent sodium pyruvate (LJP) and 7H11 oleic acid albumin medim (7H11) and two bottles of selective Kirchner’s liquid medium (KL). In all, 550 (14%) were positive by culture in any one of the four media used. Considering the different media individually, KL had the highest efficiency yielding 339 (62%) of the total 550 positive cultures. Also, KL detected 162 positives which were not positive by any of the other media. This was followed by LJ with 328 (60%) positives. LJ and KL when considered together detected 93 per cent of the positives and LJ, LJP and KL increased the positivity to 99 per cent. Thus LJ and KL seems to be the best combination for the isolation of mycobacteria from specimens other than sputum

High Prevalence of Associated Birth Defects in Congenital Hypothyroidism

Aim. To identify dysmorphic features and cardiac, skeletal, and urogenital anomalies in patients with congenital hypothyroidism. Patients and Methods. Seventeen children with congenital primary hypothyroidism were recruited. Cause for congenital hypothyroidism was established using ultrasound of thyroid and 99mTc radionuclide thyroid scintigraphy. Malformations were identified by clinical examination, echocardiography, X-ray of lumbar spine, and ultrasonography of abdomen. Results. Ten (59%) patients (6 males and 4 females) had congenital malformations. Two had more than one congenital malformation (both spina bifida and ostium secundum atrial septal defect). Five (29%) had cardiac malformations, of whom three had only osteum secundum atrial septal defect (ASD), one had only patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), and one patient had both ASD and PDA. Seven patients (41%) had neural tube defects in the form of spina bifida occulta. Conclusion. Our study indicates the need for routine echocardiography in all patients with congenital hypothyroidism

Financial Satisfaction of Older Person in Bukit Cerakah Selangor, Malaysia

The aging of human society is rapidly becoming a worldwide phenomenon, and now the world as a whole is ageing. The number of the world’s older persons has increased dramatically from only 205 million persons aged 60 years and older in 1950 to 2 billion by 2050. Research on financial satisfaction of older people outside Malaysia has been well documented, but our understanding of this issue in Malaysia remains limited. The present paper present the result of a cross-sectional survey conducted in rural Selangor, Malaysia, to analyze the financial satisfaction of older people. More specifically, the present paper analyzes: (1), demographic and socioeconomic profiles of older persons in rural Selangor Malaysia; (2), income status of older people in rural Selangor Malaysia; (3), level of financial satisfaction of older person, and (4), the importance of financial support from children among older people in rural Selangor Malaysia. This study was conducted in the village of Bukit Cerakah, one of the rural areas in the state of Selangor. This paper is basically employed a descriptive research design. It is used when a researcher seeks a better understanding and measure how variables are naturally distributed. There were 70 older persons aged 50 years and older were chosen through convenience sampling. Data were collected through structured and unstructured interviews with research participants, coupled with observations on their daily lives. Data were analyzed using descriptive and thematic approach. Results of the study revealed that: (1), older persons in this survey are 41 female, and 29 male, young old, aged between 69 or below. 60 of them reported as having primary or secondary school certificate and above, not working and still married; (2), there is substantial variation in their monthly income; from RM200 up to RM3000 per month. Only 44 of them have a monthly income of more than RM870, above poverty line income; (3), the number of older persons who satisfied and not satisfied with their financial situation are almost the same; and (4), there are 55 of older persons perceived financial support from children are important, or very important. To conclude, adult children are very important to older persons. The responsibility of adult children in the study area to support their elderly parents financially is still observed in the study area. Keywords: population ageing; older persons; rural areas; financial satisfaction; well-bein

Genetic variability for grain yield and water use efficiency in blackgram genotypes

Transpiration efficiency (TE, g biomass kg-1 water transpired) is the preferred measure for examining po- tential genetic variation in crop water use efficiency (WUE). TE was assessed gravimetrically from sowing to grain harvest in fifteen blackgram accessions, two checks and two local varieties under well-watered conditions during kharif season. TEbiomass varied from 2.87 - 5.27 g kg-1 and TEseed varied from 1.10 - 2.03 g kg-1 among genotypes. High coefficient of variability was observed for seed yield and TEseed.Total biomass, TEbiomass, HI and water transpired recorded medium coefficient of variability. High heritability in broad sense was observed for seed yield, TEseed and total biomass. High genetic advance as percent of mean was observed for seed yield, TEseed, total biomass and TEbiomass. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for seed yield, total biomass and TEseed.TEseed is significantly positively correlated with TEbiomass (0.883**), seed yield/ plant (0.805**), HI (0.757**) and biomass (0.572*). TEbiomass, seed yield per plant, total biomass and HI were the important components of TEseed as revealed by correlation studies.D2 analysis partitioned the nineteen genotypes in to five clusters. The maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster II and V (24.94) and III and IV (22.6). Genotypes IC436665, IC343952 and Local II (Cluster III) had high mean values for TEbiomass and TEseed along with total biomass and seed yield. These genotypes should be useful in future breeding programs for higher water use efficiency

Retrieval of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultures suspended in phosphate buffered saline

AbstractOne hundred and twenty-seven of 130 isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, suspended in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and stored at ambient conditions in the laboratory for 14days, and another 55 of 60 cultures, suspended as above, transported from reference laboratories within 7days, were successfully retrieved on LJ medium. Considering the maximum retrieval of M. tuberculosis, use of PBS can be explored further for transportation of M. tuberculosis cultures across laboratories

Performance of blackgram genotypes under moisture deficit stress -Variability in physiological and yield contributing attributes

Abstract Water deficit stress is the most important abiotic stresses which affects the physiological parameters and crop yield. Blackgram (Vigna mungo L. Hepper) is one of the highly prized pluses in India and second most important pulse crop. A field experiment was conducted with seventeen blackgram genotypes during 2014 to assess the impact of water deficit stress on physiological parameters such as Anet, gs, Tr, WUE, SPAD chlorophyll meter reading (SCMR) and yield parameters (i.e.) pod number, seed number, pod weight and seed yield. Imposing water deficit stress at flowering stage, the reduction of physiological and yield parameters were observed. The results indicated that a wide diversity among the genotypes in their physiological and yield related parameters under both moisture levels. The genotype IC398971 was found to be physiologically efficient even with water deficit stress and also recorded moderate seed yield. While the genotype PU-19 with moderate physiological values registered highest seed yield under both well watered and water deficit stress conditions. Among the selected germplasm these two genotypes are having tolerant to water deficit stress with better stability of physiological and yield parameters

Novel Molecular Targets of Azadirachta indica Associated with Inhibition of Tumor Growth in Prostate Cancer

Advanced prostate cancer has significant long-term morbidity, and there is a growing interest in alternative and complimentary forms of therapy that will improve the outcomes of patients. Azadirachta indica (common name: neem) contains multiple active compounds that have potent anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties. The present study investigates the novel targets of the anticancer activity of ethanol extract of neem leaves (EENL) in vitro and evaluates the in vivo efficacy in the prostate cancer models. Analysis of the components in the EENL by mass spectrometry suggests the presence of 2′,3′-dehydrosalannol, 6-desacetyl nimbinene, and nimolinone. Treatment of C4-2B and PC-3M-luc2 prostate cancer cells with EENL inhibited the cell proliferation. Genome-wide expression profiling, using oligonucleotide microarrays, revealed genes differentially expressed with EENL treatment in prostate cancer cells. Functional analysis unveiled that most of the up-regulated genes were associated with cell death, and drug metabolism, and the down-regulated genes were associated with cell cycle, DNA replication, recombination, and repair functions. Quantitative PCR confirmed significant up-regulation of 40 genes and immunoblotting revealed increase in the protein expression levels of HMOX1, AKR1C2, AKR1C3, and AKR1B10. EENL treatment inhibited the growth of C4-2B and PC-3M-luc2 prostate cancer xenografts in nude mice. The suppression of tumor growth is associated with the formation of hyalinized fibrous tumor tissue and the induction of cell death by apoptosis. These results suggest that EENL-containing natural bioactive compounds could have potent anticancer property and the regulation of multiple cellular pathways could exert pleiotrophic effects in prevention and treatment of prostate cancer

Differential improvement in transpiration efficiency of C3 and C4 crop plants under elevated CO2 conditions

Sunflower plants (C3) transpired more water than pearl millet (C4) from seedling to maturity under ambient conditions. The transpiration (water use) at elevated CO2 was lesser for pearl millet and higher for sunflower compared to ambient. Elevated atmospheric CO2 increased TE more in pearl millet (21.9%) than in sunflower (10.5%) and decreased the TR or water transpired to produce dry mass by 18.1% in pearl millet and 9.7% in sunflower compared to ambient. As the CO2 content of the air continues to rise, both sunflower (C3) and pearl millet (C4) agriculture crops will respond favorably by exhibiting increases in TE

Inferring the conservative causal core of gene regulatory networks

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Inferring gene regulatory networks from large-scale expression data is an important problem that received much attention in recent years. These networks have the potential to gain insights into causal molecular interactions of biological processes. Hence, from a methodological point of view, reliable estimation methods based on observational data are needed to approach this problem practically.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we introduce a novel gene regulatory network inference (GRNI) algorithm, called C3NET. We compare C3NET with four well known methods, ARACNE, CLR, MRNET and RN, conducting in-depth numerical ensemble simulations and demonstrate also for biological expression data from <it>E. coli </it>that C3NET performs consistently better than the best known GRNI methods in the literature. In addition, it has also a low computational complexity. Since C3NET is based on estimates of mutual information values in conjunction with a maximization step, our numerical investigations demonstrate that our inference algorithm exploits causal structural information in the data efficiently.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>For systems biology to succeed in the long run, it is of crucial importance to establish methods that extract large-scale gene networks from high-throughput data that reflect the underlying causal interactions among genes or gene products. Our method can contribute to this endeavor by demonstrating that an inference algorithm with a neat design permits not only a more intuitive and possibly biological interpretation of its working mechanism but can also result in superior results.</p