Antileishmanial potential of a marine sponge Haliclona oculata against experimental visceral leishmaniasis

Objective: To evaluate the antileishmanial activity of a marine sponge Haliclona oculata. Methods: The crude methanol extract was prepared from the freshly collected sponge and its three fractions were also prepared by maceration method. The antileishmanial activity of these extract and fractions was tested against Leishmania donovani. Results: The antileishmanial activity was tested both in vitro and in vivo. The crude methanol extract exerted almost complete inhibition of promastigotes (81.0% ± 6.9%) and 78.8% ± 5.2% inhibition of intracellular amastigotes at 100 μg/mL with IC50 values of 29.5 μg/mL and 40.6 μg/mL, respectively. The treatment of 500 mg/kg (p.o.) of the crude methanol extract for 5 d for Leishmania donovani infected hamsters resulted in 78.35% ± 10.20% inhibition of intracellular amastigotes. At a lower dose (250 mg/kg), it exhibited poor efficacy. Among the fractions, highest in vitro (>75%) and in vivo (84.3% ± 10.2%) antileishmanial activity was observed in n-chloroform fraction with IC50 values of 54.2 μg/mL and 61 μg/mL against promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes, respectively. Hexane fraction and n-butanol (both insoluble and soluble) fractions were found inactive in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that this marine sponge has the potential to provide new insight toward development of an effective antileishmanial agent and, hence, more exhaustive studies are needed for exploiting the vast marine resources of the world to combat the scourge of several parasitic diseases

An Overview of Family Hernandiaceae

Hernandiaceae is a family of higher plants, possessing a large number of bioactive compounds. The present review reveals the total compounds isolated, characterized from the family, till dat

ANTIDIABETIC AND ANTIDYSLIPIDEMIC ACTIVITY OF ETHYL ACETATE FRACTIONS OF XYLOCARPUS GRANATUM AND XYLOCARPUS MOLLUCCENSIS ON HIGH FRUCTOSE HIGH FAT AND HIGH SUCROSE HIGH FAT FED-LOW DOSED STREPTOZOTOCIN TREATED DIABETIC RATS

Objectives: The present study was carried out to investigate the antidiabetic and antidyslipidemic effect of standardized fractions of X. granatum (CDR-134 F194) and X. molluccensis (CDR-267 F018) by measuring the status of blood glucose, serum insulin, lipid levels, hepatic and renal function markers of high fructose high fed streptozotocin treated rats and high sucrose high fat diet fed-low dosed Streptozotocin treated diabetic rats.Methods: Male rats of Sprague Dawley strain of body weight around 150 g when kept on high fructose high fat diet and high sucrose high fat diet for two weeks, respectively, showed abnormal glucose tolerance, dyslipidemia and obesity and at this stage when streptozotocin was given intraperitoneally at 45.0 mg/kg body weight caused persistent hyperglycemia in them addition to dyslipidemia along with impairment in their hepatic and renal functions.Results: The standardized fractions of X. granatum (CDR-134 F194) and X. molluccensis (CDR-267F018) when given to these high fructose high fat fed low dosed streptozotocin treated diabetic rats or high sucrose high fat diet fed-low dosed streptozotocin treated diabetic rats for 10 consecutive days showed significant improvement in their glucose intolerance, decline in their serum triglycerides and LDL-cholesterol levels. These CDR-134 F194 and CDR-267 F018 treated rats also showed elevation in their HDL-cholesterol levels and improvement in their hepatic and renal functions as evidenced by decline in SGOT, SGPT, urea, uric acid and creatinine levels.Conclusion: The present study thus concludes that the antidiabetic efficacy of standardized fractions of X. granatum (CDR-134 F194) and X. molluccensis (CDR-267F018) have favorable effect in bringing down the severity of hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, decline the increased level of renal and hepatic function markers and also improving glucose tolerance activity

ANTIHYPERGLYCEMIC AND ANTIDYSLIPIDEMIC ACTIVITY IN ETHYL ACETATE FRACTION OF THE FRUITS OF XYLOCARPUS GRANATUM AND XYLOCARPUS MOLUCCENSIS

Objectives: Although various species of Xylocarpus i. e. Granatum, moluccensis are known for their medicinal properties. Yet, its anti-diabetic activity remains to be defined. So the aim of this study was to evaluate the antihyperglycemic and antidyslipidemic activity in ethyl acetate fraction of the fruits of X. granatum and X. moluccensis on validated animal models as well as in-vitro glucose uptake stimulatory effect and their cytotoxicity effect in L6 skeletal muscle cells.Methods: The ethyl acetate fraction of the fruits of X. granatum and X. moluccensis were administered to diabetic groups daily up to 10 days for prolonged study. Biochemical parameters notably glucose tolerance, insulin level, lipid profile were assessed. The ethyl acetate fraction of the fruits of X. granatum and X. moluccensis were also tested for glucose uptake effect by skeletal muscle cells in the concentration dependent manner.Results: The present study show that the ethyl acetate fraction of the fruits of X. granatum as well as X. moluccensis are effective in improving glucose tolerance, declining blood glucose as well as serum cholesterol and triglycerides levels in low dosed streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and dyslipidemic hamsters, respectively. These fractions were also found efficient in increasing glucose uptake by L6 skeletal muscle cells but did not show any effect on cell viability of L6 skeletal muscle cells.Conclusion: Based on the results, the present study revealed that ethyl acetate fraction of the fruits of X. granatum and X. moluccensis lowered blood glucose profile by increasing the glucose uptake by L-6 and this may be the possible mechanisms for the antidiabetic and antidyslipidemic action

Revealing an OSELM based on traversal tree for higher energy adaptive control using an efficient solar box cooker

The solar cooker represents a challenging scientific design. Its non-regular rechargeable system and the restriction imposed by the required availability quantity are the main issues. The use of a bar plate coated with nanolayer materials helps to stimulate and control the multifaceted performances for the cooker vessels. Further, it was noted that the traditional human methods are not capable to stimulate an efficient design for thermal applications, because the environment cannot adapt to the variable source. To overcome these challenges, we have used the approaches of adaptive neural network-based controls which further consider other parameters as the smaller family, measured conjunction, enormous period of feeding and below performances. Therefore, a novel solar cooker based on adaptive control through an online Sequential Extreme Learning Machine (OSELM) is presented and discussed. The use of OSELM enables also to detect an off-line physical activity process. The proposed solar cooker includes a bar plate coated with nanolayer materials (SiO2/TiO2 nanoparticles) which is responsible for physical accelerated activity of energy absorption. The feasibility scheme to validate this study is based on the calculation of extensive heat transfer process. By using the furious SiO2/TiO2 nanoparticles for the Stepped solar bar plate cooker (SSBC) the efficiency was increased by 37.69% and 49.21% using 10% and 15% volume fractions of nanoparticles

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Application of Fixed Point Theorem to Solvability for Non-Linear Fractional Hadamard Functional Integral Equations

In the present paper, our main work aims to discover the existence result of the fractional order non-linear Hadamard functional integral equations on [1,a] by employing the theory of measure of non-compactness together with the fixed point theory in Banach space. An example is presented to see the validity and practicability of our existence result

A New Gastroprotective Effect of Limonoid Compounds Xyloccensins X and Y from Xylocarpus Molluccensis in Rats

[Image: see text

Antidiabetic potential of Musa paradisiaca in Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Abstract Aim: Over the last few decades the role of medicinal plants as a primary tool in the preservation of health and management of diseases is realized with great concern. This is mainly due to the use of synthetic drug molecules that produce harmful side effects, which are comparatively minimal in drugs of plant origin. The Antidiabetic activity of the flowers has been reported in the literature, but not studied systematically all parts of the M. paradisiacal (Linn.). Therefore, we have selected this plant to study all other parts of this in detail for its antidiabetic potential. Methods: The ethanolic extracts of leaves, fruit peels, stems and roots were prepared at room temperature and the extracts showing antidiabetic activity were fractionated into 4 fractions by maceration method (hexane, chloroform, n-butanol solubles an n-butanol insoluble fractions). Results: The ethanolic extracts and the hexane and chloroform fractions of leaves and fruit peels showed promising antidiabetic activity in STZ-s model. Further the isolated compounds from the active fractions did not show the antidiabetic activity. Conclusion: Further work on active molecules from this plant is required to get a lead molecule for the development of a new and potent antidiabetic drug