A study on the efficacy and adverse effects of methotrexate in psoriasis patients in a tertiary care centre

Background: Psoriasis is a common, chronic and recurrent inflammatory disease of the skin. Methotrexate has been used in patient with psoriasis, a folic acid antagonist interfering with purine pathway and the mechanism of action in psoriasis is immune modulation and anti-inflammation. So, this study aims at monitoring the efficacy and adverse effects of methotrexate in south Indian patients with psoriasis attending a tertiary care hospital.Methods: It is a prospective, observational study conducted for a period of one year in subjects of either sex having psoriasis. Methotrexate was initiated in a single weekly oral dose of 5mg to 25mg. The efficacy was evaluated using psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) score in all patients before starting methotrexate therapy and the end of first month, third month and sixth month of therapy. Adverse reaction was monitored.Results: All 40 psoriasis patients after treatment with methotrexate therapy showed improved  skin lesions by falling PASI scoring at the end of first, third and sixth month of treatment. None of the patients in our study had pulmonary toxicity, life threatening adverse effects which required hospitalization.Conclusions: Use of methotrexate in the treatment of psoriasis in this study was found to be safe and highly efficacious and caused minimal adverse effects and it was well tolerated

Factors affecting the extraction of from Jawasee

Various experimental procedures for the extraction of protease from jawasee powder were adopted to ascertain optimum conditions for leaching- deionized distilled water at pH 7.0 and 37° C was found to extract maximum enzyme in 24 hours. The jawasee powder is optimally active at pH 6.0 with 2.5% egg albumin as a substrate. Sodium chloride at higher concentration inhibits the enzyme considerably. Strong inhibitory action was observed in case of 4 preservatives, namely, para-chloro-meta-cresol, sodium pentachlorophenate, phenyl mercuric nitrate and sodium tri-chlorophenate

A Study on the Efficacy and Adverse Effects of Immunosuppressant Drugs in Chronic Skin Diseases

AIM: Chronic skin diseases include autoimmune diseases like psoriasis, pemphigus vulgaris and systemic sclerosis which require long term drug therapy. The present study was undertaken to monitor the efficacy and adverse effects of immunosuppressant drugs used in chronic skin diseases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 80 newly diagnosed chronic skin diseases patients were included for the study after obtaining ethical clearance. They were started on Methotrexate, Dexamethasone - Cyclophosphamide pulse therapy, Azathioprine, folic acid, calcium and antiulcer agents. Response was assessed by at the end of first, third and sixth month of therapy. In patients with psoriasis the treatment efficacy was monitored by Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) score. In patients with pemphigus vulgaris the treatment efficacy was monitored by Pemphigus Area and Activity Score (PAAS) and in patients with systemic sclerosis the treatment efficacy was monitored by modified Rodnan’s skin scores (MRSS). Tolerability was assessed by haematological and clinical examinations. RESULTS: Of 80 patients who completed the study 45% were males and 55% were females. The mean age of diagnosis was 38.69 ± 10.67 years. There was statistically significant (p< 0.0001) reduction in the PASI Score, PAAS, MRSS at the end of first, third and sixth month of therapy, which showed better response to drug therapy. The adverse effects observed in the study are nausea, vomiting, gastritis, microcytic anaemia and others. These adverse effects were managed by anti emetics, proton pump inhibitors, folic acid, iron supplementation and calcium. CONCLUSION: From this study we conclude that extensive use of conventional daily steroids often results in disabling and life threatening adverse effects. The concomitant uses of immunosuppressant drugs like methotrexate, dexamethasone – cyclophosphamide pulse therapy were well tolerated and efficacious in autoimmune skin diseases

Antinociceptive effect of methanolic extract of Murraya koenigii leaves in swiss albino mice

Background: The objective of the study was to evaluate anti-nociceptive effect of methanolic extract of Murraya koenigii leaves on thermal and mechanical pain in swiss albino mice.Methods: Thirty adult male swiss albino mice weighing 25-30 grams were selected and allocated in to five groups. Each group consists of six animals. The control group received vehicle (10 ml/kg), standard group received morphine (10 mg/kg) and test groups received dried methanolic extract of Murraya koenigii leaves (100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, 400 mg/kg per oral respectively) 1 hour before placing the animal over the hot plate at temperature of 55⁰C . A cut off period of 10 sec was observed to avoid damage of the paw. The response in the form of withdrawal of paws or licking of the paws. The delay in the reaction time denotes analgesic activity. The latency was recorded before and after 15, 30, 60, 120 minutes administration of drug. After washout period of 1 month the same group of animals were utilized to evaluate the analgesic effect by tail clip method for better comparison.Results: All the doses of Murraya koenigii leaves significantly delayed reaction time in hot plate method and tail clip method. The results were comparable to that produced by standard drug morphine.Conclusions: Murraya koenigii leaves has analgesic activity which was comparable to morphine

Validation of Effective Extracellular Vesicles Isolation Methods Adapted to Field Studies in Malaria Endemic Regions.

Malaria affects the poorer regions of the world and is of tremendous health and economic burden for developing countries. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small vesicles released by almost any cells in the human body, including malaria infected red blood cells. Recent evidence shows that EVs might contribute to the pathogenesis of malaria. In addition, EVs hold considerable value in biomarker discovery. However, there are still significant gaps in our understanding of EV biology. So far most of our knowledge about EVs in malaria comes from in vitro work. More field studies are required to gain insight into their contribution to the disease and pathogenesis under physiological conditions. However, to perform research on EVs in low-income regions might be challenging due to the lack of appropriate equipment to isolate EVs. Therefore, there is a need to develop and validate EV extraction protocols applicable to poorly equipped laboratories. We established and validated two protocols for EV isolation from cell culture supernatants, rodent and human plasma. We compared polyethylene glycol (PEG) and salting out (SA) with sodium acetate for precipitation of EVs. We then characterized the EVs by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Western Blot, Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), bead-based flow cytometry and protein quantification. Both protocols resulted in efficient purification of EVs without the need of expensive material or ultracentrifugation. Furthermore, the procedure is easily scalable to work with large and small sample volumes. Here, we propose that both of our approaches can be used in resource limited countries, therefore further helping to close the gap in knowledge of EVs during malaria

Synthesis and characterization of a novel nonlinear optical hyperbranched polymer containing a highly performing chromophore

We report herein the peripheral functionalization of a high glass transition temperature hyperbranched polyimide with a new and highly performing electro-optic chromophore for the elaboration of a second-order nonlinear optical material. In this study, the CPO1 chromophore was selected for its very high quadratic hyperpolarizability coefficient (μβ = 31,000 ⋅ 10−48 esu at 1990 nm) and its ease of synthesis in multigram scale. As a result, the new electro-optic polymer was characterized by an r33 coefficient around 40 pm/V at 1.5 µm, although the poling conditions were not optimized. For sake of comparison, the electro-optic r33 coefficient of our previously reported similar polymer functionalized with the well-known Disperse Red One chromophore was also measured using the technique and gave a much lower r33 coefficient. This study underscores that hyperbranched polymers are particularly promising matrices to host highly efficient chromophore to achieve more efficient and more stable electro-optic devices than classical linear polymers

Metal Ion Promoted Hydrolysis of p-Nitrophenyl Anthranilates, Glutarate, Salicylate, ɑ-Thiophenate & ɑ-Furoate

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Isolation and purification of alhagan, a neutral protease from jawasee

This article does not have an abstract

Fungal lipase and its use in easing sheep skins

The optimum conditions for the maximum hydrolysis of skin lipid by a fungal lipase have been standardised. The skin lipid is found to be optimally hydrolysed at a pH between 5.8-7.9 and at 30&#176;-370&#176;C for one hour. A process for the manufacture of suede clothing leather using this fungal lipase as the decreasing agent has been developed. Using enzymatic pretanning processes viz., unhairing, bating and degreasing, the total load of tannery effluent has been minimised. Comparative chemical, physical and microscopical studies of the quality of leather thus produced from sheep skins showed the good degreasing efficiency of fungal lipase