Immunogenic Modulations Induced by Prospective Anti-Malarial Herbal Extracts in Murine Model

Keeping in view the ever increasing problem of drug resistance and affordability of the antimalarial drugs by the poor mass, herbal medicines can become an important and alternative sustainable strategy for malaria treatment. Aqueous extracts of three Himalayan herbs― _Equisetum ravense_, _Artemisia vulgaris_ and _Centella asiatica_, with reported antimalarial property were screened for clinical efficacy against a local strain of _Plasmodium vivax_ antigen in murine model. _E. arvense_ extract was consistent in boosting phagocytic activity, nitric oxide generation, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase activities in the peritoneal macrophages. The effectiveness of the rest herbals was discrete. A need for further detailed investigation to evaluate the clinical efficacy of these herbals seems essential

Effect of Cold Stress on Pyridostigmine Pretreated Rats Exposed to an Organophosphorous Compound

Context: Pyridostigmine bromide (PB) is a quaternary ammonium compound and has been approved as a pretreatment drug against toxic organophosphorous (OP) compounds. The stressful demands of modern military activity include a broad range of activities at extreme cold temperatures along with various physical activities. Objective: The effect of “sign free” dose of PB (0.075 mg/kg body weight) against a toxic OP compound diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP) was reassessed in rats. Electrocardiographic (ECG) studies in hypothermic and pretreatment conditions were undertaken to assess the cardioprotective role of PB. Total Antioxidant Status (TAS) was quantified to assess the degree of oxidative stress imposed under such conditions. Possible protective role of pyridostigmine in rat lymphocytes was also determined.Materials& Methods: TAS was estimated spectrophotometrically and the expression of interferon-γ (IFNγ) was measured by Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting. ECG was monitored by standard protocol.Results: ECG recording showed that the PR and QT interval progressively increased along with widening of QRS complex. There was a progressive fall in heart rate as the body temperature decreased. TAS significantly decreased (p≤0.001) in hypothermic conditions and when pretreated with sign free dose of PB before cold induction (p≤0.001). Following immunostaining of lymphocytes by FITC conjugated mouse anti-rat IFNγ monoclonal antibody, 9.1% of lipopolysaccharide elicited parent cells showed positive IFNγ expression. Hypothermic stress inhibited IFNγ expression (3.6% of parent cells) which was recovered to 6.8% upon pre-treatment with sign-free dose of pyridostigmine. Conclusion: This study is indicative of a possible protective role of PB against hypothermic stress

Differential depression of spinal synaptic transmission <i>in vitro </i>by different hypoxic insults

36-42The effects of hypoxia (O2-free), aglycemia (glucose-free), ischemia (O2- and glucose-free) and chemical anoxia (by 3-nitropropionic acid; 3-NPA) were evaluated on the synaptic transmission in vitro. Stimulation of a dorsal root in hemisecled spinal cord from neonatal rat, evoked monosynaptic (MSR) and polysynaptic reflexes (PSR) in the segmental ventral root. In all the hypoxic conditions, the reflexes were depressed in a time-dependent manner. Hypoxia took longer time (> 240 min) to abolish the reflexes where as, aglycemia and ischemia abolished them within 35 min. Recovery after wash was complete in hypoxia, 60-70% in aglycemia and 20-25% in ischemia. The lime required for 50% depression of reflexes (T-50) was also in the same order (100, 23 and 13 min). The elimination of O2 in hypoxic or ischemic solution by N2 bubbling abolished the reflexes within 16 min. The T-50 values in both the conditions were between 5-8 min. Superfusion of 3-NPA (an irreversible inhibitor of succinate dehydrogenase) depressed the reflexes. The abolition time and T-50 values were shorter with the increasing concentrations of 3-NPA. The present results reveal that the energy production in hypoxic condition with normal glucose level can sustain the synaptic activity for a longer time while the glucose deficiency even in normoxic conditions drastically impair the synaptic activity. Further, aglycemia depressed the reflexes almost in a similar time as seen with ischemia

A Novel COMMD1 Mutation Thr174Met associated with Elevated Urinary Copper and Signs of Enhanced Apoptotic Cell death in a Wilson Disease patient

Wilson disease (WD) results from accumulation of copper and caused due to mutations in ATP7B, a copper transporting ATPase. Besides regular hepatic and neurological symptoms, WD patients occasionally manifest atypical symptoms due to unknown cause. To understand the molecular etiology of atypical WD manifestations, we screened COMMD1, a gene implicated in canine copper toxicosis, in 109 WD patients including those with atypical symptoms. In a patient showing apoptotic symptoms and high urinary copper surpassing normal WD levels, we identified a novel, putative mutation in COMMD1. Two other changes were also identified in the gene. We have examined genotypephenotype correlation between the detected changes and the atypical presentation of the WD patient

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Not AvailableFood and feeding biology of freshwater zig-zag eel Mastacembelus armatus (LACEPÈDE, 1800) was investigated from the Allahabad waters of the river Ganga from April 2015 to March 2016. The Stomach contents of 326 individuals of M. armatus were collected monthly from the Daraganj fish landing centre located on the bank of the river Ganga. The composition of food content was expressed as percentage of the frequency of occurrence (%Oi) and percentage of the volume (Vi). The main food items were estimated by Index of preponderance (Ii). The three major food items of M. armatus were the small sized teleosts, insects, and molluscs. The analyses of the relative gut length (RGL) revealed it carnivorous type of feeding habit. The Gastro-Somatic Index (GaSI) in the male and female ranged between 2.65 and 4.41 with a mean of 3.42 ± 0.09 and 2.84 and 3.43 with a mean value of 3.05 ± 0.03. The mean GaSI value differed significantly at 5% level of significance (F = 6.72, p = 0.01) in both the male and female indicated significant variation in the feeding habits between both the sexes. This study furnishes baseline information on the food and feeding habits of M. armatus which could be useful in formulation of the management and conservation strategies of this species in the region.Not Availabl

Molecular Diagnosis of Wilson Disease Using Prevalent Mutations and Informative Single- Nucleotide Polymorphism Markers

Wilson disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by defects in the ATPase, Cu2� transporting, �-polypeptide gene (ATP7B) resulting in accumulation of copper in liver and brain. WD can be thwarted if detected at a presymptomatic stage, but occasional recombination during carrier detection with dinucleotide repeat markers flanking the WD locus may lead to faulty diagnosis. We examined the use of intragenic single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers to avoid this limitation. We prepared genomic DNA from the peripheral blood of Indian WD patients. By use of PCR, we amplified the exons and flanking regions of the WD gene and then performed sequencing to identify the nucleotide variants. We genotyped the SNPs in 1871 individuals by use of the Sequenom mass array system. We made linkage disequilibrium plots using Haploview software. We identified 1 mutation accounting for 11% (19 of 174) of WD chromosomes among patients in addition to 4 prevalent mutations characterized previously. Among 24 innocuous allelic variants identified, we selected 3 SNPs found to have high heterozygosity (>0.40) for the detection of mutant WD chromosomes. On analyzing these SNPs in 28 test individuals, who were sibs to 17 unrelated WD patients, we obtained unequivocal genotyping in 25 cases (approximately 89%). The remaining 3 cases were genotyped by dinucleotide repeat marker (D13S133). Conclusion: Sets of SNP markers are highly heterozygous across most world populations and could be used in combination with analysis of prevalent mutations as a comprehensive strategy for determining presymptomatic and carrier sibs of WD patients. © 2007 American Association for Clinical Chemistr

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Not AvailableThe basic informations on length-weight relationships for a number of small indigenous tropical freshwater species of fish are still scanty or not available on the FishBase. Present investigation reports the weight –length relationships of four teleost species from the river Gang in India. A total of 795 fresh fish specimens belonging to four species were collected from the four different locations along the stretches of the River Ganga from June 2017 to August 2018. The r2 and b values for the four fish species ranged from 0.949 to 0.998 and 2.55 to 2.849, respectively. For three of these species, length-weight relationships data represent the first information.NMC