Amino acid variants in human transglutaminase 2 and their biological relevance

Transglutaminases are a family of Ca2+-dependent protein transamidating and cross-linking enzymes involved in variety of biological processes. The Transglutaminase 2 (TG2) is an unique member of the transglutaminase family with several enzymatic, non-enzymatic activities and interacting partners and has been implicated in multiple disease states. In this study, novel amino acid clusters in human TG2 were identified and computational predictions revealed that these peptide sequences contribute to increasing stability of human TG2 and could potentially regulate vital functions. Based on the information from exome databases, TG2 non-synonymous single nucleotide variants were rare and under selective evolutionary constraint compared to other members of transglutaminase family. The damaging non-synonymous single nucleotide variants destabilize the protein structure and can influence vital functions. The transamidase and isopeptidase activities of TG2 were successfully separated by site-directed mutagenesis. Moreover, TG2 transamidase activity was shown to be involved in the formation of covalently cross-linked protein polymers and the potential role of isopeptidase activity in reversing the protein crosslinks was also demonstrated. Finally, a kinetic real-time protein based method to monitor the isopeptidase activity of TG2 was successfully developed.d

MULTILINGUAL VOICE SUPPORT FOR CONTACT CENTER AGENTS

In a contact center, when a caller elects to speak to an agent the call will be routed (based on the language that the caller chose) to an agent who can speak the language that was selected by the caller. A global company with operations or offices in many different countries faces the challenge of communicating in multiple languages, something that is a key to providing excellent customer service. In particular, it can be challenging for a company to achieve such a capability when they simply cannot hire a customer support agent for every possible language. To address such challenges, techniques are presented herein that support eliminating the language barrier between agents and callers, providing a single contact center expert catering to customer needs across the globe without any region and locale barriers. The presented techniques support extracting a caller language code (during both traditional interactive voice response (IVR) and conversational IVR phases) and using same to eliminate the language barrier between a caller and an agent by integrating a language translation service into contact center products. Aspects of the presented techniques leverage the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). The presented techniques offer a number of benefits, including providing a cost reduction to a contact center, reducing the need to hire multilingual agents, etc

Toxic effects of chromium on the aquatic cyanobacterium Oscillatoria sp and removal of chromium by biosorption

“Chromium” is a non-essential metal for microorganisms and plants and a serious pollutant in diverse environment conditions. The hexavalent form of the metal Cr (IV) is considered to be more toxic than relatively harmless Cr(III) form. Certain microorganisms in the environment are able to tolerate high levels of Cr due to their resistance mechanism. In the present work we report the toxic effect of chromium on Oscillatoria sp and the removal of hexavalent using the cyanobacterium Oscillatoria sp., by biosorption method. Oscillatoria sp., was grown in BG-11 medium containing different concentration of Cr. Effect of Cr on cellular metabolism was studied by estimating the amount of chlorophyll a, carotenoids,  c. phycocyanin, allophycocyanin, sugars, free amino acids and proteins at various metal concentration. An increase in metal concentration caused a decrease in the growth of the Oscillatoria sp., and also decreased the cellular contents like chlorophyll a, carotenoids, c.phycocyanin, allophycocyanin, sugars, free amino acids and proteins. Biosorption of chromium by Oscillatoria sp., was carried out using living cells, heat killed cells and pre-treated cells. Results showed that high amount of metal were adsorbed by heat killed and living cells of Oscillatoria sp. The experimental conditions used in the present work are simple and have low operational cost. The proposed biosorption method is economically feasible and eco-friendly in nature

Characterization of Internalization, Recycling and Downregulation of Muscarinic Receptors

Muscarinic receptors mediate the responses elicited to the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. Specifically, muscarinic receptors mediate exocrine glandular secretion, smooth muscle contraction and decreased heart rate and contractile force. Five subtypes of muscarinic receptors have been cloned and they undergo a process of agonist-dependent regulation, which involves desensitization, internalization, recycling and downregulation. This study was designed to characterize the kinetics and extent of internalization, recycling and downregulation of muscarinic receptors expressed individually in CHO cells and to identify subtype-specific differences in these processes. The mechanisms of downregulation of muscarinic receptors expressed in CHO cells were also investigated by using proteasomal and lysosomal inhibitors. Additionally, deletion mutations were made in the third intracellular loop and C-terminal tail region of the muscarinic M 1 receptor to identify regions responsible for recycling or downregulation.There are subtype-specific differences in the internalization, recycling and downregulation of muscarinic receptors. The rank order for carbachol-induced internalization was M 2 > M 4 = M 5 > M 3 = M 1 . Unlike M 2 receptors, M 1 , M 3 , M 4 and M 5 receptors recycled back to the plasma membrane following 1 h carbachol treatment. M 1 receptor downregulated to a greater extent compared to other subtypes. The downregulation of M 1 , M 3 , M 4 and M 5 receptors was affected by proteasomal inhibitors, while lysosomal inhibitors affected the downregulation of M 2 and M 4 receptors. The M 1 deletion mutants (M 1 del 276-282 and M 1 del 447-459) signaled through activation of phospholipase C activation and were able to bind to [3H]NMS. Additionally, the internalization of M 1 deletion mutants was indifferent from those of the wild-type M 1 receptor. However, both deletion mutants had an impaired recycling and downregulation. The C-terminal deletion (K447-Q459) significantly affected the downregulation of M 1 receptor, suggesting a role of this domain in mediating M 1 receptor downregulation.Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biolog

A study on range of hip and knee motion in normal individuals performing muslim prayers

INTRODUCTION There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and the act of praying represent a paramount and fundamental activity of daily living in their community. They need to adopt several postures that require deep flexion of knee and hip joints to carry out this daily ritual. The increased demand in the range of motion for the lower limb joints has been a focus of interest, in the improvement of arthroplasty implants. This will allow an individual to carry out their responsibility as a Muslim and be well received in this society. However, there is a lack of data on normative range of motion studies for the knee and hip joint during Muslim prayers. The intention of this study was to simultaneously obtain normative passive range of flexion data and the functional range of flexion during Muslim prayers in the knee and hip joints of Malay individuals. METHODS A cohort of 127 Malay males aged between 20 and 30 years were recruited in this cross sectional study. Passive range of motion (PROM) and the flexion angle of the knee and hip joints were measured using a standard goniometer. Demographic and the range of motion data were collected. The effects of body mass index (BMI), abdominal circumference (AC) and limb circumferences (LC) on range of motion were analyzed. RESULTS The demographic and range of motion data was tabulated and presented as minimum and maximum range, mean and standard deviation. The passive range of motion for the knee and hip joints in this study was comparable to other existing normative range of motion database. The variables BMI and AC demonstrated a significant correlation with the knee joint (R2= 0.66). Whereas BMI was the only variable showing correlation for the hip joint (R2= 0.49 ). The recorded mean flexion for Muslim prayers was 0.24, 128.52 and 163.59 degrees for the knee during bowing, prostration and sitting respectively. The mean flexion in the hip joint for the said movement was 53.67, 92.52 and 75.15 correspondingly. CONCLUSION The mean (SD) of the passive knee flexion and passive hip flexion were 141.10(6.60) and 122.10(8.70) degrees respectively which are similar to the values reported previously in the literature. The BMI had significant correlation with both the knee PROM as well as the hip PROM, whereas, the abdominal circumference had only significant correlation for the knee PROM. The limb circumference did not have any significant correlation with both the knee and hip PROM. The predictive equation was also obtained by regression analysis to determine the expected degree of flexion in our local population and is included in the study

Biomaterial implants in the treatment of oncology: a review

In globally, cancer is a second leading disease next to cardiovascular diseases in non-communicable diseases, which affect the all ages, sex, social status, ethnicity and primary cause of illness related death. Traditionally, systemic delivery drug systems like chemotherapy via oral capsule, injections of nanoparticles/micro particles, immunotherapy and others, which can inhibit or halt the progression of tumors. The short half-life of drugs which cannot achieve the targeted dose level to the tumor site and not able to target desired cell and commonly produces the organ toxicity. Recently, researchers have been attempting to direct delivery agents for cancer therapy. One of the best methods is a local therapy system, which deliver the drug directly via implantable procedure and it’s achieved the maximum concentration of the desire drug at the tumor site, non-target systemic exposure and minimize the organ toxicity to the patients. Biomaterial implants are widely used in the local concurrent delivery of chemotherapy and anti-angiogenic agents, local delivery of poly-chemotherapy, gene therapy as an alternative to drug delivery, scaffolds for cancer immunotherapy and polymer-based composites of drug molecules. There are different types of polymers like poly anhydride poly [bis (p-carboxy-phenoxy) propane-sebacic acid] copolymer [p(CPP:SA)], fatty acid dimer-sebacic acid copolymer (FAD-SA), poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) copolymer (PLGA), poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL), poly (glycerol monostearate-co-caprolactone), alginate and silica, used in successively cancer therapy. In order to minimize the risk of unwanted side effect of different types of biomaterials implants, it’s biocompatible to reduce the ability to elicit the inflammatory effect to the implanted area or the site. Therefore, the key role of choosing the appropriate and biocompatible implants to particular therapy is an indispensable. This should be validated with respect to risk benefit ratio in case of cancers. Biomaterial based implant local delivery systems provide more versatile and tailorable approach to against treatment of different types of the cancer

A NOVEL METHOD FOR ISOLATION AND TRILINEAGE DIFFERENTIATION OF RAT BONE MARROW DERIVED MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS

Objective: Goal of this study is to find a simple method for isolation, colony formation and Trilineage differentiation of Mesenchymal stem cells frombone marrow of Wistar Rat. Adherent capacity, morphology, trilineage differentiation and colony formation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cellswere studied in low glucose, high glucose Dulbecco modified eagle medium with various concentration of fetal bovine serum.Methods: Mesenchymal stem cells were isolated from bone marrow of Wistar rat by Ficoll (sigma) density gradient centrifugation with plasticadherence method. Bone marrow was collected from femur and Tibia of 6-weeks-old Wistar rat; Bone marrow was cultured in Dulbecco's modifiedEagles's medium (DMEM) with low glucose, high glucose supplement (Invitrogen) and 10%, 15% of fetal bovine serum (FBS) at the density of1 × 106, incubated at 37°C in 5% of CO; adherent capacity, colony formation were studied. Differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(BMMSCs) was monitored under suitable differentiation medium. The cells were refeed every 3-4 days and passaged when the cells reached 80-90%confluences.2Result: BMMSCs were adhered in tissue culture flask at 24 hrs, 48 hrs in high glucose and low glucose DMEM with 10% of FBS, respectively. Colonyformation was faster in high glucose and low glucose DMEM with 15% of FBS compared to high glucose and low glucose DMEM with10% FBS.Morphological changes were observed in BMMSCs high glucose, low glucose DMEM with 10% FBS, but no changes were found in the differentiationof BMMSCs in high glucose, low glucose DMEM. Differentiation of BMMSCs was nourishing in third passage cells.Conclusion: High glucose DMEM with 10% FBS is a good supplement for adherence of cells whereas high glucose, low glucose DMEM with 15% FBScan be utilized for rapid Colony formation. Third passage BMMSCs is fruitful for differentiation of BMMSCs.Keywords: Wistar rat, Bone marrow, Mesenchymal stem cells, Adherent capacity, Colony formation, Differentiation, Osteoblast, Chondrocytes,Adipocytes

CALLER ACOUSTIC PUSH TO ANSWERS

Techniques are described herein for caller acoustic properties extraction by sampling an initial duration of the connected Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) caller stream and analyzing a received transcript of the ongoing live stream. A Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) mapping of the caller acoustic information is generated in the most suitable customer-understandable format. These techniques may provide automated identification and enable Push To Answer when the caller is not able to understand what is being communicated by the agent

Seaweed extract as a biostimulant for legume crop, green gram

The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of seaweed extracts obtained from the marine green algae, Ulva lactuca Linnaeus, Caulerpa scalpelliformis (R. Brown ex Turner) C. Agardh, brown algae Sargassum plagiophyllum C. Agardh, Turbinaria conoides (J. Agardh) Kutzing, Padina tetrastromatica Hauck, Dictyota dichotama (Hudson) J. V. Lamouroux on the stimulate germination, growth parameters of the Vigna radiata. The present study reveals the seeds germination, fresh weight and dry weight of shoots and roots. These results suggested that seaweed extracts stronger induce seed germination and growth parameters