REASSESSING THE ROLE OF HOMOCYSTEINE AND HOLOTRANSCOBALAMIN LEVELS IN DIAGNOSING VITAMIN B12 DEFICIENCY ANEMIA

Background: Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to irreversible neurological damage, megaloblastic anemia, osteoporosis, cerebrovascular, and cardiovascular diseases, and thus, early diagnosis is essential. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess homocysteine (Hcy) and holotranscobalamine (HoloTC) levels among patients with Vitamin B12 deficiency and to see if Hcy and HoloTC level assay can help us in diagnosis of Vitamin B12 deficiency. Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional observational study on 60 patients of Sr. B12 deficient male and female patients between the ages of 18 and 65 years in IPD and OPD patients at multispecialty hospital. Data were collected from predefined pro forma and were asked about their diet, socioeconomic status, and history. Then, these patients further undergone anthropometric measurements and investigated for Hcy and HoloTC level. The statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SSPS) software (version 11). Results: About 60% of cases were vegetarian and 40% of cases were non-vegetarian. Mean age of study participants was 43.67 years, mean of mean cellular volume was 90.7 fl, mean of B12 was 138 pmol/L, mean of HoloTC was 60.84 pmol/L, and mean of Hcy was 34.17 umol/L. Out of 60 patients, 10 patients had anemia, 21 patients had neurological manifestation, and 29 patients had gastrointestinal (GI) manifestation. In male group, out of 32, 11 patients had HoloTC <8.9, 19 patients had value between 8.9 and 128, and two patients had HoloTC more than 128. In female group, out of 28, seven patients had HoloTC <8.9, 14 patients had value between 8.9 and 128, and seven patients had HoloTC >128. In group of 32 male patients, none of male patients showed Hcy value <5.9, four patients showed Hcy between 5.9 and 16, and 28 patients showed Hcy value >16. Out of 28 female patients, none of female patients showed Hcy <3.36, nine patients showed Hcy between 3.36 and 20.4, and 19 patients showed Hcy >20.4. p <0.001 is highly statistically significant. Conclusion: In our study, we found that 31.33% of cases also showed decreased HoloTC along with B12 deficiency, but this correlation was statistically insignificant. We also found that 78.33% of cases showed increased Hcy along with serum B12 deficiency, which was statistically significant, so we concluded that there is a strong association between serum B12 and Hcy. We found that all patients with elevated Hcy also had low HoloTC except in two cases, but this correlation was not found to be statistically significant

Exploring the challenges in implementing supplier environmental performance measurement models: a case study

This study aims to explore the challenges associated with implementing supplier environmental performance measurement models in context of a global supply chain. After a thorough literature review on the topic, a case study-based research methodology is adopted to investigate the real-life perspective of the issues encountered while evaluating the supplier performance in a sustainable supply chain. An in-depth study of one of the biggest fast-moving consumer goods companies in UK is discussed and analysed in this paper. Findings of this research will pave the way for developing a robust, efficient and usable environmental performance measurement framework in a supply chain

Bioactive Natural Products from Plants and Biotechnological Approaches for their Production

Bioactive natural products are economically important as drugs, fragrances, pigments, food additives and pesticides. The biotechnological tools are important to select, multiply, improve and analyze medicinal plants for production of such products. The utilization of medicinal plant cells for the production of natural or recombinant compounds of commercial interest has gained increasing attention over the past decades. Plant tissue culture systems are possible source of valuable medicinal compounds, fragrances and colorants, which cannot be produced by microbial cells or chemical synthesis. In vitro production of bioactive natural products in plant cell suspension culture has been reported from various medicinal plants and bioreactors are the key step towards commercial production. Genetic transformation is a powerful tool for enhancing the productivity of novel products; especially by Agrobacterium tumefacians. Combinatorial biosynthesis is another approach in the generation of novel natural products and for the production of rare and expensive natural products. Recent advances in the molecular biology, enzymology and bioreactor technology of plant cell culture suggest that these systems may become a viable source of important secondary metabolites. Genetic fingerprinting could be a powerful tool in the field of medicinal plants to be used for correct germplasm identification. In addition, when linked to emerging tools such as metabolomics and proteomics, providing fingerprints of the plant's metabolites or protein composition, it gives data on phenotypic variation, caused by growth conditions or environmental factors, and also yield data on the genes involved in the biosynthesis. DNA profiling techniques like DNA microarrays serve as suitable high throughput tools for the simultaneous analysis of multiple genes and analysis of gene expression that becomes necessary for providing clues about regulatory mechanisms, biochemical pathways and broader cellular functions. New and powerful tools in functional genomics can be used in combination with metabolomics to elucidate biosynthetic pathways of natural products

“EFFECT OF BODY MASS INDEX ON PREGNANCY OUTCOME” - A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

Background: Mothers who are overweight or obese during pregnancy and childbirth, are known to be at risk of significant antenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, and neonatal complications. Objectives: The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of high pre pregnancy body mass index (BMI) (<12 weeks of gestation) on the occurrence of maternal pregnancy outcome. A longitudinal observational study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital. In Group I, 50 antenatal women with gestational age <12 weeks BMI 18.5–35 kg/m2 and having singleton pregnancies were included in the study, while 50 women with normal BMI formed the Group II. Both groups were followed up throughout pregnancy and post-natal to assess complication during pregnancy, labor, and puerperium. Results: The mean BMI in Group I and Group II was 27.516 kg/m2 and 21.433 kg/m2. The prevalence of anemia was 40% and 26% among two groups. Antenatal and post-natal complications were gestational diabetes mellitus (Group I - 28% and Group II - 6%), preeclampsia (Group I - 16% and Group II - 2%), required induction of labor (Group I - 26% and Group II - 6%), preterm labor (Group I - 4% and Group II - 16%), and meconium staining of liquor (GroupI-20% and GroupII-12%), and the difference was statistically significant among two groups. Newborn complications were weight ≥2.5 kg (Group I - 74% and Group II - 48%), neonatal intensive care unit admission requirement (Group I - 26% and Group II - 17%), and the difference was statistically significant among two groups. Other complications which were not statistically significant among two groups were oligohydramnios (Group I - 2% and Group II - 4%), polyhydramnios (Group I - 6% and Group II - 4%), and appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration score at 1 min <7 (Group I - 14% and Group II - 6%). Conclusion: Pregnancy complications related to maternal BMI is a growing problem. Both lean and obese mothers carry an increased risk of adverse perinatal outcome. Given the major economic and medical consequence of pregnancy in these women, all attempts should be made to maintain a normal BMI in women of childbearing age. Pre-pregnancy counseling, health programs and appropriate multidisciplinary management should be done

Genotype-Phenotype Study of the Middle Gangetic Plain in India Shows Association of rs2470102 with Skin Pigmentation

Our understanding of the genetics of skin pigmentation has been largely skewed towards populations of European ancestry, imparting less attention to South Asian populations, who behold huge pigmentation diversity. Here, we investigate skin pigmentation variation in a cohort of 1,167 individuals in the Middle Gangetic Plain of the Indian subcontinent. Our data confirm the association of rs1426654 with skin pigmentation among South Asians, consistent with previous studies, and also show association for rs2470102 single nucleotide polymorphism. Our haplotype analyses further help us delineate the haplotype distribution across social categories and skin color. Taken together, our findings suggest that the social structure defined by the caste system in India has a profound influence on the skin pigmentation patterns of the subcontinent. In particular, social category and associated single nucleotide polymorphisms explain about 32% and 6.4%, respectively, of the total phenotypic variance. Phylogeography of the associated single nucleotide polymorphisms studied across 52 diverse populations of the Indian subcontinent shows wide presence of the derived alleles, although their frequencies vary across populations. Our results show that both polymorphisms (rs1426654 and rs2470102) play an important role in the skin pigmentation diversity of South Asians

Molecular Breeding to Overcome Biotic Stresses in Soybean: Update

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is an important leguminous crop and biotic stresses are a global concern for soybean growers. In recent decades, significant development has been carried outtowards identification of the diseases caused by pathogens, sources of resistance and determination of loci conferring resistance to different diseases on linkage maps of soybean. Host-plant resistance is generally accepted as the bestsolution because of its role in the management of environmental and economic conditions of farmers owing to low input in terms of chemicals. The main objectives of soybean crop improvement are based on the identification of sources of resistance or tolerance against various biotic as well as abiotic stresses and utilization of these sources for further hybridization and transgenic processes for development of new cultivars for stress management. The focus of the present review is to summarize genetic aspects of various diseases caused by pathogens in soybean and molecular breeding research work conducted to date

A simple and rapid DNA extraction protocol for filamentous fungi efficient for molecular studies

536-539A simple and rapid protocol for extracting high-quality DNA from filamentous fungi was studied. The method involved disruption of fungal cells by employing glass bead method, followed by inactivation of proteins using CTAB/proteinase K. The DNA yield from fungal isolates varied from 310-1879 µg g-1 dry mycelium and a clear intact DNA band was observed upon agarose gel electrophoresis. Absorbency ratios (A260/A280) for DNA ranged 1.7-1.9, which indicated minimal presence of contaminating metabolites. PCR analysis like 18S rRNA gene amplification, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) showed that DNA was compatible for downstream applications. This method can be applied to extract genomic DNA of filamentous fungi from different environmental sources. </span

Molecular Breeding and Drought Tolerance in Chickpea

Cicer arietinum L. is the third greatest widely planted imperative pulse crop worldwide, and it belongs to the Leguminosae family. Drought is the utmost common abiotic factor on plants, distressing their water status and limiting their growth and development. Chickpea genotypes have the natural ability to fight drought stress using certain strategies viz., escape, avoidance and tolerance. Assorted breeding methods, including hybridization, mutation, and marker-aided breeding, genome sequencing along with omics approaches, could be used to improve the chickpea germplasm lines(s) against drought stress. Root features, for instance depth and root biomass, have been recognized as the greatest beneficial morphological factors for managing terminal drought tolerance in the chickpea. Marker-aided selection, for example, is a genomics-assisted breeding (GAB) strategy that can considerably increase crop breeding accuracy and competence. These breeding technologies, notably marker-assisted breeding, omics, and plant physiology knowledge, underlined the importance of chickpea breeding and can be used in future crop improvement programmes to generate drought-tolerant cultivars(s)

Synthesis of novel amino acid derivative of 7-AVCA

Abstract: In this study

Phytochemicals analysis, Phenolic & flavonoids content of Cordia macleodii Hook leaves & Bark

Cordia macleodii Hook (boraginaceae), a folklore medicinal plant, commonly known as "Shikari" in local language and found in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. In this study, total phenolic content and concentration of flavonoids of two different extracts, from the ethanolic extract of Cordia macleodii (Boraginaceae) were determined using spectrophotometric methods. The total phenolic content ranged from 0.65±0.05 &amp; 1.65±0.12 mg/g of dry weight of leaves &amp; bark extract, expressed as gallic acid equivalents. The total flavonoids concentrations varied from 0.985±0.09 &amp; 1.89±0.11 mg/g in bark &amp; leaves extract, expressed as quercetin equivalents. Ethanolic extract of bark &amp; leaves of Cordia macleodii showed the highest phenolic and flavonoids concentration repectively. The Cordia macleodii can be regarded as promising candidates for health management because of natural plant sources of phenolic and flavonoids with high value