ISOLATION OF POTENT HYDROCARBON DEGRADING MICRO-ORGANISMS AND ITS APPLICATION IN BIOREMEDIATION

Objective: Oil spillage has become a global environmental problem as its constituents are toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic. Natural bioremediation is the only eco-friendly solution to resist its devastating environmental and economic damage. Microbes are used to change harmful substances to non-toxic substances. The current work focuses on the performance of different bacterial species in degrading the oil components like benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)s.Methods: Sample was collected from different areas affected by the oil spill in Mumbai that is from the shore of Juhu, Dadar and Manori in form of tar balls and was enriched and isolated on Bushnell and Hass's media containing 1% crude oil as a sole source of carbon. The potent isolates were then identified by standard biochemical tests referring to Bergey's Manual.Results: Two partially identified strains were Pseudomonas flavescens and Bacillus sp. biofilms of Pseudomonas spp. was prepared on glass matrix to determine its oil degrading efficiency. An indigenous consortium was developed by the assembly of seven isolates of oil-degrading bacteria.Conclusion: The developed consortium was able to degrade crude oil completely within 4 d. The obtained isolates seemed to have the potential for bioremediation of oil contaminated soil and tar balls which was justified by setting up of a bioreactor

On the inadequacy of environment impact assessments for projects in Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park of Goa, India : a peer review

The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) is a regulatory framework adopted since 1994 in India to evaluate the impact and mitigation measures of projects, however, even after 25 years of adoption, EIAs continue to be of inferior quality with respect to biodiversity documentation and assessment of impacts and their mitigation measures. This questions the credibility of the exercise, as deficient EIAs are habitually used as a basis for project clearances in ecologically sensitive and irreplaceable regions. The authors reiterate this point by analysing impact assessment documents for three projects: the doubling of the National Highway-4A, doubling of the railway-line from Castlerock to Kulem, and laying of a 400-kV transmission line through the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in the state of Goa. Two of these projects were recently granted ‘Wildlife Clearance’ during a virtual meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) without a thorough assessment of the project impacts. Assessment reports for the road and railway expansion were found to be deficient on multiple fronts regarding biodiversity assessment and projected impacts, whereas no impact assessment report was available in the public domain for the 400-kV transmission line project. This paper highlights the biodiversity significance of this protected area complex in the Western Ghats, and highlights the lacunae in biodiversity documentation and inadequacy of mitigation measures in assessment documents for all three diversion projects. The EIA process needs to improve substantially if India is to protect its natural resources and adhere to environmental protection policies and regulations nationally and globally

Role of Drug Repurposing in Cancer Treatment and Liposomal Approach of Drug Targeting

Cancer is the leading cause of death, and incidences are increasing significantly and patients suffering from it desperately need a complete cure from it. The science of using an already-invented drug that has been approved by the FDA for a new application is known as “drug repurposing.” Currently, scientists are drawn to drug repositioning science in order to investigate existing drugs for newer therapeutic uses and cancer treatment. Because of their unique ability to target cancer cells, recently repurposed drugs and the liposomal approach are effective in the treatment of cancer. Liposomes are nanovesicles that are drastically flexible, rapidly penetrate deeper layers of cells, and enhance intracellular uptake. More importantly, liposomes are biocompatible, biodegradable; entrap both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs. This chapter summarizes various approaches to drug repurposing, as well as drug repurposing methods, advantages and limitations of drug repurposing, and a liposomal approach to using repurposed drugs in cancer targeting. This chapter also summarizes liposomal structure, drug loading, and the mechanism of liposomes in targeted cancer treatment. The lipid-based liposomal approach is emerging as a powerful technique for improving drug solubility, bioavailability, reducing side effects, and improving the therapeutic efficacy of repurposed drugs for cancer treatment

Siddhant EyeBall – A Review Paper

<p>This system involves the administrators, staff, and parents. Its main purpose is to facilitate attendance tracking and store student information, including academic attendance data and class test marks. The messaging system is the fastest way to distribute information directly and accurately. With this system, the possibility of errors, offenses, or data registration issues is low. To develop this system, an analysis was conducted to identify problems and effective ways to overcome them. While the system is achieving its objectives, there is still room for improvement.</p><p>Keywords:- Student, Teacher, Attendance, Report, Marks, Staff, Parents.</p&gt

Figure showing set-up for delivering localized radiation to xenografts (a and b).

Figure showing set-up for delivering localized radiation to xenografts (a and b).</p

Figure showing fluorescently dual-labelled cfChPs in mouse brain (a and b).

Figure showing fluorescently dual-labelled cfChPs in mouse brain (a and b).</p

Schema of the study design.

Metastatic dissemination following successful treatment of the primary tumour remains a common cause of death. There is mounting evidence that therapeutic interventions themselves may promote development of metastatic disease. We earlier reported that cell-free chromatin particles (cfChPs) released from dying cancer cells are potentially oncogenic. Based on this observation we hypothesized that therapeutic interventions may lead to the release of cfChPs from therapy induced dying cancer cells which could be carried via the blood stream to distant organs to transform healthy cells into new cancers that would masquerade as metastasis. To test this hypothesis, we generated xenografts of MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells in severe combined immune-deficient mice, and using immuno-fluorescence and FISH analysis looked for cfChPs in their brain cells. We detected multiple human DNA signals representing cfChPs in nuclei of brain cells of mice which co-localized with eight human onco-proteins. No intact MDA-MB-231 cells were detected. The number of co-localizing human DNA and human c-Myc signals increased dramatically following treatment with chemotherapy, localized radiotherapy or surgery, which could be prevented by concurrent treatment with three different cfChPs deactivating agents. These results suggest that therapeutic interventions lead to the release cfChPs from therapy induced dying cancer cells carrying oncogenes and are transported via the blood stream to brain cells to potentially transform them to generate new cancers that would appear as metastases. cfChPs induced metastatic spread of cancer is preventable by concurrent treatment with agents that deactivate cfChPs.</div

A representative image of a SCID mouse bearing human breast cancer xenograft.

A representative image of a SCID mouse bearing human breast cancer xenograft.</p

Representative immuno-FISH images of FFPE sections of brains of mice bearing human breast cancer xenografts (without therapeutic interventions) showing co-localizing signals of human DNA and various human onco-proteins.

a. Co-localizing signals of human DNA and human HLA-ABC. b. Co-localizing signals of human DNA and eight different human onco-proteins.</p

Quantitative analyses depicted as histograms to illustrate that therapeutic interventions promote systemic dissemination of human DNA and human c-Myc oncoprotein to mouse brain cells, and that these can be prevented by concurrent treatment with three different cfChPs deactivating agents.

All groups had 4 mice each. a. Detection of human DNA by FISH b. Detection of human c-Myc onco-protein by immunofluorescence. Statistical comparison between the xenograft bearing group and the two control groups, and that between the xenograft bearing group and the three anticancer treatment groups (CT, RT and Sx) was done by two-tailed student t-test. * < 0.05, ** < 0.01, *** <0.001, **** <0.0001. Statistical comparison between the three anti-cancer treatment groups (CT, RT and Sx) and those additionally treated with the three cfChPs deactivating agents was done by One-way ANOVA. * < 0.05, ** < 0.01.</p