Soluble Fraction of Trichosanthes diocia Peroxidase in Decolorization of Reactive Orange 15

Salt fractionated proteins from Trichosanthes diocia was used to study decolorization of Reactive Orange 15 under multifarious experimental conditions like pH, temperature, time interval, enzyme concentration and in the presence of redox mediator 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HOBT)/ vanillin. T. diocia peroxidase showed extensive decolorization of Reactive Orange15 in the presence of 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HOBT) / vanillin. The dye was decolorized effectively with HOBT and so further studies were performed in the presence of HOBT.  At an enzyme concentration of 0.45 EUmL-1 the peroxidase was able to remove the reactive dye up to a maximum of 94.6% with 1.0 mM 1-hydroxybenzotriazole. Maximum decolorization was achieved at a temperature of 40°C, pH 5.0 and with an incubation period of 90 min. Thus, the data indicates that T. diocia peroxidase could be a potential source for developing an inexpensive and efficient method for the treatment of recalcitrant Reactive Orange15 dyes that are potentially toxic. ---Department of Biochemistry (DST-FIST & UGC-SAP Supported), Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, Faizabad-224001, U.P. (India)---Please Cite This Article As: Farrukh Jamal, Tabish Qidwai and Prabhash K Pandey. 2010. Soluble Fraction of Trichosanthes diocia Peroxidase in Decolorization of Reactive Orange 15. J. Ecobiotechnol. 2(5):36-41.Â

Drug Target Identification for Listeria monocytogenes by Subtractive Genomics Approach

We discover essential enzymes catalyzing critical metabolic reactions as potential drug targets, which may help to fight Listeria infections and their associated secondary infections extensively and effectively. A comparative metabolic pathway approach has been applied to identify and determine putative drug targets against Listeria monocytogenes. For this, enzymes unique to pathogenic pathways of L. monocytogenes EGD-e were determined using the KEGG database. They were further refined by selecting enzymes with sequences non-homologous to the host Homo sapiens and analysing their essentiality to the pathogen’s survival. We report 15 essential pathogen-host non-homologous proteins as putative drug targets that can be exploited for development of specific drug targets or vaccines against multidrug resistant strains of L. monocytogenes. Finally, four essential enzymes from the pathogen: UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 1-carboxyvinyltransferase, Acetate kinase, Phosphate acetyltransferase, and Aspartate kinase were reported as novel putative targets for vaccine and drug development against L. monocytogenes infections. Unravelling novel target proteins and their associated pathways by comparing metabolic pathway analysis between L. monocytogenes EGD-e and host H. sapiens, develops the novelty of the work towards broad spectrum putative drug targets. This research design yields putative drug target critical enzymes that turn out to be fatal to the pathogen without interacting with the host machinery

Variations in host genes encoding adhesion molecules and susceptibility to falciparum malaria in India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Host adhesion molecules play a significant role in the pathogenesis of <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>malaria and changes in their structure or levels in individuals can influence the outcome of infection. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of SNPs of three adhesion molecule genes, <it>ICAM1</it>, <it>PECAM1 </it>and <it>CD36</it>, with severity of falciparum malaria in a malaria-endemic and a non-endemic region of India.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The frequency distribution of seven selected SNPs of <it>ICAM1</it>, <it>PECAM1 </it>and <it>CD36 </it>was determined in 552 individuals drawn from 24 populations across India. SNP-disease association was analysed in a case-control study format. Genotyping of the population panel was performed by Sequenom mass spectroscopy and patient/control samples were genotyped by SNaPshot method. Haplotypes and linkage disequilibrium (LD) plots were generated using PHASE and Haploview, respectively. Odds-ratio (OR) for risk assessment was estimated using EpiInfo™ version 3.4.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Association of the ICAM1 rs5498 (exon 6) G allele and the CD36 exon 1a A allele with increased risk of severe malaria was observed (severe versus control, OR = 1.91 and 2.66, P = 0.02 and 0.0012, respectively). The CD36 rs1334512 (-53) T allele as well as the TT genotype associated with protection from severe disease (severe versus control, TT versus GG, OR = 0.37, P = 0.004). Interestingly, a SNP of the <it>PECAM1 </it>gene (rs668, exon 3, C/G) with low minor allele frequency in populations of the endemic region compared to the non-endemic region exhibited differential association with disease in these regions; the G allele was a risk factor for malaria in the endemic region, but exhibited significant association with protection from disease in the non-endemic region.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The data highlights the significance of variations in the <it>ICAM1</it>, <it>PECAM1 </it>and <it>CD36 </it>genes in the manifestation of falciparum malaria in India. The <it>PECAM1 </it>exon 3 SNP exhibits altered association with disease in the endemic and non-endemic region.</p

Machine learning-based monkeypox virus image prognosis with feature selection and advanced statistical loss function

Recently, the monkeypox virus has gained paramount attention due to various complications entangled within it. These complications encompass pneumonia, eye problems, and secondary-skin infections. Current complications include swelling and sores within the rectum that would result in pain or complexity while urinating. Due to such complexities, it is crucial for monkeypox detection. Concurrently, with the evolvement of AI (Artificial Intelligence) based methods, existing works have tried to perform better detection of monkeypox and non-monkeypox. Nevertheless, these studies have been lagging in accuracy rate. As an enhancement, this study proposes RN-50-ZCA (Residual Network-50-Zero Phase Component Analysis) for feature extraction to attain enhanced classification performance. ZCA-whitening is utilized with RN-50, which assists in accurately identifying the features that agree with the image lesions. This approach incorporates data normalization and later linear transformation that has been considered to support lessening co-variance among the features. This also maintains the concrete variance. To fuse the features, PCA (Principal Component Analysis) is used. Finally, the research proposes MXGBoost (Modified eXtreme Gradient Boosting) based on statistical loss function for classifying monkeypox and non-monkeypox images (other viral samples, chickenpox samples, and smallpox samples) for acquiring effective prediction. Using MXGBoost with the loss function aids in extemporizing the prediction rate of the model by considering certain features of the issues being modelled. With such factors, the proposed loss function can support diminishing overfitting, thereby improvising the generalizability of the model. The performance of this study is assessed by comparison with three studies, and the analytical results exposed the better prediction rate of the proposed system

Exploring Drug Targets in Isoprenoid Biosynthetic Pathway for Plasmodium falciparum

Emergence of rapid drug resistance to existing antimalarial drugs in Plasmodium falciparum has created the need for prediction of novel targets as well as leads derived from original molecules with improved activity against a validated drug target. The malaria parasite has a plant plastid-like apicoplast. To overcome the problem of falciparum malaria, the metabolic pathways in parasite apicoplast have been used as antimalarial drug targets. Among several pathways in apicoplast, isoprenoid biosynthesis is one of the important pathways for parasite as its multiplication in human erythrocytes requires isoprenoids. Therefore targeting this pathway and exploring leads with improved activity is a highly attractive approach. This report has explored progress towards the study of proteins and inhibitors of isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway. For more comprehensive analysis, antimalarial drug-protein interaction has been covered

Distinct cytokine profiles define immune response to falcipatum malaria in region of high and low transmission

The immune effector response to Plasmodium falciparum infection involves a finely-tuned interplay between different cell types and cytokines. However, the processes by which they mediate the development of clinical immunity, in areas of different endemicity, are poorly understood. We analyzed circulating levels of pro-inflammatory (TNF, IFN-γ, IL-12, IL-16) and anti-inflammatory (IL-4, IL-10, IL-13) cytokines in control and patient groups drawn from a P. falciparum-endemic and a non-endemic region of India. The endemic region control population exhibited a lower pro- to anti-inflammatory cytokine ratio, indicating a shift towards a high basal Th2 response. Levels of IL-10 contributed most towards the region-specific difference in basal cytokine response. IL-10 was also the strongest predictor of disease in the endemic region, while IL-12, along with IL-10 and IL-6, contributed most to disease outcome in the non-endemic region. A low, mean IFN-γ/IL-10 ratio was associated with disease severity in the endemic region (p &#60; 0.0001). In contrast, a low mean IL-12/IL-10 ratio correlated with disease outcome in the non-endemic region (p &#60; 0.0001). In the endemic region, IL-13 correlated negatively with IFN-γ in severe patients (Spearman's ρ: -0.49; p : 0.013), while in the non-endemic region, IL-13 correlated negatively with IL-6 in severe malaria patients (Spearman's ρ: -0.485; p : 0.001). In conclusion, levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and the relative balance between the Th1 and Th2 response, illustrates how populations residing in areas of varying disease endemicity may respond to P. falciparum-induced immune challenge