Acorus calamus extracts and nickel chloride

Nickel, a major environmental pollutant, is known for its clastogenic, toxic, and carcinogenic potential. In this article, we report the effect of Acorus calamus on nickel chloride (NiCl₂)-induced renal oxidative stress, toxicity, and cell proliferation response in male Wistar rats. NiCl₂ (250 μmol/kg body weight/mL) enhanced reduced renal glutathione content (GSH) glutathione-S-transferase (GST), glutathione reductase (GR), lipid peroxidation (LPO), H₂O₂ generation, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and serum creatinine with a concomitant decrease in the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) (p<0.001). NiCl₂ administration also dose-dependently induced the renal ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity several-fold as compared to salinetreated control rats. Similarly, renal DNA synthesis, which is measured in terms of [³H] thymidine incorporation in DNA, was elevated following NiCl₂ treatment. Prophylactic treatment of rats with A. calamus (100 and 200 mg/kg body weight po) daily for 1 wk resulted in the diminution of NiCl₂-mediated damage, as evident from the downregulation of glutathione content, GST, GR, LPO, H₂O₂ generation, BUN, serum creatinine, DNA synthesis (p<0.001), and ODC activity (p<0.01) with concomitant restoration of GPx activity. These results clearly demonstrate the role of oxidative stress and its relation to renal disfunctioning and suggest a protective effect of A. calamus on NiCl₂-induced nephrotoxicity in a rat experimental model.     

Protective effect of CardiPro against doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in mice

The effect of CardiPro, a polyherbal formulation, with an antioxidant property, has been studied on doxorubicin (DXR)-induced cardiotoxicity in mice. CardiPro (150 mg/kg b.w., twice daily was administered orally for 7 weeks along with four equal injections (each containing 4.0 mg/kg b.w., DXR) intraperitoneally, once weekly (cumulative dose 16 mg/kg). After a 3-week post DXR treatment period, cardiotoxicity was assessed by noting mortality, volume of ascites, liver congestion, changes in heart weight, myocardial lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzymes and histology of heart. DXR-treated animals showed higher mortality (50%) and more ascites. Myocardial SOD and glutathione peroxidase activity were decreased and lipid peroxidation was increased. Histology of heart of DXR-treated animals showed loss of myofibrils and focal cytoplasmic vacuolization. CardiPro significantly protected the mice from DXR-induced cardiotoxic effects as evidenced by lower mortality (25%), less ascites, myocardial lipid peroxidation, normalization of antioxidant enzymes and minimal damage to the heart histologically. Our data confirm the earlier reports that DXR cardiotoxicity is associated with the free radical-induced tissue damage. Administration of CardiPro, with an antioxidant property, protected the DXR-induced cardiotoxicity in mice.     

Amelioration of cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration by catechin hydrate in rat model of streptozotocin-induced experimental dementia of Alzheimer’s type

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder resulting in cognitive decline and enhancement of oxidative loads in the brain. Flavonoids have been considered to exert human health benefits by anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The present study is aimed to elucidate the neuroprotective effect of catechin hydrate (CH), a natural flavanoid with potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, on intracerebroventricular streptozotocin (ICV-STZ) induced neuronal loss and memory impairment. To test this hypothesis, male Wistar rats were pretreated with CH (10 and 20 mg/kg bwt) orally once daily for 21 days and then bilaterally injected with ICV-STZ (3 mg/kg bwt), while sham group rats receive the same volume of vehicle. After 2 weeks of ICV-STZ infusion, rats were tested for cognitive performance using Morris water maze (MWM) test and then sacrifice for biochemical and histopathological assays. CH was found to be successful in upregulating the antioxidant status and prevented the memory loss. The expression of choline acetyl transferase (ChAT) was decreased in ICV-STZ group and CH pretreatment increases the expression of ChAT. Moreover, inflammatory mediators like TNF-α, IL-1β levels and expression of iNOS were significantly attenuated by CH pretreatment. The study suggests that CH is effective in preventing memory loss, ameliorating the oxidative stress and might be beneficial for the treatment of sporadic dementia of Alzheimer’s type (SDAT).     

Microbial Communities in Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park and Their Function as Indicators of Water Quality

Abstract

The objective of this study was to establish meaningful relationships between prokaryotic community profiles and water quality parameters in different water bodies (spring, stream, cave, and mine) in the middle reach of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park (C&O), Maryland. The microbial profiles in the water samples were determined using metagenomic analysis. The relationships between microbial phylogenetic profiles and water quality parameters were investigated using principal component analysis (PCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA). The most abundant phyla identified in most samples were Proteobacteria (55.4%), Bacteroidetes (12.3%), Actinobacteria (10.6%), Firmicutes (2.4%), Planktomycetes (1.8%), Verrucomicrobia (1.5%), Chloroflexi (1.5%), and Acidobacteria (1.3%), which are major bacterial and archaeal groups typically observed in natural freshwater environments. PCA showed that water chemistry was determined primarily by the geology of the site and the type of water source (i.e., spring, stream, cave, or mine). Most samples located in carbonate formations correlated with high alkalinity, inorganic carbon, and calcium, representing the typical karstic geochemistry. RDA shows that pH, electrical conductivity, temperature and nutrients including nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate, were significant determinants of the microbial ecology.     

Enhanced Expression of Glia Maturation Factor Correlates with Glial Activation in the Brain of Triple Transgenic Alzheimer’s Disease Mice

We previously demonstrated that glia maturation factor (GMF), a brain specific protein, isolated, sequenced and cloned in our laboratory, induce expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines in the central nervous system. We also reported that the up-regulation of GMF in astrocytes leads to the destruction of neurons suggesting a novel pathway of GMF-mediated cytotoxicity of brain cells, and implicated its involvement in the pathogenesis of inflammatory neurodegenerative diseases. In the present study, we examined the expressions of GMF in triple-transgenic Alzheimer’s disease (3xTg-AD) mice. Our results show a 13-fold up-regulation of GMF and 8–12-fold up-regulation of proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-1β, interferon gamma (IFN-γ), and chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2) and C–X–C motif chemokine 10 (CXCL10/IP-10) mRNA as determined by quantitative real-time RT-PCR in the brain of 3xTg-AD mice as compared to non-transgenic (Non-Tg) mice. In conclusion, the increase in GMF and cytokine/chemokine expression was correlated with reactive glial fibrillary acidic protein positive astrocytes and ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba-1)-positive microglia in 3xTg-AD mice.     

Precision of age determination from otoliths,opercular bones,scales and vertebrae in the threatened freshwater snakehead,Channa punctata (Bloch, 1793)

Ages were estimated from otoliths, opercular bones, scales, and vertebrae of 514 specimens of Channa punctata from three Indian rivers – the Ganga, Gomti, and Yamuna – to evaluate the potential bias of age estimates between readers and between pairs of aging structures. Standard procedures were followed to prepare and study the age structures. Among all structures, otoliths showed highest (97.4%) values of agreement between readers' age estimates followed by the opercular bones (89.5%), scales (84.2%) and vertebrae (78.9%). Because of the highest percentage of agreement and lowest average percentage of error (0.05%) and coefficient of variation (0.76%) values between readers, otoliths were considered the most suitable aging structure for C. punctata. When otoliths ages were compared with those of the other structures viz., opercular bones, scales and vertebrae, percentage of agreement was found highest between estimates (90.8%) of otoliths and opercular bones.     

Combination of sulfamethoxazole and selenium in anticancer therapy: a novel approach

Sulfonamides have been reported to possess substantial antitumor activity as they act as carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. In addition, selenium appears to have a protective effect at various stages of cancer due to its antioxidant property, enhanced carcinogen detoxification, inhibition of cell invasion, and by inhibiting angiogenesis. Here, in the present study we aimed to evaluate and synergize the cytotoxic activity of sulfonamide and selenium (SM+SE) as effective therapy in the treatment of DENA-induced HCC. Hepatocarcinogeneis was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of diethylnitrosamine (DENA) (200 mg/kg) in phosphate buffer. 30 Male Wistar rats used in this study were divided randomly into five equal groups (n = 6). DENA-administered animals showed significant alteration (p < 0.001) in liver-specific enzymes—glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and Alpha fetoproteins (AFP), and also induced severe histopathological changes in the hepatic tissues. Interestingly, treatment with (SE+SE) (SM 30 mg/kg + SE 3 mg/kg) significantly reduced (P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P < 0.001) the elevated AFP, SGOT, SGPT, and ALP levels, respectively, suggesting that combination therapy of SM+SE has a potential to treat DENA-induced liver damage.     

Preferential recognition of catechol-estrogen modified DNA by circulating autoantibodies in cancer patients

Catecholestrogens [4-hydroxyestradiol (4-OHE₂)] have been implicated in human carcinogenesis, although the mechanism remains unestablished. In this study pUC 18 plasmid DNA was modified with 4-OHE₂ and nitric oxide (NO). The modification induced in native DNA exhibited hyperchromicity, single strand breaks, damage to restriction sites, modification of bases, decrease in Tm and change in ellipticity. Modified DNA was found to be highly immunogenic in experimental animal, eliciting high titer antibodies. Circulating cancer autoantibodies showed preferable recognition of 4-OHE₂-NO-DNA over native form (p < 0.001) and the oxidative epitopes on the DNA isolates from cancer patients were immunochemically detected by using experimentally induced anti-4-OHE₂-NO-DNA antibodies as a probe. Preferential recognition of 4-OHE₂-NO-DNA by cancer autoantibodies coupled with enhanced binding of induced antibodies to DNA isolated from cancer patients is an indicative of oxidative stress induced DNA damage in cancer. Possible involvement of unique epitopes on modified DNA in cancer autoantibody induction has been suggested.     

In vitro nemato-toxic potential of some leaf extracts on Juvenile mortality of Meloidogyne incognita race-3

Abstract

Aqueous leaf extracts of four commonly growing weeds namely Ageratum conyzoides, Elephantopus scaber, Lantana camara and Xanthium strumarium were used to evaluate their nematicidal activity on second stage juvenile of Meloidogyne incognita race-3. The juveniles were exposed to various concentration of leaf extract namely 250, 500, 1000 and 2000?ppm for 12, 24 and 48?h, respectively. All leaf extracts showed the nematicidal property in concentration and time-dependent manner. The maximum juvenile mortality was recorded in E. scaber throughout the incubation period followed by X. strumarium, L. camara and A. conyzoides. The regression and correlation of regression revealed the best concentration-dependent effect of aqueous leaf extracts on nematode mortality in E. scaber (R²?=?.751) followed by X. strumarium (R²?=?.749), A. conyzoides (R²?=?.687) and L. camara (R²?=?.756). Aqueous leaves extracts of these aforementioned weeds showed nematicidal properties, therefore, may be used as a key component of integrated disease management programme.