Evaluation of anti-pyretic potential of Ficus racemosa bark.

A study was carried out to evaluate the anti-pyretic effect of a methanol extract of stem bark of Ficus racemosa Linn. (MEFR) on normal body temperature and yeast-induced pyrexia in albino rats. A yeast suspension (10 ml/kg body wt.) increased rectal temperature 19 h after subcutaneous injection. The MEFR, at doses of 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg body wt. p.o., showed significant dose-dependent reduction in normal body temperature and yeast-provoked elevated temperature. The effect extended up to 5 h after drug administration. The anti-pyretic effect of MEFR was comparable to that of paracetamol (150 mg/kg body wt., p.o.), a standard anti-pyretic agent.     

Dhanwantaram kashayam,an Ayurvedic polyherbal formulation,reduces oxidative radicals and reverts lipids profile towards normal in diabetic rats

BackgroundHyperglycemia and hyper oxidative stress are indicators of diabetes mellitus which is also accompanied with decreased levels of antioxidant enzymes. While oxidative stress is important in increasing insulin secretion and controlling blood sugar level at the same time excess oxidative stress leads to the destruction of beta cells of pancreas resulting in to low insulin production and hyperglycemia. A balance between the levels of oxidative radicals and insulin production is needed, but is not defined yet. Hyperglycemia also leads to hyperlipidemia which can contribute to various health conditions like cardiovascular diseases.ObjectivesThis study was designed to study the oxidative stress and lipid levels in diabetic rats. This also was designed to elucidate the effect of Dhanwantaram Kashayam, an Ayurvedic polyphenolic derived from plants on lipid metabolism and oxidative radical scavenging in diabetic rats.MethodsRats were made diabetic by injecting streptozotocin. Different enzymes involved in oxidative radical scavenging and lipid profiles including triglycerides, total cholesterol, free fatty acids and phospholipids were estimated using standard methods reported elsewhere.ResultsLevel of antioxidant enzymes were lower in diabetic rats compared to normal controls. Administration of Dhanwantaram Kashayam restored the enzyme activity as well as reduced levels of different lipids in diabetic rats.ConclusionsAdministration of Dhanwantaram Kashayam increased the activity levels of antioxidant enzymes and reduced the levels of total cholesterol, phospholipids and triglycerides. The results of this study point to the possibility of developing Dhanwantaram Kashayam as a dietary supplement which can alleviate the complications associated with diabetes or prevent them altogether.     

Length of mucin-like domains enhances cell-Ebola virus adhesion by increasing binding probability

The Ebola virus (EBOV) hijacks normal physiological processes by apoptotic mimicry to be taken up by the cell it infects. The initial adhesion of the virus to the cell is based on the interaction between T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain protein, TIM, on the cell surface and phosphatidylserine (PS) on the viral outer surface. Therefore, it is important to understand the interaction between EBOV and PS and TIM, with selective blocking of the interaction as a potential therapy. Recent experimental studies have shown that for TIM-dependent EBOV entry, a mucin-like domain with a length of at least 120 amino acids is required, possibly because of the increase of area of the PS-coated surface sampled. We examine this hypothesis by modeling the process of TIM-PS adhesion using a coarse-grained molecular model. We find that the strength of individual bound PS-TIM pairs is essentially independent of TIM length. TIMs with longer mucin-like domains collectively have higher average binding strengths because of an increase in the probability of binding between EBOV and TIM proteins. Similarly, we find that for larger persistence length (less flexible), the average binding force decreases, again because of a reduction in the probability of binding.     

Efficient decolorization and detoxification of sulphonated azo dye Ponceau 4R by using single and mixed bacterial consortia

Abstract

The decolorization of toxic azo dye Ponceau 4R by three strains of bacteria Bacillus sp. strain AK1, Lysinibacillus sp. strain AK2 and Kerstersia sp. strain VKY1 individually and in consortia was studied. At optimal conditions, up to 95%, 93% and 87% of the dye was decolorized by the strains AK1, AK2 and VKY1, respectively, in 24?h at 200?mg/L of the dye. Decolorization of the dye was optimized for different parameters such as the concentration of dye, pH, temperature and NaCl concentration. These strains were able to decolorize Ponceau 4R up to an initial concentration of 800?mg/L in the pH range of 5–10, temperature 25–55?°C and NaCl concentration up to 30?g/L. The dye decolorization efficiency of these strains was further enhanced by using different consortia of AK1, AK2 and VKY1 in various combinations. The complete decolorization of the dye by a consortium was achieved within 18?h at 200?mg/L. The cell-free extract of these strains grown on this dye exhibited a remarkable activity of azoreductase which is involved in the breakage of the azo bond. The steady-state kinetics of azoreductase, validated the ping pong Bi-Bi mechanism of enzyme action. UV–Vis spectra, HPLC, FTIR and LC-MS analysis of the dye decolorized samples showed the formation of 4-aminonaphthalene-1-sulphonic acid and 5-amino-6-hydroxynaphthalene-2, 4-disulphonic acid as the products of azo bond breakage. The phytotoxicity test of decolorized sample revealed a considerable reduction in the toxicity in comparison with the parent dye.     

π–π Interactions in Structural Stability: Role in RNA Binding Proteins

RNA binding proteins play significant roles in many bio-macromolecular systems. Aromatic amino acid residues are vital for several biological functions. In the present work, the influences of π–π interactions in RNA binding proteins are analyzed. There are a total of 3,396 π-residues in RNA binding proteins out of which 1,547, 1,241, and 608 are phenylalanine (Phe), tyrosine (Tyr), and tryptophan (Trp), respectively. Among these 945, 634, and 356 Phe, Tyr, and Trp residues, respectively, are involved in π–π interactions. The observations indicate that majority of the aromatic residues in RNA binding proteins are involved in π–π interactions. Side chain–side chain π–π interactions are the predominant type of interactions in RNA binding proteins. These π–π interactions stabilize the core regions within RNA binding proteins. π–π interacting residues are evolutionary conserved. Residue-wise analysis indicates that π–π interacting residues have higher long-range contacts and hence they are important in the global conformational stability of these proteins.     

Cation–π Interactions in β-Lactamases: The Role in Structural Stability

β-lactam group of antibiotics is the most widely used therapeutic molecules for treating bacterial infections. The main mode of bacterial resistance to β-lactams is by β-lactamases. In the present study, we report our results on the role of cation–π interactions in β-lactamases and their environmental preferences. The number of interactions formed by arginine is higher than lysine in the cationic group, while tyrosine is comparatively higher than phenylalanine and tryptophan in the π group. Our results indicate that cation–π interactions might play an important role in the global conformational stability of β-lactamases.     

Black Spot: a platform for automated and rapid estimation of leaf area from scanned images

Leaf area and its derivatives (e.g. specific leaf area) are widely used in ecological assessments, especially in the fields of plant–animal interactions, plant community assembly, ecosystem functioning and global change. Estimating leaf area is highly time-consuming, even when using specialized software to process scanned leaf images, because manual inputs are invariably required for scale detection and leaf surface digitisation. We introduce Black Spot Leaf Area Calculator (hereafter, Black Spot), a technique and stand-alone software package for rapid and automated leaf area assessment from images of leaves taken with standard flatbed scanners. Black Spot operates on comprehensive rule-sets for colour band ratios to carry out pixel-based classification which isolates leaf surfaces from the image background. Importantly, the software extracts information from associated image meta-data to detect image scale, thereby eliminating the need for time-consuming manual scale calibration. Black Spot’s output provides the user with estimates of leaf area as well as classified images for error checking. We tested this method and software combination on a set of 100 leaves of 51 different plant species collected from the field. Leaf area estimates generated using Black Spot and by manual processing of the images using an image editing software generated statistically identical results. Mean error rate in leaf area estimates from Black Spot relative to manual processing was ?0.4 % (SD = 0.76). The key advantage of Black Spot is the ability to rapidly batch process multi-species datasets with minimal user effort and at low cost, thus making it a valuable tool for field ecologists.     

Virmid: accurate detection of somatic mutations with sample impurity inference

Detection of somatic variation using sequence from disease-control matched data sets is a critical first step. In many cases including cancer, however, it is hard to isolate pure disease tissue, and the impurity hinders accurate mutation analysis by disrupting overall allele frequencies. Here, we propose a new method, Virmid, that explicitly determines the level of impurity in the sample, and uses it for improved detection of somatic variation. Extensive tests on simulated and real sequencing data from breast cancer and hemimegalencephaly demonstrate the power of our model. A software implementation of our method is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/virmid/.     

Microbiota Dynamics in Patients Treated with Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection

Clostridium difficile causes antibiotic-associated diarrhea and pseudomembraneous colitis and is responsible for a large and increasing fraction of hospital-acquired infections. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an alternate treatment option for recurrent C. difficile infection (RCDI) refractory to antibiotic therapy. It has recently been discussed favorably in the clinical and scientific communities and is receiving increasing public attention. However, short- and long-term health consequences of FMT remain a concern, as the effects of the transplanted microbiota on the patient remain unknown. To shed light on microbial events associated with RCDI and treatment by FMT, we performed fecal microbiota analysis by 16S rRNA gene amplicon pyrosequencing of 14 pairs of healthy donors and RCDI patients treated successfully by FMT. Post-FMT patient and healthy donor samples collected up to one year after FMT were studied longitudinally, including one post-FMT patient with antibiotic-associated relapse three months after FMT. This analysis allowed us not only to confirm prior reports that RCDI is associated with reduced diversity and compositional changes in the fecal microbiota, but also to characterize previously undocumented post-FMT microbiota dynamics. Members of the Streptococcaceae, Enterococcaceae, or Enterobacteriaceae were significantly increased and putative butyrate producers, such as Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae were significantly reduced in samples from RCDI patients before FMT as compared to post-FMT patient and healthy donor samples. RCDI patient samples showed more case-specific variations than post-FMT patient and healthy donor samples. However, none of the bacterial groups were invariably associated with RCDI or successful treatment by FMT. Overall microbiota compositions in post-FMT patients, specifically abundances of the above-mentioned Firmicutes, continued to change for at least 16 weeks after FMT, suggesting that full microbiota recovery from RCDI may take much longer than expected based on the disappearance of diarrheal symptoms immediately after FMT.     

Endemic Asian Chytrid Strain Infection in Threatened and Endemic Anurans of the Northern Western Ghats,India

The Western Ghats of India harbors a rich diversity of amphibians with more than 77% species endemic to this region. At least 42% of the endemic species are threatened due to several anthropogenic stressors. However, information on amphibian diseases and their impacts on amphibian populations in this region are scarce. We report the occurrence of Batrachochytridium dendrobatidis (Bd), an epidermal aquatic fungal pathogen that causes chytridiomycosis in amphibians, from the Western Ghats. In the current study we detected the occurrence of a native Asian Bd strain from three endemic and threatened species of anurans, Bombay Night Frog Nyctibatrachus humayuni, Leith''s Leaping Frog Indirana leithii and Bombay Bubble Nest Frog Raorchestes bombayensis, for the first time from the northern Western Ghats of India based on diagnostic nested PCR, quantitative PCR, DNA sequencing and histopathology. While, the Bd infected I. leithii and R. bombayensis did not show any external symptoms, N. humayuni showed lesions on the skin, browning of skin and sloughing. Sequencing of Bd 5.8S ribosomal RNA gene, and the ITS1 and ITS2 regions, revealed that the current Bd strain is related to a haplotype endemic to Asia. Our findings confirm the presence of Bd in northern Western Ghats and the affected amphibians may or may not show detectable clinical symptoms. We suggest that the significance of diseases as potential threat to amphibian populations of the Western Ghats needs to be highlighted from the conservation point of view.