Flagellated coryneform bacteria from the intestine of earthworms

Summary Representative strains of distinctly flagellated, but doubtfully motile, coryneform bacteria were isolated from the intestine of Indian earthworms. Their morphological, cultural, physiological and nutritional characters are described, and their taxonomic position discussed.     

Influence of cholesterol on cancer progression and therapy

Cholesterol is a fundamental molecule necessary for the maintenance of cell structure and is vital to various normal biological functions. It is a key factor in lifestyle-related diseases including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Owing to its altered serum chemistry status under pathological states, it is now being investigated to unravel the mechanism by which it triggers various health complications. Numerous clinical studies in cancer patients indicate an alteration in blood cholesterol level (either decreased or increased) in comparison to normal healthy individuals. This article elaborates on our understanding as to how cholesterol is being hijacked in the malignancy for the development, survival, stemness, progression, and metastasis of cancerous cells. Also, it provides a glimpse of how cholesterol derived entities, alters the signaling pathway towards their advantage. Moreover, deregulation of the cholesterol metabolism pathway has been often reported to hamper various treatment strategies in different cancer. In this context, attempts have been made to bring forth its relevance in being targeted, in pre-clinical and clinical studies for various treatment modalities. Thus, understanding the role of cholesterol and deciphering associated molecular mechanisms in cancer progression and therapy are of relevance towards improvement in the management of various cancers.     

Highly efficient in vitro proliferation and genetic stability analysis of micropropagated Ceropegiaevansii by RAPD and ISSR markers: A critically endangered plant of Western Ghats

Ceropegiaevansii McCann (family: Asclepiadaceae), a critically endangered plant of Western Ghats has acquired significant importance due to its medicinal implications, edible tubers, and ornamental flowers. This study deals with the optimization of axillary bud proliferation using nodal explants followed by genetic stability analysis of regenerants. Maximum number of shoots (11.6 ± 1.1) was observed on the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine (4.0 mg/l) and indole-3-acetic acid (0.3 mg/l) with 85% shoot multiplication frequency. In vitro-grown shoots were rooted best in 1/2 MS medium supplemented with indole-3-butyric acid (1.0 mg/l) with an average of 10.3 ± 0.9 roots per shoot and 92% rooting frequency. Plantlets were acclimatized best (90%) in a mixture of sterile soil, sand, and coco peat (1:2:1). Micropropagated plants were subjected to random amplified polymorphic DNA and inter simple sequence repeat markers analyses. Collectively, 759 bands were generated which were monomorphic and similar to the mother plant. Findings of this study are the first report on micropropagation and assessment of genetic stability of micropropagated plantlets in C. evansii which suggests that axillary shoot proliferation can safely be used as an effective tool for propagation and conservation of C. evansii.     

The Synthesis of the Sixteen Possible 2′-O-Methyl MMI Dimer Phosphoramidites: Building Blocks for the Synthesis of Novel Antisense Oligonucleotides

Abstract

The synthesis of Methylene(methylimino) or MMI linked nucleoside dimers in all sixteen possible configurations has been accomplished via a reductive coupling of a nucleosidic aldehyde with an hydroxylamine. This has allowed us to prepare all of the necessary 2′-O-methyl MMI dimer building blocks necessary for use in an antisense motif.     

Expressed Sequence Tags for Bovine Muscle Satellite Cells,Myotube Formed-Cells and Adipocyte-Like Cells

Background

Muscle satellite cells (MSCs) represent a devoted stem cell population that is responsible for postnatal muscle growth and skeletal muscle regeneration. An important characteristic of MSCs is that they encompass multi potential mesenchymal stem cell activity and are able to differentiate into myocytes and adipocytes. To achieve a global view of the genes differentially expressed in MSCs, myotube formed-cells (MFCs) and adipocyte-like cells (ALCs), we performed large-scale EST sequencing of normalized cDNA libraries developed from bovine MSCs.

Results

A total of 24,192 clones were assembled into 3,333 clusters, 5,517 singletons and 3,842contigs. Functional annotation of these unigenes revealed that a large portion of the differentially expressed genes are involved in cellular and signaling processes. Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) functional analysis of three subsets of highly expressed gene lists (MSC233, MFC258, and ALC248) highlighted some common and unique biological processes among MSC, MFC and ALC. Additionally, genes that may be specific to MSC, MFC and ALC are reported here, and the role of dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase2 (DDAH2) during myogenesis and hemoglobin subunit alpha2 (HBA2) during transdifferentiation in C2C12 were assayed as a case study. DDAH2 was up-regulated during myognesis and knockdown of DDAH2 by siRNA significantly decreased myogenin (MYOG) expression corresponding with the slight change in cell morphology. In contrast, HBA2 was up-regulated during ALC formation and resulted in decreased intracellular lipid accumulation and CD36 mRNA expression upon knockdown assay.

Conclusion

In this study, a large number of EST sequences were generated from the MSC, MFC and ALC. Overall, the collection of ESTs generated in this study provides a starting point for the identification of novel genes involved in MFC and ALC formation, which in turn offers a fundamental resource to enable better understanding of the mechanism of muscle differentiation and transdifferentiation.     

Intensified Tuberculosis Case Finding among Malnourished Children in Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres of Karnataka,India: Missed Opportunities

Background

Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is the most serious form of malnutrition affecting children under-five and is associated with many infectious diseases including Tuberculosis (TB). In India, nutritional rehabilitation centres (NRCs) have been recently established for the management of SAM including TB. The National TB Programme (NTP) in India has introduced a revised algorithm for diagnosing paediatric TB. We aimed to examine whether NRCs adhered to these guidelines in diagnosing TB among SAM children.

Methods

A cross-sectional study involving review of records of all SAM children identified by health workers during 2012 in six tehsils (sub-districts) with NRCs (population: 1.8 million) of Karnataka, India.

Results

Of 1927 identified SAM children, 1632 (85%) reached NRCs. Of them, 1173 (72%) were evaluated for TB and 19(2%) were diagnosed as TB. Of 1173, diagnostic algorithm was followed in 460 (37%). Among remaining 763 not evaluated as per algorithm, tuberculin skin test alone was conducted in 307 (41%), chest radiography alone in 99 (13%) and no investigations in 337 (45%). The yield of TB was higher among children evaluated as per algorithm (4%) as compared to those who were not (0.3%) (OR: 15.3 [95%CI: 3.5-66.3]). Several operational challenges including non-availability of a full-time paediatrician, non-functioning X-ray machine due to frequent power cuts, use of tuberculin with suboptimal strength and difficulties in adhering to a complex diagnostic algorithm were observed.

Conclusion

This study showed that TB screening in NRCs was sub-optimal in Karnataka. Some children did not reach the NRC, while many of those who did were either not or sub-optimally evaluated for TB. This study pointed to a number of operational issues that need to be addressed if this collaborative strategy is to identify more TB cases amongst malnourished children in India.     

Electronic, ductile, phase transition and mechanical properties of Lu-monopnictides under high pressures

The structural, elastic and electronic properties of lutatium-pnictides (LuN, LuP, LuAs, LuSb, and LuBi) were analyzed by using full-potential linearized augmented plane wave within generalized gradient approximation in the stable rock-salt structure (B1 phase) with space group Fm-3m and high-pressure CsCl structure (B2 phase) with space group Pm-3m. Hubbard-U and spin-orbit coupling were included to predict correctly the semiconducting band gap of LuN. Under compression, these materials undergo first-order structural transitions from B1 to B2 phases at 241, 98, 56.82, 25.2 and 32.3 GPa, respectively. The computed elastic properties show that LuBi is ductile by nature. The electronic structure calculations show that LuN is semiconductor at ambient conditions with an indirect band gap of 1.55 eV while other Lu-pnictides are metallic. It was observed that LuN shows metallization at high pressures. The structural properties, viz, equilibrium lattice constant, bulk modulus and its pressure derivative, transition pressure, equation of state, volume collapse, band gap and elastic moduli, show good agreement with available data.

Synthesis,Characterization, and Anti‐Amoebic Activity of N‐(Pyrimidin‐2‐yl)benzenesulfonamide Derivatives

A new series of N‐(pyrimidin‐2‐yl)benzenesulfonamide derivatives, 3a – 3i and 4a – 4i , was synthesized from pyrimidin‐2‐amines, 2a – 2i , with the aim to explore their effects on in vitro growth of Entamoeba histolytica. The chemical structures of the compounds were elucidated by elemental analysis, FT‐IR, ¹H‐ and ¹³C‐NMR, and ESI mass‐spectral data. In vitro anti‐amoebic activity was evaluated against HM1 : IMSS strain of Entamoeba histolytica. The IC₅₀ values were calculated by using the double dilution method. The results were compared with the IC₅₀ value of the standard drug ‘metronidazole’. The selected compounds were tested for their cytotoxic activities by cell‐viability assay using H9C2 cardiac myoblasts cell line, and the results indicated that all the compounds displayed remarkable >80% viabilities to a concentration of 100 μg/ml.