Poly ethylene glycol mediated in vitro screening and physico-biochemical changes induced in mango callus due to moisture stress

Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) - A method for in vitro screening and selection of drought (moisture stress) tolerant mango calli was developed. Poly ethylene glycol (PEG) (Molecular...     

PMTER-ABE: a practical multi-authority CP-ABE with traceability,revocation and outsourcing decryption for secure access control in cloud systems

Cluster Computing - Attribute-based encryption (ABE) has evolved as an efficient and secure method for storage of data with fine-grained access control in cloud platforms. In recent years,...     

Early passage neonatal and adult keratinocytes are sensitive to apoptosis induced by infection with an ICP27-null mutant of herpes simplex virus 1

Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) is a enveloped, double stranded DNA virus that is the causative agent of various diseases including cold sores, encephalitis, and ocular keratitis. Previous research has determined that HSV-1 modulates cellular apoptotic pathways. Apoptosis is triggered in infected cells early in infection; however, later in the infection the apoptotic response is suppressed due to the expression of several viral apoptotic antagonists. This sets us a delicate balance between pro- and anti-apoptotic processes during the lytic phase of infection. Several studies have demonstrated that the apoptotic balance can be shifted during infection of certain cell types, leading to apoptosis of the infected cells (HSV-1-dependent apoptosis). For example, HEp-2 cells infected with an ICP27-null recombinant HSV-1 virus undergo HSV-1-dependent apoptosis. Differences in the sensitivity to HSV-1-dependent apoptosis have been revealed. Although many tumor cells have been found to be highly sensitive to this apoptotic response, with the exception hematological cells, all primary human cells tested prior to this study have been shown to be resistant to HSV-1-dependent apoptosis. Here, we demonstrate that early passage neonatal and adult human keratinocytes, which are usually the first cells to encounter HSV-1 in human infection and support the lytic stage of the life cycle, display membrane blebbing and ballooning, chromatin condensation, caspase activation, and cleavage of cellular caspase substrates when infected with an ICP27-null recombinant of HSV-1. Furthermore, caspase activation is needed for the efficient apoptotic response. These results suggest that apoptotic machinery may be a target for modulating HSV-disease in patients.     

Treadmill desks: A 1‐year prospective trial

Objective: Sedentariness is associated with weight gain and obesity. A treadmill desk is the combination of a standing desk and a treadmill that allow employees to work while walking at low speed. Design and Methods: The hypothesis was that a 1‐year intervention with treadmill desks is associated with an increase in employee daily physical activity (summation of all activity per minute) and a decrease in daily sedentary time (zero activity). Employees (n = 36; 25 women, 11 men) with sedentary jobs (87 ± 27 kg, BMI 29 ± 7 kg/m², n = 10 Lean BMI < 25 kg/m², n = 15 Overweight 25 < BMI < 30 kg/m², n = 11 Obese BMI > 30 kg/m²) volunteered to have their traditional desk replaced with a treadmill desk to promote physical activity for 1 year. Results: Daily physical activity (using accelerometers), work performance, body composition, and blood variables were measured at Baseline and 6 and 12 months after the treadmill desk intervention. Subjects who used the treadmill desk increased daily physical activity from baseline 3,353 ± 1,802 activity units (AU)/day to, at 6 months, 4,460 ± 2,376 AU/day (P < 0.001), and at 12 months, 4,205 ± 2,238 AU/day (P < 0.001). Access to the treadmill desks was associated with significant decreases in daily sedentary time (zero activity) from at baseline 1,020 ± 75 min/day to, at 6 months, 929 ± 84 min/day (P < 0.001), and at 12 months, 978 ± 95 min/day (P < 0.001). For the whole group, weight loss averaged 1.4 ± 3.3 kg (P < 0.05). Weight loss for obese subjects was 2.3 ± 3.5 kg (P < 0.03). Access to the treadmill desks was associated with increased daily physical activity compared to traditional chair‐based desks; their deployment was not associated with altered performance. For the 36 participants, fat mass did not change significantly, however, those who lost weight (n = 22) lost 3.4 ± 5.4 kg (P < 0.001) of fat mass. Weight loss was greatest in people with obesity. Conclusions: Access to treadmill desks may improve the health of office workers without affecting work performance.     

Reduction of nuclear Y654-p-β-catenin expression through SH3GL2-meditated downregulation of EGFR in chemotolerance TNBC: Clinical and prognostic importance

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) originates from a less differentiated ductal cell of breast, which is less sensitive to chemotherapy. The chemotolerance mechanism of TNBC has not yet been studied in detail. For this reason, molecular profiles (expression/genetic/epigenetic) of Y654-p-β-catenin (active) and its kinase epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) along with SH3GL2 (regulator of EGFR homeostasis) were compared between neoadjuvant chemotherapy treated (NACT) and pretherapeutic TNBC samples. Reduced nuclear expression of Y654-p-β-catenin protein with low proliferation index and CD44 prevalence showed concordance with reduced expression of EGFR/Y1045-p-EGFR proteins in the NACT samples than the pretherapeutic TNBC samples. Infrequent messenger RNA expression, gene amplification (10–32.5%), and mutation (1%) of EGFR were seen in the TNBC samples irrespective of therapy, suggesting the importance of EGFR protein stabilization in this tumor. The upregulation of SH3GL2 seen in the NACT samples in contrast to the pretherapeutic samples might be due to its promoter hypomethylation, as seen in the quantitative methylation assay. A similar trend of upregulation of SH3GL2 and downregulation of EGFR, Y1045-p-EGFR, Y654-p-β-catenin were seen in the MDA-MB-231 cell line using antharacycline antitumor drugs (doxorubicin/nogalamycin). The NACT patients with reduced expression of Y654-p-β-catenin and/or EGFR and high expression of SH3GL2 showed comparatively better prognosis than the pretherapeutic patients. Thus, our study showed that reduced nuclear expression of Y654-p-β-catenin in NACT samples due to downregulation of EGFR protein through promoter hypomethylation-mediated upregulation of SH3GL2, resulting in low proliferation index/CD44 prevalence with better prognosis of the NACT patients, might have an important role in the chemotolerance of TNBC.     

Establishment and characterization of an epithelial cell line from thymus of Catla catla (Hamilton, 1822)

A cell line, CTE, derived from catla (Catla catla) thymus has been established by explant method and subcultured for more than 70 passages over a period of 400 days. The cell line has been maintained in L-15 (Leibovitz) medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. CTE cell line consists of homogeneous population of epithelial-like cells and grows optimally at 28 °C. Karyotype analysis revealed that the modal chromosome number of CTE cells was 50. Partial amplification, sequencing and alignment of fragments of two mitochondrial genes 16S rRNA and COI confirmed that CTE cell line originated from catla. Significant green fluorescent signals were observed when the cell line was transfected with phrGFP II-N mammalian expression vector, indicating its potential utility for transgenic and genetic manipulation studies. The CTE cells showed strong positivity for cytokeratin, indicating that cell line was epithelial in nature. The flow cytometric analysis of cell line revealed a higher number of cells in S-phase at 48 h, suggesting a high growth rate. The extracellular products of Vibrio cholerae MTCC 3904 were toxic to the CTE cells. This cell line was not susceptible to fish betanodavirus, the causative agent of viral nervous necrosis in a large variety of marine fish.     

Synthesis of (R)-norbgugaine and its potential as quorum sensing inhibitor against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

(R)-Bgugaine is a natural pyrrolidine alkaloid from Arisarum vulgare, which shows antifungal and antibacterial activity. In this Letter, we have accomplished the simple synthesis of norbgugaine (demethylated form of natural bgugaine) employing Wittig olefination and cat. hydrogenation as the key steps and its biological studies are reported for the first time. The synthesized norbgugaine was evaluated for inhibition of quorum sensing mediated virulence factors (motility, biofilm formation, pyocyanin pigmentation, rhamnolipid production and LasA protease) in Pseudomonas aeruginosa wherein swarming motility is reduced by 95%, and biofilm formation by 83%.