Cerebrospinal fluid inflammatory cytokine profiles of patients with neurotropic parasitic infections

The pathogenesis of chronic parasitic central nervous system (CNS) infections, including granulomatous amoebic meningoencephalitis (GAE), cerebral toxoplasmosis (CT), and neurocysticercosis (NCC), is primarily due to an inflammatory host reaction to the parasite. Inflammatory cytokines produced by invading T cells, monocytes, and CNS resident cells lead to neuroinflammation which underlie the immunopathology of these infections. Immune molecules, especially cytokines, can therefore emerge as potential biomarker(s) of CNS parasitic infections. In this study, cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) samples from suspected patients with parasitic infections were screened for pathogenic free-living amoebae by culture (n=2506) and PCR (n=275). Six proinflammatory cytokines in smear and culture-negative CSF samples from patients with GAE (n = 2), NCC (n = 7), and CT (n = 23) as well as control (n = 7) patients were measured using the Multiplex Suspension assay. None of the CSF samples tested was positive for neurotropic free-living amoebae by culture and only two samples showed Acanthamoeba 18S rRNA by PCR. Of the six cytokines measured, only IL-6 and IL-8 were significantly increased in all three infection groups compared to the control group. In addition, TNFa levels were higher in the GAE and NCC groups and IL-17 in the GAE group compared to controls. The levels of IL-1b and IFNg were very low in all the infection groups and the control group. There was a correlation between CSF cellularity and increased levels of IL-6, IL-8, and TNFa in 11 patients. Thus, quantifying inflammatory cytokine levels in CSF might help with understanding the level of neuroinflammation in patients with neurotropic parasitic diseases. Further studies with clinico-microbiological correlation in the form of reduction of cytokine levels with treatment and the correlation with neurological deficits are needed.

Potent anti-mycobacterial and immunomodulatory activity of some bioactive molecules of Indian ethnomedicinal plants that have the potential to enter in TB management

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the deadliest infectious diseases of human civilization. Approximately one-third of global population is latently infected with the TB pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb). The discovery of anti-TB antibiotics leads to decline in death rate of TB. However, the evolution of antibiotic-resistant M.tb-strain and the resurgence of different immune-compromised diseases re-escalated the death rate of TB. WHO has already cautioned about the chances of pandemic situation in TB endemic countries until the discovery of new anti-tubercular drugs, that is, the need of the hour. Analysing the pathogenesis of TB, it was found that M.tb evades the host by altering the balance of immune response and affects either by killing the cells or by creating inflammation. In the pre-antibiotic era, traditional medicines were only therapeutic measures for different infectious diseases including tuberculosis. The ancient literatures of India or ample Indian traditional knowledge and ethnomedicinal practices are evidence for the treatment of TB using different indigenous plants. However, in the light of modern scientific approach, anti-TB effects of those plants and their bioactive molecules were not established thoroughly. In this review, focus has been given on five bioactive molecules of different traditionally used Indian ethnomedicinal plants for treatment of TB or TB-like symptom. These compounds are also validated with proper identification and their mode of action with modern scientific approaches. The effectiveness of these molecules for sensitive or drug-resistant TB pathogen in clinical or preclinical studies was also evaluated. Thus, our specific aim is to highlight such scientifically validated bioactive compounds having anti-mycobacterial and immunomodulatory activity for future use as medicine or adjunct-therapeutic molecule for TB management.

5 Improving Diagnosis and Management of Urinary Tract Infections for Elderly Patients

Introduction

Diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI) in the elderly population is challenging as they commonly present with atypical signs and symptoms. Prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in the elderly population is high. Hence, urine dipstick and urine culture are no longer diagnostic tests. UTI is over-diagnosed and overtreated in the elderly, resulting in poor antimicrobial stewardship. This project was carried out to assess and improve the current practices in the diagnosis and treatment of UTI in the Department of Medicine of the Elderly.

Methods

We reviewed current Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and National Institute for health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on management of UTI and defined indications for performing urine dipstick and sending urine culture. We then collected and assessed data on all urine dipsticks performed, urine cultures sent, and use of antibiotics in treating UTI and asymptomatic bacteriuria in three Medicine of the Elderly wards in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

We carried out intervention by means of presenting and discussing findings of Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles in departmental multi-disciplinary Quality Improvement (QI) meetings followed by educational sessions.

Results

Our baseline data showed 77% of urine dipsticks were performed without clinical indication and 18% of patients had urine cultures sent without clinical indication. After presenting our initial findings and carrying out an educational intervention session, 25% of patients had urine dipstick done without clinical indication, and 0% of patients had urine cultures sent without clinical indication. However, over the course of four subsequent PDSA cycles, practices in investigation of UTI fluctuated but were overall consistently better than the initial practice with further interventions. In all PDSA cycles, no patients were treated for asymptomatic bacteriuria.

Conclusions

Multidisciplinary team involvement in discussion of this QI project findings and educational sessions proved to be an effective form of intervention for improving current practice.

Pentapeptide Nanoreactor as a Platform for Halogenations, Diels-Alder Reaction, and Morita-Baylis-Hillman Reaction

A pentapeptide nanoreactor has been designed and synthesized as a platform to carry out the traditional organic reactions such as bromination, iodination, cycloaddition, and condensation reactions. The pentapeptide Boc-Phe-Phe-Aib-Phe-Phe-OMe with a supramolecular helical structure and π-rich channel provides nanoconfinements and thus facilitates the organic reactions. Bromination and iodination of aniline take place without any halogen carrier (Lewis acid) in the pentapeptide platform. Iodination produced p-iodoaniline only. The Diels-Alder reaction between furan and maleic anhydride increased 2-fold in the pentapeptide platform and the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction of benzaldehyde and ethyl acrylate in methanol enhanced 1.5-fold.

A urea-modified tryptophan based in situ reducing and stabilizing agent for the fabrication of gold nanoparticles as a Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling catalyst in water

Urea-modified tryptophan has been used as an in situ reducing and stabilizing agent for the fabrication of gold nanoparticles in water. The tryptophan side chain NH has been used for the reduction of gold ions in HAuCl₄ to metallic gold and carboxylic acid functionality helps to stabilize the gold nanoparticles. This was confirmed by a controlled reaction with urea-modified leucine which failed to form any gold nanoparticles. The resultant gold nanoparticles have been characterized by various spectroscopic techniques such as UV-visible spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy and microscopic techniques such as FE-SEM and TEM. Moreover, we have shown that the urea-modified tryptophan stabilized gold nanoparticles catalyze the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction. The gold nanoparticle catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction between 4-bromobenzoic acid and phenylboronic acid in water provides 92% yield in 40 minutes. The high efficiency exhibited by the gold nanoparticle catalyst was effectively translated to a large number of Suzuki-Miyaura reactions between halides with phenylboronic acid. The results may inspire further research on gold nanoparticles catalysis in water.

α,ε-Hybrid Peptide Foldamers: Self-Assembly of Peptide with Trans Carbon-Carbon Double Bonds in the Backbone and Its Saturated Analogue

The effect of geometrically rigid trans α,β-unsaturated ε-amino acids on the structure, folding, and assembly of α,ε-hybrid peptide foldamers has been reported. From single-crystal diffraction analysis, the unsaturated tetrapeptide 1 has stapler-pin-like structure but without intramolecular hydrogen bond. The asymmetric unit has two molecules that are stabilized by multiple intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions as well as π-π stacking interactions between the aromatic rings of 3-aminocinnamic acid. Peptide 1 does not form organogel. But on hydrogenation, peptide 1 provides the saturated α,ε-hybrid peptide foldamer 2, which forms instant gel in most of the aromatic solvents. The gel exhibits high stability. The unsaturated peptide 1 has porous microsphere morphology, but saturated analogue 2 has ribbonlike morphology. The gel has been used efficiently for removal of cationic organic pollutants from waste water.

Formation of toroids by self-assembly of an α-α corner mimetic: supramolecular cyclization

An α-α corner mimetic self-assembles to form a rod-like supramolecular structure which bends and closes end-to-end like a cyclization reaction to form uniform toroids. Each peptide fragment containing l-leucine, α-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib) and l-tyrosine forms rigid 3₁₀ helical structures stabilized by multiple intramolecular N-HO hydrogen bonds. Two 3₁₀ helices are connected by the spacer 3-aminomethyl-benzylamine and maintain an angular distance of 120° and therefore mimic the α-α corner motif of a protein super secondary structure. The individual α-α corner subunits are themselves regularly interlinked through multiple water mediated intermolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions to form the rod-like supramolecular structure and toroids. The formation of the supramolecular structure has been proven with X-ray crystallography and other spectroscopic techniques. The cyclization of the supramolecular structure and toroid formation were studied by optical microscope, AFM and FE-SEM experiments. Despite other assignments such as exfoliation of graphene from graphite, the compound exhibits significant memory to finally produce the toroids.

Towards reduced order modelling for predicting the dynamics of coherent vorticity structures within wind turbine wakes

The dynamics of the velocity field resulting from the interaction between the atmospheric boundary layer and a wind turbine array can affect significantly the performance of a wind power plant and the durability of wind turbines. In this work, dynamics in wind turbine wakes and instabilities of helicoidal tip vortices are detected and characterized through modal decomposition techniques. The dataset under examination consists of snapshots of the velocity field obtained from large-eddy simulations (LES) of an isolated wind turbine, for which aerodynamic forcing exerted by the turbine blades on the atmospheric boundary layer is mimicked through the actuator line model. Particular attention is paid to the interaction between the downstream evolution of the helicoidal tip vortices and the alternate vortex shedding from the turbine tower. The LES dataset is interrogated through different modal decomposition techniques, such as proper orthogonal decomposition and dynamic mode decomposition. The dominant wake dynamics are selected for the formulation of a reduced order model, which consists in a linear time-marching algorithm where temporal evolution of flow dynamics is obtained from the previous temporal realization multiplied by a time-invariant operator.This article is part of the themed issue 'Wind energy in complex terrains'.

Fabrication of egg shell-like nanovesicles from a thiocoumarin-based ε-amino ester: a potential carrier

A thiocoumarin-based ε-amino ester has been designed and synthesized and used to fabricate egg shell-like nanovesicles for sustained release of sulfamethoxazole antibiotic.

Synthesis and structural investigation of 2-aminomethyl-3-(4-methoxy-phenyl)-propionic acid containing a peptide analogue of the amyloidogenic AS(6–7) sequence: inhibition of fibril formation

The incorporation of a β-amino acid, namely 2-aminomethyl-3-(4-methoxy-phenyl)-propionic acid, inhibits amyloid-like fibril formation.

Violent suicidal behaviour in bipolar disorder is associated with nitric oxide synthase 3 gene polymorphism

OBJECTIVE

Given the importance of nitric oxide system in oxidative stress, inflammation, neurotransmission and cerebrovascular tone regulation, we postulated its potential dysfunction in bipolar disorder (BD) and suicide. By simultaneously analysing variants of three isoforms of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) genes, we explored interindividual genetic liability to suicidal behaviour in BD.

METHOD

A total of 536 patients with BD (DSM-IV) and 160 healthy controls were genotyped for functionally relevant NOS1, NOS2 and NOS3 polymorphisms. History of suicidal behaviour and violent suicide attempt was documented for 511 patients with BD. Chi-squared test was used to perform genetic association analyses and logistic regression to test for gene-gene interactions.

RESULTS

NOS3 rs1799983 T homozygous state was associated with violent suicide attempts (26.4% vs. 10.8%, in patients and controls, P = 0.002, corrected P (Pc) = 0.004, OR: 2.96, 95% CI = 1.33-6.34), and this association was restricted to the early-onset BD subgroup (37.9% vs. 10.8%, in early-onset BD and controls, P = 0.0003, Pc = 0.0006 OR: 5.05, 95% CI: 1.95-12.45), while we found no association with BD per se and no gene-gene interactions.

CONCLUSION

Our results bring further evidence for the potential involvement of endothelial NOS gene variants in susceptibility to suicidal behaviour. Future exploration of this pathway on larger cohort of suicidal behaviour is warranted.

Solvent assisted structural diversity: supramolecular sheet and double helix of a short aromatic γ-peptide

Solvent interaction has a significant effect on the molecular motions, folding and self-assembly of short aromatic γ-peptides that leads to a change in initial helical conformation.

Optimization of media composition for D-amino acid oxidase production by Trigonopsis variabilis using biostatistical analysis

D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) is biotechnologically relevant enzyme that is used in various food and pharmaceutical industries. DAAO from the yeast Trigonopsis variabilis is an important agent for use in commercial applications because of its high activity with cephalosporin C and is reasonable resistant to the oxidants O2 and H2O2 byproducts of reaction. In this study, response surface methodology (RSM) in shake flask culture was used to enhance the production of DAAO from T. variabilis by optimization of fermentation media composition. The effects of six factors (DL-alanine, glucose, pH, ZnSO4, (NH4)2SO4 and temperature) were evaluated on DAAO production. Results of Placket-Burman design showed that DL-alanine, pH, glucose and ZnSO4 were significant factors for DAAO production (P<0.05). The optimum values of media components as predicted by the central composite design were inducer (DL-alanine) concentration 3 g/L, pH 7.7, glucose 17 g/L and ZnSO4 34 mg/L. At these optimum values of media composition, maximum production of DAAO was 153 U/g yeast dry weight. Two-fold increase in DAAO production was achieved after optimization of the physical parameters by RSM.

Antifeedant activity of plant extracts to an insect Helopeltis theivora

The different solvent extracts (viz Petroleum ether Ethyl acetate and Methanol) obtained from leaves and flowers of Heliotropium indicum and Spilanthes calva were screened for antifeedant activity against Helopeltis theivora. All the six different extracts showed antifeedant activity at four different concentrations. The methanolic extracts of leaves of Heliotropium indicum and Spilanthes calva exhibited significant activity at 4% concentration. The numbers of spots produced were only 18.67 and 22.67 respectively which are significantly less than the numberof spots produced in control (104.00 and 93.33 respectively). The treatment with methanolic extracts of flowers of both the plants significantly reduced the number of feeding spots to 22.33 and 23.67 respectively in comparison to the control values of 101.33. All the activities are dose dependent. The mean results with SEM (mean +/- SE) were statistically significant at 1% level (p<0.01) for three observations.

HLA-A and HLA-B distribution in Toto - a vanishing sub-Himalayan tribe of India

The frequency of HLA-A and HLA-B locus alleles was studied by using polymerase chain reaction-based sequence-specific primer method in a very primitive and vanishing sub-Himalayan Indian Tribe, the Toto population of North Bengal. The Toto, a Mongoloid tribe with a population size of 1172 reside only in the Totopara of Jalpaiguri district of North Bengal. We studied 40 individuals and observed some high frequency alleles when compared to other Indian tribal, non-tribal, and major world populations. Particularly, the frequency of HLA-B14 was 32.5% in the Toto population, the highest known frequency reported in any population in the world. This indigenous tribal population may harbour novel HLA alleles and unique haplotypes which extensive HLA genotyping will help to reveal, and thus further our understanding of their genetic admixture and migration patterns.

The role of HLA-G in cytokine homeostasis during early pregnancy complicated with maternal infections: a novel etiopathological approach to the neurodevelopmental understanding of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is perhaps the most enigmatic and tragic psychotic disorder with remarkable mortality and morbidity. Schizophrenia is complex and clinically a heterogeneous disorder. The etiological basis of schizophrenia ranges from autoimmune to neurodevelopmental hypothesis in one hand and involvement of different major gene segment with susceptibility loci on the other. Recently, neurodevelopmental hypothesis gained much impetus over the other domain. To support the neurodevelopmental basis, a number of investigations have shown that maternal infections during pregnancy increases the risk of the offspring developing schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders. The pathological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon is largely unknown. Many have suggested the involvement of different immune markers and shown that cytokines generated in response to maternal infection alter early brain development through their inflammatory activity. However, these findings have escaped discussion on various important issues related to cytokine homeostasis which depends on a large number of immune parameters including non-classical HLA-G molecules. Infections during early stages of pregnancy may alter cytokine regulation by disturbing the whole uterine immune milieu. To elucidate this issue, authors have tried to correlate the possible relationships between maternal infections and aberration of immune networking at the feto-maternal interface and their subsequent influence on the structural and functional abnormalities of the developing brain. The authors hypothesize that there exists a counter regulatory interaction among proinflammatory cytokines like TNF-alpha, HLA-G molecules and different immune cells like NK cells. We emphasize that HLA-G molecules are the novel immune players which maintain the immune homeostasis during early pregnancy in a manner that it can protect developing fetus from maternal immune attack. However, maternal infections may lead to the disturbance of HLA-G expression which in turn may fail to maintain its otherwise inhibitory potential to down regulate the detrimental inflammatory cytokines. Investigation on such interaction may unravel novel molecular mechanisms of neurodevelopmental basis of schizophrenia. Testing of our proposed hypothesis on animal models and on in vitro derived extravillous trophoblast cell lines holds promise of great insights to usher a new dimension of schizophrenia research and for developing new therapeutic strategies for better treatment and to adopt genetic prediction in schizophrenia management paradigm.

Effect of sub-acute oral cyanide administration in rats: Protective efficacy of alpha-ketoglutarate and sodium thiosulfate

Chronic toxicity of cyanide in humans and animals has been previously described. Alpha-ketoglutarate (alpha-KG) and sodium thiosulfate (STS) are known to confer remarkable protection against acute cyanide poisoning in rodents. Their efficacy against sub-acute or chronic cyanide exposure is not known. The objective of the present study was to assess the sub-acute toxicity of potassium cyanide (KCN) in female rats following oral administration of 7.0 mg/kg (0.5 LD50) for 14 d. The effect of alpha-KG (oral; 1.0 g/kg) and/or STS (intraperitoneal, 1.0 g/kg) on cyanide toxicity was also evaluated. Various hematological and biochemical indices were determined after 7 d of treatment and additional parameters like organ-body weight index (OBI) and histology of brain, heart, lung, liver, kidney and spleen were performed after 14 and 21 d (recovery group) of cyanide exposure. Sub-acute exposure of KCN did not produce any significant change in body weight of the animals, OBI, hematology and the levels of blood urea, creatinine, aspartate aminotransferase, triiodothyronine (T3) and tetraiodothyronine (T4). The levels of temporal glutathione disulfide (GSSG) and hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH) and GSSG were unaffected. However, in KCN treated animals elevated levels of blood glucose and reduced levels of alanine aminotransferase were observed. Activities of cytochrome c oxidase in the brain and rhodanese in the liver were diminished. Reduced levels of GSH and enhanced levels of MDA in brain were observed. Increased levels of blood thiocyanate were observed in all the treatments of KCN. Additionally, KCN also produced various histological changes in the brain, heart, liver and kidney. Although, treatment of alpha-KG and STS alone significantly blunted the toxicity of KCN, concomitant use of both interventions afforded to maximum protection. This study indicates a promising role of alpha-KG and STS for the treatment of prolonged cyanide exposures.

Effect of nonadiabaticity of dust charge variation on dust acoustic waves: generation of dust acoustic shock waves

The effect of nonadiabaticity of dust charge variation arising due to small nonzero values of tau(ch)/tau(d) has been studied where tau(ch) and tau(d) are the dust charging and dust hydrodynamical time scales on the nonlinear propagation of dust acoustic waves. Analytical investigation shows that the propagation of a small amplitude wave is governed by a Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) Burger equation. Notwithstanding the soliton decay, the "soliton mass" is conserved, but the dissipative term leads to the development of a noise tail. Nonadiabaticity generated dissipative effect causes the generation of a dust acoustic shock wave having oscillatory behavior on the downstream side. Numerical investigations reveal that the propagation of a large amplitude dust acoustic shock wave with dust density enhancement may occur only for Mach numbers lying between a minimum and a maximum value whose dependence on the dusty plasma parameters is presented.

Role of hla class-I antigens in delusional disorder

The investigation was conducted to find out whether there is any association between delusional disorder and HLA antigens. The sample comprised 50 patients with delusional disorder and 282 control samples collected from normal controls. Statistical analysis revealed that the frequency of A3 antigen of the locus A are significantly higher. In case of HLA - B locus significantly higher frequency of B5 and B21 antigens have also been observed. The present study shows that there may be some association of HLA class-1 antigens with delusional disorder.

Studies of operational variables in batch mode for genetically engineered Escherichia coli cells containing penicillin acylase

A recombinant Escherichia coli was constructed by cloning the penicillin acylase gene from E. coli ATCC 11105. The cloning was carried out using a recombinant plasmid pUSAD2 harboring the pac gene. The recombinant E. coli DH 5 cells were used as a biocatalyst and were studied in a batch reactor for determination of optimum value for some of the process parameters, such as effect of pH, temperature, substrate concentration, kLa and effect of carbon and nitrogen source on penicillin acylase production. These values were then compared with the values obtained with the standard parent strain. Whereas the cloned pac gene was found to produce higher levels of penicillin acylase constitutively, the process parameters remained about the same for both the parent and the recombinant.