Octyl Gallate and Gallic Acid Isolated from Terminalia bellirica Circumvent Breast Cancer Progression by Enhancing the Intrinsic Apoptotic Signaling Pathway and Elevating the Levels of Anti-oxidant Enzymes

Exploration of new strategies and identification of less expensive novel chemoprevention agents against breast cancer progression have become the need of the hour. Thus, the present study aimed at evaluating the anti-cancer efficacies of octyl gallate (OG) and gallic acid (GA) isolated from Terminalia bellirica (T. bellirica) in breast cancer cell lines and DMBA-induced Sprague-Dawley animal model. The results of western blot analysis show significant (p < 0.05) downregulation of anti-apoptotic protein (Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL) expression and up-regulation of pro-apoptotic protein (Bak and Bax) expression in both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines. Our findings also show that DMBA-induced Sprague-Dawley rats (50-55 days old) orally administered with OG (20 mg/kg body wt.) and GA (20 mg/kg body wt.) for a treatment period of 14 weeks were observed for normalized body weight changes and hematological indices and significant reduction of tumor markers carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cancer antigen 15.3 (CA 15.3), and oxidative stress (TBARS) in serum, while the activity of anti-oxidant enzyme (SOD, CAT, and GPx) levels estimated in the mammary tissue was found restored back to normal. Computational molecular interaction study was also performed to substantiate the in vitro obtained results. The tissue histology reveals the therapeutic role of OG and GA. The study conducted brings to limelight of the molecular mechanisms of intrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway through which OG and GA exert their chemopreventive action. Both OG and GA can be explored further as chemotherapeutic natural drugs for their ability to prevent breast cancer progression.

A Novel Traffic Based Framework for Smartphone Security Analysis

Android Operating system (OS) has grown into the most predominant smartphone platform due to its flexibility and open source characteristics. Because of its openness, it has become prone to numerous attackers and malware designers who are constantly trying to elicit confidential information by articulating a plethora of attacks through these designed malwares. Detection of these malwares to protect the smartphone is the core function of the smartphone security analysis. This paper proposes a novel traffic-based framework that exploits the network traffic features to detect these malwares. Here, a unified feature (UF) is created by graph-based cross-diffusion of generated order and sparse matrices corresponding to the network traffic features. Generated unified feature is then given to three classifiers to get corresponding classifier scores. The robustness of the suggested framework when evaluated on the standard datasets outperforms contemporary techniques to achieve an average accuracy of 98.74 per cent.

Novel Triterpenoids from Cassia fistula Stem Bark Depreciates STZ-Induced Detrimental Changes in IRS-1/Akt-Mediated Insulin Signaling Mechanisms in Type-1 Diabetic Rats

Here, we identified the mechanisms of action of antidiabetic activity of novel compounds isolated from Cassia fistula stem bark in STZ-diabetic animals. Novel triterpenoid compounds (C1, C2 and C3) were treated to STZ-administered diabetic animals at a concentration of 20mg/kg body weight orally for 60 days to assess their effects on plasma glucose, plasma insulin/C-peptide, serum lipid markers and the enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism, glucose oxidation and insulin signaling molecules. Oral administration of novel triterpenoid compounds to STZ-diabetic animals significantly decreased (p < 0.05) the plasma glucose concentration on the 7th, 15th, 30th, 45th and 60th daysin a duration-dependent manner (p < 0.05). Plasma insulin (p < 0.0001)/C-peptide (p < 0.0006), tissue glycogen (p < 0.0034), glycogen phosphorylase (p < 0.005), glucose 6-phosphatase (p < 0.0001) and lipid markers were significantly increased (p < 0.0001) in diabetic rats, whereas glucokinase (p < 0.0047), glycogen synthase (p < 0.003), glucose oxidation (p < 0.001), GLUT4 mRNA (p < 0.0463), GLUT4 protein (p < 0.0475) and the insulin-signaling molecules IR mRNA (p < 0.0195), IR protein (p < 0.0001), IRS-1 mRNA (p < 0.0478), p-IRS-1Tyr612 (p < 0.0185), Akt mRNA (p < 0.0394), p-AktSer473 (p < 0.0162), GLUT4 mRNA (p < 0.0463) and GLUT4 (p < 0.0475) were decreased in the gastrocnemius muscle. In silico analysis of C1-C3 with IRK and PPAR-γ protein coincided with in vivo findings. C1-C3 possessed promising antidiabetic activity by regulating insulin signaling mechanisms and carbohydrate metabolic enzymes.

An Efficient Multistage Fusion Approach for Smartphone Security Analysis

Android smartphone ecosystem is inundated with innumerable applications mainly developed by third party contenders leading to high vulnerability of these devices. In addition, proliferation of smartphone usage along with their potential applications in diverse field entice malware community to develop new malwares to attack these devices. In order to overcome these issues, an android malware detection framework is proposed wherein an efficient multistage fusion approach is introduced. For this, a robust unified feature vector is created by fusion of transformed feature matrices corresponding to multi-cue using non-linear graph based cross-diffusion. Unified feature is further subjected to multiple classifiers to obtain their classification scores. Classifier scores are further optimally fused employing Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT). Strength of suggested model is assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively by ten-fold cross-validation on the benchmarked datasets. On an average of outcome, we achieved detection accuracy of 98.97% and F-measure of 0.9936. 

DaiCee: A database for anti-cancer compounds with targets and side effect profiles

Identification of the toxicity of compounds is more crucial before entering clinical trials. Awareness of physiochemical properties, possible targets and side effects has become a major public health issue to reduce risks. Experimental determination of analyzing the physiochemical properties of a drug, their interaction with specific receptors and identifying their side-effects remain challenging is time consuming and costly. We describe a manually compiled database named DaiCee database, which contains 2100 anticancer drugs with information on their physiochemical properties, targets of action and side effects. It includes both synthetic and herbal anti-cancer compounds. It allows the search for SMILES notation, Lipinski's and ADME/T properties, targets and side effect profiles of the drugs. This helps to identify drugs with effective anticancer properties, their toxic nature, drug-likeness for in-vitro and in-vivo experiments. It also used for comparative analysis and screening of effective anticancer drugs using available data for compounds in the database. The database will be updated regularly to provide the users with latest information. The database is available at the URL http://www.hccbif.org/usersearch.php.

Current practice of difficult airway management: A survey

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Difficult airway (DA) management depends on both training and actual usage of the various approaches in the event of difficulty. The aim of the study was to assess how well the anaesthesiologists are equipped to deal with DA situations. The current practice preference of DA management was also assessed.

METHODS

A questionnaire was distributed in a continuing medical education (CME) programme dedicated to DA and responses were noted and analysed, using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18.

RESULTS

The response rate was 73%. Airway assessment was performed by majority. Sixty eight percent consultants and 47% residents were well aware of the American Society of Anesthesiologists' DA algorithm. 67% consultants and 65% residents attended at least one CME on DA in the previous 5 years. There was an overall deficiency of video laryngoscopes, retrograde intubation and cricothyrotomy sets. Most of the respondents were comfortable in using supraglottic airway devices (SGADs). In anticipated DA, the preferred choice of management for junior doctors was attempting conventional method once and awake fibreoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) for the experienced. In unanticipated DA, most of the residents and consultants opted for SGAD. Extubation strategy was similar for both. Thirty four percent of respondents experienced a 'cannot intubate-cannot ventilate' situation at least once.

CONCLUSION

Our survey showed that most respondents performed routine pre-operative airway assessment. A good armamentarium of airway gadgets should be made available in hospitals. Further training in techniques like video laryngoscopy, FOB or cricothyrotomy are essential.

Impact of simulated heat stress on growth, physiological adaptability, blood metabolites and endocrine responses in Malpura ewes under semiarid tropical environment

The study was conducted to develop a simulated heat stress model for sheep depicting natural environmental conditions and to observe its impact on growth, reproductive performance, physiological adaptability, blood metabolites and endocrine responses in Malpura ewes. The experiment was conducted on 16 adult Malpura ewes for a period of 35 days. The animals were randomly divided into two groups of eight animals each (GI – control, GII – heat stress). The GII ewes were exposed to different temperature at different hours of the day i.e. 38°C at 1000–1100 hours; 40°C at 1100–1200 hours; 42°C at 1200–1300 hours; 43°C at 1300–1400 hours; 44°C at 1400–1500 hours and 42°C at 1500–1600 hours in a climatic chamber. Feed intake (P < 0.01), bodyweight (P < 0.05) and body condition score (P < 0.01) reduced significantly in GII as compared with GI ewes while water intake increased significantly (P < 0.01). All physiological responses also showed significant variation between the groups for treatment. In addition, all endocrine parameters showed highly significant (P < 0.01) variation for the treatment. Plasma cortisol increased significantly (P < 0.01) while T3 (P < 0.01) and T4 (P < 0.01) decreased significantly in GII as compared with GI ewes. Further, plasma oestradiol decreased significantly (P < 0.01) while plasma progesterone increased significantly (P < 0.01) in GII as compared with GI. Among the biochemical parameters, hemoglobin, packed cell volume, plasma glucose, total cholesterol, urea and blood urea nitrogen differed significantly between the groups. In addition, oestrus duration also significantly (P < 0.05) reduced in GII as compared with GI. Based on the results obtained from the study it can be concluded that simulated heat stress influenced the adaptive behaviour of sheep in terms of changes in physiological, blood biochemical and endocrine responses. Ultimately, their growth and reproductive performance are compromised during the process of adaptation to the simulated heat stress.

Conformational analysis and design of cross-strand disulfides in antiparallel β-sheets

Cross-strand disulfides bridge two cysteines in a registered pair of antiparallel β-strands. A nonredundant data set comprising 5025 polypeptides containing 2311 disulfides was used to study cross-strand disulfides. Seventy-six cross-strand disulfides were found of which 75 and 1 occurred at non-hydrogen-bonded (NHB) and hydrogen-bonded (HB) registered pairs, respectively. Conformational analysis and modeling studies demonstrated that disulfide formation at HB pairs necessarily requires an extremely rare and positive χ¹ value for at least one of the cysteine residues. Disulfides at HB positions also have more unfavorable steric repulsion with the main chain. Thirteen pairs of disulfides were introduced in NHB and HB pairs in four model proteins: leucine binding protein (LBP), leucine, isoleucine, valine binding protein (LIVBP), maltose binding protein (MBP), and Top7. All mutants LIVBP T247C V331C showed disulfide formation either on purification, or on treatment with oxidants. Protein stability in both oxidized and reduced states of all mutants was measured. Relative to wild type, LBP and MBP mutants were destabilized with respect to chemical denaturation, although the sole exposed NHB LBP mutant showed an increase of 3.1°C in T(m). All Top7 mutants were characterized for stability through guanidinium thiocyanate chemical denaturation. Both exposed and two of the three buried NHB mutants were appreciably stabilized. All four HB Top7 mutants were destabilized (ΔΔG⁰ = -3.3 to -6.7 kcal/mol). The data demonstrate that introduction of cross-strand disulfides at exposed NHB pairs is a robust method of improving protein stability. All four exposed Top7 disulfide mutants showed mild redox activity.

Self Organizing Sensor Network to Enhance Event Coverage

We are proposing a self deploying mobile sensor network which is empowered with event based relocation of redundant sensors for enhancing the quality of event sensing. Energy efficient Cell quorum based protocol is used for communication between event location and redundant sensors. Computationally light cascaded reorganization of sensor is suggested for relocation of sensors. The proposed method provides good coverage as it dynamically relocates the sensors either for avoiding coverage hole or for improving the quality of event sensing.

Disulfide conformation and design at helix N-termini

To understand structural and thermodynamic features of disulfides within an α‐helix, a non‐redundant dataset comprising of 5025 polypeptide chains containing 2311 disulfides was examined. Thirty‐five examples were found of intrahelical disulfides involving a CXXC motif between the N‐Cap and third helical positions. GLY and PRO were the most common amino acids at positions 1 and 2, respectively. The N‐Cap residue for disulfide bonded CXXC motifs had average (ϕ,ψ) values of (−112 ± 25.2°, 106 ± 25.4°). To further explore conformational requirements for intrahelical disulfides, CYS pairs were introduced at positions N‐Cap‐3; 1,4; 7,10 in two helices of an Escherichia coli thioredoxin mutant lacking its active site disulfide (nSS Trx). In both helices, disulfides formed spontaneously during purification only at positions N‐Cap‐3. Mutant stabilities were characterized by chemical denaturation studies (in both oxidized and reduced states) and differential scanning calorimetry (oxidized state only). All oxidized as well as reduced mutants were destabilized relative to nSS Trx. All mutants were redox active, but showed decreased activity relative to wild‐type thioredoxin. Such engineered disulfides can be used to probe helix start sites in proteins of unknown structure and to introduce redox activity into proteins. Conversely, a protein with CYS residues at positions N‐Cap and 3 of an α‐helix is likely to have redox activity. Proteins 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Identification and thermodynamic characterization of molten globule states of periplasmic binding proteins

Molten globule-like intermediates have been shown to occur during protein folding and are thought to be involved in protein translocation and membrane insertion. However, the determinants of molten globule stability and the extent of specific packing in molten globules is currently unclear. Using far- and near-UV CD and intrinsic and ANS fluorescence, we show that four periplasmic binding proteins (LBP, LIVBP, MBP, and RBP) form molten globules at acidic pH values ranging from 3.0 to 3.4. Only two of these (LBP and LIVBP) have similar sequences, but all four proteins adopt similar three-dimensional structures. We found that each of the four molten globules binds to its corresponding ligand without conversion to the native state. Ligand binding affinity measured by isothermal titration calorimetry for the molten globule state of LIVBP was found to be comparable to that of the corresponding native state, whereas for LBP, MBP, and RBP, the molten globules bound ligand with approximately 5-30-fold lower affinity than the corresponding native states. All four molten globule states exhibited cooperative thermal unfolding assayed by DSC. Estimated values of DeltaCp of unfolding show that these molten globule states contain 28-67% of buried surface area relative to the native states. The data suggest that molten globules of these periplasmic binding proteins retain a considerable degree of long range order. The ability of these sequentially unrelated proteins to form highly ordered molten globules may be related to their large size as well as an intrinsic property of periplasmic binding protein folds.

Protein stabilization by introduction of cross-strand disulfides

Disulfides cross-link residues in a protein that are separated in primary sequence and stabilize the protein through entropic destabilization of the unfolded state. While the removal of naturally occurring disulfides leads to protein destabilization, introduction of engineered disulfides does not always lead to significant stabilization of a protein. We have analyzed naturally occurring disulfides that span adjacent antiparallel strands of beta sheets (cross-strand disulfides). Cross-strand disulfides have recently been implicated as redox-based conformational switches in proteins such as gp120 and CD4. The propensity of these disulfides to act as conformational switches was postulated on the basis of the hypothesis that this class of disulfide is conformationally strained. In the present analysis, there was no evidence to suggest that cross-strand disulfides are more strained compared to other disulfides as assessed by their torsional energy. It was also observed that these disulfides occur solely at non-hydrogen-bonded (NHB) registered pairs of adjacent antiparallel strands and not at hydrogen-bonded (HB) positions as suggested previously. One of the half-cystines involved in cross-strand disulfide formation often occurs at an edge strand. Experimental confirmation of the stabilizing effects of such disulfides was carried out in Escherichia coli thioredoxin. Four pairs of cross-strand cysteines were introduced, two at HB and two at NHB pairs. Disulfides were formed in all four cases. However, as predicted from our analysis, disulfides at NHB positions resulted in an increase in melting temperature of 7-10 degrees C, while at HB positions there was a corresponding decrease of -7 degrees C. The reduced state of all proteins had similar stability.