ABSTRACT Microplastic has emerged as a global threat owing to its chronic ubiquity and persistence. Microplastics’ small size expedites their ingestion at each trophic level causing biomagnification ...and bioaccumulation, which has raised public concerns. The present study isolated, quantified and characterized the abundance, shape, size, color, and chemical composition of the microplastics from water and sediments of the Hirakud Reservoir through a scanning electron microscope and FTIR. The ecological risk associated with the microplastics was assessed using the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) method to derive the Predicted No-Effect Concentration (PNEC) value and risk quotient (RQ). The abundance of microplastics in the surface water and sediments of the Hirakud Reservoir was estimated at 82–89 particles/L and 159–163 particles/kg, respectively. Fiber-shaped microplastics dominated both surface water (46.21%) and sediment samples (44.86%). Small-sized microplastics (53–300 μm) prevailed in all samples. Color delineation exhibited an abundance of transparent microplastics. Chemical characterization indicated the dominance of polypropylene (38%), followed by high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, and polystyrene. The calculated PNEC value was 3,954 particles/m3, and the RQ was estimated to be 0.02073–0.04122 indicating negligible ecological risk to freshwater species in all the sampling sites.
Insulin resistance may become the most powerful predictor of future development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and a therapeutic target for the treatment of the same. Both Resistin, an adipose ...derived peptide hormone and Urotensin II a potent vasoconstrictor, are reported to be involved in the development of insulin resistance and T2DM but the results remain contradictory. Therefore, investigations were carried out to study the association of T2DM and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in Resistin (RETN) gene at rs3745367 (+ 299 G > A) and Urotensin II (UTS2) gene at rs228648 (+ 143 G > A) and rs2890565 (+ 3836 C > T) in a North Indian population. Method: The present case–control study, conducted from August 2017 to July 2020, involved 168 T2DM patients and 102 healthy controls. SNPs rs3745367, rs228648 and rs2890565 were amplified from genomic DNA in the studied samples by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using specific primers. The amplified products were genotyped by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) using particular restriction endonucleases. Clinical parameters viz. glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose (FBG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (CHL) and fasting insulin were determined by enzymatic methods. Result and conclusion: A statistically significant association between T2DM and RETN gene at SNP rs3745367 (p = 0.001) and UTS2 gene at SNP rs2890565 (p = 0.001) was observed. In RETN gene SNP rs3745367, insulin and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were found to be higher in GA + AA combined genotype than in GG genotype for T2DM subjects. Regression analysis revealed that SNP rs2890565 and HOMA-IR were independently associated with the risk of development of T2DM when three SNPs were taken as independent variable adjusted for clinical variables. Among four haplotypes, A/T was found associated with increased risk of T2DM as determined for rs228648 and rs2890565 of UTS2 gene. It can be concluded from these results that polymorphism at rs3745367 of RETN gene and at rs2890565 of UTS2 gene are associated with risk of T2DM in North Indian population.
Impetuous urbanization and population growth are driving increased demand for plastics to formulate impeccable industrial and biomedical commodities. The everlasting nature and excruciating waste ...management of petroleum-based plastics have catered to numerous challenges for the environment. However, just implementing various end-of-life management techniques for assimilation and recycling plastics is not a comprehensive remedy; instead, the extensive reliance on finite resources needs to be reduced for sustainable production and plastic product utilization. Microorganisms, such as bacteria and algae, are explored substantially for their bioplastic production repertoire, thus replacing fossil-based plastics sooner or later. Nevertheless, the utilization of pure microbial cultures has led to various operational and economical complications, opening the ventures for the usage of mixed microbial cultures (MMCs) consisting of bacteria and algae for sustainable production of bioplastic. The current review is primarily focuses on elaborating the bioplastic production capabilities of different bacterial and algal strains, followed by discussing the quintessence of MMCs. The present state-of-the-art of bioplastic, different types of bacterial bioplastic, microalgal biocomposites, operational factors influencing the quality and quantity of bioplastic precursors, embracing the potential of bacteria-algae consortia, and the current global status quo of bioplastic production has been summarized extensively.
This paper presents the chromium adsorptive potential of polysaccharide produced by a novel cyanobacterium
Lyngbya putealis HH-15. Batch mode experiments were performed to determine the adsorption ...equilibrium and the equilibrium data was applied to different two-parameter models (Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Dubinin–Radushkevich, Flory–Huggins, and Brunauer, Emmer & Teller (BET) model). The highest coefficient of determination (0.9925) for Langmuir and BET models indicates best fitness of these models in explaining the sorption as a multilayer process. Effect of different variables like initial metal ion concentration (10–100
mg/L), pH (2–6) and temperature (25–45
°C) on chromium adsorption of exopolysaccharides (EPS) were also examined, using Box–Behnken design model. Very high value of regression coefficient between the variables and the response (
R
2
=
0.9982) indicates excellent evaluation of experimental data by second-order polynomial regression model. The response surface method indicated that 30–40
mg/L initial chromium concentration, pH 2 and 45
°C temperature were optimal for biosorption of chromium by the cyanobacterial exopolysaccharides. Adsorption capacity of EPS increased from 45 to 157
mg/g of EPS as initial Cr(VI) concentration increased from 10 to 30
mg/L. Surface adsorption of the metal at surface of EPS was confirmed through scanning electron microscopy.
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and autophagy are key cellular responses to RNA virus infection. Recent studies have shown that Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV)-induced autophagy negatively ...influences virus replication in mouse neuronal cells and embryonic fibroblasts, and delays virus-induced cell death. Here, we evaluated the role of ER stress pathways in inducing autophagy during JEV infection. We observed that JEV infection of neuronal cells led to activation of all three sensors of ER stress mediated by eIF2α/PERK, IRE1/XBP1 and ATF6. The kinetics of autophagy induction as monitored by levels of SQSTM1 and LC3-II paralleled activation of ER stress. Inhibition of the eIF2α/PERK pathway by siRNA-mediated depletion of proteins and by the PERK inhibitor had no effect on autophagy and JEV replication. However, depletion of XBP1 and ATF6, alone or in combination, prevented autophagy induction and significantly enhanced JEV-induced cell death. JEV-infected cells depleted of XBP1 or ATF6 showed reduced transcription of ER chaperones, ERAD components and autophagy genes, resulting in reduced protein levels of the crucial autophagy effectors ATG3 and BECLIN-1. Conversely, pharmacological induction of ER stress in JEV-infected cells further enhanced autophagy and reduced virus titres. Our study thus demonstrates that a crucial link exists between the ER stress pathways and autophagy in virus-infected cells, and that these processes are highly regulated during virus infection.
Discovering an alternative therapy with a long-lasting effect on symptoms caused by chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection is prompted by the lack of a vaccine and the absence of safe, effective and ...non-toxic medications. One potential strategy is synthesizing or identifying small compounds that can specifically target the active site of an essential enzyme and prevent virus replication. Previous site-directed mutagenesis studies have demonstrated the crucial role of the macrodomain, which is a part of non-structural protein 3 (nsP3), in virus replication. Exploiting this fact, the macrodomain can be targeted to discover a natural substance that can inhibit its function and thereby impede virus replication. With this aim, the present study focused on potential CHIKV nsP3 macrodomain (nsP3
) inhibitors through in silico, in vitro and cell-based methods. Through virtual screening of the natural compound library, nine nsP3
inhibitors were initially identified. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed to evaluate these nine compounds based on the stability of their ligand-receptor complexes and energy parameters. Target analysis and ADMET (i.e. absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity) prediction of the selected compounds revealed their drug-like characteristics. Subsequent in vitro investigation allowed us to narrow the selection down to one compound, N-2-(5-methoxy-1H-indol-3-yl) ethyl-2-oxo-1,2-dihydroquinoline-4-carboxamide, which exhibited potent inhibition of CHIKV growth. This molecule effectively inhibited CHIKV replication in the stable embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma cell line capable of producing CHIKV. Our findings demonstrate that the selected compound possesses substantial anti-CHIKV nsP3
activity both in vitro and in vivo. This work provides a promising molecule for further preclinical studies to develop a potential drug against the CHIKV.
The aim of this research work is to obtain the numerical solution of Fisher’s equation using the radial basis function (RBF) with pseudospectral method (RBF-PS). The two optimization techniques, ...namely, particle swarm optimization (PSO) and artificial bee colony (ABC), have been compared for the numerical results in terms of errors, which are employed to find the shape parameter of the RBF. Two problems of Fisher’s equation are presented to test the accuracy of the method, and the obtained numerical results are compared to verify the effectiveness of this novel approach. The calculation of the error norms leads to the conclusion that the performance of PSO is better than the ABC algorithm to minimize the error for the shape parameter in a given range.
This research article focused on optimising the parameter related to radial basis function (RBF) by solving the Fisher’s equation numerically. To obtain the numerical solutions, Particle Swarm ...Optimisation (PSO) algorithm is used along with radial basis functions (RBFs). PSO has been used by a number of researchers to obtain the optimised results in various scientific applications. In this work, using RBF-pseudospectral method, partial differential equations (PDEs) are transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) then are solved in MATLAB using the ODE solver. Two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method by computingL∞, L2, and Lrms error norms with their order of convergence. Also, it can be demonstrated from the tables that the obtained results are in conformity with the results available in the literature.
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