Background
Studies of plant extract-mediated synthesis of nanoparticles is extensively explored and studied in recent time due to eco-friendly, cost-effectiveness and minimal use of toxic chemicals ...for synthesis. In this study, the synthesis of Ag–TiO
2
nanocomposites (NCs) was carried out using
Origanum majorana
leaf extract under ultrasound irradiation.
Origanum majorana
leaf extract plays an important role as reducing and capping agent in synthesis of Ag–TiO
2
nanocomposites (NCs). The antimicrobial activities of synthesised Ag–TiO
2
NCs have been studied against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In addition to this, the antioxidant activity of green Ag–TiO
2
NCs was also evaluated on the basis of free radical scavenging activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS), and hydrogen peroxide free radicals.
Results
Green-synthesised Ag–TiO
2
NCs were successfully characterised on the basis of UV–Vis spectrophotometer, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), scanning electron microscopy energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results revealed the spherical shape of nanocomposite with an average size 25–50 nm. The synthesised Ag–TiO
2
NCs have showed significant antimicrobial activity against
Escherichia coli
,
Bacillus subtilis
and
Aspergillus niger
in comparison to TiO
2
nanoparticles (NPs). The antioxidant evaluation of biomimetic synthesised Ag–TiO
2
NCs also exhibited strong activity than TiO
2
NPs and comparable to standard.
Conclusion
Green-synthesized Ag–TiO
2
NCs provide a promising approach that can satisfy the requirement of large-scale industrial production bearing the advantage of low cost, eco-friendly and reproducible.
The IFA supplementation program under the Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) program is one of the most ambitious nutrient supplementation programs in India. The delivery of services often suffers due to ...frequent stock outs and shortages. It is critical to understand the bottleneck in the supply chain adversely affecting the performance and coverage of the program. The paper attempts to identify the bottlenecks of the IFA supply chain in key areas of supply chain i.e., forecasting, procurement, warehousing and inventory management, transportation, distribution, logistic information system and suggests a plan of action aimed at ensuring uninterrupted supplies to the end beneficiaries.
The data source for the present paper is the nationwide IFA Supply Chain Assessment (2018-19) conducted across 29 Indian states with a total of 58 districts, 116 blocks, 232 Sub-Centres, 232 Anganwadi centres and 232 schools covered under the assessment as a multi-partner collaborative initiative. Field insights from supply chain strengthening interventions under different public health programs in India and other developing countries were taken to arrive at corrective actions and recommendations. Findings were disseminated to government and an action plan was suggested for connecting service delivery points through an app-based system, developing a micro plan for ensuring fixed distribution schedule, followed by continuous monitoring and review meetings identified for follow up.
The average lead time across states was 35 weeks with top three performing states being Goa, Sikkim, and Telangana. The average per unit cost of procurement was Rs 0.35 for IFA Red, Rs 0.25 for IFA Blue, Rs 0.31 for IFA Pink and Rs 7.30 for IFA syrup. Out of the 704 districts in India, only 213 has IFA Red, only 140 had IFA Blue, 152 had IFA Pink and 163 had IFA Syrup available in four quarters of 2018-19. The key issues identified in the assessment were-a lack of standardized forecasting process, absence of inventory management techniques, no fixed distribution schedule, inadequate availability of transport vehicles and an absence of an integrated MIS.
The identification of bottlenecks in the IFA supply chain and its impact on the performance of the supply chain would provide policy guidelines for the government as well as development partner agencies to design an effective and efficient supply chain. It would also enable the policy planners to understand the challenges associated with managing different components of a supply chain, their interrelation and impact on the overall performance of the supply chain. The suggested recommendations would equip program managers with the tool to devise and implement field level solutions.
Tuberculosis (TB) has varied manifestations, but autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) due to TB is rare. Direct antibody test (DAT) or Coombs negative AIHA is also rare. We report a case of a ...14-year-old boy who presented with hemolytic anemia and pneumonia. The Coombs test was repeatedly negative. After ruling out the possible infectious and noninfectious causes by extensive investigations, he was diagnosed as DAT-negative AIHA by monospecific antibody test with 4°C low ionic strength saline washes and column agglutination method which revealed the presence of IgG-2+ antibodies. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid for acid-fast bacilli and gene Xpert was also positive. It is important to recognize TB as a cause of AIHA in South Asian countries where its incidence is high.
The antiproliferative activity of two chito-specific agglutinins purified from Benincasa hispida (BhL) and Datura innoxia (DiL9) of different plant family origin was investigated on various cancer ...cell lines. Both lectins showed chitotriose specificity, by inhibiting lectin hemagglutinating activity. On further studies, it was revealed that these agglutinins caused remarkable concentration-dependent antiproliferative effect on human pancreatic cancerous cells but not on the normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells even at higher doses determined using MTT assay. The GI50 values were approximately 8.4 μg ml(-1) (0.247 μM) and 142 μg ml(-1) (14.8 μM) for BhL and DiL9, respectively, against PANC-1 cells. The growth inhibitory effect of these lectins on pancreatic cancer cells were shown to be a consequence of lectin cell surface binding and triggering G0/G1 arrest, mitochondrial membrane depolarization, sustained increase of the intracellular calcium release and the apoptotic signal is amplified by activation of caspases executing cell death. Interestingly, these lectins also showed anti-angiogenic activity by disrupting the endothelial tubulogenesis. Therefore, we report for the first time two chito-specific lectins specifically binding to tumor glycans; they can be considered to be a class of molecules with antitumor activity against pancreatic cancer cells mediated through caspase dependent mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.
Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli colonize and infect the intestinal epithelium and cause acute inflammatory diarrhea. The intestinal epithelium serves as a physical barrier to, and a ...sensor of, bacterial infection by secreting proinflammatory cytokines. This study examined the mechanisms for Campylobacter-induced secretion of the proinflammatory chemokine interleukin-8 (IL-8) by using polarized T84 human colonic epithelial cells as a model. C. jejuni increased the secretion of both IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in polarized epithelial cells. However, the increase in IL-8 secretion was independent of Campylobacter-stimulated TNF-α secretion. Polarized T84 cells secreted IL-8 predominantly to the basolateral medium independently of the inoculation direction. While there was a significant correlation between the levels of IL-8 secretion and Campylobacter invasion, all 11 strains tested increased IL-8 secretion by polarized T84 cells despite their differences in adherence, invasion, and transcytosis efficiencies. Cell-free supernatants of Campylobacter-T84-cell culture increased IL-8 secretion to levels similar to those induced by live bacterial inoculation. The ability of the supernatant to induce IL-8 secretion was reduced by flagellum and cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) gene mutants, treatment of the supernatant with protease K or heat, or treatment of T84 cells with the Toll-like receptor (TLR) inhibitor MyD88 inhibitory peptide or chloroquine. NF-κB inhibitors or cdtB mutation plus MyD88 inhibitor, but not flaA cdtB double mutations, abolished the ability of the supernatant to induce IL-8 secretion. Taken together, our results demonstrate that Campylobacter-induced IL-8 secretion requires functional flagella and CDT and depends on the activation of NF-κB through TLR signaling and CDT in human intestinal epithelial cells.
Salt stress adversely influences growth, development, and productivity in plants, resulting in a limitation on agriculture production worldwide. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect ...of four different salts, i.e., NaCl, KCl, MgSO
, and CaCl
, applied at various concentrations of 0, 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 mM on the physico-chemical properties and essential oil composition of
. After 45 days of transplantation, the plants were irrigated at different salinities at 4-day intervals for 60 days. The resulting data revealed a significant reduction in plant height, number of branches, biomass, chlorophyll content, and relative water content with rising concentrations of NaCl, KCl, and CaCl
. However, MgSO
poses fewer toxic effects than other salts. Proline concentration, electrolyte leakage, and DPPH inhibition (%) increase with increasing salt concentrations. At lower-level salt conditions, we had a higher essential oil yield, and GC-MS analysis reported 36 compounds in which (-)-carvone and D-limonene covered the most area by 22%-50% and 45%-74%, respectively. The expression analyzed by qRT-PCR of synthetic Limonene (LS) and Carvone (ISPD) synthetic genes has synergistic and antagonistic relationships in response to salt treatments. To conclude, it can be said that lower levels of salt enhanced the production of essential oil in
, which may provide future benefits commercially and medicinally. In addition to this, salt stress also resulted in the emergence of novel compounds in essential oils, for which future strategies are needed to identify the importance of these compounds in
.
A green and an aqueous-mediated sonochemical synthesis of 8-aryl-7,8-dihydro-1,3-dioxolo4,5-gquinolin-6(5H)-ones from the multi-component reaction of Meldrum's acid, 3,4-methylenedioxy aniline and ...various aromatic aldehydes is described in the presence of catalytic amount of TiO2 NPs for the first time using high power sonicator. Initially, TiO2 NPs has also been synthesized by the biochemical method using leaf extract of Origanum majorana plant as a reducing and capping agent under sonication. Under the sonication, the catalytic activity of synthesized TiO2 NPs found to be excellent for synthesis of a series of 8-aryl-7,8-dihydro-1,3-dioxolo4,5-gquinolin-6(5H)-ones with operational simplicity, high yield under green reaction conditions without any environmental issue. The structure of TiO2 NPs was characterized by FT-IR, SEM, TEM, XRD and EDX studies.
A microwave-assisted three-component, regioselective one-pot synthesis of spiroindole-thiazolidinones (
6a–
l) is carried out using montmorillonite KSF as solid support.
A microwave-assisted ...three-component, regioselective one-pot cyclocondensation method has been developed for the synthesis of a series of novel spiroindole-thiazolidinones (
6a–
l) using an environmentally benign procedure at atmospheric pressure in open vessel. This rapid method produces pure products in high yields within few minutes in comparison to a conventional two-step procedure. The crystal structure of one representative compound has been determined by X-ray diffraction. The synthesized compounds have been screened ‘in vitro’ for antifungal activity against
Rhizoctonia solani,
Fusarium oxysporum and
Collectotrichum capsici. All compounds have shown good activity against these pathogens.
. The calculation of nominal values of the matching device for the modified plasma chemical etching installation "Plasma 600T" was based on the estimated values of the discharge impedance (plasma). ...It turned out that for optimal performance, one can use a matching device consisting of two capacitors whose capacitances are: С1 20; 1000 pF, С2 4; 100 pF, and inductor with inductance 2,5 μH.
•The present study deals with the development of stabilized self-emulsifying drug delivery system in the form of hydrogel.•Sodium alginate and HPMC were used for the development of hydrogel.•The ...amount of sodium alginate and HPMC required for the development of hydrogel was optimized by using RSM design.•Stabilized self-emulsifying drug delivery system could be able to overcome the disadvantages related to SEDDS.
Lovastatin (LVS) is a very popular HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor. Despite its popularity, bioavailability is very less (<5%). In the present work, a stabilized hydrogel system comprising self-emulsifying formulation (SEF) was developed to improve the bioavailability of LVS. SEF is composed of oil, surfactant, co-surfactant and LVS, and it was characterized for globule size. In order to develop hydrogel system, 3-level factorial design, ionic gelation method was used. The developed hydrogel was characterized by FTIR, XRD and FESEM. The process variables (sodium alginate (SA) and HPMC) were optimized for the maximum encapsulation efficiency (EE) of drug with the help of response surface methodology (RSM).
The RSM analysis predicted that SA was highly significant (p<0.0001), whereas HPMC was not significant (p=0.3690) for EE. The quadratic model was found to be adequate and statistically accurate with a correlation value (R2) of 0.9908 to evaluate the EE. An increase in the concentration of SA increased the drug EE. The obtained optimum value of drug % EE was 73.42, which was well in agreement with the predicted value of RSM. In addition, hydrogel system was also characterized for in vitro and in vivo analyses. The area under the plasma concentration–time curve (AUC0–5) of developed hydrogel was 2.27-fold improved in comparison to the raw LVS. Moreover, Cmax was improved nearly 1.42-fold. From the obtained results, it could be suggested that the hydrogel system would be a potentially valuable tool for improving the oral bioavailability of LVS.
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