Pollution by microplastics (MPs) is currently a global problem in the coastal and marine environment. Transfer of MPs from land to sea and their inclusion in the food web has a significant adverse ...effect on the marine life and human health. The present study was carried out at the fishing harbour of Chennai, southeast coast of India. The possible MPs were isolated from the soft tissues of the commercially important bivalve Perna viridis and examined by microscopic and DXR Raman spectroscopic methods. The MPs were identified as to be polystyrene polymers in the soft tissues. This investigation revealed that size and color are the major factors affecting the bioavailability of MPs to bivalves in the study area. The presence of colorants in organisms revealed an anthropogenic origin through the use of a wide array of applications. Hence, coastal zones are a hotspot for pollution by MPs, and filter feeding bivalves are at the highest risk. Therefore, further studies are required to understand the accumulation rates and residence time of MPs across the food webs.
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•The possible microplastic particles (MPs) were isolated from the soft tissues of Asian green Mussel, Perna viridis.•Ingested MPs examined by microscopic and DXR Raman spectroscopy methods.•MPs were identified as polystyrene polymers and thread like fibres in the soft tissues of Perna viridis.•The presence of colorants in organisms revealed an anthropogenic origin through the use of a wide array of applications.
Summary Current treatments for postmenopausal osteoporosis suffer from side effects. Safe and natural milk proteins, ribonuclease, and lactoferrin promote formation of new capillaries and bone ...formation. A ribonuclease-enriched lactoferrin supplement studied here, demonstrates significant reduction in resorption and increase in formation, towards restoring the balance of bone turnover within 6 months. Introduction Osteoporosis, a major health issue among postmenopausal women, causes increased bone resorption and reduced bone formation. A reduction in angiogenesis could also contribute to this imbalance. Current treatments such as hormone replacement therapy and bisphosphonates have drawbacks of severe side effects. Milk ribonuclease (RNase) is known to promote angiogenesis and lactoferrin (LF) to stimulate bone formation by osteoblasts. We examine the effect of ribonuclease-enriched lactoferrin supplement on the bone health of postmenopausal women. Methods A total of 38 healthy, postmenopausal women, aged 45 to 60 years were randomized into placebo or RNAse-enriched-LF (R-ELF) supplement groups. The bone health status was monitored by assessing bone resorption markers, serum N-telopeptides (NTx), and urine deoxypyridinoline (Dpd) crosslinks and serum bone formation markers, bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP), and osteocalcin (OC). Results R-ELF supplementation demonstrated a decrease in urine Dpd levels by 14% (19% increase for placebo) and serum NTx maintained at 24% of the baseline (41% for placebo), while serum BAP and OC levels showed a 45% and 16% elevation (25% and 5% for placebo). Conclusions R-ELF supplementation demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in bone resorption and increase in osteoblastic bone formation, to restore the balance of bone turnover within a short period.
Unilateral left pulmonary edema due to inadvertent surgical occlusion of left superior and inferior pulmonary veins is not only an exceedingly rare complication of mitral valve surgeries but also a ...diagnostic challenge in the postoperative recovery unit. Described here is a case of a 38-year-old male who developed progressively worsening unilateral left pulmonary edema after mitral valve replacement on postoperative day-1. The diagnosis was mostly by the exclusion of multiple possible differentials and was confirmed during reexploration surgery.
Viral diseases provide a major challenge to twenty-first century agriculture worldwide. Climate change and human population pressures are driving rapid alterations in agricultural practices and ...cropping systems that favor destructive viral disease outbreaks. Such outbreaks are strikingly apparent in subsistence agriculture in food-insecure regions. Agricultural globalization and international trade are spreading viruses and their vectors to new geographical regions with unexpected consequences for food production and natural ecosystems. Due to the varying epidemiological characteristics of diverent viral pathosystems, there is no one-size-fits-all approach toward mitigating negative viral disease impacts on diverse agroecological production systems. Advances in scientific understanding of virus pathosystems, rapid technological innovation, innovative communication strategies, and global scientific networks provide opportunities to build epidemiologic intelligence of virus threats to crop production and global food security. A paradigm shift toward deploying integrated, smart, and eco-friendly strategies is required to advance virus disease management in diverse agricultural cropping systems.
Cardiovascular disease is one of the main causes of death worldwide which can be easily diagnosed by listening to the murmur sound of heartbeat sounds using a stethoscope. The murmur sound happens at ...the Lub-Dub, which indicates there are abnormalities in the heart. However, using the stethoscope for listening to the heartbeat sound requires a long time of training then only the physician can detect the murmuring sound. The existing studies show that young physicians face difficulties in this heart sound detection. Use of computerized methods and data analytics for detection and classification of heartbeat sounds will improve the overall quality of sound detection. Many studies have been worked on classifying the heartbeat sound; however, they lack the method with high accuracy. Therefore, this research aims to classify the heartbeat sound using a novel optimized Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inferences System (ANFIS) by artificial bee colony (ABC). The data is cleaned, pre-processed, and MFCC is extracted from the heartbeat sounds. Then the proposed ABC-ANFIS is used to run the pre-processed heartbeat sound, and accuracy is calculated for the model. The results indicate that the proposed ABC-ANFIS model achieved 93% accuracy for the murmur class. The proposed ABC-ANFIS has higher accuracy in compared to ANFIS, PSO ANFIS, SVM, KSTM, KNN, and other existing studies. Thus, this study can assist physicians to classify heartbeat sounds for detecting cardiovascular disease in the early stages.
Severe imbalance in iron metabolism among SARS-CoV-2 infected patients is prominent in every symptomatic (mild, moderate to severe) clinical phase of COVID-19. Phase-I - Hypoxia correlates with ...reduced O
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transport by erythrocytes, overexpression of HIF-1α, altered mitochondrial bioenergetics with host metabolic reprogramming (HMR). Phase-II - Hyperferritinemia results from an increased iron overload, which triggers a fulminant proinflammatory response - the acute cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Elevated cytokine levels (i.e. IL6, TNFα and CRP) strongly correlates with altered ferritin/TF ratios in COVID-19 patients. Phase-III - Thromboembolism is consequential to erythrocyte dysfunction with heme release, increased prothrombin time and elevated D-dimers, cumulatively linked to severe coagulopathies with life-threatening outcomes such as ARDS, and multi-organ failure. Taken together, Fe-R-H dysregulation is implicated in every symptomatic phase of COVID-19. Fe-R-H regulators such as lactoferrin (LF), hemoxygenase-1 (HO-1), erythropoietin (EPO) and hepcidin modulators are innate bio-replenishments that sequester iron, neutralize iron-mediated free radicals, reduce oxidative stress, and improve host defense by optimizing iron metabolism. Due to its pivotal role in 'cytokine storm', ferroptosis is a potential intervention target. Ferroptosis inhibitors such as ferrostatin-1, liproxstatin-1, quercetin, and melatonin could prevent mitochondrial lipid peroxidation, up-regulate antioxidant/GSH levels and abrogate iron overload-induced apoptosis through activation of Nrf2 and HO-1 signaling pathways. Iron chelators such as heparin, deferoxamine, caffeic acid, curcumin, α-lipoic acid, and phytic acid could protect against ferroptosis and restore mitochondrial function, iron-redox potential, and rebalance Fe-R-H status. Therefore, Fe-R-H restoration is a host biomarker-driven potential combat strategy for an effective clinical and post-recovery management of COVID-19.
The emergence of fast-spreading SARS-CoV-2 mutants has sparked a new phase of COVID-19 pandemic. There is a dire necessity for antivirals targeting highly conserved genomic domains on SARS-CoV-2 that ...are less prone to mutation. The nsp12, also known as the RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase (RdRp), the core component of 'SARS-CoV-2 replication-transcription complex', is a potential well-conserved druggable antiviral target. Several FDA-approved RdRp 'nucleotide analog inhibitors (NAIs)' such as remdesivir, have been repurposed to treat COVID-19 infections. The NAIs target RdRp protein translation and competitively block the nucleotide insertion into the RNA chain, resulting in the inhibition of viral replication. However, the replication proofreading function of nsp14-ExoN could provide resistance to SARS-CoV-2 against many NAIs. Conversely, the 'non-nucleoside analog inhibitors (NNAIs)' bind to allosteric sites on viral polymerase surface, change the redox state; thereby, exert antiviral activity by altering interactions between the enzyme substrate and active core catalytic site of the RdRp. NNAIs neither require metabolic activation (unlike NAIs) nor compete with intracellular pool of nucleotide triphosphates (NTPs) for anti-RdRp activity. The NNAIs from phytonutrient origin are potential antiviral candidates compared to their synthetic counterparts. Several in-silico studies reported the antiviral spectrum of natural phytonutrient-NNAIs such as Suramin, Silibinin (flavonolignan), Theaflavin (tea polyphenol), Baicalein (5,6,7-trihydroxyflavone), Corilagin (gallotannin), Hesperidin (citrus bioflavonoid), Lycorine (pyrrolidine alkaloid), with superior redox characteristics (free binding energy, hydrogen-bonds, etc.) than antiviral drugs (i.e. remdesivir, favipiravir). These phytonutrient-NNAIs also exert anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, immunomodulatory and cardioprotective functions, with multifunctional therapeutic benefits in the clinical management of COVID-19.
SARS-CoV-2, the etiological agent of COVID-19, is devoid of any metabolic capacity; therefore, it is critical for the viral pathogen to hijack host cellular metabolic machinery for its replication ...and propagation. This single-stranded RNA virus with a 29.9 kb genome encodes 14 open reading frames (ORFs) and initiates a plethora of virus-host protein-protein interactions in the human body. These extensive viral protein interactions with host-specific cellular targets could trigger severe human metabolic reprogramming/dysregulation (HMRD), a rewiring of sugar-, amino acid-, lipid-, and nucleotide-metabolism(s), as well as altered or impaired bioenergetics, immune dysfunction, and redox imbalance in the body. In the infectious process, the viral pathogen hijacks two major human receptors, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)-2 and/or neuropilin (NRP)-1, for initial adhesion to cell surface; then utilizes two major host proteases, TMPRSS2 and/or furin, to gain cellular entry; and finally employs an endosomal enzyme, cathepsin L (CTSL) for fusogenic release of its viral genome. The virus-induced HMRD results in 5 possible infectious outcomes: asymptomatic, mild, moderate, severe to fatal episodes; while the symptomatic acute COVID-19 condition could manifest into 3 clinical phases: (i) hypoxia and hypoxemia (Warburg effect), (ii) hyperferritinemia ('cytokine storm'), and (iii) thrombocytosis (coagulopathy). The mean incubation period for COVID-19 onset was estimated to be 5.1 days, and most cases develop symptoms after 14 days. The mean viral clearance times were 24, 30, and 39 days for acute, severe, and ICU-admitted COVID-19 patients, respectively. However, about 25-70% of virus-free COVID-19 survivors continue to sustain virus-induced HMRD and exhibit a wide range of symptoms that are persistent, exacerbated, or new 'onset' clinical incidents, collectively termed as post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) or long COVID. PASC patients experience several debilitating clinical condition(s) with >200 different and overlapping symptoms that may last for weeks to months. Chronic PASC is a cumulative outcome of at least 10 different HMRD-related pathophysiological mechanisms involving both virus-derived virulence factors and a multitude of innate host responses. Based on HMRD and virus-free clinical impairments of different human organs/systems, PASC patients can be categorized into 4 different clusters or sub-phenotypes: sub-phenotype-1 (33.8%) with cardiac and renal manifestations; sub-phenotype-2 (32.8%) with respiratory, sleep and anxiety disorders; sub-phenotype-3 (23.4%) with skeleto-muscular and nervous disorders; and sub-phenotype-4 (10.1%) with digestive and pulmonary dysfunctions. This narrative review elucidates the effects of viral hijack on host cellular machinery during SARS-CoV-2 infection, ensuing detrimental effect(s) of virus-induced HMRD on human metabolism, consequential symptomatic clinical implications, and damage to multiple organ systems; as well as chronic pathophysiological sequelae in virus-free PASC patients. We have also provided a few evidence-based, human randomized controlled trial (RCT)-tested, precision nutrients to reset HMRD for health recovery of PASC patients.
Nicotiana benthamiana is the most widely used experimental host in plant virology, due mainly to the large number of diverse plant viruses that can successfully infect it. Additionally, N. ...benthamiana is susceptible to a wide variety of other plant-pathogenic agents (such as bacteria, oomycetes, fungi, and so on), making this species a cornerstone of host-pathogen research, particularly in the context of innate immunity and defense signaling. Moreover, because it can be genetically transformed and regenerated with good efficiency and is amenable to facile methods for virus-induced gene silencing or transient protein expression, N. benthamiana is rapidly gaining popularity in plant biology, particularly in studies requiring protein localization, interaction, or plant-based systems for protein expression and purification. Paradoxically, despite being an indispensable research model, little is known about the origins, genetic variation, or ecology of the N. benthamiana accessions currently used by the research community. In addition to addressing these latter topics, the purpose of this review is to provide information regarding sources for tools and reagents that can be used to support research in N. benthamiana. Finally, we propose that N. benthamiana is well situated to become a premier plant cell biology model, particularly for the virology community, who as a group were the first to recognize the potential of this unique Australian native.
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