In this manuscript, we report a novel, low cost and easy synthesis, iron-oxide nanoparticles were synthesized via room-temperature reduction of a mixture of ferric and ferrous salts, containing citric acid as capping agent. Next, anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox) was used to form electrostatic conjugation with these nanoparticles. The resulting drug-nanoconjugates were characterized for their size, composition, functionality, crystallinity, along with their magnetic and optical behavior. Following that, they were treated with cultured lung carcinoma cell lines (A 549) to probe their non-toxicity and biocompatibility. Concurrently, their uptake in cells in culture was studied by optical bioimaging. In vitro studies have shown that these nanoparticles are nontoxic (using MTT assay) to cells in culture.

In this research, the comparison study of intraorganelle nanoporation and ion uptake of osteoblast and tumor cells has been studied under the influences of specific programmable of picopulse generator and specific microchip. By using the MATLAB and COMSOL, the difference in responses of the normal and tumor cells for a given input picopulse are elucidated. A comparison of the induced intraorganelle potential, current, pressure, surface tension, pore density and ion uptake of the tumor cells against normal cells have been studied and it is shown that nearly 40% increase of nanoporation is observed in the tumor cell compared to the normal cell for a dedicated picopulse in 3D advanced micro chip and it is control by external user and the threshold pulse duration is 10-12 and 10-15 for normal cell and cancer cell respectively.

The use of Azolla filiculoides (AF) for the removal of Acid Red 88 dye (AR88) from aqueous solutions at different contact times, temperatures, pH, adsorbent doses and initial dye concentration was investigated. The extent of dye removal decreased with increasing adsorbent dosage and AR88 concentration, also increased with increasing contact time and temperature. The adsorption isotherms are described by means of the Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin and Sips isotherms. It was found that the Langmuir equation fit better than the other equation. Maximum adsorption capacity (qm) was calculated at different temperatures (20, 30, 40 and 50°C) 22.45, 23.95, 25.29 and 26.17 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption kinetics of Acid Red 88 could be described by the pseudo-second-order reaction model. The obtained results are: (1) high levels of color removal (>98%) were achieved with low contact times adsorbent/dye (less than 90 min contact); and (2) the whole Azolla filiculoides can be successfully used as adsorbent of AR88 in aqueous solutions. Azolla biomass, an inexpensive and easily available material, can be alternative for more costly adsorbents used for dye removal in wastewater treatment processes.

Food allergies encompass a range of disorders ranging from being an inconvenience to even causing fatalities, mainly due to anaphylaxis. A large number of individuals are affected and this presents great health and economic implications. However as yet, apart from dietary avoidance, effective treatment strategies are practically non-existent. The immune environment related to allergen-tolerance is highly complex and the role of regulatory T-cells in allergenspecific tolerance, their interaction with other cells in inflamed tissues, and their role in antibody regulation have been demonstrated in several studies. Regulatory T-cells are able to control acquired immunity and achieve oral tolerance to food allergens. Immunotherapy for food allergies focuses on desensitisation by increasing the allergen reactivity threshold. So far, the only long-term curative treatment used effectively is allergen-specific immunotherapy which involves the administration of increasing doses of the causative allergen, such that a state of allergen-specific immune tolerance is induced over the course of the treatment. This review covers various forms of allergen-specific immunotherapy, focusing on the role of regulatory T-cells in such therapies, and includes a number of small studies providing ideas for future work in the area.

Rural dwellers in Kenya often resort to herbal remedy and dietary control in the treatment of several diseases including diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension, cancer and cardiac diseases. The therapeutic applications of such plants has largely rested upon their long-term clinical experience, however, their safety profiles has not been well evaluated. The present study aimed at determining the in vivo toxic effects of orally and intraperitoneally administering Lippia javanica leaf extract at dosage levels of 450 mg/kgbwt, 670 mg/kgbwt and 1000 mg/kgbwt daily for 28 days on the body and organ weights, hematological indices and biochemical parameters in normal male swiss white albino mice. During this period, the mice were allowed free access to mice pellets and water ad libitum and observed for signs of general illness, change in behavior and mortality. Phytochemical composition was assessed using standard procedures. The oral and intraperitoneal administration of 450 mg/kgbwt, 670 mg/kgbwt and1000 mg/kg body weight of the extract decreased the body weight gain and altered the organ to body weight percentage of the brain, kidney, liver, heart, testes and lungs. Oral and intraperitoneal administration of the same doses caused a change in levels of RBC, WBC, Hb, PCV, PLT, MPV, MCV, MCH, MCHC, neutrophils, lymphocytes, eosinophils, basophils, monocytes and biochemical parameters: AST, ALP, ALT, GGT, CK, a-AMYL, LDH, T-BIL, D-BIL, I-BIL, TG, TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, BUN, UA, Urea and Creatinine. The extracts contained alkaloids, sterols, terpenoids, flavonoids, tannins and saponins.

Influence of brassinosteroid correspondent viz. 24-epiBL and 28-homoBL were studied on morpho-physiological constraints of 10th DAS of Brassica oleracea viz. (cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli). Seed priming treatments with various concentrations of 24-epiBL and 28-homoBL (10–6 M, 10–9 M and 10–12 M) were applied and observed that BRs treatments encourages seed germination significantly as compared to untreated seeds on 3 and 4th DAS. Seed priming treatments with above mention concentrations of 24-epiBL and 28-homoBL exaggerated the morphology of 10th seedlings of cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli on various extents, as root length was found to be inhibited by all treatments in all the varieties but shoot length enhanced significantly in all varieties with all the treatments. Results also suggested that BRs works best on optimal concentration, i.e., 10–9 M in 24-epiBL. Photosynthetic pigments i.e. total chlorophyll, chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids were also influenced by the treatments of 24-epiBL and/or 28-homoBL but the influence was very much dose dependent and optimum dose was varying variety to variety. As there is a direct correlation between the photosynthetic pigment and carbohydrate synthesis so study also suggest that the accumulation of carbohydrate also ameliorated after seed priming treatments. In conclusion it was found that BRs works in dose dependent manner and optimum dose varying variety to variety. Broccoli responded most efficient to BRs treatments and 24-epiBL has more potential to promote morpho-physiological parameters of Brassica oleracea varieties.

The prediction of missense variant pathogenicity is normally performed using analyses of multiple sequence alignments optionally augmented with analyses of the (predicted) protein structure. The most straightforward way, though, is to search the literature to see whether this variant has already been described. Variant data from homologous proteins are also valuable because mutations in a homologous protein often have similar effects as mutations at the equivalent residues of the protein of interest. Transferring variant data seems trivial but is seriously hampered by the fact that homologous residue positions have different numbers in different species. This problem is even bigger when to proteins have such low sequence identities that they can no longer be aligned based on their sequences only and their structures need to be compared to align them accurately. The protein superfamily analysis software suite 3DM solves these problems, because 3DM is a system that combines high quality structure based multiple sequence alignments in which aligned residues have the same number, with all published mutant and variant data for human and all other species. We have used 3DM to analyze nine human proteins for which many disease-related variants are known. This study reveals that mutation data can be transferred even between very distant homologous proteins. Thus, protein superfamily information systems, such as 3DM, offer a wealth of unused information that can be used in the analysis of human variants.

Radiotherapy has played a key role in the management of non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the use of radiotherapy in treating NSCLC is limited because of the intrinsic radiation resistance of tumor cells and injury to adjacent normal tissues. Many oncogenes are reported to be involved in radioresistance. Thus, novel moleculartargeting approaches to enhance the radiosensitivity of NSCLC cells are required to improve the therapeutic efficiency of radiotherapy. In this study, we report that expression of the human endogenous retrovirus-R (HERV-R) env gene is greatly elevated in ?-irradiation resistant A549 cells compared with radiation sensitive H460 cells. In addition, the HERV-R env gene was significantly increased in A549 cells after treatment with ?-irradiation. HERV-R env knockdown by siRNA in irradiated A549 cells led to overexpression of TP53 mRNA, followed by significant elevation in the levels of CDKN1A mRNA. Moreover, the expression of the apoptosis-related FAS-1 gene was increased, whereas the expression levels of the anti-apoptotic gene BCL2 were significantly decreased in the A549 cells in which the HERV-R env was suppressed by ?-irradiation. These results suggest that knockdown of HERV-R env with ?-irradiation causes cell cycle disturbances, which in turn induces apoptosis. In conclusion, the combination of HERV-R env knockdown and ?-irradiation has the potential to improve the therapeutic efficiency of radiotherapy for NSCLC.

Both mannose-binding lectins (MBLs) and ficolins recognize and bind carbohydrates in pathogens and activate complement leading to opsonization, leukocyte activation, and direct pathogen clean. While MBLs have been reported in many fish species, the function of ficolins had not been identified in Pelteobagrus fulvidraco, despite their importance in invertebrate and higher vertebrate innate immunity. Although microfibrillar-associated protein 4 (MFAP4) this protein has similar fibrinogen-like domain, has expression in fish, the role of it has not been dissected. We cloned three MFAP4 genes (1MFAP4, 2MFAP4 and 3MFAP4) from the yellow catfish, P. fulvidraco. The homology similarity of MFAP4 was 78% with Astyanax mexicanus of Cypriniformes. The yellow catfish MFAP4 transcripts expression analysis revealed difference of patterns of homeostatic expression among the genes in gill, blood, muscle, gonad, liver, brain, spleen, kidney, heart, intestine from male and female, respectively. Expression of the three MFAP4 transcripts showed significant expression changes in 4 h after infection with either Edwardsiella ictaluri or Flavobacterium columnare, which has modulation of expression continuing up to 24 h or 7 d following pathogen exposure. Several different tissues and gene-specific patterns were captured and transcript expression changes of >11.45-fold were observed over the course of the bacterial challenges. This information elucidates the functions of individual MFAP4 genes in regards to pathogen recognition, binding, and their larger immune context.

Due to the increasing usage of herbal medicines and natural products for the body function management and ailments treatment and the lack of study on the beneficial effect of Herba Swertiae, a widely used traditional herbal medicine, this paper aimed to investigate the effect of Herba Swertiae on gastrointestinal system in vivo. The effect of Herba Swertiae on gastric emptying and intestinal propulsion was examined in mice; the effect of Herba Swertiae on gastric acid secretion and pepsin activity was tested in rats; and the effect of Herba Swertiae on the mobility of ileum was evaluated by ex vivo experiments using isolated ileum from guinea pig. The results showed that Herba Swertiae markedly enhanced gastric emptying and intestinal propulsion in mice. Also, Herba Swertiae remarkably increased the gastric acid secretion, the acidity of gastric acid, and the activity of pepsin in rats. Of note, these effects were comparable to that of positive control. Moreover, Herba Swertiae exerted a potent promoting effect on the mobility of ileum of guinea pigs, with a marked increase in the muscular tension force and contraction amplitude in the isolated ileum. Moreover, Herba Swertiae excited the isolated ileum that was inhibited by atropine. Taken together, Herba Swertiae exerts markable beneficial effects on gastrointestinal system in vivo. More studies are warranted for the investigation of the underlying mechanisms for its beneficial effects.

N-acetyltransferase 9 (NAT9) is an important reproduction-related gene in fish. In this study, we cloned the fulllength NAT9 cDNA sequence from yellow catfish Pelteobagrus fulvidraco. P. fulvidraco NAT9 cDNA is 1253 bp, which including non-coding region (584 bp) and open reading frame (669 bp). NAT9 gene encodes a 222 amino acidsprotein which shares high homology with NAT9 in four species: Ietalurus punetaus (91%), Astyanax mexicanus (83%), Danio rerio (81%) and Lepisosteus oculatus (81%). NAT9 protein is 25.7899 kD, 4.86 theoretical isoelectric point and C1124H1759N311O359S13 as revealed by computer-assisted analysis. Tissue transcription profile analysis indicated that the catfish NAT9 gene is generally but differentially expressed in the detected tissues, including gonads, brain, liver, kidney, spleen, intestine, blood, gills, muscle and heart. Identification and tissue distribution of yellow catfish NAT9 genes provided initial step towards understanding their biological roles in yellow catfish.

Heavy metals are major environmental pollutants when present in high concentration in soil and have toxic effects on growth and development of plants. Experiment were carried out to find out the effect of different levels of strontium element commonly used in the fireworks – cottage industries of this area and the predominant pollutant on growth, biochemical and enzymatic characteristics of Amaranthus caudatus L. widely cultivated in this area. This study is aimed at assessing the stress tolerant ability of Amaranthus caudatus L. The seedlings of Amanranthus caudatus L. were treated with various concentration of strontium (2 mM, 4 mM, 6 mM, 8 mM, 10 mM) for ten days and its effect on the morphometric, biochemical and enzymatic characters were analyzed. After ten days of treatment, the growth parameters such as leaf area, fresh weight, dry weight, shoot and root length were found decreased than in the control. Biochemical characteristics such as the content of chlorophyll, carotenoid, soluble sugar and protein also decreased with the increase in the concentration of strontium. In contrary, the content of free amino acid, proline, leaf nitrate and the activities of anti-oxidative enzymes such as catalase and peroxidase were found increased with the increase in the concentration of strontium while the activity of nitrate reductase was found decreased. The result suggest that Amaranthus caudatus L. has been affected adversely by metal stress due to strontium but at the same time the plant adopts mechanisms such as accumulation of anthocyanin and enhanced activities of antioxidant enzymes to overcome the ill effects of the metal ions.