Green synthesis of zinc ferrite nanoparticles for photocatalysis of methylene blue.

In this study, zinc ferrite nanoparticles (ZF-NPs) were synthesized using aqueous seed extract of Piper nigrum as a bio-reducing and stabilizing agent. FTIR, SEM, FE-SEM, XRD, and TGA have been used for characterizing ZF-NPs. The results showed that Piper nigrum stabilized ZF-NPs have high purity and size range of 60-80 nm. The performance of the ZF-NPs has been investigated by photocatalytic reduction of methylene blue (MB) in the presence of sunlight. The factors responsible for affecting the degradation values of the reaction were also explored for developing a better understanding of the phenomenon.

Peganum harmalapeptides (PhAMP) impede bacterial growth and biofilm formation in burn and surgical wound pathogens.

Many clinical-pathogens have developed resistance against known antibiotics and there is an urgent need for the discovery of novel antibiotics. In this study, low molecular weight peptides were isolated from seeds/leaves of 20 medicinal plants and tested for their antibacterial activity against laboratory strains of S. aureusand P. aeruginosa. Peptides isolated from Peganum harmala (PhAMP) exhibited maximum activity against laboratory strains. As clinical-isolates are more virulent and resistant to antibiotics, we tested the potential of PhAMP on these bacterial strains isolated from infected wounds. Pathogens isolated from burn-wounds (S. aureus, P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae) and surgical-wounds (P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae) exhibited zones of inhibition against PhAMP when tested by disc diffusion method. Biofilm formation of wound pathogens in the presence/absence of PhAMP was analyzed to check its effect. Surgical-wound pathogens and K. pneumoniae from burn-wound showed significant reduction in biofilm formation and planktonic bacteria. While biofilms of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa from burn-wound showed resistance against PhAMP. An effective antibiotic treatment should not only inhibit but should also disrupt already developed biofilms. PhAMP was very effective in the disruption of developed biofilm of all pathogens after 36 hours. This data unravels the potential of PhAMP as a novel, natural antibiotic against clinical-pathogens.

Syzgium cumini seed/poly vinyl alcohol based water resistant biodegradable nano-cellulose composite reinforced with zinc oxide and silver oxide nanoparticles for improved mechanical properties.

The current work explored a comparative study of biodegradable jamun seed/polyvinyl alcohol (JS) nanocomposites reinforced with varying concentrations of ZnO and Ag2O nano-fillers. The effect of spherical shaped ZnO and Ag2O nanoparticles (NPs) on the on structure, morphology, swelling and solubility, crystallinity and mechanical properties together with biodegradation performance of the composite films was fully studied. SEM results showed uniform distribution of ZnO and Ag2O nanofillers into the JS matrix and dense or compact nanocomposite films were formed. JS-ZnO and JS-Ag2O nanocomposites with 0.5 wt% ZnO and Ag2O content showed maximum crystallinity i.e. 11.3 and 9.58 %, respectively, as determined by XRD. When compared to the virgin JS film (8.41 MPa), the resultant JS-ZnO-0.5 and JS-Ag2O-0.5 nanocomposites showed significantly enhanced tensile strength (35.7 MPa, 29.2 MPa), elongation at break (15.42 %, 14.62 %) and Young's modulus (141 MPa, 126 MPa), respectively. Also, reduced swelling (120.4 % and 116.1 %) and solubility ratio (17.45 % and 18.42 %) was observed for JS-ZnO-0.5 and JS-Ag2O-0.5 nanocomposites, respectively. Biodegradation results showed that maximum degradation (88 %) was achieved for the JS film within 180 days of soil burial whereas JS-ZnO-0.1 and JS-Ag2O-0.1 nanocomposites showed 78 % and 72 % degradation within 180 days, respectively.

Addressing sexual assault in Pakistan: Insights from an analysis of female survivors at Lahore General Hospital.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Rape is a severe kind of sexual violence that represents a significant violation of human rights. The objective was to investigate the demographic and clinical features of female survivors of sexual assault in Lahore, Pakistan. METHOD: A retrospective study was conducted at the Department of Forensic Medicine of Lahore General Hospital, analysing records of female sexual assault survivors investigated by affiliated police stations from November 2020 to November 2022. Data were collected from medicolegal certificates and medical notes and analysed using SPSS software. RESULT: 282 female survivors reported to Lahore General Hospital's Forensic Medicine Department, aged 5-55 years, with a mean age of 22.74 ± 8.30. A significant proportion (50.4%) were aged 16-25 years. Most survivors were examined between 6 and 24 h (34%) and 2-7 days (37.9%) after the assault, with the majority (95%) exhibiting well-developed secondary sexual characteristics. Sexual assault and physical abuse were both reported in 56.4% of cases. In 77% of cases, the perpetrator was known, and in 36.5% of cases, a weapon was used. No external body injury was observed in 74.8% of cases, and 2.8% showed signs of fresh hymen rupture. The study identified 92.2% of cases lost to follow-up. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the pressing need to implement effective measures to prevent and address rape in Pakistan. The findings emphasise the need for education, improved forensic infrastructure and policy reforms to address sexual assault effectively.

Global distribution, traditional and modern detection, diagnostic, and management approaches of Rhizoctonia solani associated with legume crops.

Sustainable development relies heavily on a food system that is both safe and secure. Several approaches may lead to sustainability and food safety. An increase in the cultivation of legume crops is one of the approaches for enhancing agricultural viability and ensuring adequate food supply. Legumes may increase daily intake of fiber, folate, and protein as substitutes for meat and dairy. They are also crucial in various intercropping systems worldwide. However, legume production has been hampered by Rhizoctonia solani due to its destructive lifestyle. R. solani causes blights, damping off, and rotting diseases in legume crops. Our knowledge of the global distribution of R. solani associated with legume crops (alfalfa, soybean, chickpea, pea, lentil, common bean, and peanut), detection, diagnosis, and management of legume crops diseases caused by R. solani is limited. Traditional approaches rely on the incubation of R. solani, visual examination of symptoms on host legume crops, and microscopy identification. However, these approaches are time-consuming, require technical expertise, fail to detect a minimal amount of inoculum, and are unreliable. Biochemical and molecular-based approaches have been used with great success recently because of their excellent sensitivity and specificity. Along with conventional PCR, nested PCR, multiplex PCR, real-time PCR, magnetic-capture hybridization PCR, and loop-mediated isothermal amplification have been widely used to detect and diagnose R. solani. In the future, Next-generation sequencing will likely be used to a greater extent to detect R. solani. This review outlines global distribution, survival, infection and disease cycle, traditional, biochemical, molecular, and next-generation sequencing detection and diagnostic approaches, and an overview of the resistant resources and other management strategies to cope with R. solani.

Physcion and Physcion 8-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside: Natural Anthraquinones with Potential Anticancer Activities.

Nature has provided prodigious reservoirs of pharmacologically active compounds for drug development since times. Physcion and physcion 8-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside (PG) are bioactive natural anthraquinones which exert anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties with minimum or no adverse effects. Moreover, physcion also exhibits anti-microbial and hepatoprotective properties, while PG is known to have anti-sepsis as well as ameliorative activities against dementia. This review aims to highlight the natural sources and anticancer activities of physcion and PG, along with associated mechanisms of actions. On the basis of the literature, physcion and PG regulate multitudinous cell signaling pathways through the modulation of various regulators of cell cycle, protein kinases, microRNAs, transcriptional factors, and apoptosis linked proteins resulting in the effective killing of cancerous cells in vitro as well as in vivo. Both compounds effectively suppress metastasis, furthermore, physcion acts as an inhibitor of 6PGD and also plays an important role in chemosensitization. This review article suggests that physcion and PG are potent anticancer drug candidates, but further investigations on their mechanism of action and pre-clinical trials are mandatory in order to comprehend the full potential of these natural cancer killers in anticancer remedies.

Potential perspectives of biodegradable plastics for food packaging application-review of properties and recent developments.

Potential hazardous effects caused by non-biodegradable plastics are considered to be one of the most widely discussed and notable challenges of the 21st century. To address this particular problem, immense efforts have been devoted to the preparation of biodegradable plastics material. This green approach mitigates the major drawbacks e.g. improper waste management, low degradation rates, waste accumulation in water reservoirs and harmful chemical reagents hence providing a natural, economical and biodegradable alternative to the customarily employed non-biodegradable plastics. This review provides an insight into recently engineered biodegradable plastics used for packaging applications. Properties such as barrier/permeation indexes, thermal, electrical and mechanical characteristics of the biodegradable plastics are considered in detail for developing an understanding regarding the fundamentals of biodegradable materials. Recent literature (2010-2018) was classified according to the composition and nature of the used material. Materials such as polylactic acid, polyhydroxyalkanoates, polyhydroxybutyrate, polycaprolactone, starch and cellulose were comprehensively discussed along with their properties and blending agents.

Critical review on the chemical reduction of nitroaniline.

Conversion of nitroaniline (NA), a highly toxic pollutant that has been released into aquatic systems due to unmanaged industrial development in recent years, into the less harmful or a useful counterpart is the need of the hour. Various methods for its conversion and removal have been explored. Owing to its nominal features of advanced effectiveness, the chemical reduction of 4-NA using various different nanocatalytic systems is one such approach that has attracted tremendous interest over the past few years. The academic literature has been confined to case studies involving silver (Ag) and gold (Au) nanoparticles, as these are the two most widely used materials for the synthesis of nanocatalytic assemblies. Focus has also been given to sodium borohydride (NaBH4), which is used as a reductant during the chemical reduction of NA. This systematic review summarizes the fundamentals associated with the catalytic degradation of 4-NA, and presents a comprehensive and critical study of the latest modifications used in the synthesis of these catalytic systems. In addition, the kinetics, mechanisms, thermodynamics, as well as the future directions required for understanding this model reaction, have been provided in this particular study.

Nanocatalytic Assemblies for Catalytic Reduction of Nitrophenols: A Critical Review.

Nitrophenol is common carcinogenic pollutant known for its adverse effects on human beings and aquatic life. During the last few decades, the chemical reduction of nitrophenol compounds has been widely reported as the advanced removal methodology for such hazardous dyes from aqueous reservoirs. Many researchers have utilized different nanocatalytic systems using sodium borohydride (NaBH4) as the reducing agent for acquiring industrially useful reduction product of aminophenol by carrying out the chemical reduction of nitrophenols. Polymeric material supported monometallic nanoparticles are widely reported catalyst for the degradation of 2-nitrophenol (2-NP) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). This review critically discusses the pros and cons of numerous supporting mediums of nanocatalytic assemblies used for the immobilization of nanomaterials. Mechanism and kinetic analysis of the reduction reaction of 2-NP and 4-NP have also been explained in this study. In addition, recent literature has also been effectively summarized in the tabular form for developing a better understanding of the reader. Pictorial representation of key nanocatalytic assemblies and catalytic reduction mechanism has also been narrated in this study.

Computational Protein-Protein Docking Reveals the Therapeutic Potential of Kunitz-type Venom against hKv1.2 Binding Sites.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Kunitz-type venoms are bioactive proteins isolated from a wide variety of venomous animals. These venoms are involved in protease inhibitory activity or potassium channel blocking activity. Therefore, they are reported as an important source for lead drug candidates towards protease or channel associated diseases like neurological, metabolic and cardiovascular disorders. METHODS: This study aimed to check the inhibitory action of Kunitz-type venoms against potassium channels using computational tools. RESULTS: Among potassium channels, Human Voltage-Gated Potassium Channel 1.2 (hKv1.2) was used as a receptor whereas Kunitz-type peptides from the venoms of various species were selected as ligand dataset. CONCLUSION: This study helped in finding the binding interface between the receptor and ligand dataset for their potential therapeutic use in treating potassium channelopathies.

Phylogenetic analyses of human 1/2/8/20 paralogons suggest segmental duplications during animal evolution.

Susumu Ohno hypothesized that the diversity of vertebrate gene families and genome is due to two rounds of whole genome duplications (also referred as 2R hypothesis). The quadruplicate paralogous blocks present on 1/2/8/20 chromosomes are taken as one of the evidences in favor of the 2R. In this study, we investigated that whether 2R has shaped the vertebrate evolution using gene families residing on chromosomes 1/2/8/20. Evolutionary history of 22 gene families (11 from the current study and 11 from the previous study) was evaluated by the phylogenetic analysis with triplicated or quadruplicated distribution on these human chromosomes 1/2/8/20. The phylogenetic analysis was performed using high-quality whole genomic sequence data of multiple species with neighbor-joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods. The phylogenetic tree topology of these gene families revealed variable duplication time points during invertebrate-vertebrate evolution. Topology comparison approach categorized 22 gene families into three groups. Tree topologies of ten gene families fell into Group 1 (duplications prior to invertebrate-vertebrate split), four in Group 2 (i.e., (AB) (C) (D), topology incongruent with 2R) and eight in Group 3 (((AB) (CD)), 2R congruent topology). Therefore, taken together the current and previous data of 1/2/8/20 paralogons, we propose that, in addition to whole genome duplications events, current developmental, morphological and genomic complexity of the vertebrate genomes may also have originated through segmental duplications occurring at varying time points during the course of animal evolution.

Facile synthesis of silver nanoparticles in a crosslinked polymeric system by in situ reduction method for catalytic reduction of 4-nitroaniline.

In this study, poly(N-isopropylmethacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) microgels prepared by free radical precipitation polymerization were used as micro-reactors for the synthesis and stabilization of silver nanoparticles. UV-Visible spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize both pure and hybrid microgels. The catalytic reduction of 4-nitroaniline was carried out in the presence of hybrid microgels to test their catalytic activity, and the catalysis mechanism was explored by varying the concentrations of reacting species like 4-nitroaniline and NaBH4, as well as the dose of the catalyst. The kinetic data indicates that this reaction follows pseudo-first order. The variation in apparent rate constant (kapp) with respect to NaBH4 concentration also discloses it to be the following Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism. The relationship between catalyst concentration and apparent rate constant was found to be increasing in a linear manner. The data obtained also confirmed that silver nanoparticles loaded microgels have the potential to be used as an excellent micro-reactor for selective reduction of 4-nitroaniline to p-phenylenediamine.