Role of crush smear cytology in the diagnosis of gastrointestinal malignancy.

Crush smear cytology, commonly used for central nervous system lesions was reported to be useful in the diagnosis of GI malignancies. This study was designed to see the accuracy of crush smear cytology in detection of gastrointestinal malignancy in relation to histopathological examination. First 4 or 5 bits of pinch biopsy specimens from each of the consecutive patients having endoscopic findings suggestive of carcinoma of gastro-intestinal tract were examined by conventional paraffin embedding and H-E staining by a cytologist. Crush smears stained with Papanicolaou's stain were prepared with the last bit of specimen and were examined by another cytologist. The diagnostic accuracy was examined by correlating with clinical and histological data. Out of 100 cases of suspected oesophageal malignancies, 99 were diagnosed as carcinoma by histopathology and 84 (sensitivity 83.83%, accuracy 83%, K - 0.14) cases were positive for malignancy by crush smear cytology. Out of 60 cases of gastric lesion, 54 and 44 cases were proved to be malignant by histopathology (sensitivity 76%, accuracy 73.3%, K - 0.2) and crush smear cytology respectively. Fifty four of the 57 cases of colonic lesions were proved to be malignant by histopathology and 50 (sensitivity 91%, accuracy 89.5%, K - 0.34) were malignant by crush smear cytology. Combining two methods the accuracy was 100%, 95% and 96.5% in detecting oesophageal, gastric and colonic malignancies respectively. Concordance rate of both the methods in diagnosing oesophageal, gastric and colonic lesions were 883.83%, 73.3% and 89.5% respectively. Crush smear cytology is a cheap, easy and rapidly performing technique. The diagnostic yield is very high when the technique is combined with histopathology. It may be used as a useful adjunct to conventional histopathology.

Furanoid sugar amino acids as dipeptide mimics in design of analogs of vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor binding inhibitor.

In this study we describe the development of peptidomimetic analogs of the potent vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor binding inhibitor, Leu(1) -Met(2) -Tyr(3) -Pro(4) -Thr(5) -Tyr(6) -Leu(7) -Lys(8) -OH 1, by incorporating furanoid sugar amino acids (SAAs) 2-4 into the molecule. The furanoid SAAs 2-4 were used as dipeptide isosteres to replace Tyr(3) -Pro(4) or Pro(4) -Thr(5) in sequence 1. The resulting analogs 5-9 were tested for their anti-cancer activities in vitro, following the standard MTT assay on a panel of human cancer cell lines. One of the potent analogs, 6a was tested in vivo for tumor regression on primary colon tumor xenografted nude mice. Our experimental results suggest that many of these analogs show either retention or enhancement of biological activity.

Characterisation of a starch-hydrolysing enzyme of Aspergillus niger.

A UV-induced mutant strain of Aspergillus niger (CFTRI-1105-U9) overproduced a starch-hydrolysing enzyme with properties characteristically different from the known amylases of the fungus. The purified enzyme of 4.0 pI had an apparent molecular mass of 125 kDa and it dextrinised starch and then saccharified the dextrins. Patterns of the enzyme activity on starch, resulting in glucose at 60 degrees C and glucose, maltose and maltodextrins at 70 degrees C as primary products, suggested significant applications for the enzyme in starch-processing industries.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the estimation of fungal biomass during solid-state fermentation.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for sensitive, specific and quantitative estimation of fungal biomass during solid-state fermentation is described. Using this method, differential growth rates and colonization of the substrate can be studied. The assay has potential application for the efficient monitoring of solid-state fermentation involving specific fungus, for which available methods are not adequate.