Tyramine-Mediated Hyperactivity Modulates the Dietary Habits in Helicoverpa armigera.

Helicoverpa armigera exhibits extensive variability in feeding habits and food selection. Neuronal regulation of H. armigera feeding behavior is primarily influenced by biogenic amines such as Tyramine (TA) and Octopamine (OA). The molecular responses of H. armigera to dietary challenges in the presence of TA or OA have yet to be studied. This investigation dissects the impact of OA and TA on H. armigera feeding choices and behaviors under non-host nutritional stress. It has been observed that feeding behavior remains unaltered during the exogenous administration of OA and TA through an artificial diet (AD). Ingestion of higher OA or TA concentrations leads to increased mortality. OA and TA treatment in combination with host and non-host diets results in the induction of feeding and higher locomotion toward food, particularly in the case of TA treatment. Increased expression of markers, prominin-like, and tachykinin-related peptide receptor-like transcripts further assessed increased locomotion activity. Insects subjected to a non-host diet with TA treatment exhibited increased feeding and overexpression of the feeding indicator, the Neuropeptide F receptor, and the feeding regulator, Sulfakinin, compared with other conditions. Expression of sensation and biogenic amine synthesis genesis elevated in insects fed a non-host diet in combination with OA or TA. Metabolomics analysis revealed a decreased concentration of the feeding behavior elicitor, dopamine, in insects fed a non-host diet containing TA. This work highlights the complex interplay between biogenic amine functions during dietary stress and suggests the role of tyramine in feeding promotion under stressed conditions.

Targeting of folate-conjugated liposomes with co-entrapped drugs to prostate cancer cells via prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA).

Folate-targeted liposomes (FTL) were tested as drug delivery vehicles to PSMA-positive cancer cells. We used FL with co-entrapped mitomycin C lipophilic prodrug (MLP) and doxorubicin (DOX), and the LNCaP prostate cancer cell line which expresses PSMA but is negative for folate receptor. A major increase in cell drug levels was observed when LNCaP cells were incubated with FTL as compared to non-targeted liposomes (NTL). MLP was activated to mitomycin C, and intracellular and nuclear fluorescence of DOX was detected, indicating FTL processing and drug bioavailability. PMPA (2-(phosphonomethyl)-pentanedioic acid), a specific inhibitor of PSMA, blocked the uptake of FTL into LNCaP cells, but did not affect the uptake of FTL into PSMA-deficient and folate receptor-positive KB cells. The cytotoxic activity of drug-loaded FTL was found significantly enhanced when compared to NTL in LNCaP cells. FTL may provide a new tool for targeted therapy of cancers that over-express the PSMA receptor.

Characterization of Pegylated Liposomal Mitomycin C Lipid-Based Prodrug (Promitil) by High Sensitivity Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Cryogenic Transmission Electron Microscopy.

The effect of a lipidated prodrug of mitomycin C (MLP) on the membrane of a pegylated liposome formulation (PL-MLP), also known as Promitil, was characterized through high-sensitivity differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and cryo-TEM. The thermodynamic analysis demonstrated that MLP led to the formation of heterogeneous domains in the membrane plane of PL-MLP. MLP concentrated in prodrug-rich domains, arranged in high-ordered crystal-like structures, as suggested by the sharp and high enthalpy endotherm in the first heating scanning. After thiolytic cleavage of mitomycin C from MLP by dithiothreitol (DTT) treatment, the crystal-like prodrug domain disappears and a homogeneous membrane with stronger lipid interactions and higher phase transition temperature compared with the blank (MLP-free) liposomes is observed by DSC. In parallel, the rod-like discoid liposomes and the "kissing liposomes" seen by cryo-TEM in the PL-MLP formulation disappear, and liposome mean size and polydispersity increase after DTT treatment. Both MLP and the residual postcleavage lipophilic moiety of the prodrug increased the rigidity of the liposome membrane as indicated by DSC. These results confirm that MLP is inserted in the PL-MLP liposome membrane via its lipophilic anchor, and its mitomycin C moiety located mainly at the region of the phospholipid glycerol backbone and polar headgroup. We hypothesize that π-π stacking between the planar aromatic rings of the mitomycin C moieties leads to the formation of prodrug-rich domains with highly ordered structure on the PL-MLP liposome membrane. This thermodynamically stable conformation may explain the high stability of the PL-MLP formulation. These results also provide us with an interesting example of the application of high sensitivity DSC in understanding the composition-structure-behavior dynamics of liposomal nanocarriers having a lipid-based drug as pharmaceutical ingredient.

New insights and evolving role of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in cancer therapy.

We herein review various pharmacological and clinical aspects of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD), the first nanomedicine to be approved for cancer therapy, and discuss the gap between its potent antitumor activity in preclinical studies and its comparatively modest achievements in clinical studies and limited use in clinical practice. PLD is a complex formulation of doxorubicin based on pharmaceutical nanotechnology with unique pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties. Its long circulation time with stable retention of the payload and its accumulation in tumors with high vascular permeability both result in important advantages over conventional chemotherapy. The ability of PLD to buffer a number of undesirable side effects of doxorubicin, including a major risk reduction in cardiac toxicity, is now well-established and confers a major added value in a number of disease conditions. PLD is approved for the treatment of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, multiple myeloma, and Kaposi sarcoma. In addition, clinically significant antitumor activity of PLD has been reported in a number of other cancer types, including lymphomas and soft tissue sarcomas. In spite of this, PLD has not replaced conventional doxorubicin in common applications such as the adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment of breast cancer, and its use in the clinic has not become as widespread as one may have predicted. Exploiting the unique pharmacology of PLD, analyzing its selective biodistribution and homing to tumors in cancer patients with proper theranostic tools, and harnessing its complex interaction with the immune system, will lead to a more selective and rational use of PLD that may have great impact on future clinical results and may help realize its largely untapped potential.

A prospective randomized study comparing recovery following anesthesia with a combination of intravenous dexmedetomidine and desflurane or sevoflurane in spinal surgeries.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Desflurane and sevoflurane are inhalational anesthetics which provide stable intraoperative hemodynamics and rapid emergence from anesthesia. Dexmedetomidine is an α2-agonist with sedative and hypnotic effects. We compared recovery following anesthesia with a combination of a continuous intravenous infusion of dexmedetomidine and desflurane or sevoflurane in cases of spine surgeries because no such data are available from India. MATERIAL AND METHODS: It was a single-blind, prospective, randomized study. After institutional ethics committee approval, patients were randomly allocated to one of the two groups of fifty patients each. Group D received desflurane and Group S received sevoflurane, along with dexmedetomidine 0.5 µg/kg/h IV infusion for maintenance of anesthesia. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Extubation time (ET) in Group D was shorter by 4.2 min than in Group S (10.1 ± 2.2 and 14.2 ± 1.3; P = 0.004). Postoperative recovery, postoperative analgesic, and antiemetic requirement between the groups were comparable The mean dial setting required to maintain the minimum alveolar concentration of 1 intraoperatively was 3.1 for desflurane and 0.7 for sevoflurane.

Pharmacologic Studies of a Prodrug of Mitomycin C in Pegylated Liposomes (Promitil(®)): High Stability in Plasma and Rapid Thiolytic Prodrug Activation in Tissues.

PURPOSE: Pegylated liposomal (PL) mitomycin C lipid-based prodrug (MLP) has recently entered clinical testing. We studied here the preclinical pharmacology of PL-MLP. METHODS: The stability, pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, and other pharmacologic parameters of PL-MLP were examined. Thiolytic cleavage of MLP and release of active mitomycin C (MMC) were studied using dithiothreitol (DTT), and by incubation with tissue homogenates. RESULTS: MLP was incorporated in the bilayer at 10% molar ratio with nearly 100% entrapment efficiency, resulting in a formulation with high plasma stability. In vitro, DTT induced cleavage of MLP with predictable kinetics, generating MMC and enhancing pharmacological activity. A long circulation half-life of MLP (10-15 h) was observed in rodents and minipigs. Free MMC is either extremely low or undetectable in plasma. However, urine from PL-MLP injected rats revealed delayed but significant excretion of MMC indicating in vivo activation of MLP. Studies in mice injected with H3-cholesterol radiolabeled PL-MLP demonstrated relatively greater tissue levels of H3-cholesterol than MLP. MLP levels were highest in tumor and spleen, and very low or undetectable in liver and lung. Rapid cleavage of MLP in various tissues, particularly in liver, was shown in ex-vivo experiments of PL-MLP with tissue homogenates. PL-MLP was less toxic in vivo than equivalent doses of MMC. Therapeutic studies in C26 mouse tumor models demonstrated dose-dependent improved efficacy of PL-MLP over MMC. CONCLUSIONS: Thiolytic activation of PL-MLP occurs in tissues but not in plasma. Liposomal delivery of MLP confers a favorable pharmacological profile and greater therapeutic index than MMC.

Emerging delivery systems to reduce doxorubicin cardiotoxicity and improve therapeutic index: focus on liposomes.

Anthracyclines are powerful anticancer agents and among the most important tools in the chemotherapy armamentarium of medical oncologists. They are approved for use in the treatment of a broad variety of solid and hematologic neoplasms. However, the usefulness of these agents, particularly doxorubicin, the most widely used anthracycline, is limited by considerable toxicity, especially damage to the cardiac muscle, which is cumulative and mostly irreversible, restricting extended use of this drug. In the last 30 years, extensive research with a variety of drug-delivery systems has attempted to overcome this limitation, with clinical success mostly confined to liposome formulations. Liposomal doxorubicin, and particularly pegylated liposomal doxorubicin, has shown significant pharmacologic advantages and an added clinical value over doxorubicin. Here, we review the mechanisms of action and toxicity of doxorubicin, and ways to reduce toxicity, with a focus on liposome-based drug-delivery systems.

Anaerobium acetethylicum gen. nov., sp. nov., a strictly anaerobic, gluconate-fermenting bacterium isolated from a methanogenic bioreactor.

A novel strictly anaerobic, mesophilic bacterium was enriched and isolated with gluconate as sole substrate from a methanogenic sludge collected from a biogas reactor. Cells of strain GluBS11T stained Gram-positive and were non-motile, straight rods, measuring 3.0-4.5 × 0.8-1.2 µm. The temperature range for growth was 15-37 °C, with optimal growth at 30 °C, the pH range was 6.5-8.5, with optimal growth at pH 7, and the generation time under optimal conditions was 60 min. API Rapid 32A reactions were positive for α-galactosidase, α-glucosidase and ß-glucosidase and negative for catalase and oxidase. A broad variety of substrates was utilized, including gluconate, glucose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, lactose, galactose, melezitose, melibiose, mannitol, erythritol, glycerol and aesculin. Products of gluconate fermentation were ethanol, acetate, formate, H2 and CO2. Neither sulfate nor nitrate served as an electron acceptor. Predominant cellular fatty acids (>10 %) were C14 : 0, C16 : 0, C16 : 1ω7c/iso-C15 : 0 2-OH and C18 : 1ω7c. The DNA G+C content of strain GluBS11T was 44.1 mol%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence data revealed that strain GluBS11T is a member of subcluster XIVa within the order Clostridiales. The closest cultured relatives are Clostridium herbivorans (93.1 % similarity to the type strain), Clostridium populeti (93.3 %), Eubacterium uniforme (92.4 %) and Clostridium polysaccharolyticum (91.5 %). Based on this 16S rRNA gene sequence divergence (>6.5 %) as well as on chemotaxonomic and phenotypic differences from these taxa, strain GluBS11T is considered to represent a novel genus and species, for which the name Anaerobium acetethylicum gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Anaerobium acetethylicum is GluBS11T ( = LMG 28619T = KCTC 15450T = DSM 29698T).

Chitinase inhibition induces transcriptional dysregulation altering ecdysteroid-mediated control of Spodoptera frugiperda development.

Chitinases and ecdysteroid hormones are vital for insect development. Crosstalk between chitin and ecdysteroid metabolism regulation is enigmatic. Here, we examined chitinase inhibition effect on Spodoptera frugiperda ecdysteroid metabolism. In vitro studies suggested that berberine inhibits S. frugiperda chitinase 5 (SfCht5). The Berberine feeding resulted in defective S. frugiperda development. Berberine-fed insects showed higher SfCht5 and Chitinase 7 expression and cumulative chitinase activity. Chitinase inhibition led to overexpression of chitinases, ecdysteroid biosynthesis, and responsive genes. SfCht5 silencing and overexpression resulted in ecdysone receptor deregulation. Transcription factors, like Broad Complex Z4, regulate the ecdysteroid metabolism and showed high expression upon berberine ingestion. Broad Complex Z4 binding in 5' UTR of Ecdysone receptor, SfCht5, Chitinase 7, Phantom, Neverland, and other ecdysteroid biosynthesis genes might lead to their upregulation in berberine-fed insects. As a result, berberine-fed insects showed ecdysone overaccumulation. These findings underscore chitinase activity's impact on ecdysone biosynthesis and its transcriptional crosstalk.

Developing a Feeding Assay System for Evaluating the Insecticidal Effect of Phytochemicals on Helicoverpa armigera.

Helicoverpa armigera, a lepidopteran insect, is a polyphagous pest with a worldwide distribution. This herbivorous insect is a threat to plants and agricultural productivity. In response, plants produce several phytochemicals that negatively impact the insect's growth and survival. This protocol demonstrates an obligate feeding assay method to evaluate the effect of a phytochemical (quercetin) on insect growth, development, and survival. Under controlled conditions, the neonates were maintained until the second instar on a pre-defined artificial diet. These second-instar larvae were allowed to feed on a control and quercetin-containing artificial diet for 10 days. The insects' body weight, developmental stage, frass weight, and mortality were recorded on alternate days. The change in body weight, the difference in feeding pattern, and developmental phenotypes were evaluated throughout the assay time. The described obligatory feeding assay simulates a natural mode of ingestion and can be scaled up to a large number of insects. It permits one to analyze phytochemicals' effect on the growth dynamics, developmental transition, and overall fitness of H. armigera. Furthermore, this setup can also be utilized to evaluate alterations in nutritional parameters and digestive physiology processes. This article provides a detailed methodology for feeding assay systems, which may have applications in toxicological studies, insecticidal molecule screening, and understanding chemical effects in plant-insect interactions.

Prodigiosin from Serratia rubidaea MJ 24 impedes Helicoverpa armigera development by the dysregulation of Juvenile hormone-dopamine system.

Prodigiosin pigment is a secondary metabolite produced by many bacterial species and is known for its medicinal properties. A few of these prodigiosin-producing bacteria are also reported to be entomopathogenic. It is intriguing to unravel the role of prodigiosin in insecticidal activities and its mode of action. In this study, we have shown the production and characterization of prodigiosin from the Serratia rubidaea MJ 24 isolated from the soil of the Western Ghats, India. Further, we assessed the effect of this pigment on the lepidopteran agricultural pest, Helicoverpa armigera. Prodigiosin-fed H. armigera indicated defective development of insect growth upon treatment. Due to defective early development, about 50% mortality and 40% reduction in body weight were observed in insects fed on a 500 ppm prodigiosin-containing diet. The transcriptomic analysis of these insects indicated significant dysregulation of Juvenile hormone synthesis and response related genes. In addition, dopamine related processes and their resultant melanization and sclerotization processes were also found to be affected. The changes in the expression levels of the key transcripts were further validated using real-time quantitative PCR. The metabolome data confirmed the developmental dysregulation of precursors and products of differentially regulated genes due to prodigiosin. Therefore, the corroborated data suggests that prodigiosin majorly affects H. armigera development through dysregulation of the Juvenile hormone-dopamine system and can be considered as a bioactive scaffold to design insect-pest management compounds. This study provides the first report of in-depth analysis of insecticidal system dynamics in H. armigera insects upon prodigiosin feeding via gene expression and metabolic change via omics approach.

Development of Promitil®, a lipidic prodrug of mitomycin c in PEGylated liposomes: From bench to bedside.

Several liposome products have been approved for the treatment of cancer. In all of them, the active agents are encapsulated in the liposome water phase passively or by transmembrane ion gradients. An alternative approach in liposomal drug delivery consists of chemically modifying drugs to form lipophilic prodrugs with strong association to the liposomal bilayer. Based on this approach, we synthesized a mitomycin c-derived lipidic prodrug (MLP) which is entrapped in the bilayer of PEGylated liposomes (PL-MLP, Promitil®), and activated by thiolytic cleavage. PL-MLP is stable in plasma with thiolytic activation of MLP occurring exclusively in tissues and is more effective and less toxic than conventional chemotherapy in various tumor models. PL-MLP has completed phase I clinical development where it has shown a favorable safety profile and a 3-fold reduction in toxicity as compared to free mitomycin c. Clinical and pharmacokinetic studies in patients with advanced colo-rectal carcinoma have indicated a significant rate of disease stabilization (39%) in this chemo-refractory population and significant prolongation of median survival in patients attaining stable disease (13.9 months) versus progressive disease patients (6.35 months). The pharmacokinetics of MLP was typically stealth with long T½ (~1 day), slow clearance and small volume of distribution. Interestingly, a longer T½, and slower clearance were both correlated with disease stabilization and longer survival. This association of pharmacokinetic parameters with patient outcome suggests that arrest of tumor growth is related to the enhanced tumor localization of long-circulating liposomes and highlights the importance of personalized pharmacokinetic evaluation in the clinical use of nanomedicines. Another important area where PL-MLP may have an added value is in chemoradiotherapy, where it has shown a strong radiosensitizing effect in animal models based on a unique mechanism of enhanced prodrug activation and encouraging results in early human testing.

Fermentation of glycerol by Anaerobium acetethylicum and its potential use in biofuel production.

Growth of biodiesel industries resulted in increased coproduction of crude glycerol which is therefore becoming a waste product instead of a valuable 'coproduct'. Glycerol can be used for the production of valuable chemicals, e.g. biofuels, to reduce glycerol waste disposal. In this study, a novel bacterial strain is described which converts glycerol mainly to ethanol and hydrogen with very little amounts of acetate, formate and 1,2-propanediol as coproducts. The bacterium offers certain advantages over previously studied glycerol-fermenting microorganisms. Anaerobium acetethylicum during growth with glycerol produces very little side products and grows in the presence of maximum glycerol concentrations up to 1500 mM and in the complete absence of complex organic supplements such as yeast extract or tryptone. The highest observed growth rate of 0.116 h-1 is similar to that of other glycerol degraders, and the maximum concentration of ethanol that can be tolerated was found to be about 60 mM (2.8 g l-1 ) and further growth was likely inhibited due to ethanol toxicity. Proteome analysis as well as enzyme assays performed in cell-free extracts demonstrated that glycerol is degraded via glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, which is further metabolized through the lower part of glycolysis leading to formation of mainly ethanol and hydrogen. In conclusion, fermentation of glycerol to ethanol and hydrogen by this bacterium represents a remarkable option to add value to the biodiesel industries by utilization of surplus glycerol.

High-quality-draft genome sequence of the fermenting bacterium Anaerobium acetethylicum type strain GluBS11T (DSM 29698).

Anaerobium acetethylicum strain GluBS11T belongs to the family Lachnospiraceae within the order Clostridiales. It is a Gram-positive, non-motile and strictly anaerobic bacterium isolated from biogas slurry that was originally enriched with gluconate as carbon source (Patil, et al., Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 65:3289-3296, 2015). Here we describe the draft genome sequence of strain GluBS11T and provide a detailed insight into its physiological and metabolic features. The draft genome sequence generated 4,609,043 bp, distributed among 105 scaffolds assembled using the SPAdes genome assembler method. It comprises in total 4,132 genes, of which 4,008 were predicted to be protein coding genes, 124 RNA genes and 867 pseudogenes. The G + C content was 43.51 mol %. The annotated genome of strain GluBS11T contains putative genes coding for the pentose phosphate pathway, the Embden-Meyerhoff-Parnas pathway, the Entner-Doudoroff pathway and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. The genome revealed the presence of most of the necessary genes required for the fermentation of glucose and gluconate to acetate, ethanol, and hydrogen gas. However, a candidate gene for production of formate was not identified.

Targeting of pegylated liposomal mitomycin-C prodrug to the folate receptor of cancer cells: Intracellular activation and enhanced cytotoxicity.

Mitomycin C (MMC) is a powerful anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-tumor antibiotic, often active against multidrug resistant cells. Despite a broad spectrum of antitumor activity, MMC clinical use is relatively limited due to its fast clearance and dose-limiting toxicity. To exploit the potential antitumor activity of MMC and reduce its toxicity we have previously developed a formulation of pegylated liposomes with a lipophilic prodrug of MMC (PL-MLP), activated by endogenous reducing agents which are abundant in the tumor cell environment in the form of different thiols. PL-MLP has minimal in vitro cytotoxicity unless reducing agents are added to the cell culture to activate the prodrug. In the present study, we hypothesized that targeting PL-MLP via folate receptors will facilitate intracellular activation of prodrug and enhance cytotoxic activity without added reducing agents. We grafted a lipophilic folate conjugate (folate-PEG(5000)-DSPE) to formulate folate targeted liposomes (FT-PL-MLP) and examined in vitro cell uptake and cytotoxic activity in cancer cell lines with high folate receptors (HiFR). 3H-cholesterol-hexadecyl ether (3H-Chol)-radiolabeled liposomes were prepared to study liposome-cell binding in parallel to cellular uptake of prodrug MLP. 3H-Chol and MLP cell uptake levels were 4-fold and 9-fold greater in KB HiFR cells when FT-PL-MLP is compared to non-targeted PL-MLP liposomes. The cytotoxic activity of FT-PL-MLP liposomes was significantly increased up to ~5-fold compared with PL-MLP liposomes in all tested HiFR expressing cell lines. The enhanced uptake and intracytoplasmic liposome delivery was confirmed by confocal fluorescence studies with Rhodamine-labeled liposomes. In vivo, no significant differences in pharmacokinetics and biodistribution were observed when PL-MLP was compared to FT-PL-MLP by the intravenous route. However, when liposomes were directly injected into the peritoneal cavity of mice with malignant ascites of J6456 HiFR lymphoma cells, the tumor cell levels of MLP were significantly greater with the folate-targeted liposomes. Thus, folate targeting enhances liposome uptake by tumor cells enabling intracellular activation of prodrug in the absence of exogenous reducing agents, and leading to increased cytotoxicity. These results may be particularly relevant to the application of folate-targeted PL-MLP in intracavitary or intravesical treatment of cancer.

Draft genome sequence of a nitrate-reducing, o-phthalate degrading bacterium, Azoarcus sp. strain PA01(T).

Azoarcus sp. strain PA01(T) belongs to the genus Azoarcus, of the family Rhodocyclaceae within the class Betaproteobacteria. It is a facultatively anaerobic, mesophilic, non-motile, Gram-stain negative, non-spore-forming, short rod-shaped bacterium that was isolated from a wastewater treatment plant in Constance, Germany. It is of interest because of its ability to degrade o-phthalate and a wide variety of aromatic compounds with nitrate as an electron acceptor. Elucidation of the o-phthalate degradation pathway may help to improve the treatment of phthalate-containing wastes in the future. Here, we describe the features of this organism, together with the draft genome sequence information and annotation. The draft genome consists of 4 contigs with 3,908,301 bp and an overall G + C content of 66.08 %. Out of 3,712 total genes predicted, 3,625 genes code for proteins and 87 genes for RNAs. The majority of the protein-encoding genes (83.51 %) were assigned a putative function while those remaining were annotated as hypothetical proteins.

A Comparison of Efficacy of Segmental Epidural Block versus Spinal Anaesthesia for Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy.

INTRODUCTION: Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) is done under general anaesthesia in most of the centres. Associated complications and cost are higher for general anaesthesia than for regional anaesthesia. Present study is designed to compare the efficacy of epidural block versus spinal anaesthesia with regards to intraoperative mean arterial pressure, heart rate, postoperative pain intensity, analgesic requirement, Postoperative complications and patient satisfaction in patients undergoing PCNL. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After taking Ethical Committee clearance, patients were randomly allocated into 2 groups using table of randomization (n= 40 each) Group E- Epidural block, Group S- Spinal block. Various parameters like intraoperative mean arterial pressure, heart rate, postoperative pain intensity, analgesic requirement, postoperative complications and patient satisfaction were studied in these groups. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Quantitative data was analysed using unpaired t-test and qualitative data was analysed using chi-square test. RESULTS: Twenty four times in Epidural as compared to fifteen times in spinal anaesthesia two or more attempts required. Mean time (min) required to achieve the block of anaesthesia in group E and group S was 15.45±2.8 and 8.52±2.62 min respectively. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) at 5 min, 10 min and 15 min were significantly lower in spinal group as compared to epidural group. After 30 minutes, differences were not significant but still MAP was lower in spinal group. After 30 minutes difference in heart rate between two groups was statistically significant and higher rate recorded in spinal group till the end of 3 hours. Postoperative VAS score was significantly higher in spinal group and 4 hours onwards difference was highly significant. Postoperative Nausea Vomiting (PONV) Score was significantly higher in spinal group as compared to epidural group. CONCLUSION: For PCNL, segmental epidural block is better than spinal anaesthesia in terms of haemodynamic stability, postoperative analgesia, patient satisfaction and reduced incidence of PONV. Epidural anaesthesia is difficult to execute and takes longer time to act as compared to spinal block which limits its use.

Novel methods for liposome preparation.

Liposomes are bilayer vesicles which have found use, among other applications, as drug delivery vehicles. Conventional techniques for liposome preparation and size reduction remain popular as these are simple to implement and do not require sophisticated equipment. However, issues related to scale-up for industrial production and scale-down for point-of-care applications have motivated improvements to conventional processes and have also led to the development of novel routes to liposome formation. In this article, these modified and new methods for liposome preparation have been reviewed and classified with the objective of updating the reader to recent developments in liposome production technology.

Isolation of giant unilamellar vesicles from electroformed vesicle suspensions and their extrusion through nano-pores.

Liposomes required for drug delivery are commonly obtained by extrusion of phospholipid vesicle suspensions through track-etched membranes. The effects of trans-membrane pressure, membrane pore size and bilayer composition on extruded liposome size are well-studied. Vesicle suspensions used in these extrusion studies are highly polydisperse, ranging from 20 nm to 100 µm. Vesicle sub-populations smaller than membrane pore size do not undergo extrusion-mediated size reduction and contribute significantly to the mean radius of extruded liposomes. In the present work, giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) are isolated by subjecting electroformed vesicle suspensions to low-pressure filtration. The isolated GUVs are extruded through track-etched polycarbonate membranes with pore radii ranging from 25 to 200 nm. We show that, when vesicles larger than the membrane pore size are extruded, the minimum attainable value of mean radius of resulting liposomes is independent of initial vesicle size as well as the number of extrusion cycles. We also show that bilayer composition significantly influences the extruded liposome size. These results provide new insights into the possible mechanisms of vesicle size reduction during extrusion process.

Extrusion of electroformed giant unilamellar vesicles through track-etched membranes.

Unilamellar vesicle populations having a narrow size distribution and mean radius below 100 nm are preferred for drug delivery applications. In the present work, 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) was used to prepare giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) by electroformation and multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) by thin film hydration. Our experiments show that in contrast to MLVs, a single-pass extrusion of GUVs through track-etched polycarbonate membranes at moderate pressure differences is sufficient to produce small liposomes having low polydispersity index. Moreover, we observe that the drug encapsulating potential of extruded liposomes obtained from GUVs is significantly higher compared to liposomes prepared by extrusion of MLVs. Furthermore, our experiments carried out for varying membrane pore diameters and extrusion pressures suggest that the size of extruded liposomes is a function of the velocity of GUV suspensions in the membrane pore.