Catabolism of the Lipofuscin Cycloretinal by MsP1.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a debilitating eye disease that tends to affect people over the age of 55. Lipofuscins are autofluorescent, toxic byproducts of the visual cycle thought to contribute toward the progression of the disease. Targeting the accumulation of lipofuscin through catabolism may serve as a method for the early treatment of AMD. Thus, an enzymatic approach capable of degrading lipofuscin, cycloretinal (all-trans retinal dimer), was examined. A peroxidase from the organism Marasmius scorodonius (MsP1) has shown capability of degrading this toxic metabolite into nontoxic byproducts. A catalytic triad within MsP1 (D228, H365, and R388) was identified through multiple-sequence alignment and homology modeling and confirmed by kinetic analysis. MsP1-associated cleavage products were detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MSMS). MsP1 degradation byproducts of cycloretinal show reduced cytotoxicity within cell culture (ARPE-19), demonstrating its potential as a gene therapeutic to alleviate the buildup of lipofuscin within AMD.

Isolation of anticancer and antimicrobial metabolites from Epicoccum nigrum; endophyte of Ferula sumbul.

Owing to the importance of endophytes, current research was aimed to purify the secondary metabolites from targeted source. Ferula sumbul, a lipophilic extract of the endophyte was prepared in 10% methanol and partitioned with ethyl acetate and bioassay guided isolation was carried using standard protocols against bacterial, fungal and cancer cells. The active fractions consisted of three new metabolites (2-methyl-3-nonyl prodiginine, Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, and a meroterpenoid, Preaustinoid A). Their structures were confirmed with LCMS/MS. The purified metabolites showed valuable results against tested activities which concluded that these compounds have great potential and these may be applicable to textile (dyeing), pharmaceutical (drug, infectious agents) and food (preservatives) industries. This study reveals the potential of E. nigrum as an important source of bioactive compounds including 2-methyl-3-nonyl prodiginine, Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, and Preaustinoid A. This is first report of isolation of prodiginines as well as meroterpenoid and Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate from Epicoccum nigrum.

Performance Evaluation of Integrated Constructed Wetland for Domestic Wastewater Treatment.

Simple, budget friendly, laboratory-scale integrated constructed wetland (ICW) was designed to assess domestic wastewater treatment performance at a loading rate of 75 mm/d, planted with native plant species: Veronica-angallis aquatica and compared with non-vegetative control system at various residence times of 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, and 28 days. Results revealed that the vegetated ICW demonstrated superior performance over non-vegetated control: 69.12 vs 17.12%, 67.77 vs 16.04%, 68 vs 16.48%, 71.19 vs 6.56%, 71.54 vs 14.80%, and 72.04 vs 11.41% for total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, phosphates (PO4(-)), sulfate (SO4(-)), nitrate (NO3(-)), and nitrite (NO2(-)), respectively, at 20 days residence times. Reduction in bacterial counts (2.79 × 10(4) CFU/mL) and fecal pathogens (345.5 MPN index/100 mL) was observed in V. aquatica at 20 days residence time. Therefore, the present study highlights not only the presence of vegetation but also appropriate residence time in constructed wetlands for better performances.

Antioxidant and antiacetylcholine esterase potential of aerial parts of Conocarpus erectus, Ficus variegata and Ficus maclellandii.

The current study was designed to check the antioxidant and enzyme inhibition potential of various extracts/ fractions of three selected plants. The aerial parts of Conocarpus erectus (Combretaceae), Ficus variegata (Moraceae) and Ficus maclellandii (Moraceae) were extracted with ethanol (95%) and the resulting crude extracts were partitioned with n-hexane, chloroform and n-butanol successively. Folin-Ciocalteu reagent was used to calculate the total phenolic contents, flavonoids contents were calculated with aluminum chloride while antioxidant and enzyme studies were carried out through standard protocols. All extracts/fractions contained reasonable amount of phenolic compounds ranging from 0.58-58.23 mg CE/g of DW and 0.43-30.56 mg GAE/g of DW. Total flavonoids were determined using rutin and quercetin standards, ranging from 2.65-18.2 mg rutin equivalent/g of dry weight and 0.92-5.41 mg quercetin equivalent/g of dry weight. Antioxidant studies such as DPPH inhibition FRAP and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was checked. The crude ethanolic extract of C. erectus showed maximum antiradical scavenging power (90.43%; IC50=7 µg) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (16.5 µM eq.FeSO4.7H2O), respectively while leave extract of F. variegata (chloroform) was the most active (0.6577) in TAC among other extracts of the selected medicinal plants. Butanolic leave extract of C. erectus exhibited maximum enzyme inhibition activity (91.62% with IC50 40 µg/ml) while other extracts showed significant activity. It was observed from results that all extracts/fractions of under consideration plants, exhibited significant bioactivities especially ethanolic and butanolic fractions, which may be the richest source of such type of activities.

Physiological activities associated with biofilm growth in attached and suspended growth bioreactors under aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

This research work evaluated the biofilm succession on stone media and compared the biochemical changes of sludge in attached and suspended biological reactors operated under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Stones incubated (30±2°C) with activated sludge showed a constant increase in biofilm weight up to the fifth and seventh week time under anaerobic and aerobic conditions, respectively, where after reduction (>80%) the most probable number index of pathogen indicators on ninth week was recorded. Reduction in parameters such as biological oxygen demand (BOD) (47.7%), chemical oxygen demand (COD, 41%), nitrites (60.2%), nitrates (105.5%) and phosphates (58.9%) and increase in dissolved oxygen (176.5%) of sludge were higher in aerobic attached growth reactors as compared with other settings. While, considerable reductions in these values were also observed (BOD, 53.8%; COD, 2.8%; nitrites, 28.6%; nitrates, 31.7%; phosphates, 41.4%) in the suspended growth system under anaerobic conditions. However, higher sulphate removal was observed in suspended (40.9% and 54.9%) as compared with biofilm reactors (28.2% and 29.3%). Six weeks biofilm on the stone media showed maximum physiological activities; thus, the operational conditions should be controlled to keep the biofilm structure similar to six-week-old biofilm, and can be used in fixed biofilm reactors for wastewater treatment.