Flaxseed oil modulates testicular biometrics, hormone, libido, antioxidant and semen profiles in endangered Teressa goat of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Teressa goat is a unique goat breed in Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) of India. Effects of Flaxseed oil (FSO) supplementation in body weight (BW), scrotal circumference (SC), testicular volume (TV) and testicular weight (TW), endocrinological profiles, sex behavioural profiles (SBPs), oxidative stress markers and semen production and its quality profiles in rainy and dry summer season were studied in Teressa goat. Male goats (n = 12) of 3-4 years old were equally divided into control and treated groups. Treated animals received 25 mL FSO per day. Oral drenching of FSO was done in the morning before feeding the concentrate ration. Body weight, scrotal circumference, TV and TW were measured in bucks of FSO treated and untreated during rainy and dry summer seasons. Blood follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), cortisol and prolactin, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured in bucks of FSO treated and untreated during rainy and dry summer seasons. Libido score (LS), mating ability score (MAS) and sex behavioural score (SBS) were estimated at time of semen collection in bucks of FSO treated and untreated during rainy and dry summer seasons. Semen samples (n = 100; 50 semen samples from each season; each 25 semen samples from control and treatment groups per season) were collected and analysed for semen quality profiles. One-way ANOVA (control rainy, control dry, treated rainy and treated dry) revealed that BW, SC, TV and TW, FSH, LH, testosterone, TSH, T3 and T4 were higher (P < 0.05) and cortisol and prolactin were lower (P < 0.05) in FSO treated bucks of rainy season followed by untreated bucks of rainy season, FSO treated bucks of dry summer season and were lower (P < 0.05) in untreated bucks of dry summer season. Similarly, TAC, CAT, SOD and GSH, LS, MAS and SBS, and volume, pH, sperm concentration, mass activity, total motility (TM), viability, acrosomal integrity (AcI), plasma membrane integrity (PMI) and nuclear integrity (NI) were higher (P < 0.05) and MDA and TSA were lower (P < 0.05) in FSO treated bucks of rainy season followed by FSO treated bucks of dry summer season, untreated bucks of rainy season and were lower (P < 0.05) in untreated bucks of dry summer season. The results of the present study indicated that the breeding bucks suffered physiological stress (higher cortisol), oxidative stress (higher MDA and deficiency of antioxidants), hormonal imbalance (higher prolactin and cortisol and deficiency of gonadotropins, gonadal hormone and thyroid hormones) and infertility due to poor libido and poor semen production and its quality profiles during dry summer season. Thus, dry summer was more stressful season compared to rainy season for the goat bucks. FSO supplementation mitigated these stresses and improved the scrotal and testicular biometrics, libido, antioxidants, hormones and semen quality profiles in Teressa goat bucks. The current study concluded that FSO effectively improved the hormones, libido, antioxidant profiles, and scrotal and testicular biometrics with cascading beneficial effects on semen quality profiles in Teressa goat bucks under humid tropical island ecosystem of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

A Natural Quinazoline Derivative from Marine Sponge Hyrtios erectus Induces Apoptosis of Breast Cancer Cells via ROS Production and Intrinsic or Extrinsic Apoptosis Pathways.

Here, we report the therapeutic potential of a natural quinazoline derivative (2-chloro-6-phenyl-8H-quinazolino[4,3-b]quinazolin-8-one) isolated from marine sponge Hyrtios erectus against human breast cancer. The cytotoxicity of the compound was investigated on a human breast carcinoma cell line (MCF-7). Antiproliferative activity of the compound was estimated by 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. MTT assay showed significant inhibition of MCF-7 cells viability with the IC50 value of 13.04 ± 1.03 µg/mL after 48 h. The compound induced down-regulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein and increase in the pro-apoptotic Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in MCF-7 cells. The compound activated the expression of Caspases-9 and stimulated downstream signal transducer Caspase-7. In addition, Caspase-8 showed remarkable up-regulation in MCF-7 cells treated with the compound. Moreover, the compound was found to promote oxidative stress in MCF-7 cells that led to cell death. In conclusion, the compound could induce apoptosis of breast carcinoma cells via a mechanism that involves ROS production and either extrinsic or intrinsic apoptosis pathways. The systemic toxic potential of the compound was evaluated in an in vivo mouse model, and it was found non-toxic to the major organs.

Variability of the EG95 antigen-coding gene of Echinococcus granulosus in animal and human origin: implications for vaccine development.

In the present study, the genetic variability of the EG95 protein-coding gene in several animal and human isolates of Echinococcus granulosus was investigated. A total of 24 isolates collected from cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, dog and man were amplified by Eg95-coding gene-specific primers. From the generated sequence information, a conceptual amino acid sequence was deduced. Phylogenetically, the Eg95 coding gene belongs to the Eg95-1/Eg95-2/Eg95-3/Eg95-4 cluster. Further confirmation on the maximum composite likelihood analysis revealed that the overall transition/transversion bias was 2.913. This finding indicated thatthere is bias towards transitional and transversional substitution. Using artificial neural networks, a B-cell epitope was predicted on primary sequence information. Stretches of amino acid residues varied between animal and human isolates when hydrophobicity was considered. Flexibility also varied between larval and adult stages of the organism. This observation is important to develop vaccines. However, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitopes on primary sequence data remained constant in all isolates. In this study, agretope identification started with hydrophobic amino acids. Amino acids with the same physico-chemical properties were present in the middle. The conformational propensity of the Eg95-coding gene of 156 amino acid residues had α-turns and ß-turns, and α-amphipathic regions up to 129, 138-156 and 151-155 residues, respectively. The results indicated potential T-cell antigenic sites. The overall Tajima's D value was negative (-2.404165), indicative of negative selection pressure.

Electrophoretic Analysis of Indian Isolates of Mycoplasma agalactiae and Mycoplasma bovis by SDS-PAGE and Immunoblotting.

Mycoplasma agalactiae and Mycoplasma bovis both are responsible for respiratory conditions in sheep and goats. M. agalactiae is a major pathogen of sheep and goats and accounts for almost 90% of outbreaks of contagious agalactia syndrome in goats and almost 100% in sheep. On the basis of clinical signs and cultural, morphological, and biochemical characterization it is almost impossible to differentiate between both the species. Moreover, due to presence of genomic and proteomic similarity most of the time routine diagnostic tests fail to differentiate between them. Hence the present study was conducted to find out the protein profile of isolates of both the species by SDS-PAGE and to find out the cross-reacting as well as differentiating immunogenic proteins by Immunoblotting, which can be of immunoprophylactic as well as diagnostic values. The study revealed 6-7 major immunogenic cross-reactive proteins with the presence of two important non-cross-reacting species specific polypeptides particularly 25.50 and 24.54 kDa in M. agalactiae and M. bovis, respectively, that might be of diagnostic values.