Intra-cortical brain-machine interfaces for controlling upper-limb powered muscle and robotic systems in spinal cord injury.

OBJECTIVE: Intracortical brain-machine interface (iBMI) is an assistive strategy to restore lost sensorimotor function by bridging the disrupted neural pathways to reanimate paralyzed limbs. However, to date, none of the studies explored the trade-offs between the performance criteria of different iBMI systems that decode discrete upper limb movements from intracortical neural recordings. METHODS: A systematic review of electronic databases using different MeSH terms from January 1990 to December 2019 was conducted. IBM® SPSS statistics version 25 (Released 2017, Armonk, NY: IBM) was used to evaluate for differences between groups using independent sample t-tests. RESULTS: A total of 18 patients from 15 studies were included in our analysis. The included studies involved iBMI controlled 5-robotic and 10-neuromuscular stimulated orthotics to perform skillful and coordinated movements that resulted in a clinically significant gain in tests of upper-limb functions. Pooled analysis revealed that the mean response time to execute 3-D reach and grasp task by the robotic-assisted limb was relatively longer (46.8 +/-101.5 s) compared to the neuro-muscular stimulated orthotics (15.8 +/-15.2 s); however, statistically insignificant [Mean difference (MD): 30.9, 95 % Confidence Interval (CI): -40.4-102.3, p = 0.35]. Furthermore, the accuracy in performing 3-D reach and grasp tasks after repetitive trials were better among patients with neuro-muscular stimulated orthotics (83.5 +/-12.7 %) compared to those with robotic-assisted prosthetic limb (69.1 +/- 23.6 %) with statistically significant difference (MD: 15.9, 95 % CI: 1.65-32.5, p = 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that iBMI-assisted prosthetic limbs showed better accuracy and shorter response time among patients with neuro-muscular stimulated orthotics compared to robotic neuro-prosthetics.

Evaluation of Antioxidant and Antibacterial Potentials of Nigella sativa L. Suspension Cultures under Elicitation.

Nigella sativa L. (family Ranunculaceae) is an annual herb of immense medicinal properties because of its major active components (i.e., thymoquinone (TQ), thymohydroquinone (THQ), and thymol (THY)). Plant tissue culture techniques like elicitation, Agrobacterium mediated transformation, hairy root culture, and so on, are applied for substantial metabolite production. This study enumerates the antibacterial and antioxidant potentials of N. sativa epicotyl suspension cultures under biotic and abiotic elicitation along with concentration optimization of the elicitors for enhanced TQ and THY production. Cultures under different concentrations of pectin and manganese chloride (MnCl2) elicitation (i.e., 5 mg/L, 10 mg/L, and 15 mg/L) showed that the control, MnCl2 10 mg/L, and pectin 15 mg/L suspension extracts greatly inhibited the growth of E. coli, S. typhimurium, and S. aureus (MIC against E. coli, i.e., 2.35 ± 0.8, 2.4 ± 0.2, and 2.46 ± 0.5, resp.). Elicitation decreased SOD enzyme activity whereas CAT enzyme activity increased remarkably under MnCl2 elicitation. MnCl2 10 mg/L and pectin 15 mg/L elicitation enhanced the DPPH radical inhibition ability, but ferric scavenging activity was comparable to the control. TQ and THY were quantified by LC-MS/MS in the cultures with high bioactive properties revealing maximum content under MnCl2 10 mg/L elicitation. Therefore, MnCl2 elicitation can be undertaken on large scale for sustainable metabolite production.