Exploring the potential of drug repurposing for treating depression.

Researchers are interested in drug repurposing or drug repositioning of existing pharmaceuticals because of rising costs and slower rates of new medication development. Other investigations that authorized these treatments used data from experimental research and off-label drug use. More research into the causes of depression could lead to more effective pharmaceutical repurposing efforts. In addition to the loss of neurotransmitters like serotonin and adrenaline, inflammation, inadequate blood flow, and neurotoxins are now thought to be plausible mechanisms. Because of these other mechanisms, repurposing drugs has resulted for treatment-resistant depression. This chapter focuses on therapeutic alternatives and their effectiveness in drug repositioning. Atypical antipsychotics, central nervous system stimulants, and neurotransmitter antagonists have investigated for possible repurposing. Nonetheless, extensive research is required to ensure their formulation, effectiveness, and regulatory compliance.

State-of-the-art techniques to study epigenetics.

The epigenome consists of all the epigenetic alterations like DNA methylation, the histone modifications and non-coding RNAs which change the gene expression and have a role in diseases like cancer and other processes. Epigenetic modifications can control gene expression through variable gene activity at various levels which affects various cellular phenomenon such as cell differentiations, variability, morphogenesis, and the adaptability of an organism. Various factors such as food, pollutants, drugs, stress etc., impact the epigenome. Epigenetic mechanisms mainly involve various post-translational alteration of histones and DNA methylation. Numerous methods have been utilized to study these epigenetic marks. Various histone modifications and binding of histone modifier proteins can be analyzed using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) which is one of broadly utilized method. Other modified forms of the ChIP have been developed such as reverse chromatin immunoprecipitation (R-ChIP); sequential ChIP (ChIP-re-ChIP) and some high-throughput modified forms of ChIP such as ChIP-seq and ChIP-on-chip. Another epigenetic mechanism is DNA methylation, in which DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) add a methyl group to the C-5 position of the cytosine. Bisulfite sequencing is the oldest and usually utilized method to measure the DNA methylation status. Other techniques have been established are whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS), methylated DNA immune-precipitation based methods (MeDIP), methylation sensitive restriction enzyme digestion followed by sequencing (MRE-seq) and methylation BeadChip to study the methylome. This chapter briefly discusses the key principles and methods used to study epigenetics in health and disease conditions.

Radiative decay of an emitter due to non-Markovian interactions with dissipating matter.

It is known that the more tractable Markovian models of coupling suited for weak interactions may overestimate the Rabi frequency notably when applied to the strong-coupling regime. Here, a more significant consequence of the non-Markovian interaction between a photon emitter and dissipating matter such as resonant plasmonic nanoparticles is described. A large increase of radiative decay and a diminished non-radiative loss is shown, which unravels the origin of unexpected large enhancements of surface-enhanced-Raman-spectroscopy, as well as the anomalous enhancements of emission due to extremely small fully absorbing metal nanoparticles less than 10 nm in dimensions. We construct the mixture of pure states of the coupled emitter-nanoparticle system, unlike conventional methods that rely on the orthogonal modes of the nanoparticle alone.

Knowledge, attitude and practices on developmental surveillance and screening among health professionals in Indian health care settings: An exploratory sequential mixed methods study.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of health care professionals in pediatric settings on developmental surveillance and screening programs and also to identify the barriers and facilitators during its implementation. METHODS: The data were collected from health professionals involved in pediatric developmental care, practicing in various hospitals, clinics and nursing homes in a suburban city on west coast of Southern India. The study involved cross-sectional exploratory sequential mixed method design which included a quantitative questionnaire survey on health professionals (n= 52) followed by qualitative face-to-face interviews with chosen respondents who participated in the survey (n= 8). The survey data are reported with descriptive statistics, and interview data are subjected to inductive content analysis for deriving codes, categories and themes. RESULTS: The study results indicate that health professionals involved in pediatric developmental care in Indian health care settings have fair knowledge and a favorable attitude towards the use of developmental surveillance and screening. Furthermore, the facilitators and barriers of implementation have been reported. The strategies outlined by interview respondents to improve adherence to implementation have been discussed. CONCLUSIONS: The practice of developmental surveillance and screening is limited despite favorable knowledge and attitude among health professionals in pediatric developmental care and is dependent on health care organizational setup.