Structural-functional analysis and molecular characterization of arsenate reductase from Enterobacter cloacae RSC3 for arsenic biotransformation.

Enterobacter cloacae RSC3 isolated from an industrial pesticide site transformed arsenate into arsenite. The arsenate is transported by membrane-bound phosphate transporter and transformed to arsenite by arsenate reductase (arsC). E. cloacae RSC3 produced an arsenate reductase enzyme with a maximum activity of 354 U after 72 h of incubation. Arsenate reductase was found to be active and stable at a wide range of temperatures (20 and 45 °C) and pH (5-10), with maximum activity at 35 °C and pH 7.0. The arsenate reductase protein was further characterised molecularly using different bioinformatics tools. The 3D structure of ArsC protein was predicted by homology modelling and validated by the Ramachandran plot with 91.9% residues in the most favoured region. ArsC protein of E. cloacae RSC3 revealed structural homology with ArsC from PDB ID: 1S3C. The gene ontology results also showed that the ArsC protein had a molecular functionality of the arsenate reductase (glutaredoxin) activity and the biological function of cellular response to DNA damage stimulus. Molecular docking analysis of 3D structures using AutoDock vina-1.5.7 server predicted four ligand binding active site residues at Gln70, Asp68, Leu68, and Leu63. Strong ArsC-arsenate ion interaction was observed with binding energy -1.03 kcal/mol, indicating significant arsenate reductase activity and specificity of ArsC protein. On the basis of molecular dynamics simulation analysis, the RMSD and RMSF values revealed the stability of ArsC protein from E. cloacae RSC3. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-023-03730-9.

Cultivation and conservation of underutilized medicinal and agricultural plants in India.

In the current era, the increased demand of healthy food rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals and those having therapeutic value has led to over-exploitation of major agricultural and medicinal plants. This overburden can be reduced by an efficient utilization of underutilized plants with nutritional and medicinal importance. These underutilized plants are neglected or undervalued 'minor' crops having low production and sale. These less documented and less studied group of underutilized plants are considered as a rich source of various phytochemicals and secondary metabolites having bioactive compounds. These underutilized wild herbs that have not gained much attention from commercial as well as scientific community were selected for the present study. The present review elucidates the significance of these plants and recent biotechnological methods to conserve them. The present study on such food and medically important herbs would contribute in a wide recognition of their benefits for our society.

Role of Polypeptide Inflammatory Biomarkers in the Diagnosis and Monitoring of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic that took over the world in December 2019 has had everlasting devastating impacts on the lives of people globally. It manifests a huge symptom spectrum ranging from asymptomatic to critically ill patients with an unpredictable outcome. Timely diagnosis and assessment of disease severity is imperative for effective treatment. Possibilities exist that by the time symptoms appear the viral load might increase beyond control. However, it is advisable to get adequately diagnosed as soon as the first symptom appears. There is an immediate requirement of reliable biomarkers of COVID-19 manifesting an early onset for effective clinical management, stratification of high risk patients and ensuring ideal resource allocation. In this review, we attempt to explore and describe important polypeptide inflammatory biomarkers, namely C-reactive protein, Procalcitonin, Ferritin, Lactate Dehydrogenase, Serum amyloid A, Interleukin-6, Tumor necrosis factor-alpha and LIGHT used in the detection and management of COVID-19. Viral pathogenesis and the role of these inflammatory biomarkers is highlighted, based on the evidences available till date. An integrative data monitoring along with their correlation with the natural disease progression is of utmost importance in the management of COVID-19. So further research and in-depth analysis of these biomarkers is warranted in the present scenario.

Analyzing the Use of Medicinal Herbs During the First Wave and Second Wave of COVID-19.

India has confronted the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, in the form of first wave and again in first half of 2021 in the form of second wave. To combat the persistent transmission of the coronavirus, Indian Government has started the vaccination in the country since January 2021. The immunity conferred by the vaccine can be more effective with sound immune health. In India, medicinal herbs are preferred dietary habits to enhance the immunity intrinsically. A web-based survey of herbal medicinal plants was carried out to identify the consumption trend of the medicinal herbs as an effective immune booster to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The selected herbs are ingredients of regular Indian cuisine and practiced under Ayurveda. The present study revealed that people are aware of selected medicinal herbs and consumed intentionally to boost their immunity. This type of study can be helpful in retaining the local people's knowledge on traditional medicine practices which has been vanishing.

Computational-approach understanding the structure-function prophecy of Fibrinolytic Protease RFEA1 from Bacillus cereus RSA1.

Microbial fibrinolytic proteases are therapeutic enzymes responsible to ameliorate thrombosis, a fatal cardiac-disorder which effectuates due to excessive fibrin accumulation in blood vessels. Inadequacies such as low fibrin specificity, lethal after-effects and short life-span of available fibrinolytic enzymes stimulates an intensive hunt for novel, efficient and safe substitutes. Therefore, we herewith suggest a novel and potent fibrinolytic enzyme RFEA1 from Bacillus cereus RSA1 (MK288105). Although, attributes such as in-vitro purification, characterization and thrombolytic potential of RFEA1 were successfully accomplished in our previous study. However, it is known that structure-function traits and mode of action significantly aid to commercialization of an enzyme. Also, predicting structural model of a protein from its amino acid sequence is challenging in computational biology owing to intricacy of energy functions and inspection of vast conformational space. Our present study thus reports In-silico structural-functional analysis of RFEA1. Sequence based modelling approaches such as-Iterative threading ASSEmbly Refinement (I-TASSER), SWISS-MODEL, RaptorX and Protein Homology/analogY Recognition Engine V 2.0 (Phyre2) were employed to model three-dimensional structure of RFEA1 and the modelled RFEA1 was validated by structural analysis and verification server (SAVES v6.0). The modelled crystal structure revealed the presence of high affinity Ca1 binding site, associated with hydrogen bonds at Asp147, Leu181, Ile185 and Val187residues. RFEA1 is structurally analogous to Subtilisin E from Bacillus subtilis 168. Molecular docking analysis using PATCH DOCK and FIRE DOCK servers was performed to understand the interaction of RFEA1 with substrate fibrin. Strong RFEA1-fibrin interaction was observed with high binding affinity (-21.36 kcal/mol), indicating significant fibrinolytic activity and specificity of enzyme RFEA1. Overall, the computational research suggests that RFEA1 is a subtilisin-like serine endopeptidase with proteolytic potential, involved in thrombus hydrolysis.

Profile of Lymphadenopathy: An Institutional Based Cytomorphological Study.

INTRODUCTION: Lymphadenopathy is one of the most common clinical presentations of patients attending the outdoor department of a hospital. Lymph node aspiration is of great value for the diagnosis of lymphadenitis, lymphomas, and metastatic carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we have reported the pattern of cytological diagnosis on fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of lymphadenopathy cases in Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir state of India. The mean age of all the patients in this study was 21.67 years. The most common site of lymphadenopathy was cervical region (71.79%) followed by axillary region (11.11%). RESULTS: Tubercular lymphadenitis (44.02%) was the single most common cause of lymphadenopathy followed by reactive lymphadenitis (42.64%), metastatic lesions (9.40%), and malignant lymphoma (4.70%). The sensitivity of 94.49%, positive predictive value of 96.26%, and diagnostic accuracy of 91.15% was achieved in our study. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the role of FNAC as a simple, inexpensive, relatively painless, rapid, repeatable, and reliable method of investigation for lymphadenopathy, especially in outpatient departments, peripheral hospitals, and dispensaries.

Anesthesiologists and acute perioperative stress: a cohort study.

UNLABELLED: Previous studies have indicated that many anesthesiologists exhibit symptoms of chronic stress. There is a paucity of data, however, regarding the existence of acute stress signs among anesthesiologists. Anesthesiologists from three practice settings (n = 38) were studied while they were anesthetizing 203 patients. Heart rate (HR) was recorded continuously and arterial blood pressure (BP) was measured hourly and immediately after each induction. Anxiety levels and salivary cortisol levels were also assessed after each induction. Comparison BP and HR data were obtained from the anesthesiologists during a nonclinical day. We found that anesthesiologists' HR increased during the anesthetic process compared with morning baseline HR (P = 0.008). This HR increase, however, was not clinically significant; the average HR during the anesthetic pro- cess ranged from 80 +/- 12 to 84 +/- 11 bpm. Similarly, although both systolic and diastolic BP after inductions were increased compared with baseline BP (P = 0.001), this increase was not clinically significant. In 9% of the inductions, however, systolic BP exceeded 140 mm Hg, and in 17% of all inductions, diastolic BP exceeded 90 mm Hg. Finally, the average BP of anesthesiologists during a clinical day was not different from the average BP during a nonclinical day (P = 0.9). Self-reported anxiety did not increase significantly after inductions (P = 0.15). An analysis of Holter tapes revealed no rhythm abnormalities and no signs of myocardial ischemia. We conclude that the practice of anesthesiology is associated with minor manifestations of acute physiologic stress during the perioperative process. IMPLICATIONS: Anesthesiologists experience minor psychologic stress while involved in the anesthetic process.