Kimura disease: case report and brief review of literature.

Kimura disease is a rare chronic inflammatory disorder of unknown cause, primarily seen in young Asian males. The disease is characterized by painless subcutaneous swelling, blood and tissue eosinophilia and raised IgE levels. Early diagnosis of Kimura's disease may spare the patient from unnecessary invasive diagnostic procedure. We describe a case of Kimura disease in a 14-year old male presenting with left submandibular swelling and also provide a brief review of the literature.

Synthesis, Characterization, and Biodistribution of Quantum Dot-Celecoxib Conjugate in Mouse Paw Edema Model.

Increased risk of cardiovascular side effects has been reported with many of the drugs in the market, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Hence, it is critical to thoroughly evaluate the biodistribution and pharmacokinetic properties of the drugs. Presently nanotechnology in combination with noninvasive imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed axial tomography (CAT), and positron emission tomography (PET) provides a better estimate of the spatio-temporal distribution of therapeutic molecules. Optical imaging using quantum dot- (QD-) tagged biological macromolecules is emerging as a fast, economical, sensitive, and safer alternative for theranostic purposes. In the present study, we report the nanoconjugates of mercaptopropionic acid- (MPA-) capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) and Celecoxib for bio-imaging in carrageenan-induced mouse paw edema model of inflammation. QD-Celecoxib conjugates were characterized by fluorescence, FT-IR, NMR, and zeta-potential studies. In vivo imaging of QD-Celecoxib conjugates showed clear localization in the inflamed tissue of mouse paw within 3 h, with a gradual increase reaching a maximum and a later decline. This decrease of fluorescence in the paw region is followed by an increase in urinary bladder region, suggesting the possible excretion of QD-drug conjugates from mice within 24 h.

Mercury based drug in ancient India: The red sulfide of mercury in nanoscale.

Mercury is one of the elements which had attracted the attention of the chemists and physicians of ancient India and China. Among the various metal based drugs which utilize mercury, we became interested in the red sulfide of mercury which is known in ancient Indian literature as rasasindur (alias rasasindura, rasasindoor, rasasinduram, sindur, or sindoor) and is used extensively in various ailments and diseases. Following various physico-chemical characterizations it is concluded that rasasindur is chemically pure α-HgS with Hg:S ratio as 1:1. Analysis of rasasindur vide Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) showed that the particles are in nanoscale. Bio-chemical studies of rasasindur were also demonstrated. It interacts with Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) with an association constant of (9.76 ± 0.56) × 103 M-1 and behaves as a protease inhibitor by inhibiting the proteolysis of BSA by trypsin. It also showed mild antioxidant properties.

Biocompatible silver nanoparticles reduced from Anethum graveolens leaf extract augments the antileishmanial efficacy of miltefosine.

Despite the existence of chemotherapy, there is no effective cure for leishmaniasis. In the light of recommended therapeutic regimen is attributed for toxicity and development of clinical resistance, exploration of an efficient method of drug delivery could be one of the option in reducing the dosage and toxicity of drugs. This work is aimed in such fashion to study the enhanced antileishmanial activity of miltefosine with silver-nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesized by using Anethum graveolens (dill) leaf extract as reducing agent. AgNPs were synthesized in a single step process and characterized by UV-visible, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) to understand the crystal structure and functional groups on their surface. TEM analysis showed that the synthesized AgNPs are of an average size of 35 nm. By performing MTT assay, we found that, AgNPs (between 20 and 100 µM) are biocompatible in nature through pertaining >80% viability of macrophages. Furthermore, AgNPs alone (50 µM) have not shown antileishmanial effect on promastigote stage of Leishmania parasite but in combination with miltefosine (12.5 µM and 25 µM), it magnifies the leishmanicidal effect of miltefosine by ∼2-folds (i.e. AgNPs cut down the IC50 of miltefosine about to half). Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) observation for morphological aberration and genomic DNA fragmentation in promastigotes confirmed the enhanced effect of meltefosine in combination with AgNPs (50 µM AgNPs plus 12.5 µM miltefosine). Similarly, this combination has likely shown a slight augmentation (p = 0.057) of miltefosine (2.5 µM) leishmanicidal efficacy on amastigote stage of the parasite in infected human macrophages by reducing their intracellular growth.

Raman spectroscopic sensing of carbonate intercalation in breast microcalcifications at stereotactic biopsy.

Microcalcifications are an early mammographic sign of breast cancer and frequent target for stereotactic biopsy. Despite their indisputable value, microcalcifications, particularly of the type II variety that are comprised of calcium hydroxyapatite deposits, remain one of the least understood disease markers. Here we employed Raman spectroscopy to elucidate the relationship between pathogenicity of breast lesions in fresh biopsy cores and composition of type II microcalcifications. Using a chemometric model of chemical-morphological constituents, acquired Raman spectra were translated to characterize chemical makeup of the lesions. We find that increase in carbonate intercalation in the hydroxyapatite lattice can be reliably employed to differentiate benign from malignant lesions, with algorithms based only on carbonate and cytoplasmic protein content exhibiting excellent negative predictive value (93-98%). Our findings highlight the importance of calcium carbonate, an underrated constituent of microcalcifications, as a spectroscopic marker in breast pathology evaluation and pave the way for improved biopsy guidance.

Effect of social and environmental determinants on overweight and obesity prevalence among adolescent school children.

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity among children and adolescents is a public health concern. OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity and its association with social and environmental determinants among the adolescent school children of Tirupati town of Andhra Pradesh, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data was collected by interviewer-administered method from school children aged between 12 to 16 years. The sample consisted of 2258 subjects (1097 boys and 1161 girls). Overweight and obesity were defined by body mass index (BMI) based on the current method recommended by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention 2000. Data on social and environmental determinants were collected by using a pre-tested and validated questionnaire. RESULTS: In the present sample, 11.2 percent and 4.8 percent of boys and 10.3 percent and 4.8 percent of girls were overweight and obese. The literacy level of parents, family income and child sleep duration significantly associated with overweight. Parental level of education was a risk factor for overweight (Mother: 1.570; 95% CI: 1.048-2.354). Similarly increase in family income (OR = 1.529; 95% CI: 1.089-2.148) and child sleep duration <7 hrs per day (OR = 2.006; 95% CI: 1.194-3.371) raised children's association in gaining weight. CONCLUSION: Our study reinforces the burgeoning prevalence of overweight and obesity among the adolescents. Interventional measures taken should consider family, school and physical environment to check the problem of overweight/obesity.

Coherently embedded Ag nanostructures in Si: 3D imaging and their application to SERS.

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been established as a powerful tool to detect very low-concentration bio-molecules. One of the challenging problems is to have reliable and robust SERS substrate. Here, we report on a simple method to grow coherently embedded (endotaxial) silver nanostructures in silicon substrates, analyze their three-dimensional shape by scanning transmission electron microscopy tomography and demonstrate their use as a highly reproducible and stable substrate for SERS measurements. Bi-layers consisting of Ag and GeOx thin films were grown on native oxide covered silicon substrate using a physical vapor deposition method. Followed by annealing at 800°C under ambient conditions, this resulted in the formation of endotaxial Ag nanostructures of specific shape depending upon the substrate orientation. These structures are utilized for detection of Crystal Violet molecules of 5 × 10(-10) M concentrations. These are expected to be one of the highly robust, reusable and novel substrates for single molecule detection.

Raman spectroscopy provides a powerful, rapid diagnostic tool for the detection of tuberculous meningitis in ex vivo cerebrospinal fluid samples.

In this letter, we propose a novel method for diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis using Raman spectroscopy. The silicate Raman signature obtained from Mycobacterium tuberculosis positive cases enables specific and sensitive detection of tuberculous meningitis from acquired cerebrospinal fluid samples. The association of silicates with the tuberculosis mycobacterium is discussed. We envision that this new method will facilitate rapid diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis without application of exogenous reagents or dyes and can be aptly used as a complementary screening tool to the existing gold standard methods.

Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using Moringa oleifera leaf extract and its application to optical limiting.

The Development of biologically inspired experimental processes for the synthesis of nanoparticles is evolving into an important branch of nanotechnology. The work presented here with the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using Moringa oleifera leaf extract as reducing and stabilizing agent and its application in nonlinear optics. The aqueous silver ions when exposed to Moringa oleifera leaf extract are reduced resulting in silver nanoparticles demonstrating the biosynthesis. The silver nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Visible, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. TEM analysis shows a dispersion of the nanoparticles in a range of 5-80 nm with the average around 46 nm and are crystallized in face centred cubic symmetry. To show that these biosynthesized silver nanoparticles possess very good nonlinear properties similar to those nanoparticles synthesized by chemical route, we carried out the Z-scan studies with a 6 ns, 532 nm pulsed laser. We estimated the nonlinear absorption coefficient and compare it with the literature values of the nanoparticles synthesized through chemical route. The silver nanoparticles suspended in solution exhibited reverse saturable absorption with optical limiting threshold of 100 mJ/cm2.

Size dependent multiphoton absorption and refraction of CdSe nanoparticles.

We report a systematic investigation on nonlinear optical properties of CdSe nanoparticles that are smaller as well as larger than the Bohr radius. Multiphoton absorption and nonlinear refraction properties of CdSe nanoparticles observed with 800nm wavelength and 110femtosecond Ti:Sapphire laser are presented. These nonlinear optical studies were undertaken by performing open and closed aperture Z-scan measurements. The four different sizes of CdSe nanoparticles investigated are 5nm, 10nm, 25nm and 400nm. Both the quantum dots 5nm, 10nm sizes (taking the literature value of 10.6nm as the Bohr exciton diameter) show four photon absorption (4PA), while the 25nm and 400nm show the three photon absorption (3PA) properties. All four sizes of CdSe nanoparticles show the positive nonlinear refraction (n2).