In vitro virulotyping, antifungal susceptibility testing and DNA fingerprinting of Microsporum canis strains of canine and feline origin.

Microsporum canis is considered the common dermatophyte agent associated with ringworm in felines and canines. In the present study, we sampled n = 548 felines and canines for the probable isolation of M. canis. The rate of isolation from the cats and dogs was 70.27 % (52/74) and 1.68 % (8/474), respectively and Persian cats were found to be highly susceptible to M. canis infection. The strains were evaluated for their production of phospholipase, lipase, catalase, and hemolysis and their ability to grow at 35 â„ƒ. All the strains were identified as low producers of catalase and n = 17 strains exhibited high thermotolerance ability. Terbinafine was found to be the most effective antifungal drug and fluconazole was the least effective, in vitro. AFLP analysis revealed three genotypes of M. canis with 15 sub-clusters showing ≥ 90 % similarity and 7 sub-clusters exhibiting 100 % similarity. However, the phenotypic characters cannot be attributed based on the AFLP profiles.

Advances in drying techniques for retention of antioxidants in agro produces.

Antioxidants are compounds that are essential for the human body which prevents cell from disease causing free radicals. Antioxidants are present in a wide range of fruits, vegetables, and spices. However, a considerable amount of antioxidants is lost during the post-harvest drying operation of agro produces for their shelf-life enhancement. Hence, retention of antioxidants becomes utmost importance in preserving the nutritional aspects of fruits and vegetables. Compared to conventional hot air drying, methods like freeze drying, vacuum drying, and dehumidified drying helps in the retention of antioxidants. However, the drawbacks prevalent in current drying practices, such as high-power consumption and high capital cost, could be eliminated by adopting novel drying mechanisms. This review focuses on various pretreatment methods like ultra-sonication, high pressure processing, pulsed electric field and ethanol treatment prior to drying operation helps in enhancing the drying efficiency with maximum retention of antioxidants. In addition, hybrid drying technologies such as microwave assisted drying, IR-radiated drying and electro-magnetic assisted drying methods also could significantly improve the retention of antioxidants.HIGHLIGHTSDrying is the most commonly adopted unit operation for enhancing the shelf life of perishable agro produces.However, drying is accompanied by loss of bioactive, color, texture, and sensory attributes.Compared to conventional drying techniques like hot air drying, methods like freeze drying, vacuum drying and dehumidified drying helps in the retention of antioxidants present in agro/food produces.Pretreatment methods like Ozonation, ultra-sonication, and UV radiation prior to drying are also found to improve the drying performance with good retention of antioxidants.Recent developments like microwave-assisted and IR-assisted drying methods perform well in the retention of antioxidants with less energy consumption.

Safe sites for buccal shelf bone screw placement in various skeletal malocclusions: A CBCT study.

INTRODUCTION: The mandibular buccal shelf area is an extra-alveolar anchorage site that has high quality and quantity of bone, provides biomechanical benefits and has low failure rates. It is essential to place the implant in the region of bone with optimal thickness. The aim of this study was to determine the suitable site of the mandibular buccal shelf for bone screw insertion at 90 degrees and 30 degrees angles of insertion and various heights, angulations, areas of the buccal shelf in prognathic and retrognathic mandibles, and vertical and horizontal growth patterns. METHODS: In this retrospective study, we evaluated the cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images of 48 patients in the age range of 18-30 years, divided into four groups. Seven sectional sites were examined at 3, 5, and 7 mm from the alveolar crest at 90 degrees and 30 degrees. The angulation and area of the buccal shelf were examined. RESULTS: Cortical bone thickness increased distally from the first to the second molar in all four groups. CONCLUSIONS: The preferred site for buccal shelf implant placement was distal to the mandibular second molar. The maximum amount of cortical bone was observed distal to the second molar, 7 mm vertically from the alveolar crest, when the buccal shelf implant was placed at 30 degrees angulation to the long axis of the tooth.

Detection of chlorpyrifos based on molecular imprinting with a conducting polythiophene copolymer loaded on multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

Molecular imprinting technique (MIT) with electrochemical sensing provides an attractive tool for the fabrication of sensors. Incorporation of conducting copolymer and surface imprinting strategies in the sensing device improves the conducting properties and poor template accessibility, slow binding kinetics at the same time. Here, this technique was employed with conducting polymers with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) to build an electrochemical sensor for detecting Chlorpyrifos (CPF) in vegetable sample solutions. In this work, we aimed at synthesizing a copolymer of 3-thiophene acetic acid and 3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene on the surface of MWCNT. We further constructed a polymer drop-casted glassy carbon electrode sensor for ultrasensitive detection CPF. Under optimal conditions, the sensor exhibited a very low limit of detection (LOD) of 4.0 × 10-12 M for CPF. Due to the excellent repeatability and reusability of the materials, this study and findings have potential applications in the monitoring of pesticides from vegetable samples.

DPIO Function among Normal Hearing Middle-Aged Adults in Sudarshan Kriya Yoga Practitioners and Non-Practitioners.

The cochlea, to function efficiently towards hearing, the oxygenated blood supply is a very essential component. Yoga, a practice that originated in ancient India, claims to facilitate physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) is one such practice that focuses on breathing, therefore, regulating the oxygen circulation in our body. The benefits on practicing SKY have been reported to increase oxygenated blood supply to the respective cells or tissues. DPIO is a measure of cochlear growth function that reflects the basilar membrane function and is sensitive to even a small alteration in the amount of function. Therefore, to analyze if there is an increase in the hair cell function, we compare it between the SKY practitioners and a control group of 70 middle-aged adults (40-65 years old; 35 subjects in each group) who have their hearing sensitivity within normal limits through DPIO measure. Student 't' test was used to compare the mean difference between the two groups. The results revealed that there is a significant difference between both groups with respect to the DPIO amplitude (p-value ≤ 0.05). The study concludes enhanced amplitude on DPIO measure among individuals who practice SKY when compared to nonpractitioners of SKY.

Pathotyping and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Escherichia coli isolates from neonatal calves.

Neonatal calf mortality is a major concern to livestock sector worldwide. Neonatal calf diarrhoea (NCD), an acute severe condition causes morbidity and mortality in calves. Amongst various pathogens involved in NCD, E. coli is considered as one of the major causes. The study was targeted to characterize E. coli isolates from neonatal calves for diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) types (pathotyping), antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profiling and to correlate with epidemiological parameters. From neonates, a total of 113 faecal samples were collected, out of that 308, lactose fermenting colonies were confirmed as E. coli. Pathotypable isolates (12.3%) were represented by STEC (6.1%), EPEC (2.9%), ETEC (1.9%), EAEC (0.9%) and EHEC (0.3%). Occurrence of STEC was more in non-diarrhoeic calves, whereas ETEC was observed more in diarrhoeic calves. EPEC occurrence was observed in both diarrhoeic and non-diarrhoeic calves. Fishers extract test showed no significant association for occurrence of DEC types to type of dairies, health status, species, breed, age and sex of neonatal calves. Two hundred and eighty isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility. The isolates showed maximum resistance towards ampicillin (55.4%) followed by tetracycline (54.3%), while minimum resistance was observed towards meropenem (2.5%). Multidrug resistant E. coli isolates were found to be 139 (49.6%), and Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producers were 120 (42.9%). DEC pathotypes like STEC, ETEC, EHEC and EAEC that are also multidrug resistant present in neonatal calves have zoonotic potential and hence are of public health significance.

Deletion of both methionine sulfoxide reductase A and methionine sulfoxide reductase C genes renders Salmonella Typhimurium highly susceptible to hypochlorite stress and poultry macrophages.

Salmonella Typhimurium survives and replicates inside the oxidative environment of phagocytic cells. Proteins, because of their composition and location, are the foremost targets of host inflammatory response. Among others, Met-residues are highly prone to oxidation. Methionine sulfoxide reductase (Msr), with the help of thioredoxin-thioredoxin reductase, can repair oxidized methionine (Met-SO) residues to Met. There are four methionine sulfoxide reductases localized in the cytosol of S. Typhimurium, MsrA, MsrB, MsrC and BisC. MsrA repairs both protein-bound and free 'S' Met-SO, MsrB repairs protein-bound 'R' Met-SO, MsrC repairs free 'R' Met-SO and BisC repairs free 'S' Met-SO. To assess the role(s) of various Msrs in Salmonella, few studies have been conducted by utilizing ΔmsrA, ΔmsrB, ΔmsrC, ΔmsrAΔmsrB, ΔmsrBΔmsrC and ΔbisC mutant strains of S. Typhimurium. Out of the above-mentioned mutants, ΔmsrA and ΔmsrC were found to play important role in the stress survival of this bacterium; however, the combined roles of these two genes have not been determined. In the current study, we have generated msrAmsrC double gene deletion strain (ΔmsrAΔmsrC) of S. Typhimurium and evaluated the effect of gene deletions on the survival of Salmonella against hypochlorite stress and intramacrophage replication. In in vitro growth curve analysis, ΔmsrAΔmsrC mutant strain showed a longer lag phase during the initial stages of the growth; however, it attained similar growth as the wild type strain of S. Typhimurium after 5 h. The ΔmsrAΔmsrC mutant strain has been highly (~ 3000 folds more) sensitive (p < 0.001) to hypochlorite stress. Further, ΔmsrA and ΔmsrAΔmsrC mutant strains showed more than 8 and 26 folds more susceptibility to poultry macrophages, respectively. Our data suggest that the deletion of both msrA and msrC genes severely affect the oxidative stress survival and intramacrophage proliferation of S. Typhimurium.

Graphene oxide based functionalized chitosan polyelectrolyte nanocomposite for targeted and pH responsive drug delivery.

Graphene oxide (GO) was first modified to amine functionalized GO (AGO) and acts as a cationic polyelectrolyte. Chitosan (CS) was conjugated with folic acid (FA) through N, N´ -Dicyclohexylcarbodiimide coupling to form FA-CS. After this, itaconic acid and acrylic acid monomers are grafted to the hydroxyl group of CS using ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate as cross linker and potassium peroxydisulfate as an initiator to generate -COOH functional groups and forming chemically modified chitosan (CMCS). Further doxorubicin (DOX) loaded into the FA-CMCS/AGO through π-π stacking interactions. The resulting nanocomposite was characterized by FTIR, SEM, TEM, Raman, AFM, DLS and ZP. The drug loading capacity was as high as 95.0% and the drug release rate at pH 5.3 was significantly higher than that under physiological conditions of pH 7.4. Cell viability of L929, HeLa and MCF7 cells was studied. The studies suggest the drug carrier has potential clinical applications for anticancer drug delivery.

Methacrylate-Stitched ß-Cyclodextrin Embedded with Nanogold/Nanotitania: A Skin Adhesive Device for Enhanced Transdermal Drug Delivery.

Transdermal (TD) drug delivery is a more attractive technique for drug delivery compared to oral and intravenous injection. However, the permeation of drug molecules across the skin is difficult due to the presence of highly ordered lipid barrier. This study details the development of a novel TD system, which has the potential to simultaneously enhance the skin permeability and adhesion behavior. Ibuprofen (IP) was selected as model drug. The ability of gold nanoparticle (AuNP) and hydrophobic titanium nanotube (TNT) to enhance the skin permeability was explored. Additionally, ß-cyclodextrin (ßCD), which can exceptionally encapsulate poorly water-soluble drugs, is grafted with methacrylates to improve the skin adhesion property. Finally, Au-TNT nanocomposite was deposited onto methacrylate-grafted ßCD matrix. The developed material was characterized through NMR spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy. The characteristics of the film, including water vapor permeability (WVP), thermomechanical properties, etc., were examined in terms of Au-TNT content. The TD delivery of IP with different concentrations of Au-TNT was evaluated via an in vitro skin permeation study through rat skin. It is revealed that the prepared TD film exhibited an improved drug-delivery performance due to the synergistic action of AuNP and hydrophobic TNT. The cumulative percent of IP delivered across the skin is extremely depending on nanofiller content, lipophilicity, and thickness of the membrane, and the device incorporated with 4.0% Au-TNT displayed the best performance. In addition, a study on storage stability was performed by storing the films for 2 months at different temperatures. The study revealed that the device possessed excellent storage stability when stored at low temperature. The developed film offers excellent WVP, drug encapsulation efficiency, thermomechanical properties, and skin adhesion behavior. Moreover, the device was cosmetically attractive, noncytotoxic, and resistant to microbial growth and hence extremely reliable for skin application. The developed skin permeation strategy may open new avenues in TD drug delivery.