Therapeutic Hypothermia for Perinatal Asphyxia in India-Experience and Evidence.

Therapeutic hypothermia is an established therapy with proven benefit for term neonates with moderate and severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Many centers in India have started therapeutic cooling of asphyxiated infants. There is enough evidence for the beneficial effect of cooling from the randomized trials conducted in India. However, the recently published hypothermia for encephalopathy in low- and middle-income countries (HELIX) trial has contrasting findings. In this context, this review is written summarizing the available experience and evidence for therapeutic hypothermia for perinatal asphyxia in India.

Microaerobic degradation of 2-Mercaptobenzothiazole present in industrial wastewater.

Microaerobic degradation of 2-Mercaptobenzothiazole (2-MBT) was investigated using an isolated bacterial strain CSMB1. It was identified as Alcaligenes sp. MH146 by genomic analysis. The isolate degraded 50mg/L concentration of 2-MBT which was measured in terms of Total organic carbon (TOC) (700mg/L). A maximum degradation of 86% with a residual TOC concentration of 101mg/L was obtained after 72h, with the biomass growth of 290mg/L. The presence of specific activity of catechol 2, 3 oxygenase was observed in all the tested derivatives of benzothiazoles and the benzene ring opening was observed through meta cleavage. By analyzing the 72h incubated culture supernatant, 2-MBT, and all its biotransformed products were degraded into polar compounds. With the analytical results obtained, a possible microaerobic degradative pathway was proposed and illustrated for 2-MBT. It is concluded that microaerophilic isolate CSMB1 was able to degrade 2-MBT and its intermediates by utilizing them as sole carbon and energy.