Apolipoprotein E derived peptides inhibit the pro-inflammatory effect of lysophosphatidylcholine.

Apolipoprotein-derived peptides have emerged as a potential candidate for the treatment of various inflammatory disease conditions. These peptides bind to pro-inflammatory lipids and inhibit their inflammatory functions. Lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) is a potent pro-inflammatory lipid and increased level of circulating LPC plays a major role in various acute and chronic inflammatory conditions. In this report we examined the effect of peptides derived from the C-terminal domain of human apolipoprotein E on the properties of LPC. Our results show that the peptides (E8, E10 and E11) bind to LPC and inhibit LPC-induced up-regulation of pro-inflammatory markers in human leukocytes. The results suggest that these peptides can be used as an anti-inflammatory agent in inflammatory conditions in which increased level of LPC is a culprit.

Development of large volume double ring penning plasma discharge source for efficient light emissions.

In this paper, the development of large volume double ring Penning plasma discharge source for efficient light emissions is reported. The developed Penning discharge source consists of two cylindrical end cathodes of stainless steel having radius 6 cm and a gap 5.5 cm between them, which are fitted in the top and bottom flanges of the vacuum chamber. Two stainless steel anode rings with thickness 0.4 cm and inner diameters 6.45 cm having separation 2 cm are kept at the discharge centre. Neodymium (Nd(2)Fe(14)B) permanent magnets are physically inserted behind the cathodes for producing nearly uniform magnetic field of ~0.1 T at the center. Experiments and simulations have been performed for single and double anode ring configurations using helium gas discharge, which infer that double ring configuration gives better light emissions in the large volume Penning plasma discharge arrangement. The optical emission spectroscopy measurements are used to complement the observations. The spectral line-ratio technique is utilized to determine the electron plasma density. The estimated electron plasma density in double ring plasma configuration is ~2 × 10(11) cm(-3), which is around one order of magnitude larger than that of single ring arrangement.

Modeling studies on simultaneous adsorption of phenol and resorcinol onto granular activated carbon from simulated aqueous solution.

The modelling study on simultaneous adsorption of phenol and resorcinol onto granular activated carbon (GAC) in multicomponent solution was carried out at 303K by conducting batch experiments at initial concentration range of 100-1000 mg/l. Three equilibrium isotherm models for multicomponent adsorption studies were considered. In order to determine the parameters of multicomponent adsorption isotherms, individual adsorption studies of phenol and resorcinol on GAC were also carried out. The experimental data of single and multicomponent adsorption were fitted to these models. The parameters of multicomponent models were estimated using error minimization technique on MATLAB R2007a. It has been observed that for low initial concentration of adsorbate (100-200mg/l), modified Langmuir model represents the data very well with the adsorption constant (Q(0)), 216.1, 0.032 and average relative error (ARE) of 8.34, 8.31 for phenol and resorcinol respectively. Whereas, for high initial concentration of adsorbate (400-1000 mg/l), extended Freundlich model represents the data very well with adsorption constant (K(F)) of 25.41, 24.25 and ARE of 7.0, 6.46 for phenol and resorcinol respectively. The effect of pH of solution, adsorbent dose and initial concentrations of phenol and resorcinol on adsorption behaviour was also investigated.