Liquid-chromatographic profiling of Saponinum album (Merck)

Saponinum album (Merck) is a complex composite of triterpene saponins. It was shown that Saponinum album (Merck) dramatically enhances the toxicity of the N-glycosylase saporin from the seeds of Saponaria officinalis L. as well as the toxicity of a saporin based anti-tumor toxin. This study was intended to chromatographically profile the saponins present in Saponinum album (Merck) in order to identify saponins that determine the cytotoxicity enhancing properties of Saponinum album (Merck) on saporin. For this purpose a liquid-chromatographic profiling (HPLC) followed by ESI-TOF-MS analysis and evaluation of cytotoxicity enhancer effects of saponins from Saponinum album (Merck) was performed. This is the first study describing a liquid-chromatographic profiling of saponins from Saponinum album (Merck). Ten different saponins were isolated. There was a lot of variation observed in the cytotoxicity enhancing properties of different isolated saponins, 8 out of 10 isolated saponins showed an enhancer effect on the toxicity of saporin. Based on these results it was concluded that the cytotoxicity enhancer effect of Saponinum album (Merck) is not attributable to a single, activity determining saponin.

Nonlinear Optical Response of Excitons Confined to one Dimension

We present femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption data taken on polydiacetylene-pTS single crystals over the entire wavelength region of exciton resonance. Observed optical changes are accounted for by a model which predicts quantitatively the large resonant and nonresonant optical nonlinearities.

A Prospective Study of Computerized Digital Infrared Image Analysis (NoTouch BreastScanTM) in Biopsy Proven Breast Cancers

Introduction: Early detection of breast cancer is known to have a more favourable outcome. Currently clinical breast examination and imaging modalities, primarily mammography are used for screening purposes. In India, more than 85% of the population is below the age of 50 years, wherein the sensitivity of mammography is at best 64%. Additional drawbacks of the procedure are physical discomfort and ionizing radiation dose to the patient. So newer techniques have been investigated which detect cancer induced neovascularity with digital thermal imaging. The purpose of this clinical study was to determine the efficacy of a software assisted thermal image analysis tool to distinguish between benign and malignant lesions of the breast.Methods: A prospective study was conducted in women who presented to the breast clinic with clinically or mammographically suspicious breast lesions. They also underwent thermal imaging of the breast. All mammographically suspicious lumps were subjected to histopathological confirmation. The mammography and infrared (IR) reports were compared to the histopathology.Results: In 90 women, 180 breasts were independently analyzed by both digital IR software analysis and mammography. Eighty five out of these 180 had suspicious lesions on mammography or clinical examination which were subjected to pathological confirmation. Mammography being the present diagnostic gold standard, all normal mammograms in clinically normal breast were considered as non-malignant. The sensitivity and specificity of digital thermography in detecting malignant lesions was 88.24% and 70.52% respectively with NPV of 87.01% and PPV of 72.82%. While for mammography the sensitivity and specificity were 96.25% and 96.7% with NPV of 96.7% and PPV of 96.25%. In women below 50 years of age (62/90) the sensitivity and specificity of digital thermography was 89.83% and 64.61% with NPV of 87.5% and PPV of 69.74%. Further, in the same subset no statistically significant difference was detected in the sensitivity of digital thermography to that of mammography (p = 0.7263).Conclusion: Our initial experience shows that the detection rate by digital thermal imaging is comparable to mammography in clinically palpable breast tumors. We also note that there is no significant difference in sensitivity of thermal imaging in women on either side of 50 making it a potentially testable tool for screening in younger women.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 5028.

Management of Diarrhea in Under-fives at Home and Health Facilities in Kashmir

BACKGROUND

Diarrheal disease forms one of the two major killer diseases in children under five years of age in the developing world. There are inherent cultural practices for management of diarrhea at the domestic level. Also, the treatment practices at health centers vary, with inappropriate use of antibiotics, and iv fluids observed commonly, while ORS is less frequently used.

METHODOLOGY

Cross sectional study was carried out using pretested interview schedule between January and December 2006, in villages of Kashmir Valley.

RESULTS

The ORS use rate is low (24.4% and 8.4%) respectively in past and current episode. Cultural practices include harmful ones like starving to overcome the episode. The rate of Antibiotic use is higher with 77.9%.

CONCLUSION

Kashmir valley faces the same problems in effective diarrhea management as in other developing regions of India and the world, viz. less ORS use, high antibiotic use and harmful cultural practices like giving bowel rest.

The exchange bias effect in phase separated Nd(1-x)Sr(x)CoO(3) at the spontaneous ferromagnetic/ferrimagnetic interface

We report new results for the exchange bias effect in Nd(1-x)Sr(x)CoO(3) for x = 0.20 and 0.40, where the exchange bias phenomenon is involved with the ferrimagnetic (FI) state in a spontaneously phase separated system. The zero-field-cooled magnetization exhibits FI (T(FI)) and ferromagnetic (FM; T(C)) transitions at ∼23 and ∼70 K, respectively, for x = 0.20. Negative horizontal and positive vertical shifts of the magnetic hysteresis loops are observed when the system is cooled through T(FI) in a positive static magnetic field. A training effect is observed for x = 0.20, which could be interpreted satisfactorily by the spin configurational relaxation model. The unidirectional shifts of the hysteresis loops as a function of temperature exhibit an absence of exchange bias above T(FI) for x = 0.20. Analysis of the cooling field dependence of the exchange bias field and magnetization indicates that the FM clusters consist of a single magnetic domain with an average size of around ∼20 and ∼40 Å for x = 0.20 and 0.40, respectively. The sizes of the FM clusters are close to the percolation threshold for x = 0.20; these grow and coalesce to form the bigger size for x = 0.40 resulting in a weak exchange bias effect.

Biotransformation of L-tyrosine to tyramine by the growing cells of Lactococcus lactis

The potential of pyridoxal-5-phosphate dependent tyrosine decarboxylase (E.C. 4.1.1.25) of Lactococcus lactis was explored for the biotransformation of L-tyrosine to tyramine. Maximum bioconversion of L-tyrosine to tyramine was achieved in tyramine production medium (pH -5.5) at 30 degrees C after 16 h of incubation with 0.2% L-tyrosine. The yield oftyramine was found to be 11.8 microg/mL by the growing cells of L. lactis at shake flask level. Growth medium and different physico-chemical parameters to maximize the biotransformation of L-tyrosine to tyramine were optimized and yielded 1.9-fold increased synthesis of tyramine.

Reply to comment on 'Particle size dependent exchange bias and cluster-glass states in LaMn(0.7)Fe(0.3)O(3) '

In reply to the comment by Geshev we emphasize that loop shift in the compounds is not a simplified phenomenon of minor loop effect of a ferromagnet rather, it is a genuine signature of exchange bias effect. The estimate of anisotropy field and the plot of exchange bias field at 5 K with the maximum field used for the measurement of hysteresis loop, in addition to the previously reported results such as temperature dependence of exchange bias field, training effect, etc, confirm the exchange bias effect.

Dominant dipolar interaction and glassy magnetic behaviour in polymer-coated magnetite nanoparticles

The static and dynamic properties of magnetization have been investigated for polymer-coated magnetite nanoparticles with sizes from 5 to 15 nm. The analysis of the temperature dependence of zero-field-cooled magnetization indicates that the effective anisotropy constant is found to increase with the decrease of particle size, which is ascribed to the increase of surface anisotropy. The relaxation of the remanent magnetization clearly shows the signature of dominant dipolar interparticle interaction. The dynamics of magnetization also indicates the signature of glassy magnetic behaviour. The memory effect in the temperature dependence of field-cooled magnetization is noticed, which is inconsistent with the glassy magnetic behaviour.

Factors affecting induction and development of in vitro rooting in apple rootstocks

Shoots of apple rootstocks raised in vitro were transferred to various rooting media to study the effect of different factors on root initiation and development. Various concentrations of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) initiated rooting but maximum rooting percentage was found with 2.0 and 2.5 mg l(-1) of IBA in M7 and with 1.0 mg l(-1) of IBA in MM106. The drawback was that the roots were thick, short and with profuse callus. The presence of activated charcoal (AC) in the rooting medium improved the rooting quality but reduced the rooting percentage in both the rootstocks. In high auxin dip of 70, 80 and 90 mg l(-1) IBA for 2, 2 and 1 hr showed 75-85 per cent rooting in M7, but lacked reproducibility of the results. Whereas in MM106, 66 - 70 % rooting was achieved with 70 mg l(-1) of IBA dip for 3 h. Root induction in shoots in IBA containing liquid medium (LM) in dark for few days and root elongation in IBA--free medium in light proved most effective. On the other hand, continuous light treatment showed reduced rooting. Reduction of MS salts and sucrose in root elongation medium showed decreased rooting. Plantlets from two--stage rooting procedure showed more rapid growth and satisfactory survival during hardening of plants and on transfer to field.