Heavy metals and trace minerals in commonly available shark species from North East Arabian Sea: A human health risk perspective

Shark is a seafood commodity that is a good source of minerals and accumulates heavy metals and trace elements through biomagnification, which can pose health risk if taken above the permissible limit. A study was conducted on eleven commonly landed eleven shark species (Scoliodon laticaudus, Rhizopriodon oligolinx, Sphyrna lewini (CR), Carcharhinus macloti, Carcharinus limbatus, Carcharhinus amblyrhynchoides, Carcharhinus sorrah, Carcharinus falciformes(VU), Glaucostegus granulatus, Chiloscyllium arabicum, Loxodon macrorhinus) and analyzed for their heavy metal content, Hazard Index, Total Hazard Quotient, Metal Pollution Index, and calculated the health risk associated with the consumption. Most of the heavy metals and trace minerals were found to be within the acceptable limit. The Targeted Hazard Quotient (THQ) and the Hazard Index (HI) of all the species except two were less than 1 (HI ≤ 1.0). The Metal Pollution Index (MPI) is showing either there no impact or very low contamination. An overall study on hazard identification and health risk characterization in terms of heavy metals shows contamination of some heavy metals in sharks, but there is no potential human health risk associated with consumption.

Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance Among the Hydrogen Sulfide Producing Bacteria Isolated on XLD Agar from the Poultry Fecal Samples

Poultry products remain as one of the most popular and extensively consumed foods in the world and the introduction of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) producing antibiotic resistant bacterial species into it is an emerging challenge. The current study has been designed to analyze the distribution of antibiotic resistance among the H2S producing bacteria isolated from the fecal samples of chickens from different poultry farms. Here, twenty bacterial isolates were selected based on their ability to produce H2S on XLD agar, and the16S rDNA sequencing was carried out for their molecular identification. The results showed the isolates as belong to Salmonella spp. and Citrobacter spp. and in the antibiotic susceptibility test (AST), three of the Salmonella strains were found to be resistant to antibiotics such as tetracycline, doxycycline, nalidixic acid, and amikacin. Also, fourteen Citrobacter strains showed resistance towards azithromycin, and furthermore, eleven of them were also resistant to streptomycin. Resistance towards tetracycline was observed among five of the Citrobacter strains, and seven were resistant to doxycycline. Further molecular screening by the PCR has showed three of the Salmonella strains along with eight Citrobacter isolates to have tetA gene along with four of the Citrobacter strains to have co-harbored blaTEM gene. The results on biofilm formation have also demonstrated three Salmonella strains along with nine Citrobacter strains to have the ability to form moderate biofilm. The study thus describes the occurrence of H2S producing multidrug-resistant bacteria in poultry feces, which might contribute towards the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes to other microorganisms including human pathogens with likely risk to treat disease conditions.

A Comparative Analysis of Three Antioxidants in Addition to Scaling and Root Planing in Stage Three Grade B Periodontitis

INTRODUCTION

The main feature of periodontitis is the development of periodontal pockets as a secondary consequence, which is mainly caused by an excessive immune response to the dental biofilm. The prime factor in the pathogenesis of periodontitis is an increase in oxidative stress. Numerous clinical studies have demonstrated that antioxidant supplementation can reduce endogenous antioxidant depletion and the oxidative damage that goes along with it. Hence, antioxidant therapy in the treatment of periodontal disease may prove to be a promising tool.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the study is to compare the efficiency of three different antioxidants as oral supplements.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Eighty patients with chronic periodontitis were randomly split into four groups. The control group received scaling and root planning (SRP), and the test group received oral supplements for 30 days with SRP. Pocket depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL), oral hygiene index-simplified (OHI-S), and sulcus bleeding index (SBI) were evaluated at baseline and 30 days. The analysis of the data was done with ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, and post hoc tests. The significance level was set at p<0.05 and p<0.001.

RESULTS

All groups resulted in a statistically significant reduction in all parameters from baseline to one month. The treatment groups revealed a statistically significant reduction in PD and CAL (p<0.00) but no reduction in OHI-S and SBI (p>0.05) scores. A highly statistically significant reduction was observed in PD with green coffee bean extract when compared with other groups.

CONCLUSION

Green coffee bean extract oral supplements may prove to be a promising appendage in therapeutic and prophylactic fashion, along with SRP, in the treatment of stage III grade B periodontitis patients.

Segmentation of Brain MRI Images using Multi-Kernel FCM EHO Method

BACKGROUND

In image processing, image segmentation is a more challenging task due to different shapes, locations, image intensities, etc. Brain tumors are one of the most common diseases in the world. So, the detection and segmentation of brain tumors are important in the medical field.

OBJECTIVE

The primary goal of this work is to use the proposed methodology to segment brain MRI images into tumor and non-tumor segments or pixels.

METHODS

In this work, we first selected the MRI medical images from the BraTS2020 database and transferred them to the contrast enhancement phase. Then, we applied thresholding for contrast enhancement to enhance the visibility of structures like blood arteries, tumors, or abnormalities. After the contrast enhancement process, the images were transformed into the image denoising phase. In this phase, a fourth-order partial differential equation was used for image denoising. After the image denoising process, these images were passed on to the segmentation phase. In this segmentation phase, we used an elephant herding algorithm for centroid optimization and then applied the multi-kernel fuzzy c-means clustering for image segmentation.

RESULTS

Peak signal-to-noise ratio, mean square error, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were used to assess the performance of the proposed methods. According to the findings, the proposed strategy produced better outcomes than the conventional methods.

CONCLUSION

Our proposed methodology was reported to be a more effective technique than existing techniques.

Antineoplastic effects of cassava-cyanide extract on human glioblastoma (LN229) cells

Several natural compounds reduce tumour cell growth and metastasis by inducing programmed cell death. Cassava (Manihot esculentaCrantz) contains cyanogenic glycosides such as, linamarin and lotaustralin, can be enzymatically cleaved by linamarase to release hydrogen cyanide (HCN), which can have therapeutic benefits against hypertension, asthma, and cancer. We have developed a technology for isolatingbio-active principles from cassava leaves.The present study is designed to analyzethe cytotoxic effect of cassava cyanideextract (CCE) against human glioblastoma cells (LN229). The treatment of CCE demonstrated a dose dependent toxicity on glioblastoma cells. At higher concentration tested, the CCE (400  μg/mL) was found to be cytotoxic, reducing the cell viability to 14.07 ± 2.15% by negatively influencing the mitochondrial activity, and lysosomal and cytoskeletal integrity. Coomassie's brilliant blue staining confirmed cells' morphological aberration after 24 h of treatment with CCE. Moreover, DCFH-DA assay and Griess reagent showed an increase in ROS but a decrease in RNS production at a concentration of CCE. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that CCE interfered with G0/G1, S, and G2/M stages of the cell cycle of glioblastoma, and Annexin/PI staining indicated a dose-dependent increase in cell death, confirming the toxic nature of CCE on LN229 cells. These findings suggest that cassava cyanide extract has potential as an antineoplastic agent against glioblastoma cells, which is an aggressive and difficult-to-treat type of brain cancer. However, it is important to note that the study was conducted in vitro, and further research is necessary to assess the safety and efficacy of CCE in vivo. Additionally, it is essential to establish the optimal dose and potential side effects before considering its use as a therapeutic agent.

Genomic insight into the environmental adaptations and toxigenic features of endophytic Bacillus cereus CaB1 isolated from Capsicum annuum L

In the study, a previously isolated plant beneficial endophytic B. cereus CaB1 was selected for the detailed analysis by whole-genome sequencing. The WGS has generated a total of 1.9 GB high-quality data which was assembled into a 5,257,162 bp genome with G + C content of 35.2%. Interestingly, CaB1 genome was identified to have 40 genes with plant beneficial functions by bioinformatic analysis. At the same time, it also showed the presence of various virulence factors except the diarrhoeal toxin, cereulide. Upon comparative analysis of CaB1 with other B. cereus strains, it was found to have random distributions of virulence and plant growth promoting traits. The core genome phylogenetic analysis of the Bacillus cereus strains further showed the close relation of plant associated strains with isolates from spoiled food products. The observed genome flexibility of B. cereus thus indicates its ability to make use of diverse hosts, which can result either in beneficial or harmful effects.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-023-03463-9.

Metric-based rule optimizing system for code smell detection using Salp Swarm and Cockroach Swarm algorithm

Software developers find it difficult to select the specific detection rules for different smell types. A set of metrics, thresholds and labels constitutes a code smells detection rule. The generated rules must be optimized efficiently to ensure successful rule selection. The objective is to identify how rules are generated from the labeled data set and selected using bio-inspired algorithms. The goals are met by employing the C4.5 and RIPPER algorithms to generate rules then, optimized using two bio-inspired algorithms, the Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA) and Cockroach Swarm Optimization (CSO). The optimized sets of rules are evaluated using the similarity metrics which are computed with the help of expected and the detected code smells. The common rule subsets from SSA and CSO are merged to produce the optimal rule subset which can be used for code smell detection. The proposed work has been experimented on Xerces-J, Log4J, Gantt Project and JFreeChart dataset. The work detected code smells with an accuracy of 91.7% for Xerces-J, 96.7% for JFreeChart, 88.6% for Gantt Project and 98% for Log4J. The findings will be useful for both theory and research since the proposed framework allows focusing on rule selection.

Using patching asymmetric regions to assess ischemic stroke lesion in neuro imaging

Ischemic stroke is a universal ailment that endangers the life of patients and makes them bedridden until death. Over a decade, doctors and radiologists have been dissecting patient status straightforwardly from the printouts of the slice images delivered by different diagnostic imaging modalities. Computed Tomography (CT) is a frequently used imaging strategy for therapeutic analysis and neuroanatomical investigations. The main objective of the paper is to develop a simple technique with less architectural complication and power consumption. The proposed work is to section the ischemic stroke lesion more efficiently from multi-succession CT images using patching the asymmetric region. The Hough transform segment and extracts the features from the asymmetric region of the CT image and finally, the random forest is implemented to classify the unusual tissues from the CT image dependent on their pathological properties. RF classifier has been trained for different parts of the cerebrum for fragmenting the stroke lesion. The acquired outcomes produce better segmentation accuracy when compared with different strategies. The overall efficiency of the proposed method determines the Ischemic stroke with an accuracy of 95% with an RF classifier. Hence this method can be used in the segmentation process of stroke lesions.

Rapid detection of mobile resistance genes tetA and tetB from metaplasmids isolated from healthy broiler feces

Containing antimicrobial resistance is the thought of the moment as it affects the human life from every aspect. Because, the inappropriate use of antibiotics in livestock animals for the growth promotion and prophylactic purpose has already generated significant challenges. The livestock farms which harbor and disseminate drug resistant microorganisms have already been identified as potential source of resistance genes acquired by the sensitive strains. Hence there is high demand for the affordable and effective surveillance method for the detection of antimicrobial resistance genes from livestock. In this study, direct detection of antibiotic resistance from metaplasmid DNA isolated from the poultry feces was conducted. For the initial standardization, plasmid DNA purified from the previously characterized Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae were used. The tetA and tetB genes amplified from the purified plasmid DNA were further confirmed by agarose gel electrophoresis and sequencing. Further to this, metaplasmid DNA was purified from 29 different poultry fecal samples and these were further screened for the presence of resistance genes. Among the 29 metaplasmid samples, 8 were positive for tetA gene and 9 were positive for tetB gene. The results of the study indicate the potential of PCR based methods for the rapid screening of poultry samples for the antibiotic stewardship in the livestock sector.

Effect of cyanide ions (CN-) extracted from cassava (Manihotesculenta Crantz) on Alveolar Epithelial Cells (A549 cells)

Cassava (Manihotesculenta Crantz) is one of the most important root crops in tropical countries. It is a major source of cyanogenic glycosides viz. linamarin and lotaustralin, and these on breakdown liberate HCN and ketone. Cassava cyanide extract (CCE) from cassava leaves and tuber rinds were formulated as a biopesticide against certain borer insect pests of horticultural crops. Adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549) were treated with three different concentrations (100, 200, 400 ppm) of CCE. The MTT and NRU assays showed dose-dependent cytotoxicity. The DCFH-DA assay does not show any free radical scavenging activity, whereas the NRR assay showed a reduction in the nitrile radicals with an increase in the concentration of the bioactive compound. A negative correlation was found between the concentration of the bioactive principles and mitochondrial and lysosomal functions. Various cellular assays demonstrated the cellular response of the CCE, and it was found that at higher concentration (400 ppm), the CCE exert a significant necrotic cell death rather than apoptosis. The results of the study indicated that the CCE have a remarkable tendency of anti-proliferative ability.

Healthy broilers disseminate antibiotic resistance in response to tetracycline input in feed concentrates

Wide varieties of antibiotics are used in poultry farms to improve the growth and also to control the infection in broiler chicken. To identify the seriousness of the same in the poultry sector, current study has been designed to analyze the presence of tetracycline in poultry feed and also the tetracycline resistance among the bacteria released through the excreta of poultry. In the study, 27 bacteria belonging to the Escherichiacoli and Klebsiellapneumoniae. were isolated from the faecal samples collected from five different farms. Antibiotic susceptibility analysis showed 77% of E. coli and 100% of the K. pneumoniae. to be resistant to tetracycline. Further, molecular screening for tetA and tetB genes showed 85.18% of isolates to have tetA and 22.22% with tetB. The presence of tetracycline in collected feed samples was also analysed quantitatively by Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Here, three out of five feed samples were found to be positive for tetracycline. The study showed a direct correlation between the antibiotic supplemented feed and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance among the intestinal microflora. The results of the study indicate the need for strict control over antibiotic use in animal feed to limit the rapid evolution and spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Genome sequencing and annotation of multi-virulent Aeromonas veronii XhG1.2 isolated from diseased Xiphophorus hellerii

The present study was intended to elucidate the genomic basis of antibiotic resistance and hyper-virulence of the fish pathogen Aeromonas veronii XhG1.2 characterized in our previous work. The identity of XhG1.2 was confirmed through 16S rDNA sequence analysis and whole genome sequence analysis. The top-hit species distribution analysis of XhG1.2 sequence data revealed major hits against the Aeromonas veronii. The identification of virulence genes using the VFDB showed the genome of XhG1.2 to have the genes coding for the virulence factors viz. aerolysin, RtxA, T2SS, T3SS and T6SS. The presence of antibiotic resistance predicted through the CARD database analysis showed it to have the CephA3, OXA-12, adeF and pulvomycin resistance genes. By the phylogenetic and comparative genomic analysis, A. veronii species were found to have genes for toxin production. This also confirmed the pathogenicity and drug resistance of A. veronii XhG1.2 and also its potential to cause disease in diverse ornamental fishes.