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Bacillopeptidase is a serine peptidase, known for its fibrinolytic activity. However, a very little information is known about its in vivo inflammatory and/or anti-inflammatory properties. Thus, to understand whether bacillopeptidase incorporation can regulate pancreatitis or not, the cerulein-induced pancreatitis model was used, and the role of bacillopeptidase on pancreatitis was studied. In this study, 46 kDa protein was purified from Bacillus subtilis and identified as bacillopeptidase CFR5 (BPC) through MS/MS analysis. The nutritional prophylactic group was orally fed with two doses of BPC (100 μg/Kg/BW of rat) 6 h before cerulein administration and analyzed for its effect on intestine and pancreas inflammation, cytokines, and pancreatitis marker gene expression. BPC administration significantly reduced the severity of pancreatitis by decreasing serum amylase, lipase, pancreatic edema and myeloperoxidase activity. The pretreatment with BPC suppressed the pancreatic pro-inflammatory and inflammatory cytokines production including IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, and IL-13 in both pancreas and serum samples. Moreover, BPC supplementation restored pancreatitis mediated disruption of intestinal barrier integrity by upregulating tight junction proteins (ZO-1, occludin), antimicrobial peptides (DEFB1, CRAMP), MUC-2, TFF3 expression and by enhancing SCFA's production. Pretreatment with BPC suppressed the intestinal inflammation with reduced cytokines production in the colon and ileal region of cerulein-induced pancreatitis. Thus, BPC based pretreatment protocol is a novel intervention to prevent acute pancreatitis., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Mucor rouxii CFR-G15 is an oleaginous zygomycetous fungus. The mycelia of the fungus accumulate 35.0±0.8% total lipid of which, 18.55±0.46% is gamma linolenic acid. Acute and subchronic studies were conducted by feeding rats with dry biomass of M. rouxii CFR-G15 to assess the safety of the oils in the fungal mycelium. For acute toxicity studies, adult male rats fed with diet at 0, 5000, 10,000, 25,000, 50,000 mg/kg bw for 1 day, and the animals were monitored for 14 days. Rats weighing 35±2.5 g were fed for 13 weeks with a diet incorporating 2500, 5000, 10,000 and 20,000 mg/kg (w/w) dry biomass for subchronic toxicity studies. Control consists of the diet without the dry biomass. Dietary feeding of M. rouxii biomass at any level showed no significant changes (p>0.05) in food intake, body weight, organs weight and serum enzymes. Macroscopic and microscopic observations revealed that the vital organs were unaffected by the feed containing the dry biomass. However, triglycerides and cholesterol levels in serum were decreased significantly (p<0.05) in the test rats. The results of this study suggests that feeding fungal mycelia containing oil is safe when fed to rats and also shows positive effects on controlling triglycerides and cholesterol., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Hydrazine (HZ) and sodium borohydride (BH) are commonly used reagents for the production of palladium nanoparticles (PdNP) in aqueous solution and also for the reduction of arsenic from higher oxidation state to lower oxidation state. A methodology based on the quantitative adsorption of reduced arsenic species on PdNP generated in situ by BH and HZ is described to characterize As (V) and As (III) in environmental water samples. It was observed that PdNP obtained by BH gave quantitative recovery of As (V) and (III) and the PdNP obtained by HZ could account for As (III). The reduced palladium particles are collected and dissolved in minimum amount of nitric acid. The quantification of arsenic was carried out using GFAAS. Optimization of the experimental conditions and instrumental parameters were investigated in detail. The proposed procedure was validated by applying it for the determination of the content of total As in Certified Reference Material BND 301-02 (NPL, India). The detection limit of arsenic in environmental water samples was 0.029 microg L(-1) with an enrichment factor of 50. The relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) for 10 replicate measurements of 5 microg mL(-1) was 4.2%. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of sub ppm to ppm levels of arsenic (V), (III) in environmental water samples.

Safety evaluation of arachidonic acid rich Mortierella alpina biomass was carried out in Wistar rats by acute and subchronic oral toxicity studies. A preliminary acute toxicity study revealed that the biomass was safe at acute doses and that the LD50 exceeded 5000mg/kg BW, the highest dose used in the study. In subchronic study, rats were fed diet containing 0, 2500, 5000, 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000mg/kg, M. alpina biomass for a period of 13 weeks. Results indicated that biomass fortification had a positive influence on growth with no overt toxic effects on the survival, food consumption and body weight gain throughout the treatment interlude. The statistically significant changes in relative organ weights, serum biochemical and hematological indices in M. alpina fed groups' viz., higher relative weights of spleen, liver, brain and ovary in females, reduced hemoglobin concentration in males, elevated WBC counts at highest dose, reduction in serum triglycerides and increased alkaline phosphatase activity were not concomitant with pertinent histopathological changes and hence toxicologically inconsequential. No microscopic or macroscopic lesions attributable to the treatment were manifested in the experimental groups. The results of the present study strongly advocate the safety of M. alpina biomass in rats at levels used in the study.

A method for estimation of uranium in seawater by using steady state laser flourimetry is described. Uranium present in seawater, in concentration of approximately 3 ng ml(-1) was estimated without prior separation of matrix. Quenching effect of major ions (Cl(-), Na(+), SO(4)(-), Mg(+), Ca(+), K(+), HCO(3)(-), Br(-)) present in seawater on fluorescence intensity of uranium was studied. The concentration of phosphoric acid required for maximum enhancement of fluorescence intensity was optimized and was found to be 5%. Similarly the volume of concentrated nitric acid required to eliminate the quenching effect of chloride and bromide completely from 5 ml of seawater were optimized and was found to be 3 ml. A simple equation was derived using steady state fluorescence correction method and was used for calculation of uranium concentration in seawater samples. The method has a precesion of 1% (1s, n=3). The values obtained from laser fluorimetry were validated by analyzing the same samples by linear sweep adsorptive stripping voltametry (LSASV) of the uranium-chloranilic acid (2,5-dichloro-3,6-dihydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone) complex. Both the values are well in agreement.

Uranyl ion-imprinted polymeric (IIP) resins were prepared by dissolving stoichiometric amounts of uranyl nitrate and selected chelating ligands, viz. salicylaldoxime, catechol, succinicacid, 5,7-dichloroquinoline-8-ol and 4-vinyl pyridine in 2-methoxy ethanol (porogen) and copolymerizing thermally in the presence of 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) and ethyleneglycol-dimethacrylate (EGDMA), using 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile (initiator). Again, IIP resins were also prepared on similar lines by utilizing ternary [uranium-non-vinylated ligand-vinylated ligand (4-vinyl pyridine)] complexes. Non-imprinted polymeric resins were identically prepared in both cases without the use of uranyl imprint ion. The percent enrichment and retention capacity studies showed significant imprinting effect in all cases. However, ion-imprinted polymeric resins formed with succinic acid (SA) or 5,7-dichloroquinoline-8-ol (DCQ) and 4-vinylpyridine (VP) alone gave quantitative enrichment and various parameters that influence the enrichment and elution were then optimized. The percent enrichment of uranium from synthetic seawater solutions was found to be 25.0+/-0.5 and 83.0+/-0.8 for SA-VP and DCQ-VP systems, respectively. The DCQ-VP-based IIP resins were successfully tested for the recovery of uranium from real seawater samples.

Bioremediation of 60Co from simulated spent decontamination solutions by utilizing different biomass of (Neurospora crassa, Trichoderma viridae, Mucor recemosus, Rhizopus chinensis, Penicillium citrinum, Aspergillus niger and, Aspergillus flavus) fungi is reported. Various fungal species were screened to evaluate their potential for removing cobalt from very low concentrations (0.03-0.16 microM) in presence of a high background of iron (9.33 mM) and nickel (0.93 mM) complexed with EDTA (10.3 mM). The different fungal isolates employed in this study showed a pickup of cobalt in the range 8-500 ng/g of dry biomass. The [Fe]/[Co] and [Ni]/[Co] ratios in the solutions before and after exposure to the fungi were also determined. At micromolar level the cobalt pickup by many fungi especially the mutants of N. crassa is seen to be proportional to the initial cobalt concentration taken in the solution. However, R. chinensis exhibits a low but iron concentration dependent cobalt pickup. Prior saturating the fungi with excess of iron during their growth showed the presence of selective cobalt pickup sites. The existence of cobalt specific sorption sites is shown by a model experiment with R. chinensis wherein at a constant cobalt concentration (0.034 microM) and varying iron concentrations so as to yield [Fe/Co]initial ratios in solution of 10, 100, 1000 and 287000 have all yielded a definite Co pickup capacity in the range 8-47 ng/g. The presence of Cr(III)EDTA (3 mM) in solution along with complexed Fe and Ni has not influenced the cobalt removal. The significant feature of this study is that even when cobalt is present in trace level (sub-micromolar) in a matrix of high concentration (millimolar levels) of iron, nickel and chromium, a situation typically encountered in spent decontamination solutions arising from stainless steel based primary systems of nuclear reactors, a number of fungi studied in this work showed a good sensitivity for cobalt pickup., (Copyright 2004 Elsevier B.V.)