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Canine mammary tumors (CMTs) have high incidences and mortality rates in dogs. They are also considered excellent models for human breast cancer studies. Diagnoses of both, human breast cancer and CMTs, are done by histopathological analysis of haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained tissue sections by skilled pathologists: a process that is very tedious and time-consuming. The existence of heterogeneous and diverse types of CMTs and the paucity of skilled veterinary pathologists justify the need for automated diagnosis. Deep learning-based approaches have recently gained popularity for analyzing histopathological images of human breast cancer. However, so far, due to the lack of any publicly available CMT database, no studies have focused on the automated classification of CMTs. To the best of our knowledge, we have introduced for the first time a dataset of CMT histopathological images (CMTHis). Further, we have proposed a framework based on VGGNet-16, and evaluated the performance of the fused framework along with different classifiers on the CMT dataset (CMTHis) and human breast cancer dataset (BreakHis). We also explored the effect of data augmentation, stain normalization, and magnification on the performance of the proposed framework. The proposed framework, with support vector machines, resulted in mean accuracies of 97% and 93% for binary classification of human breast cancer and CMT respectively, which validates the efficacy of the proposed system.

Purpose The purpose of study was to develop bioengineered scaffolds by seeding primary mouse embryo fibroblast cells (p-MEF) on polypropylene mesh and to test its efficacy for the repair of abdominal wall defects in rats. Methods The study was conducted on 18 clinically healthy adult Wistar rats of either sex. The animals were randomly divided into two equal groups having nine animals in each group. In both the groups a 20 mm × 20 mm size full thickness muscle defect was created under xylazine and ketamine anesthesia in the mid-ventral abdominal wall. In group I the defect was repaired with polypropylene mesh alone and in group II it was repaired with p-MEF seeded polypropylene mesh. Matrices were implanted by synthetic absorbable suture material (polyglycolic acid) in continuous suture pattern. The efficacy of the bio-engineered matrices in the reconstruction of full thickness abdominal wall defects was evaluated on the basis of macro and histopathological observations. Results Macroscopic observations revealed that adhesions with skin and abdominal viscera were minimum in group II as compared to group I. Histopathological observations confirmed better fibroplasia and collagen fiber arrangement in group II. No recurrence of hernia was found in both the groups. Conclusion Hernias are effectively repaired by implanting polypropylene mesh. However, this work demonstrates that in vitro seeding of mesh with fibroblasts resulted in earlier subsidization of pain, angiogenesis and deposition of collagen, increased thickness of matrices with lesser adhesions with underlying viscera. On the basis of the results p-MEF seeded mesh was better than non-seeded mesh for repair of abdominal wall defects in rats.

Thirty six clinically healthy adult Wistar rats of either sex were used in the study and randomly divided into three groups having twelve animals in each group. Under general anesthesia, a full-thickness skin wound (20 × 20 mm2) was created on the dorsum of each rat. The defect in group I was kept as open wound and was taken as control. In group II, the defect was repaired with commercially available collagen sheet (b-CS). In group III, the defect was repaired with reticulum derived extracellular matrix of bovine origin (b-REM). Healing was evaluated on the basis of wound contraction, gross, haematological, immunological and histopathological observations. On critical analysis of the observed parameters it was found that b-REM has healing potential and shown better healing response than commercially available collagen sheet to reconstruct full thickness skin wounds in rats.

A variety of 3,5-diphenyl-6-(5-p-toly1-[1,3,4] thiadiazol-2yl)-3,3a,5,6 tetrahydro-2H pyrazolo[3,4-d]thiazole 6ag were synthesized by the reaction of chalcone derivatives of [1,3,4] thiadiazol-2-yl)-thiazolidin-4-one 5a – g with hydrazine hydrate. The chemical structures of these compounds were confirmed by IR, NMR ( 1 H & 13 C) and mass spectral studies. Synthesized compounds 6a – g were evaluated for their antimicrobial and anti-tubercular activities. Some of the compounds exhibited well antimicrobial and anti-tubercular activities compared to the standard drugs.

An acellular cholecyst derived extracellular matrix (p-CEM) of porcine origin was prepared using anionic biological detergent. Healing potential of (p-CEM) was compared with commercially available collagen sheet (b-CS) and open wound (C) in full-thickness skin wounds in rats. Thirty six clinically healthy adult Sprague Dawley rats of either sex were randomly divided into three equal groups. Under general anesthesia, a full-thickness skin wound (20 × 20 mm2) was produced on the dorsum of each rat. The defect in group I was kept as open wound and was taken as control. In group II, the defect was repaired with commercially available collagen sheet (b-CS). In group III, the defect was repaired with cholecyst derived extracellular matrix of bovine origin (p-CEM). Healing was evaluated on the basis of wound contraction, gross, hematological, immunological and histopathological observations. On critical analysis of the observed parameters it was found that p-CEM has healing potential and shown better healing response than commercially available collagen sheet to reconstruct full thickness skin wounds in rats.

Peste des petits ruminant (PPR), a highly contagious viral disease of small ruminants, is characterized by erosive stomatitis and pneumo-enteritis. However, its neurovirulence potential as observed with other morbilliviruses has not been fully investigated. The present study describes the neuropathological alterations induced by PPR virus through apoptotic pathway. A total number of 12 carcasses of local breed goat kids of either sex were received for postmortem examination. The clinical history was described as symptoms of mucopurulent nasal discharge, high to low grade fever, erosive stomatitis, dyspnoea and profuse watery diarrhoea followed by mortality of 35 goat kids within a week. The pathoanatomical lesions and immunohistochemical demonstration of PPRV antigen in lungs, intestine, spleen and lymph nodes confirmed PPR disease in goats. Grossly, five brain specimens showed moderate to severe leptomeningeal congestion during necropsy. Microscopically, brain sections showed leptomeningitis and nonsuppurative encephalitis characterized by vascular congestion, haemorrhages in the parenchyma, perivascular cuffing with mild to moderate mononuclear cells (mainly lymphocytes and few macrophages), focal to diffuse microgliosis, neuronal degeneration, satellitosis and neuronophagia. Immunolabelling of viral antigen was observed in the cytoplasm of neurons and glial cells. The RT-PCR amplification of N gene fragment also confirmed the presence of PPRV in the brain. The strong immunoreactivity of Caspase-3, Caspase-8 and comparatively lower expression of caspase-9 along with the absence of any reactivity for Apaf-1 antigen in the brain sections indicated the role of caspase dependent extrinsic pathway in inducing neuropathological changes. The presence of apoptotic neurons in the brain by TUNEL assay further confirmed the apoptosis and strong immunoreactivity of iNOS in neurons which suggested the generation of oxidative stress, that might have induced the apoptosis. The overall findings confirm the neurovirulence potential of PPR virus, via the extrinsic pathway of apoptosis, in natural cases of PPR disease in goat kids.

We report an interesting case presenting with progressive dyspnea and palpitations. The patient underwent multimodal imaging procedures consisting of two dimensional echocardiography, MRI, cardiac catheterization and also a three dimensional transesophageal echocardiographic reconstruction. All the investigations taken together helped us in finally arriving at accurate anatomical diagnosis of a coronary AV fistula from the left circumflex artery to the right atrium. The patient finally underwent a successful non-surgical closure using an Amplatzer device. The role of three-dimensional echocardiographic evaluation in defining the anatomy for planning the treatment is emphasized.

Listeriolysin O (LLO) is a dominant antigen target of anti-listerial immunity. The present study described the development of an indirect ELISA employing immunodominant non-cross-reactive synthetic peptides of LLO (LLO-1 and LLO-2) and its comparison with that of purified LLO based indirect ELISA using serum samples collected from 59 ewes which either had abortion or had a history of abortion. Initially isolation of Listeria was attempted from the samples collected from the ewes. A high seropositivity (54.2%) was observed against purified LLO; however, after adsorption of positive sera with streptolysin O (SLO), the seropositivity was 23.7%. Overall seropositivity with LLO-1 and LLO-2 peptides revealed comparatively less cross-reactivity in comparison to that of purified LLO. Three of the four animals culturally positive for Listeria monocytogenes were also positive serologically for ALLO by both the ELISAs even after adsorption of test sera with SLO. Antibodies against purified LLO and synthetic LLO-1 peptide based ELISAs detected antibodies even in samples from which non-pathogenic Listeria spp. were isolated; however, LLO-2 peptide did not reveal any ALLO antibodies from those samples which were culturally positive for non-pathogenic Listeria. In conclusion, LLO-2 peptide can serve as an ideal virulent marker for serodiagnosis of ovine listeriosis. Further evaluation of LLO-2 peptide based indirect ELISA with more number of samples is needed.

Bluetongue is an economically important viral disease of small ruminants. The present/current diagnostic kits and methods to diagnose BTV are laborious, time consuming and expensive. In the present study, we have attempted to develop a novel approach to detect BTV antibodies in sera that in future can be harnessed for developing a pen side diagnostic test. Briefly, we identified the immunodominant regions of the VP7 protein of BTV and synthesized them in the multiple antigenic peptide (MAP) format with cysteine at C-terminal of the lysine mosaic, which elicited highly ordered conformation as well as ELISA reactivity. Finally, we coated the MAP peptides on the gold nanoparticles that can be used to detect BTV specific antibodies in the sera using a spot test.

In the present study, a novel cell penetrating peptide (CPP) named as Rath, has been identified from the avian infectious bursal disease virus. It has the potential to penetrate and translocate cargo molecules into cells independent of temperature. Additionally, it can deliver oligonucleotide in 30min and antibodies within an hour intracellular to chicken embryonic fibroblast primary cells. As an ideal delivery vehicle, it has the ability to protect the cargo molecules in the presence of serum, nucleases and has minimal or no cytotoxicity at even higher peptide concentrations studied. The biophysical characterizations showed that Rath has a dominant beta structure with a small alpha helix and has remarkable binding ability with protein and DNA. Thus, the characterization of unique Rath peptide to deliver protein or nucleic acid into the cells with non-covalent interaction could be used as an effective delivery method for various cell based assays.

The last two decades have witnessed vast advances in the field of cardiac intervention, particularly with regard to nonsurgical closure of structural heart diseases including para prosthetic valvular leaks. The use of imaging techniques to guide even well-established procedures enhances the efficiency and safety of these procedures. The present case report aims to highlight the role of three dimensional transesophageal echocardiography in pre, intra and post operative management of patients with mitral para prosthetic valvular regurgitation.