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Cellular hypoxia is a major cause of oxidative stress, culminating in neuronal damage in neurodegenerative diseases. Numerous ex vivo studies have implicated that hypoxia episodes leading to disruption of Ca2+ homeostasis and redox status contribute to the progression of various neuropathologies and cell death. Isolation and maintenance of primary cell culture being cost-intensive, the details of the time course relationship between Ca2+ overload, L-type Ca2+ channel function, and neurite retraction under chronic and long-term hypoxia remain undefined. In order to explore the effect of oxidative stress and Ca2+ overload on neurite length, first, we developed a 5-day-long neurite outgrowth model using N2a cell line. Second, we propose a chronic hypoxia model to investigate the modulation of the L-type Ca2+ channel (Cav1.2) and oxidative resistance gene (OXR1) expression level during the process of neurite retraction and neuronal damage over 32 h. Thirdly, we developed a framework for quantitative analysis of cytosolic Ca2+, superoxide formation, neurite length, and constriction formation in individual cells using live imaging that provides an understanding of molecular targets. Our findings suggest that an increase in cytosolic Ca2+ is a feature of an early phase of hypoxic stress. Further, we demonstrate that augmentation in the L-type channel leads to amplification in Ca2+ overload, ROS accumulation, and a reduction in neurite length during the late phase of hypoxic stress. Next, we demonstrated that non-prophylactic treatment of resveratrol leads to the reduction of calcium overloading under chronic hypoxia via lowering of L-type channel expression. Finally, we demonstrate that resveratrol-mediated reduction of Cav1.2 channel and STAT3 expression are associated with retention of neurite integrity. The proposed in vitro model assumes significance in the context of drug designing and testing that demands monitoring of neurite length and constriction formations by im

Alginate and gelatin are bio-polymers widely used in drug delivery. A range of salts can be used to achieve the required flexibility in biomaterial design. Hofmeister series gives an idea about the behaviour of salts with proteins. However, its application for the design of biomaterials and their specific effect on high-viscosity polymers and polymer mixtures has not quite been explored. Firstly, this work proposes a strategic interaction-based approach for designing a dual-drug ocular biomaterial. Secondly, the impact of different salt anions on gelatin and alginate mixture for the developed protocols is studied by a proposed method of determining shear-dependent general intrinsic viscosity. Thirdly, shear-dependent intrinsic viscosity is used to determine the interaction amongst the polymers in their mixture, which is then correlated to the release profiles and hydrodynamic radii of polymer mixtures. It is observed that Hofmeister anions behave reversely for high-viscosity negatively charged polymers and depends on the charge densities of the anions. For the polyelectrolyte/polyampholyte complex/mixture, the interactions depend on the addition sequence. It is inferred that the kosmotropes are preferred for protocols where salt is added between gelatin and alginate and chaotropes for protocols where salt is added to the gelatin and alginate complex/mixture in terms of release profiles.

Coke plant wastewater contains many toxic pollutants such as phenol, cyanide, and ammonia, etc., handling and disposal of which has a significant impact on the environment and human health. A novel adsorbent based on lignite extraction waste was prepared and its effect on the removal of simulated methylene blue, phenol and colour (ortho, para-benzo quinone) from real coking wastewater was investigated. Lignite waste (residue) after humic acid separation has a significant quantity of oxidized functional groups along with residual KOH, which makes it suitable for the preparation of activated carbon with high surface area. Since hydrothermal extraction breaks coal-mineral-pore aggregate, the separation efficiency of ash-bearing minerals improved, 11 % ash coal prepared from the residue with 81.6 % yield. Prepared activated carbon from low ash residue has a mesoporous surface (49.8 nm pore size), 0.554 cm3/g of total pore volume, and 980 m2/gram BET surface area. The adsorption kinetics followed pseudo-second order (R2 = 0.984) for methylene blue, pseudo-second-order (R2 = 0.978) for phenol, and pseudo-first-order (R2 = 0.935) for colour adsorption. Adsorption isotherm at equilibrium shows a maximum adsorption capacity of 120 mg/g for methylene blue, 20.49 mg/g for phenol and 588.23 PtCo/g for colour. The adsorption isotherm was in good agreement with Langmuir isotherm (R2 = 0.989-0.994) compared to Freundlich model (R2 = 0.924-0.982). The presence of negatively charged surface favours the uptake of cationic groups. Apart from phenol and colour, the adsorbent can remove total organic carbon (TOC) by 93.6 % and thiocyanide by 6.7 %. Adsorbent reutilization studies show that, the regenerated adsorbent by thermal treatment can be used for 3 cycles.