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Medicinal plants used for the treatment of chronic diseases, have attracted the interest of scientists. L-Asparaginase is an extracellular enzyme with biomedical significance. The present article discusses the extraction, purification and characterization of L-asparaginase. Enzyme activity was estimated from Chillies (plant of Solanaceae family). Enzyme titer of 112 U/mL was attained from crude extract of Chillies (Capsicum annum) fruit while purified enzyme after gel filtration provided 61.99% yield, activity of 69.43 U/mL and specific activity of 234 U/mg. L-Asparaginase stability was envisaged at optimal pH of 8.6 in the presence of alkaline buffer. Optimal substrate concentration for L-Asparaginase activity was 200 mMoL. The efficacy of purified enzyme was tracked in vivo model. Normal healthy rats were used as control, which were compared with leukemic rats after treatment with enzyme L-Asparaginase. Eventually after treatment with enzyme extract provided best recovery in leukemic model due to high titer of L-Asparaginase, which bears high antineoplastic activity. It may be employed for chemotherapy in tumors such as acute lymphocytic leukemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) is causing 100% morbidity in adult animals with a high mortality rate in young animals due to cardiomyopathy. The disease-causing virus (FMDV) has been classified into seven serotypes and several topotypes. Amongst serotypes, the serotype O is predominantly present in Pakistan. A vaccine that should be safer and appears as an alternative to conventional vaccines that have failed to control the disease is required. Keeping in view, a multiepitope-based subunit vaccine (MESV) is designed using computational biology-based approaches. The sequence and structural characterization of capsid proteins and 3Cpro of O PanAsia-II sub-lineage are carried out for screening the antigenic proteins. Further, the B- and T-cell epitopes are selected based on toxicity, antigenicity, allergenicity, conservancy, and topology. The Cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes are confirmed through molecular interactions with selected bovine alleles. The designed MESV is found stable, hydrophilic, antigenic, non-allergen, exposed extracellularly, non-toxic, and soluble. It will stimulate the protective immune response against the viral challenge as it has shown a strong binding affinity with the TLR4. These results suggest that the developed MESV will prove to be a potential candidate vaccine in controlling the disease against serotype O. For expression and accumulation of stable protein the sequence that encodes the multiepitope-based subunit vaccine is codonoptimized following the codon preference of E. coli and is cloned in pET-28a (+). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns regarding zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) have gained much attention due to their unique properties and widespread applications in cosmetics, electronics and medicinal industry that may induce an adverse impact not only on specific ecosystem but also on human health. ZnO-NPs were synthesized by coprecipitation method and characterization was done by Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. SEM showed the hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure of particles. From XRD pattern, average particle size, lattice parameters (a and c), X-ray density and volume of unit cell of zinc oxide nanoparticles were 52.22 nm, (a =3.25 Å and c=5.21 Å), 5.0 g/cm3 and 54.82 ų, respectively. FT-IR confirmed the attached compound of synthesized nanoparticles. The acute toxicity of ZnO-NPs was determined by using fish, Labeo rohita as a genetic model during this study. The mean 96-h LC50 and lethal concentration were measured as 31.15 and 57.84 mg/L, respectively. Oxidative stress in terms of catalase, lipid peroxidation and superoxide dismutase was also determined in fish gills, muscle, liver and heart after chronic exposure of ZnO-NPs for 80 days and sampling were done on 20, 40, 60 and 80 days. Significantly decreased catalase and superoxide dismutase activity was determined in selected fish organs. However, level of lipid peroxidation was significantly increased in the fish organs as compared to control group. The overall results indicated that induced toxicity mechanism of ZnO-NPs in aquatic ecosystem was oxidative stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) causes immunosuppression in poultry (3 to 6 weeks age), resulting in severe production and economic losses. Current vaccination strategies exploit live attenuated or killed vaccines based on classical virulent IBDV strains, which are proven to be ineffective against variant and/or very virulent (vv) strains - currently circulating in the field throughout the world. Keeping in view the urgent need of clean and cost-effective vaccines of high quality, we have engineered VP2 gene as host protective major antigen. The gene was synthesized to express in chloroplast genome, plastome. Sequence and structural characterization of synthetic gene and corresponding protein were carried out using a variety of molecular biology and bioinformatics tools. In silico physico-chemical analysis demonstrated that the synthetic VP2 was an acidic protein of 54KDa. Moreover, it was found to be highly thermo-stable with a computed instability index of 30.38 and hydrophobic in nature with GRAVY index of 0.115. The sequence analyses including phylogeny and multiple sequence alignment with representative classical, attenuated and vv IBDV strains from different regions of the world exhibited antigenic similarity with currently circulating vvIBDV strains and predicted its worldwide effectiveness as a subunit vaccine. The 3D structure prediction using I-TASSER server and surface representation of epitopic loops on VP2 trimer using UCSF Chimera software indicated the potential of synthetic VP2 as an antigenic protein. The generated information has paved the way for the functional characterization of synthetic protein as a subunit vaccine employing transgenic approaches in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed to optimize the various concentrations of selected medicinal plants through Response Surface Methodology (RSM) in conjunction with Central Composite Design (CCD) to assess their therapeutic doses for cardioprotection. Dose response relation is an important tool to study pharmacological efficacy and therapeutic index of herbal medicines. In this study the toxicological assay of various concentrations of Rauvolfia serpentina, Eletaria cardamom, Coriandrum sativum, Piper nigrum, Allium sativum, Crataegus oxyacantha and Terminalia arjuna was performed prior to in vivo evaluation. The toxicological findings depicted that none of the selected medicinal plant showed any toxicity, therefore is declared to be safe for various cardiovascular disease. Instead of in vivo trial of hundreds of the possible doses, RSM suggested only five doses (80, 110, 140, 170 and 200 mg/kg b.wt) to explore cardioprotective potential of selected medicinal plants in rats. Blood samples were taken at different time intervals to analyze the cardiac markers (CK-MB, LDH and SGOT). These cardiac markers were statistically analyzed by "RSM" to get the optimal therapeutic dose of each selected medicinal plants. The results revealed that the R. serpentina, C. oxyacantha, T. arjuna, E. cardamom, C. sativum, P. nigrum and A. sativum showed maximum cardioprotection at corresponding concentration of 164, 172, 165, 190, 183, 186 and 170 mg/kg b.wt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dengue fever (DF) is one of the most threatening vector borne diseases, affecting both humans and animals, causing severe epidemics and has brought the world to take serious steps for its control and prevention. DF is a viral disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Unfortunately, due to unavailability of vaccine and lack of effective treatment, emphasis is given on its vector control. The only option left for its eradication is to restrict mosquito breeding. This can be achieved by chemical, biological and environment management methods. Use of botanicals is also an alternate and probably most effective approach for controlling DF vector. Community based eradication campaigns including educating people about its prevention and control measures and personal prophylaxis also play a vital role to prevent its occurrence. Likewise, use of nanotechnology and micro-emulsion, use of pheromones, insect sterilization techniques have also shown promising results in vector control. Utilization of only one method cannot control this dangerous disease but combination of all above interventions, discussed in the present paper, may prevent the DF vector and ultimately might help in the eradication programs of this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avian coccidiosis is thought to be the one of the most expensive infectious diseases of poultry. Thus far, chemoprophylaxis and anticoccidial feed additives have controlled the disease but situation has been complicated by the emergence of drug resistant strains against commonly used drugs. Immunization by using vaccines has been another effective approach, but, in poorly managed poultry production systems particularly in case of broiler birds, vaccines may result in the onset of severe reactions. The other drawback of using vaccines is diversity of Eimeria strains in different geographical distributions. Therefore, vaccine strain, effective in one geographical area may not be effective in other area. A solution to these problems could be the use of antioxidant rich plant products that function by mechanisms other than those of chemotherapeutics, with the additional advantage of a natural origin. Antioxidant compounds could hold promise for the control of Eimeria infections due to the association of coccidial infection with lipid peroxidation of the intestinal mucosa. This paper reviews the research on naturally occurring antioxidants including botanical antioxidants effective against avian coccidiosis. Information regarding antioxidant activity, doses and mechanism of action of vitamin A, vitamin E, Zinc, Selenium and herbal complexes such as saponins, flavonoids, tannins, aromatic plants and their essential oils is provided in this paper, which may serve as new beneficial anticoccidial compounds and an essential component of alternative strategies for control of resistant Eimeria strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]