Search

Olfactory receptors are primarily known to be expressed in the olfactory epithelium of the nasal cavity and therefore assist in odor perception. With the advent of high‐throughput omics technologies such as tissue microarray or RNA sequencing, a large number of olfactory receptors have been reported to be expressed in the nonolfactory tissues. Although these technologies uncovered the expression of these olfactory receptors in the nonchemosensory tissues, unfortunately, they failed to reveal the information about their cell type of origin. Accurate characterization of the cell types should be the first step towards devising cell type‐specific assays for their functional evaluation. Single‐cell RNA‐sequencing technology resolved some of these apparent limitations and opened new means to interrogate the expression of these extranasal olfactory receptors at the single‐cell resolution. Moreover, the availability of large‐scale, multi‐organ/species single‐cell expression atlases offer ample resources for the systematic reannotation of these receptors in a cell type‐specific manner. In this Viewpoint article, we discuss some of the technical limitations that impede the in‐depth understanding of these extranasal olfactory receptors, with a special focus on odorant receptors. Moreover, we also propose a list of single cell‐based omics technologies that could further promulgate the opportunity to decipher the regulatory network that drives the odorant receptors expression at atypical locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prominent clinical symptom of 2019-novel coronavirus (nCoV) infection is hyposmia/anosmia (decrease or loss of sense of smell), along with general symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, fever and cough. The identity of the cell lineages that underpin the infection-associated loss of olfaction could be critical for the clinical management of 2019-nCoV-infected individuals. Recent research has confirmed the role of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) as key host-specific cellular moieties responsible for the cellular entry of the virus. Accordingly, the ongoing medical examinations and the autopsy reports of the deceased individuals indicate that organs/tissues with high expression levels of ACE2 , TMPRSS2 and other putative viral entry-associated genes are most vulnerable to the infection. We studied if anosmia in 2019-nCoV-infected individuals can be explained by the expression patterns associated with these host-specific moieties across the known olfactory epithelial cell types, identified from a recently published single-cell expression study. Our findings underscore selective expression of these viral entry-associated genes in a subset of sustentacular cells (SUSs), Bowman's gland cells (BGCs) and stem cells of the olfactory epithelium. Co-expression analysis of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 and protein–protein interaction among the host and viral proteins elected regulatory cytoskeleton protein-enriched SUSs as the most vulnerable cell type of the olfactory epithelium. Furthermore, expression, structural and docking analyses of ACE2 revealed the potential risk of olfactory dysfunction in four additional mammalian species, revealing an evolutionarily conserved infection susceptibility. In summary, our findings provide a plausible cellular basis for the loss of smell in 2019-nCoV-infected patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Gingivitis is a relatively innocuous and reversible inflammation of gingiva. If left untreated, it might progress involving the deeper supporting periodontal tissues of the tooth with consequent mobility and tooth loss. Compelling literature has suggested the role of local antibacterial and anti-inflammatory agents as an adjunct to scaling and root planing (gold standard) for treating periodontal diseases. Various herbs such as Nimba (Azadirachta indica A. Juss), Babbula (Vachellia nilotica (L.) P.J.H. Hurter & Mabb.) and turmeric (Curcuma long a L.) have been used for gingivitis since ancient times. Nigella sativa L. (Kalonji) is one such herb known for its remarkable anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties and thus has been utilized in the present study. Aim: The aim of the study was to explore the clinical efficacy of different ethanolic solutions of N. sativa in moderate-to-severe gingivitis patients. Materials and Methods: It is a split-mouth clinical study with 24 patients of moderate-to-severe gingivitis from the age group of 25–45 years. Recruited individuals were divided in to group I1, group II1and group III1 (scaling and root planning i.e., control) and group I2, group II2and group III2 (experimental). Three doses of solution 1 (1:3), solution 2 (1:1) and solution 3 (3:1) were administered to the experimental groups for 3 consecutive days. The clinical parameters, i.e., gingival index (GI) and plaque index (PI) were recorded at baseline, 14 days and 28 days in all the individuals. ANOVA test was used in the study for statistical analysis. Results: Intergroup comparison in terms of GI showed statistically significant difference at 14th and 28th day from baseline between I1 &I2,at only 28th day between II1 & II2and insignificant difference between III1 & III2 at all time intervals from baseline. On intragroup comparison, statistically significant reduction in GI in all groups from baseline till 28 days was found, but among experimental groups best result was seen in group III2(P < 0.001; F value 153.75). As far as PI is concerned, intergroup comparison between different groups displayed statistically significant difference from baseline to 14th and 28th day between all groups i.e I1& I2, II1& II2and III1& III2. On intragroup comparison, statistically significant reduction in PI in all control groups i.e I1, II1 & III1was found, but among experimental groups only group III2 provided statistically significant reduction (P < 0.001, F value 30.40). Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that, the ethanolic extract of N. sativa is effective in the treatment of moderate to severe gingivitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bergenia species are important medicinal plants used in indigenous systems of medicine for their antilithiatic and diuretic properties. An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to hybrid linear ion trap triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QqQLIT-MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for the estimation of quantitative variation of eight major bioactive phenolics in the rhizomes (150 samples) of four species of this herb, Bergenia (B. ciliata, B. ligulata, B. purpurascens and B. stracheyi). Chromatographic separation was obtained on a Waters ACQUITY UPLCTM BEH (ethylene bridged hybrid) C18 column with a mobile phase consisting of 0.1% (v/v) formic acid aqueous solution and acetonitrile under a gradient elution manner. A hybrid linear ion trap triple quadrupole mass spectrometer was operated in negative electrospray ionization mode with multiple reactions monitoring for detection and quantification of the eight compounds. The validated method demonstrated good linearity (r2 ≥ 0.9991), precision (RSD ≤ 1.87%) and accuracy (95.16–102.11%, RSD ≤ 1.83%) for all reference analytes. The quantitative results revealed that B. ligulata contains the highest amount of the major active marker-bergenin. The results also suggest that sensitive UHPLC-QqQLIT-MS/MS method, a sensitive, accurate and convenient one, could be helpful in identification of potential accession(s), rapid quality control and establishing authenticity of Bergenia species as raw material for pharmaceutical industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health concerns associated with synthetic dyes/colorants have fostered the use of natural coloring materials for food applications. This study has been carried out to extract a natural dye from the flower petals of Butea monosperma (family Fabaceae) under an eco-friendly and organic solvent-free approach. Hot aqueous extraction of dry B. monosperma flowers followed by lyophilization of the resulting extract furnished an orange-colored dye in ∼35% yield. Silica gel column chromatography of dye powder resulted in the isolation of three marker compounds, viz . iso -coreopsin ( 1 ), butrin ( 2 ), iso -butrin ( 3 ) which were characterized by spectral methods, e.g., ultra violet, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The XRD analysis of isolated compounds established an amorphous nature for compounds 1 and 2 while compound 3 showed good crystallinity. The stability of dye powder and the isolated compounds 1-3 was determined by thermogravimetric analysis which showed excellent stability up to 200 °C. In trace metal analysis, the product B. monosperma dye powder exhibited low relative abundance <4% for Hg along with negligible concentrations of Pb, As, Cd, and Na. The detection and quantification of marker compounds 1-3 in the B. monosperma flower extracted dye powder were carried out by a highly selective UPLC/PDA method of analysis., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)