Search

Sahana Ramanathan,1 Govindaraju Archunan,2 Muthusamy Sivakumar,3 Subramanian Tamil Selvan,4 A Lenin Fred,5 Sundramurthy Kumar,1 Balázs Gulyás,1 Parasuraman Padmanabhan1 1Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; 2Department of Animal Science, Centre for Pheromone Technology (CPT), Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India; 3Nanoscience and Technology, Anna University – BIT Campus, Tiruchirappalli, India; 4Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Singapore; 5Mar Ephraem College of Engineering and Technology, Kanyakumari, India Abstract: The preeminent treatments for neurodegenerative disease are often unavailable due to the poor accessibility of therapeutic drugs. Moreover, the blood–brain barrier (BBB) effectively blocks the transfer of cells, particles and large molecules, ie, drugs, across the brain. The most important challenge in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases is the development of targeted drug delivery system. Theranostic strategies are known to combine therapeutic and diagnostic capabilities together. The aim of this review was to record the response to treatment and thereby improve drug safety. Nanotechnology offers a platform for designing and developing theranostic agents that can be used as an efficient nano-carrier system. This is achieved by the manipulation of some of the properties of nanoparticles (NPs), thereby enabling the attachment of suitable drugs onto their surface. The results provide revolutionary treatments by stimulation and thus interaction with targeted sites to promote physiological response with minimum side effects. This review is a brief discussion of the administration of drugs across the brain and the advantages of using NPs as an effective theranostic platform in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy and Huntington’s disease. Keywords: theranostics, neurological disease, nanoparticles, imaging

Aim : The aim of the present study was to investigate the level of salivary sialic acids and glycosaminoglycans with reference to salivary hormones during the normal menstrual cycle. Settings and Design: Fifty women volunteers were selected for the present study. Materials and Methods : Saliva was collected from 50 women and ovulation was detected in women with normal menstrual cycles through basal body temperature (BBT), ultrasound and salivary ferning. Samples were divided into five categories, as prepubertal (6-9 years), pre-ovulatory phase (6-12 days), ovulatory phase (13-14 days), postovulatory phase (15-26 days) and menopause (above 45 years). Each sample was subjected to evaluation of the sialic acids and glycosaminoglycans along with salivary hormones. Results : The result revealed that the ovulatory phase has increased sialic acid and glycosaminoglycans during the menstrual cycle when compared with that of the other phases. Consequently, an increased level of hormones such as luteinizing hormone and estrogen during the ovulatory period when compared to that of the pre-ovulatory and postovulatory periods appeared to be noteworthy. Statistically, analysis was performed using one way-ANOVA (LSD; post hoc method) to determine the significance as P < 0.001, 0.01, 0.05 in between the reproductive phases of the menstrual cycle. Conclusion : This study concluded that saliva-specific carbohydrates in the ovulatory saliva make the possibility to develop a biomarker for detection of ovulation by non-invasive methods.

The success of conception in buffalo is greatly dependent on precise estrus detection and time of artificial insemination (AI). Various visual, behavioral, biochemical and gyneco-clinical parameters have been tracked closely and a cost-effective combinatorial model has been developed to detect estrus in buffaloes. Pheromones play pivotal roles in reproduction and behavior of mammals. Urine, an easily available biological material which reflects the internal status of an animal, was recruited for profiling the pheromone compounds during the various phases of estrous cycle using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Among the identified compounds, 4-methyl phenol (4-mp, p-Cresol) and 9-octadecenoic acid (Oleic acid) were found to be estrusspecific and would be promising estrus-indicators. Similarly, detection of luteinizing hormone (LH) in urine was also focused to predict the time of ovulation in buffaloes. Partial success has been obtained in the attempt to develop a cost-effective bioassay kit for estrus detection. The ongoing venture of the relevant research team is to develop a biosensor to identify estrus-specific pheromone compounds in urine. Development of a nanoparticle-based bioassay kit for detection of urinary LH for effective prediction of estrus or ovulation is also in progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Odorant binding proteins (OBPs) are believed to shuttle odorants from the environment to the underlying odorant receptors, for which they could potentially serve as odorant presenters. Although several sequence based search methods have been exploited for protein family prediction, less effort has been devoted to the prediction of OBPs from sequence data and this area is more challenging due to poor sequence identity between these proteins. Results In this paper, we propose a new algorithm that uses Regularized Least Squares Classifier (RLSC) in conjunction with multiple physicochemical properties of amino acids to predict odorant-binding proteins. The algorithm was applied to the dataset derived from Pfam and GenDiS database and we obtained overall prediction accuracy of 97.7% (94.5% and 98.4% for positive and negative classes respectively). Conclusion Our study suggests that RLSC is potentially useful for predicting the odorant binding proteins from sequence-derived properties irrespective of sequence similarity. Our method predicts 92.8% of 56 odorant binding proteins non-homologous to any protein in the swissprot database and 97.1% of the 414 independent dataset proteins, suggesting the usefulness of RLSC method for facilitating the prediction of odorant binding proteins from sequence information.

Salient characteristics of ruminant cow milk lipids is evaluated by their high concentration of CLA isomers. Many in vitro and in vivo studies on the abundant concentration of CLA remarkably influenced the quality of milk and posses higher proportion of cis -trans isomers and was found to be relatively more in natural habitat feeding indigenous cow milk. Current studies were speculated that CLA isomers has been reportedly influencing cancer cell growth. However, Hepato cellular carcinoma (HCC) is hardly to manage threat in developing countries such as Asia, and Africa. Evidence suggested that major conjugated linoleic acid isomers c9,t11 CLA are recognised as a potential anti cancer agents. Nevertheless, limited studies were published on dosage response of CLA isomers against HCC cell lines. (Hep G2) and (MCF -7 Breast cancer cell line). In the present study, effects of CLA isomer on dosage response and to test whether it participated in stimulation of apoptosis through caspase 3 protein signaling. Results have confirmed their ability and excreted maximum efficacy within the range of 60µg/ml to 100 µg/ml of CLA in Heb G2 cells while 70 µg/ml -100 µg/ml in MCF -7 cells was observed. This study may be considered as a milestone to develop novel drugs against HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of conception in buffalo is greatly dependent on precise estrus detection and time of artificial insemination (AI). Various visual, behavioral, biochemical and gyneco-clinical parameters have been tracked closely and a cost-effective combinatorial model has been developed to detect estrus in buffaloes. Pheromones play pivotal roles in reproduction and behavior of mammals. Urine, an easily available biological material which reflects the internal status of an animal, was recruited for profiling the pheromone compounds during the various phases of estrous cycle using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Among the identified compounds, 4-methyl phenol (4-mp, p-Cresol) and 9-octadecenoic acid (Oleic acid) were found to be estrusspecific and would be promising estrus-indicators. Similarly, detection of luteinizing hormone (LH) in urine was also focused to predict the time of ovulation in buffaloes. Partial success has been obtained in the attempt to develop a cost-effective bioassay kit for estrus detection. The ongoing venture of the relevant research team is to develop a biosensor to identify estrus-specific pheromone compounds in urine. Development of a nanoparticle-based bioassay kit for detection of urinary LH for effective prediction of estrus or ovulation is also in progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

α-2u globulin, a pheromone binding protein found majorly in the preputial gland, was reported to involve in chemo-communication of rats. The biosynthesis of this pheromone binding protein is under complex multihormonal control and its regulation takes place at transcription level. Assessing and increasing the longevity of this protein may retain the volatility of pheromone. So far nearly 20 isoforms of α-2u globulin in rat have been studied. The present study was aimed to extend the longevity of pheromone compound by cloning and sequencing of the mRNA which codes for α-2u globulin in the preputial gland of Rattus novergicus. Unexpectedly, this study resulted in a new isoform, which is similar in function with α-2u globulin protein with some different exons removed. Further analysis with this isoform may pave a way for rodent pest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: S. Velayuthaprabhu, G. Archunan BACKGROUND: Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a major reproductive complication in women, which is characterized by recurrent fetal loss, thrombosis, and thrombocytopenia in association with anticardiolipin [...]