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Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome (VKH syndrome) is a rare granulomatous inflammatory disease that affects the melanin pigment producing melanocytes and mainly affects the pigmented structures such as eyes, ear, skin, meninges, and hair. VKT is an autoimmune disorder, which is mainly a T CD4+ Th1 lymphocyte-mediated aggression to melanocytes, in individuals with a genetic predisposition, in particular, the presence of HLA-DRB1 * 0405 allele. Melanin usually gives color to skin, hair, and eyes. Melanin is also found in the retina, where it plays a role in normal vision. This disease mainly leads to vision and hearing disturbances, followed by dermal problems. The most common symptoms include vitiligo, headaches, hair loss (alopecia), and hearing loss. This article describes the various signs and symptoms of VKH disease and its pathogenesis., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2020 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.)

Background: The success rate of dental implants depends on the amount of crestal bone around the implants. Crestal module is the transosteal region of implant that is designed to receive the prosthetic component. The design of crestal module influences the crestal bone loss around implants., Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the crestal bone loss around implants with smooth collar and implants with micro threaded rough collar design., Materials and Methods: A total of 150 individuals received 100 dental implants. Each individual received one implant with smooth collar design (Group-A) and one implant with microthreaded rough collar design (Group-B) in the posterior edentulous region. All the 100 implants were prosthetically loaded after a healing period of 3 months. Crestal bone loss was measured on mesial, distal, buccal, and lingual side of each implant using periapical radiographs before loading (baseline), immediately after loading, 6, and 12 months after loading., Results: The average crestal bone loss 12 months after loading the implants in Group A and Group B was 3.75 mm and 3.23 mm, respectively, the value being statistically significant ( P < 0.05). In both Group A and Group B, the average crestal bone loss was maximum on the lingual side followed by buccal, distal, and mesial sides., Conclusion: Crestal bone loss around rough-surfaced microthreaded neck implants was significantly lower than smooth-surfaced neck implants., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2020 Nigerian Journal of Surgery.)

Introduction: Dental implants form the mainstay of dental treatment involving rehabilitation of missing teeth. One of the major concerns for the clinicians doing dental implants is the postsurgical failure of dental implants. Success of dental implants is dependent upon the skills of the surgeon and the amount and quality of the bone remaining at the edentulous area where dental implant has to be placed. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) and nitrites are few of the enzymes and molecules which are said to be altered in inflammation. However, their exact role in the inflammatory processes around natural tooth and dental implant is still unclear. Hence we comparatively evaluated the levels of MPO and nitrites in the areas around the dental implants and natural teeth., Materials and Methods: The present study comprises 42 patients who underwent prosthetic rehabilitation by dental implants from 2011 to 2014. Depth of probing value (DP), score of plaque index (SPI), gingival index (GI), and index of gingival bleeding time (GBT) were evaluated for the assessment of the periimplant soft tissue changes. Assessment of inflammation around the dental implant surface and around natural tooth was done based on the readings of these parameters. For the measurement of the MPO levels, spectrophotometric MPO assay was used. All the results were analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software., Results: The mean plaque index values were 1.56 and 0.97 in periodontitis cases of natural teeth and inflamed cases of dental implants respectively. While comparing mean plaque index, mean probing depth, and mean gingival bleeding index in between the two groups, significant difference was obtained. Mean MPO concentration in periodontitis and gingivitis cases in natural teeth were 0.683 and 0.875 U/μL, while in inflamed dental implant cases, the mean value was 0.622 U/μL. While comparing the total MPO levels, total nitrite levels, and total nitrite concentration in between two study groups, significant difference was obtained. On comparing the healthy and periodontitis cases in natural teeth, significant difference was obtained., Conclusion: In the inflammatory processes occurring around dental implant and natural teeth, MPO and NO make some amount of significant contribution., Clinical Significance: The present study enforces on the role of MPO and nitrite as diagnostic and prognostic marker.

Abstract Interleukin-11 (IL-11) is a pleiotropic cytokine that belongs to gp130 family. It plays a significant role in the synthesis and maturation of hematopoietic cells, inhibition of adipogenesis, regulation of embryo implantation, and trophoblasts invasion. Although IL-11 signaling has been described in several biological processes, a centralized resource documenting these molecular reactions induced by IL-11 is not publicly available. In the current study, we have manually annotated the molecular reactions and interactions induced by IL-11 from literature available. We have documented 40 unique molecules involved in 18 protein-protein interactions, 26 enzyme-substrate reactions, 7 translocation events, and 4 activation/ inhibition reactions. We have also annotated 23 genes reported to be differentially regulated under IL-11 stimulation. We have enabled the data availability in standard exchange formats from 'NetPath', a repository for signaling pathways. We believe that this will help in the identification of potential therapeutic targets in IL-11-associated disorders.

Objectives: To assess the caries risk and to evaluate the risk based preventive program at the end of 10 months amongst the mentally challenged children using the Cariogram model., Basic Research Design: Longitudinal field trial with before and after comparison., Participants: 54 children (7-17years old) with mild to severe mental disability constituted the study sample., Clinical Setting: Brahmadutta School, for the mentally challenged children situated in Pimpri (Maharashtra) India., Interventions: Phase I: Information of the Cariogram parameters (caries experience, diet content, diet frequency, plaque amount, mutans streptococci, fluoride program, saliva secretion and saliva buffer capacity) were collected, which were used to generate the individual caries profile, based on which the children were divided into 5 risk groups. Phase II: Risk based preventive program was implemented. Phase III: At the end of 10 months, caries profile was generated again., Main Outcome Measures: The effectiveness of the preventive program was assessed by comparing the baseline and follow-up caries profile. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test was used for statistical analysis., Results: As compared to the baseline, there was a 57% increase in the number of children in "low caries risk group" and for the caries risk factors diet content, diet frequency, plaque amount and Mutans streptococci count had significantly lower values. At follow-up, only 4 new carious lesions developed., Conclusion: The preventive program was effective in improving the caries risk factors and increasing the "chance to avoid caries" from a mean of 44% to 87%.

Overexpression of drug efflux transporters such as P-glycoprotein (P-gp) enables cancer cells to develop resistance to multiple anticancer drugs. Functional inhibitors of P-gp have shown promising efficacy in early clinical trials, but their long-term safety is yet to be established. A novel approach to overcome drug resistance is to use siRNA-mediated RNA interference to silence the expression of the efflux transporter. Because P-gp plays an important role in the physiological regulation of endogenous and xenobiotic compounds in the body, it is important to deliver P-gp targeted siRNA and anticancer drug specifically to tumor cells. Further, for optimal synergy, both the drug and siRNA may need to be temporally colocalized in the tumor cells. In the current study, we investigated the effectiveness of simultaneous and targeted delivery of anticancer drug, paclitaxel, along with P-gp targeted siRNA, using poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles to overcome tumor drug resistance. Nanoparticles were surface functionalized with biotin for active tumor targeting. Dual agent nanoparticles encapsulating the combination of paclitaxel and P-gp targeted siRNA showed significantly higher cytotoxicity in vitro than nanoparticles loaded with paclitaxel alone. Enhanced therapeutic efficacy of dual agent nanoparticles could be correlated with effective silencing of the MDR1 gene that encodes for P-gp and with increased accumulation of paclitaxel in drug-resistant tumor cells. In vivo studies in a mouse model of drug-resistant tumor demonstrated significantly greater inhibition of tumor growth following treatment with biotin-functionalized nanoparticles encapsulating both paclitaxel and P-gp targeted siRNA at a paclitaxel dose that was ineffective in the absence of gene silencing. These results suggest that that the combination of P-gp gene silencing and cytotoxic drug delivery using targeted nanoparticles can overcome tumor drug resistance.

Targeted drug delivery using nanocarriers is achieved by functionalizing the carrier surface with a tissue-recognition ligand. Current surface modification methods require tedious and inefficient synthesis and purification steps, and are not easily amenable to incorporating multiple functionalities on a single surface. In this report, we describe a versatile, single-step surface functionalizing technique for polymeric nanoparticles. The technique utilizes the fact that when a diblock copolymer like polylactide-polyethylene glycol (PLA-PEG) is introduced in the oil/water emulsion used in polymeric nanoparticle formulation, the PLA block partitions into the polymer containing organic phase and PEG block partitions into the aqueous phase. Removal of the organic solvent results in the formation of nanoparticles with PEG on the surface. When a PLA-PEG-ligand conjugate is used instead of PLA-PEG copolymer, this technique permits a 'one-pot' fabrication of ligand-functionalized nanoparticles. In the current study, the IAASF approach facilitated the simultaneous incorporation of biotin and folic acid, known tumor-targeting ligands, on drug-loaded nanoparticles in a single step. Incorporation of the ligands on nanoparticles was confirmed by using NMR, surface plasmon resonance, transmission electron microscopy and tumor cell uptake studies. Simultaneous functionalization with both ligands significantly enhanced nanoparticle accumulation in tumors in vivo, and resulted in greatly improved efficacy of paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles in a mouse xenograft tumor model. This new surface functionalization approach will enable the development of targeting strategies based on the use of multiple ligands on a single surface to target a tissue of interest.

A bacterial consortium capable of utilizing metal-cyanides as a source of nitrogen was used to develop a microbiological process for the detoxification of silver-cyanide from electroplating wastewater. When the treatment was carried out in a 27-l rotating biological contactor (R3C) in continuous mode, the system could achieve > 99.5% removal of 0.1 mmol l(-1) silver-cyanide (approximately 5 mg l(-1) cyanide and 10 mg l(-1) silver) in 10 h with sugarcane molasses (0.1 ml l(-1)) as carbon source. The silver ions set free during biodegradation were efficiently adsorbed by the bacterial biomass. The RBC-treated effluent was found to be safe for discharge into the environment, as confirmed by chemical analysis and fish bioassay studies.