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Introduction The presented study investigated the potential toxicity and safety concerns associated with transgenic maize seeds expressing immunogenic F and HN protein genes against Newcastle disease virus (NDV). Methodology The experiment involved feeding Sprague–Dawley rats with transgenic maize seeds formulated into standard diets at levels of 30% (w/w) for a duration of 90 days. The rats were divided into three groups, with 10 rats per group. We assessed various parameters including overall appearance, feed consumption, body weight, organ weight, hematological parameters, serum chemistry, and histopathology. Results The results of these assessments were compared between the control group and the treatment groups. The study findings revealed that there were no significant differences between the control and treatment groups in terms of overall appearance, feed consumption, body weight, organ weight, hematological parameters, serum chemistry, microscopic histopathology, and gross appearance of tissues. These observations suggest that the consumption of transgenic maize seeds did not lead to any treatment-related adverse effects or toxicological issues. Furthermore, the transgenic maize seeds were found to be nutritionally equivalent to their non-transgenic counterpart. Conclusion Overall, no physiological, pathological, or molecular toxicity was observed in the Rats fed with transgenic feed.However, it is important to note that this study focused specifically on the parameters measured and the outcomes observed in Sprague–Dawley rats, and further research and studies are necessary to fully evaluate the safety and potential applications of transgenic edible vaccines in humans or other animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Genetic engineering has revolutionized agriculture by transforming biotic and abiotic stress-resistance genes in plants. The biosafety of GM crops is a major concern for consumers and regulatory authorities. Methodology A 14-week biosafety and toxicity analysis of transgenic cotton, containing 5 transgenes ((Cry1Ac , Cry2A , CP4 EPSPS , VIP3Aa , and ASAL)), was conducted on albino mice. Thirty mice were divided into three groups (Conventional, Non-transgenic, without Bt, and transgenic, containing targeted crop) according to the feed given, with 10 mice in each group, with 5 male and 5 female mice in each group. Results During the study, no biologically significant changes were observed in the non-transgenic and transgenic groups compared to the control group in any of the study's parameters i.e. increase in weight of mice, physiological, pathological, and molecular analysis, irrespective of the gender of the mice. However, a statistically significant change was observed in the hematological parameters of the male mice, while no such change was observed in the female study group mice. The expression analysis, however, of the TNF gene increases many folds in the transgenic group as compared to the non-transgenic and conventional groups. Conclusion Overall, no physiological, pathological, or molecular toxicity was observed in the mice fed with transgenic feed. Therefore, it can be speculated that the targeted transgenic crop is biologically safe. However, more study is required to confirm the biosafety of the product on the animal by expression profiling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The H9N2 strain of the avian influenza virus has emerged to infect poultry during the last few years. Besides antiviral treatment development of an effective vaccine to combat a high mortality rate is the need of time. As a step towards the development of the vaccine for the H9N2 strain of avian influenza virus HA gene was chosen as the immunogenic antigen because it is highly conserved among H9N2 strain of avian influenza virus. Moreover, immunogenic regions within HA gene may contain potential immunogenic epitopes. The specificity of HA protein produced from E. coli was confirmed through an antibody-antigen reaction on the nitrocellulose membrane. The appearance of 67 KDa protein on the nitrocellulose membrane confirmed its specificity. The intraperitoneal immunization of mice with HA protein along with enhancer (ferund adjuvants) was done and produced antibodies in serum was detected by immunodot blotting assay. The appearance of the dot on spotted position confirmed the specificity of anti-HA antibodies. The titer of antibody produced in immunogenic mice was determined through ELISA. The highest geometric mean titer of HA-specific serum IgG, which was greater as compared to the control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coat protein gene of potato virus X is a structural protein that plays a vital role in viral transmission and pathogenesis. RNA interference or post transcriptional gene silencing is a regulatory conserved mechanism that uses small interfering RNAs to control the expression of desired gene by inhibiting mRNA transcription. The present study aims to investigate the potential role of different siRNAs in down-regulating the mRNA expression of potato virus X in cell culture assays. Three specific siRNAs against CP-PVX gene were designed in which siRNA 3 significantly reduced the CP-PVX mRNA expression in HepG 2 cells upto 91.91% (12.5 fold) as compared to siRNA 1 and siRNA 2 where knockdown percentages were only 20 and 73.04%, respectively as revealed by realtime PCR. Maximum knockdown values were obtained at 100 nM concentration of siRNA 1 and 2, while for siRNA 3 promising knockdown was obtained at 50 nM concentration. For long lasting effect of siRNAs, short hairpin RNA corresponding to siRNA3 was designed and tested against CP-PVX which resulted in a similar pattern of inhibition on RNA expression of target gene as synthetic siRNA3. It was found that mRNA expression of targeted gene was reduced to 91% depicting strong RNAi response generated by shRNA. Our findings support the possibility of using consensus siRNA and shRNA-based approach as a promising strategy in effective inhibition of PVX in in-vitro assay. Down regulation of potato virus X through coat protein gene targeted siRNA is a potential way of inhibiting invading virus and to effectively stop its systemic spread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis (TB) is a life threatening infectious disease which is prevalent throughout the world. Mycobacterium bovis based Bacille Calmette-Gue'in (BCG) is the only vaccine available against TB however, this (single) vaccine is not enough to eradicate it. Furthermore, numbers of researches from different parts of the World have shown its efficacy as variable. Hence other (better) vaccines like DNA vaccines are needed in addition to BCG in order to achieve desired goal of TB eradication. The current study was aimed to develop subunit based DNA vaccines against TB and to check their efficacy. Two constructs Bfrb-pND14 and Mpt32-pND14 were made and used as DNA vaccines. Endotoxin free DNA preparations were made and used in immunization studies. Twenty Balb/c female mice of age eight weeks were used in trial. Two experimental groups each comprising eight animals were used to inoculate Mpt32-pND14 and Bfrb-pND14 vaccines respectively. A group of four animals was used as negative control. Animals were bled through tail periodically and finally through cardiac puncture before euthanization. Antibodies were confirmed through dot blot and Agar Gel Immuno Diffusion test (AGID). All the animals immunized with both vaccines were found positive as tested through dot blot and AGID. The results of this study have indicated that both the M. tb genes have produced strong immune response in mice model through pND14 vector and proved themselves as good subunit based DNA vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthocyanins are known as the central players in kingdom Planta, elucidating their major role in various abiotic and biotic stresses including physiological events such as plant growth, development and defense responses. Plants synthesize a wide range of chemically diverse secondary metabolites that are distinctively important industrial biochemical compounds. The elucidation of regulatory mechanisms by flavonoids could facilitate the generation of new transgenic cotton varieties along the rational to increase fiber characteristics and yield at the verge of auxin transport. The anthocyanin gene expression and its structural genes encoding enzymes have already been explored in many ornamental flowers. But its particular role in crop plant stress regulatory mechanism is yet to be explored. This brief review summarizes the role of flavonoids against various abiotic factors including drought, light/ultraviolet (UV) stress, water scarcity, temperature variations and so on in the background of cotton crop. These factors adversely affect the growth and productivity of the crops. Moreover, information of the flavonoids metabolic interactions in relation to cotton fiber characteristics still needs to be unrevealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibodies have important role in biological research and diagnosis. Polyclonal antibodies can be produced against more than one epitope of an antigen. Newcastle disease (ND) is one of the most devastating diseases that considerably effects the global poultry industry. Newcastle disease virus (NDV) possess Fusion (F) protein for the attachment and pathogenicity. In the present study TA plasmid having F gene was restricted by EcoR1 and it was ligated into pET30a expression vector. The F gene ligated pET30a was transformed in BL21DE3 expression strain. After the expression of NDV F protein, it was verified by the appearance of 67 kDa band on SDS-PAGE gel and western blot. The F protein was partially purified by the column of 70 kDa cut. The recombinant F protein was used for the generation of polyclonal antibodies. Two groups (experimental group and negative control group) of 3 months old rabbits were used. Two doses of recombinant F protein with interval of 15 days were injected subcutaneously for production of antibodies against the F protein. Antibodies were obtained from serum taken after scarifying the rabbits. Production of polyclonal antibodies was confirmed through Dot Blot Assay and ELISA. In this study maximum antibody titer was estimated to be 4.676 (OD at 450 nm) in case of using concentrated antibody. Produced polyclonal antibodies can be further purified in order to use as tools in biomedical and biochemical researches and diagnostic kits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]