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Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were prepared using a one-step reduction of silver nitrate (AgNO3) with sodium borohydride (NaBH4) in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a capping agent. Plant extracts from D. sissoo (DS) and A. calamus L. (AC) leaves were incorporated during the synthesis process. The crystalline nature of the AgNPs was confirmed through X-ray diffraction (XRD), confirming the face-centered cubic structure, with a lattice constant of 4.08 Å and a crystallite size of 18 nm. Field Emission Gun Transmission Electron Microscopy (FEG-TEM) revealed spherical AgNPs (10–20 nm) with evident PVP adsorption, leading to size changes and agglomeration. UV–Vis spectra showed a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band at 417 nm for AgNPs and a redshift to 420 nm for PVP-coated AgNPs, indicating successful synthesis. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) identified functional groups and drug-loaded samples exhibited characteristic peaks, confirming effective drug loading. The anti-cancer potential of synthesized NPs was assessed by MTT assay in human adenocarcinoma lung cancer (A549) and lung normal cells (WI-38) cells. IC50 values for all three NPs (AgPVP NPs, DS@AgPVP NPs, and AC@AgPVP NPs) were 41.60 ± 2.35, 14.25 ± 1.85, and 21.75 ± 0.498 μg/ml on A549 cells, and 420.69 ± 2.87, 408.20 ± 3.41, and 391.80 ± 1.55 μg/ml respectively. Furthermore, the NPs generated Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and altered the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Differential staining techniques were used to investigate the apoptosis-inducing properties of the three synthesized NPs. The colony formation assay indicated that nanoparticle therapy prevented cancer cell invasion. Finally, Real-Time PCR (RT-PCR) analysis predicted the expression pattern of many apoptosis-related genes (Caspase 3, 9, and 8).

Rapidly spreading outbreak of the novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing serious health concerns worldwide. It started as an epidemic in Wuhan, Hubei province, central China, and has now become a pandemic, spreading over most of the continents of the planet. The major clinical symptoms of the infection are dry cough, fever, pneumonia, respiratory failure, hypoxia, and in certain cases, even death. Alveolar damage and respiratory system failure are observed in severe cases. Initial mild infection leads to activation of the immune system in the lungs and accumulation of various inflammatory cells and molecules. At a later phase during the infection, a “cytokine storm” causes an Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), leading to an increase in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, migration of a large number of immune cells to the site of infection, and ultimately pulmonary damage. The rapid and uncontrolled outbreak requires putative therapeutic drugs for treatment of patients suffering from COVID-19. Amongst the currently used antiviral drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, remdesivir etc. we would like to present an update on another effective drug, pentoxifylline. Pentoxifylline has anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, anti-viral, and bronchodilatory properties. Pentoxifylline is known to reduce cytokine production, immune cell migration, and suppress certain signal transduction pathways (e.g. NF-κβ and STAT3). Thus, it minimizes inflammatory damage in the lung tissues.

Rahul Vasudev,1 Priyank Shah,2 Jaimy Patel,3 Maria Naranjo,1 Kevin Hosein,1 Upamanyu Rampal,1 Hiten Patel,4 Jingnan Bu,1 Justin Roy,1 Nirmal Guragai,1 Pragya Bhandari,5 Hartaj Virk,1 Fayez Shamoon,1 Mahesh Bikkina1 1Department of Cardiology, St Joseph Regional Medical Center, Paterson, NJ, USA; 2Department of Cardiology, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Albany, GA, USA; 3Department of Internal Medicine, St Michel Medical Center, Newark, NJ, USA; 4Department of Cardiology, Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Campbell University, Fayetteville, NC, USA; 5Department of Internal Medicine, Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, NepalCorrespondence: Pragya BhandariDepartment of Internal Medicine, Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, NepalEmail pragya.bhandari2013@gmail.comIntroduction: Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) continues to be on the rise not only in the Western developed world but also affecting the South Asian race, particularly Bangladeshis. The objectives of this study were as follows: To determine whether or not risk factors of Bangladeshis differ from non-Bangladeshis, whether there is any difference in the extent of CAD for both groups, and if there are risk factors that can significantly affect the extent of CADMethods: All patients with a diagnosis of CAD admitted to our 800-bed tertiary care hospital between January 2001 and December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. We reviewed the age, sex, body-mass index (BMI), cardiac risk factors such as family history of CAD, dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes and smoking. We also reviewed coronary angiographic findings of these consecutive 150 Bangladeshis and a randomly selected group of 193 non-Bangladeshis.Results: A total of 343 medical records were evaluated, this included two groups: 193 non-Bangladeshis and 150 Bangladeshi subjects. The Bangladeshi group was older than the non-Bangladeshi group (63.49 vs 59.22, p-value=0.001), and included a larger proportion of males than the non-Bangladeshi group (28.7% vs 15.68%, p-value=0.0116). Bangladeshi subjects are more likely to be smokers than non-Bangladeshi (11.75% vs 6.67%, χ 2=12.7, p-value=0.0004). Non-obstructive, 1-vessel, 2-vessel and 3-vessel accounts for 13.33%, 36.67%, 22%, and 28% for Bangladeshis, and 16.39%, 20.77% 34.43% and 28.42% for non-Bangladeshis, respectively. The difference of extent of CAD is significant between two groups (χ 2 =12.397, p-value=0.0061). The findings suggest that Bangladeshi ethnicity has almost 2 times the likelihood of having 1-vessel CAD at coronary angiography (OR=2.361, 95% CI 1.452– 3.839, p=0.0005).Conclusion: This study is a pivotal starting point for further evaluating the link between Bangladeshis and CAD. In our study we found that being Bangladeshi increases the risk of having CAD and may be an independent risk factor for multi-vessel CAD.Keywords: coronary artery disease, Bangladeshi, race

Synthesized ligands and complexes, [Au(Ln)Cl2]Cl, have been characterized by various techniques such as elemental analysis, LC-MS, FT-IR, UV-Vis, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, conductance measurement and magnetic moments measurement. The experimental results show that complexes exhibit higher antibacterial activity against Gram (+ve) and Gram (-ve) microorganisms than free ligands. The in vitro cytotoxicity and cellular level cytotoxicity suggest that Au(III) complexes show better activity than corresponding ligands. The DNA interaction study has been evaluated using absorption titration. The experimental evidence indicates (Kb = 1.08–3.44∙105 M–1) that all the complexes have been bind to HS-DNA by intercalation mode. To further verify the nature of interaction viscosity measurement and molecular modeling have been carried out which suggest the intercalation binding between complex and DNA. The Schizosaccharomyces pombe cell DNA cleavage has been performed using agarose gel and their photographic images of complexes show smearing of DNA due to DNA cleavage from the nucleus.

Despite the introduction of many novel therapeutics in clinical practice, metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains a treatment-re-sistant cancer. As red and processed meat are considered risk factors for RCC, and a vegetable-rich diet is thought to reduce this risk, research into plant-based therapeutics may provide valuable complementary or alternative therapeutics for the management of RCC. Herein, we present the antiproliferative and antiangiogenic effects of maslinic acid, which occurs naturally in edible plants, particularly in olive fruits, and also in a variety of medicinal plants. Human RCC cell lines (ACHN, Caki-1, and SN12K1), endothelial cells (human umbilical vein endothelial cell line [HUVEC]), and primary cultures of kidney proximal tubular epithelial cells (PTEC) were treated with maslinic acid. Maslinic acid was relatively less toxic to PTEC when compared with RCC under similar experimental conditions. In RCC cell lines, maslinic acid induced a significant reduction in proliferation, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, and colony formation. In HUVEC, maslinic acid induced a significant reduction in capillary tube formation in vitro and vascular endothelial growth factor. This study provides a rationale for incorporating a maslinic acid–rich diet either to reduce the risk of developing kidney cancer or as an adjunct to existing antiangiogenic therapy to improve efficacy.

Cellular ESCRT machinery plays pivotal role in HIV-1 budding and release. Extracellular stimuli that modulate HIV-1 egress are currently unknown. We found that CCL2 induced by HIV-1 clade B (HIV-1B) infection of macrophages enhanced virus production, while CCL2 immuno-depletion reversed this effect. Additionally, HIV-1 clade C (HIV-1C) was refractory to CCL2 levels. We show that CCL2-mediated increase in virus production requires Gag late motif LYPX present in HIV-1B, but absent in HIV-1C, and ALIX protein that recruits ESCRT III complex. CCL2 immuno-depletion sequestered ALIX to F-actin structures, while CCL2 addition mobilized it to cytoplasm facilitating Gag-ALIX binding. The LYPX motif improves virus replication and its absence renders the virus less fit. Interestingly, novel variants of HIV-1C with PYRE/PYKE tetrapeptide insertions in Gag-p6 conferred ALIX binding, CCL2-responsiveness and enhanced virus replication. These results, for the first time, indicate that CCL2 mediates ALIX mobilization from F-actin and enhances HIV-1 release and fitness.

Regional differences in neurovirulence have been documented among subtype/clade-C HIV-1 isolates in India and Southern Africa. We previously demonstrated that a C31S substitution in Clade-C Tat dicysteine motif reduces monocyte recruitment, cytokine induction and direct neurotoxicity. Therefore, this polymorphism is considered to be a causative factor for these differences in neurovirulence. We previously reported on the genotypic differences in Tat protein between clade-C and rest of the clades showing that approximately 90% of clade-C HIV-1 Tat sequences worldwide contained this C31S polymorphism, while 99% of non-clade C isolates lacked this Tat polymorphism at C31 residue (Ranga et al. (2004) J Virol 78:2586-2590). Subsequently, we documented intra-clade-C differences in the frequency of Tat dicysteine variants between India and Southern Africa, as the basis for differential disease severity and showed the importance of the Tat dicysteine motif for neuropathogenesis using small animal models. We have now examined if determinants of neurovirulence besides Tat are different between the clade-C HIV-1 isolates from Southern Africa and India. Envelope glycoprotein gp120 is a well-documented contributor to neurotoxicity. We found that gp120 sequences of HIV-1 isolates from these two regions are genetically distinct. In order to delineate the contribution of gp120 to neurovirulence, we compared direct in vitro neurotoxicity of HIV-infected supernatants of a representative neurovirulent US clade-B isolate with two isolates each from Southern Africa and India using primary human neurons and SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Immunodepletion of gp120 of both US clade B and the Southern African clade C isolates revealed robust decreases in neurotoxicity, while that of the Indian isolates showed minimal effect on neurotoxicity. The gp120 as a cause of differential neurotoxicity was further confirmed using purified recombinant gp120 from HIV isolates from these regions. We conclude that gp120 is one of the key factors responsible for the decreased neurovirulence of Indian clade C HIV-1 isolates when compared to South African clade C HIV-1.

A novel tetra-peptide insertion was identified in Gag-p6 ALIX-binding region, which appeared in protease inhibitor failure Indian HIV-1C sequences (odds ratio=17.1, P

Abstract Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors and van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures with graphene have generated enormous interest for future electronic, optoelectronic, and energy-harvesting applications. The electronic transport properties and correlations of such hybrid devices strongly depend on the quality of the materials via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, their interfaces and contact properties. However, detailed electronic transport and correlation properties of the 2D semiconductor field-effect transistor (FET) with vdW graphene contacts for understanding mobility limiting factors and metal-insulator transition properties are not explored. Here, we investigate electronic transport in scalable all-2D CVD-grown molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) FET with graphene contacts. The Fermi level of graphene can be readily tuned by a gate voltage to enable a nearly perfect band alignment and, hence, a reduced and tunable Schottky barrier at the contact with good field-effect channel mobility. Detailed temperature-dependent transport measurements show dominant phonon/impurity scattering as a mobility limiting mechanisms and a gate-and bias-induced metal-insulator transition in different temperature ranges, which is explained in light of the variable-range hopping transport. These studies in such scalable all-2D semiconductor heterostructure FETs will be useful for future electronic and optoelectronic devices for a broad range of applications.