Institutions of Higher Learning's Codes of Conduct and Professional Ethics

The idea of professional ethics is seen as being of the utmost significance in achieving the asked points and objects in advanced educational institutions. Information about professional ethics is given to the people as they develop. They admit this information from their preceptors and family members. The capability to comprehend the applicability of professional ethics and put it into practice allows people to enhance their lives and negotiate both particular and professional objects. It's essential for scholars to consider professional ethics while pursuing advanced education. This idea is pivotal for everyone who works in educational institutions, including directors, heads, professors, and staff members as well as scholars. It's pivotal for people to make sure they communicate easily, establish strong fellowship with others, parade honesty and righteousness, and perform their job scores in an orderly fashion in order to execute professional ethics in an effective manner. The crucial motifs that have been considered in this exploration paper are the description and significance of professional ethics, their pretensions, the different kinds of professional ethics, and ways to strengthen them

Identification and expression profiling of MSY genes of yak for bull fertility

Yak (Bos grunniens) is a unique bovine species and considered as lifeline of highlanders. The male subfertility in yak is a matter of concern that causes huge economic loses. The spermatogenesis and male reproduction machinery are critically governed by Y-linked genes which tend to acquire necessary information in the course of evolution. The Y-linked fertility genes are present in multiple copies with testis-limited expression. To understand this novel complexity, 12 male-specific region of Y chromosome (MSY) genes have been studied in the yak. Targeted genes are amplified in male and female genomic DNA and confirmed the male derived specificity. Moreover, testis and sperm-specific expressions of MSY genes are distinct among different tissues. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction results validate the expression pattern of these genes in various tissues with predominant expression intestis and sperm. The sequencing of resultant yak MSY genes gives significant result and shows similarity with cattle (Bos indicus), but few nucleotide mismatches define the proposition of infertile male in the F1 hybrid of cattle and yak. The identified MSY genes can be used to establish male-specific characteristics and to differentiate male and female yak genotypically. Further, these genes may act as valuable resources to understand the capacity of spermatogenesis, embryogenesis, cellular growth, azoospermia and malesubfertility in the yak.

Species distribution & antifungal susceptibility pattern of oropharyngeal Candida isolates from human immunodeficiency virus infected individuals.

Background & objectives: The changing spectrum of Candida species in causation of oropharyngeal candidiasis and their antifungal susceptibility pattern among the HIV infected individuals has made the identification to species level mandatory and detection of drug resistance necessary for patient care. The present study was carried out to determine the species distribution and antifungal susceptibility profile of oral Candida isolates colonizing or infecting both HIV seropositive and seronegative individuals. Methods: A case-control study was conducted including 141 consecutive, non-repeat HIV-seropositive individuals and an equal number of sex and age matched HIV-seronegative control. Speciation of the oropharyngeal Candida isolates was done using standard yeast identification protocol. Antifungal susceptibility testing was done by the disk-diffusion method as well as by Fungitest method. Results: From the 59 culture positive HIV seropositive cases, 61 Candida isolates were recovered; Candida albicans (n=47, 77.0%), C. dubliniensis (n=9, 14.7%), C. parapsilosis (n=2, 3.2%), C. glabrata (n=2, 3.2%), and C. famata (n=1, 1.6%). Candida colonization in HIV-seropositive individuals was significantly higher than that of HIV-seronegative (control) group. Antifungal susceptibility testing revealed (n=6, 9.3%) C. albicans isolates resistant to voriconazole and fluconazole by disk-diffusion method whereas no resistance was seen by Fungitest method. Interpretation & conclusions: C. albicans was the commonest Candida species infecting or colonizing HIV seropositive individuals. Oropharyngeal Candida isolates had high level susceptibility to all the major antifungals commonly in use. Increased level of immunosuppression in HIV-seropositives and drug resistance of non-albicans Candida species makes identification and susceptibility testing of Candida species necessary in different geographical areas of the country.

Antiproteolytic and leishmanicidal activity of Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt leaf extract against Leishmania donovani promastigotes.

In visceral leishmaniasis (VL), development of alternative safe therapeutic strategy is gaining paramount wherein natural components of plant origin have prominence. We explored Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt, a medicinal plant known in traditional folk medicine, for its antileishmanial efficacy. SDS-PAGE analysis of the C. grandis leaf extract (Cg-Ex) showed few protein bands about 14-66 kDa among which three (64.8, 55.8 and 15.3 kDa) were identified as serine protease inhibitors by reverse zymography. Since the virulence of Leishmania is also attributed by serine proteases, objective of the present study was to evaluate in vitro antileishmanial activity of Cg-Ex, targeting Leishmania donovani serine protease(s). Inhibition study of Cg-Ex in gelatin-zymogram and spectrophotometric assay revealed its strong inhibitory activity against bovine trypsin rather than chymotrypsin, and also showed significant inhibition of L. donovani serine protease(s). Further, studies with Cg-Ex were extended to estimate its antileishmanial efficacy with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) at 308.0 ± 2.42 µg/ml along with significant morphological alterations. The results have demonstrated the potential of the serine protease inhibitor rich fraction of the C. grandis leaf extract against visceral leishmaniasis.

Effect of different serine protease inhibitors in validating the 115 kDa Leishmania donovani secretory serine protease as chemotherapeutic target.

Proteases have been considered as an important group of targets for development of antiprotozoal drugs due to their essential roles in host-parasite interactions, parasite immune evasion, life cycle transition and pathogenesis of parasitic diseases. The development of potent and selective serine protease inhibitors targeting L. donovani secretory serine protease (pSP) could pave the way to the discovery of potential antileishmanial drugs. Here, we employed different classical serine protease inhibitors (SPIs), such as aprotinin, N-tosyl-l-phenylalanine chloromethyl ketone (TPCK), N-tosyl-lysine chloromethyl ketone (TLCK), benzamidine (Bza) and pSP-antibody to determine the role of the protease in parasitic survival, growth and infectivity. Among the different classical SPIs, aprotinin appeared to be more potent in arresting L. donovani promastigotes growth with significant morphological alterations. Furthermore, aprotinin and anti-pSP treated parasites significantly decreased the intracellular parasites and percentage of infected macrophages. These results suggest that SPIs may reduce the infectivity by targeting the serine protease activity and may prove useful to elucidate defined molecular mechanisms of pSP, as well as for the development of novel antileishmanial drugs in future.

Leishmania donovani secretory serine protease alters macrophage inflammatory response via COX-2 mediated PGE-2 production.

Leishmania parasites determine the outcome of the infection by inducing inflammatory response that suppresses macrophage’s activation. Defense against Leishmania is dependent on Th1 inflammatory response by turning off macrophages’ microbicidal property by upregulation of COX-2, as well as immunosuppressive PGE-2 production. To understand the role of L. donovani secretory serine protease (pSP) in these phenomena, pSP was inhibited by its antibody and serine protease inhibitor, aprotinin. Western blot and TAME assay demonstrated that pSP antibody and aprotinin significantly inhibited protease activity in the live Leishmania cells and reduced infection index of L. donovani-infected macrophages. Additionally, ELISA and RT-PCR analysis showed that treatment with pSP antibody or aprotinin hold back COX-2-mediated immunosuppressive PGE-2 secretion with enhancement of Th1 cytokine like IL-12 expression. This was also supported in Griess test and NBT assay, where inhibition of pSP with its inhibitors elevated ROS and NO production. Overall, our study implies the pSP is involved in down-regulation of macrophage microbicidal activity by inducing host inflammatory responses in terms of COX-2-mediated PGE-2 release with diminished reactive oxygen species generation and thus suggests its importance as a novel drug target of visceral leishmaniasis.

Protease inhibitors in potential drug development for leishmaniasis.

Leishmaniasis is a deadly protozoan parasitic disease affecting millions of people worldwide. The treatment strategy of Leishmania infection depends exclusively on chemotherapy till date. But the treatment of the disease is greatly hampered due to high cost, toxicity of the available drugs and more importantly emergence of drug resistance. Hence the potential new drugs are highly needed to combat this disease. The first and foremost step of the drug discovery process is to search and select the putative target in a specific biological pathway in the parasite that should be either unambiguously absent in the host or considerably different from the host homolog. Importantly, Leishmania genome sequences enrich our knowledge about Leishmania and simultaneously reinforce us to identify the ideal drug targets that distinctly exist in the parasite as well as to develop the effective drugs for leishmaniasis. Though the leishmanial research has significantly progressed during the past two decades, the identification of suitable drug targets or development of effective drugs to combat leishmaniasis is far from satisfactory. Enzymatic systems of Leishmania metabolic and biochemical pathways are essential for their survival and infection. Concurrently, it is noteworthy that Leishmania proteases, especially the cysteine proteases, metalloproteases and serine proteases have been extensively investigated and found to be indispensable for the survival of the parasites and disease pathogenesis. Herein, we have discussed the importance of few enzymes, particularly the Leishmania proteases and their inhibitors as promising candidates for potential development of anti-leishmanial drugs.

Changing pattern of substance abuse in patients attending a de-addiction centre in north India (1978-2008).

Background & objectives: The patterns of abused psychoactive substances change over time, and it is important to document such changes. The present retrospective study was carried out to document these changes in patients registered in a de-addiction centre in north India over three decades. Methods: Case notes of all patients registered in the centre from September 1978 till December 31, 2008 were reviewed. Comparisons were made among three decades (1978-1988, 1989-1998, and 1999-2008). Results: The number of registered subjects increased eight-fold over the decades, and age of the subjects presenting for the treatment decreased. The percentages of subjects presenting for the treatment with opioid dependence were 36.8 per cent (n=204), 42.9 per cent (n=809) and 53.2 per cent (n=2219), respectively for the three decades (P<0.001). The proportion of subjects using natural opioids decreased over the three decades (47.4, 26.5 and 18.3%; P<0.001), with a concomitant emergence and/or increase of newer and prescription opioids such as buprenorphine, codeine and dextropropoxyphene. Dependence on tobacco and sedative-hypnotics also increased, and inhalant abuse was reported especially in the third decade. Polysubstance dependence increased significantly over the decades (P<0.001). Interpretation & conclusions: Our results showed major shifts in the patterns of substance abuse in clinic-attending patients in north India over the three decades from 1978 till 2008. These have important implications for all the stakeholders concerned with combating the challenge of psychoactive substance abuse in our society.

Understanding childhood depression.

Major depressive disorder in children is a severe and a chronically disabling disorder. This population appears to be a special group in terms of consequences of poor psychosocial and academic outcome and increased risk of substance abuse, and suicide. Studies have revealed several major findings in genetic, familial, psychological, and biological aspects of such depression, some of which have explored into the issue of its relationship with adult depression. Considerable advances have been made now in the area of childhood depression providing a better understanding of its nature. We review literature available on historical aspect, epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and aetiology of childhood depression.