In silico profiling of miRNAs and their target polymorphisms in leukemia associated genes

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms [SNPs] within microRNA [miRNA] encoding regions of the genome are a large potential source for biologically relevant variation. SNPs along with miRNA act as a powerful tool to study the biology of a disease and also have the potential in monitoring disease prognosis and diagnosis. Therefore, evaluating the functional role of target mRNA will be a major challenge of future studies in the field of cancer biomarker research in leukemia. To assess, whether miRNA target SNPs are implicated in leukemia associated genes, we conducted an in silico approach along with the availability of publicly available web based tools for miRNA prediction and comprehensive genomic databases of SNPs. In this in-depth report, we attempted to use two computational approaches: prediction of miRNA in leukemia associated genes, and identifying the functional role of mRNAs targeted by miRNA. Our results from this study suggest that the application of in silico algorithms miRdSNP, PupaSuite and UTRScan analyses might provide an alternative approach to select target untranslated region [UTR] SNPs and understand the effect of SNPs on the functional attributes or molecular phenotype of a protein

Protective effect of lemongrass oil against dexamethasone induced hyperlipidemia in rats: possible role of decreased lecithin cholesterol acetyl transferase activity

OBJECTIVE@#To evaluate the anti-hyperlipidemic activity of lemongrass oil against in dexamethasone induced hyperlipidemia in rats.@*METHODS@#Administration of dexamethasone was given at 10 mg/kg, sc. to the adult rats for 8 d induces hyperlipidemia characterized by marked increase in serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels along with increase in atherogenic index.@*RESULTS@#Lemongrass oil (100 and 200 mg/kg, po.) treatment has showed significant inhibition against dexamethasone hyperlipidemia by maintaining the serum levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and atherogenic index near to the normal levels and the antihyperlipidemic effect of the lemongross oil was comparable with atorvastatin 10 mg/kg, po. The possible mechanism may be associated with decrease in lecithin cholesterol acetyl transferase (LCAT) activity.@*CONCLUSIONS@#These results suggested that Lemon gross oil possess significant anti-hyperlipidemic activity.