Production and cytotoxicity studies of lovastatin from aspergillus niger PN2 an endophytic fungi isolated from Taxus baccata.

Aspergillus niger PN2 an endophytic fungus, was isolated from the healthy tissues of Taxus baccata. The fungus was screened for the production of lovastatin on a solid state fermentation with wheat bran as a substrate. The fungal species were identified by their characteristic cultural morphology and molecular analysis. The presence of lovastatin was confirmed by spectroscopic method, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods of analysis. The lovastatin production was quantified by ultraviolet (UV) analysis. The maximum amount of lovastatin production was recorded as 1.5 mg/g substrate. The extracted fungal lovastatin demonstrate a strong cytotoxic activity in in vitro culture of tested human cancer cells (HeLa and HepG2) by apoptotic assay. These results designate that the fungus, A. niger PN2 is an excellent candidate for lovastatin production and can serve as a potential organism for genetic engineering to enhance the production of lovastatin to a higher level.

A case of injection abscess due to salmonella typhi.

To the best of our knowledge, injection abscess due to Salmonella typhi has not been reported earlier. A patient with fever of unknown origin was diagnosed as suffering from typhoid fever, administered a course of ceftrioxone but patient developed an injection abscess due to S.typhi, abscess was drained and patient was started on ciprofloxacin to which he responded favourably.

Cadmium and hypertension.

Hypertension is a very common and important disease of modern civilised life. There are comflicting reports about cadmium, a trace element in the genesis of essential hypertension. The present study was conducted to estimate the cadmium levels in whole blood in the normal group of thirty subjects who were normotensive and the same was compared to that of thirty hypertensive patients and the levels were found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05).

Sources of lead exposure in urban slum school children.

A school based study was undertaken to trace various sources of lead exposure in urban slum children. Two cases with elevated venous blood lead (PbB) levels were detected and confirmed in 100 consecutive Bombay school children, referred to a hospital school clinic for clinical pallor. A common source of lead exposure in one suburb, was implied by the significantly higher PbB levels here. Systematic family and environmental studies identified the source was a nearby factory manufacturing lead storage batteries. Similar studies for the other index case traced the source to the dust produced by small scale foundries and secondary lead smelters. This study indicates that large scale screening studies are necessary to establish the magnitude and epidemiology of this problem in Bombay.