Pollution characteristics and ecological risks of trace elements in PM2.5 over three COALESCE network sites - Bhopal, Mesra, and Mysuru, India.

Time-synchronized, 24 h integrated PM2.5 trace element (TE) measurements made as a part of the COALESCE project (Venkataraman et al., 2020) at Bhopal, Mesra, and Mysore during all of 2019 were analyzed in this study. The concentrations of 15 key elements ranged between 0.05 ng m-3 and 50 µg m-3 across the study sites. Pronounced seasonal variation of elements from multiple source classes showed that the crustal origin elements (Al, Si, Fe, Ti, and Ca) peaked during the pre-monsoon season, while the anthropogenic activities driven element (P, S, K, V, Mn, Cu, Zn, and Pb) concentrations increased during the winter and post-monsoon seasons. Spearman correlation coupled with hierarchical clustering separated the matrix of elements into three common clusters at all sites, corresponding to crustal sources, combustion and biomass burning emissions, and industrial/non-exhaust vehicular emissions, respectively. Furthermore, episodes of metal pollution throughout the year were examined using characteristic radar charts of TEs to identify the association between TE sources and poor air quality. For example, maximum metal pollution in Bhopal occurred during the post-monsoon season, attributable to biomass burning, dust storms, industrial and non-exhaust vehicular emissions. Finally, an ecological risk assessment revealed that the risk index was higher than the threshold value of 600 for all heavy metals at all sites. Pb, Cu, and Zn were the top contributors to 'extremely high risk' amongst all heavy metals. Overall, the results show that although TE concentrations at all three locations were much lower than in other urban locations in India, the risk from heavy metals to the ecosystem (and likely to human health) cannot be ignored. The findings warrant a full source apportionment of fine PM to better identify TE-rich source contributions and future studies to examine the atmospheric processing and eco-system uptake of TEs.

Impact of mild alkali dosage on immobilized Exiguobacterium spp. mediated cost and energy efficient sludge disintegration.

Approaches to (extracellular polymeric substance) EPS removal were studied with major aim to enhance the biodegradability and sludge solubilization. In this study, a novel approach of entrapment of bacterial strain was carried out to achieve long term activity of protease secreting bacteria Exiguobacterium sp. A mild treatment of potassium hydroxide (KOH) was applied to remove EPS which was followed by entrapment under the biological pretreatment. The efficiency of Exiguobacterium was predicted through dissolvable organic and suspended solids (SS) reduction. The maximum dissolvable organic matter released was 2300mg/L with the solubilization of 23% which was obtained for sludge without EPS (SWOE). For dissolvable organic release, SWOE showed higher final methane production of 232mL/g COD at the production rate of 16.2mL/g COD.d. The SWOE pretreatment was found to be cost effective and less energy intensive beneficial in terms of energy and cost (43.9KWh and -8.2USD) when compared to sludge with EPS (SWE) pretreatment (-177.6KWh and -91.23USD).

Synthesis of novel pyrazolo[3,4-b]quinolinyl acetamide analogs, their evaluation for antimicrobial and anticancer activities, validation by molecular modeling and CoMFA analysis.

A series of novel alkyl amide functionalized 2,3-pyrazole fused quinoline derivatives 5, 6 and 7 have been prepared starting from quinoline-2(1H)one 1 in a series of steps. All the final products were screened for antibacterial activity, the promising lead compound 5r was identified with MIC values ranging between 3.9 and 7.8 µg/mL against different bacterial strains. Compound 5r also showed good antifungal and anti-biofilm activities against the tested panel of various fungal and bacterial strains. Compound 5r when treated on mature biofilms of S. aureus strain MLS16, showed increased levels of intracellular ROS accumulation suggesting its contribution to the bactericidal activity. All the compounds were also screened for anticancer activity against a panel of four human cancer cell lines. Based on these studies, compounds 5c, 5d, 5r and 7f were considered as promising and exhibited significant cytotoxicity with IC50 values of <15 µM. The biological activity data was further validated by molecular modeling and CoMFA studies.

Synthesis of novel nicotinohydrazide and (1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)-6-(trifluoromethyl)pyridine derivatives as potential anticancer agents.

A series of novel nicotinohydrazide derivatives 6a-g and 1,3,4-oxadiazole functionalized pyridine derivatives 7a-k and 8a-d were prepared in series of steps. All the compounds were screened for cytotoxicity against HeLa (cervical), DU145 (prostate), HepG2 (liver) and MBA-MB-231 (breast) human cancer cell lines. Compounds 6h, 6i, 7d, 7h, 7i and 8b which showed promising cytotoxicity at <15µM concentration have been identified. Further optimization of the structure is underway to identify a lead compound.

Synthesis of novel hydrazone and azole functionalized pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine derivatives as promising anticancer agents.

A series of novel pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine based target compounds were synthesized starting from the key intermediate ethyl 2-(3-amino-6-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridin-1-yl)acetate 5 on reaction with hydrazine hydrate followed by reaction with different aldehydes, acid chlorides and isothiocyanates to form hydrazones 7, oxadiazoles 8, 1,2,4 triazoles 10 and thiadiazoles 11 respectively in high yield. All the final compounds were screened for anticancer activity against four human cancer cell lines. Among them, 1,2,4 triazole derivatives showed promising activity and compound 10d is identified as a lead molecule.

Synthesis of novel triazole/isoxazole functionalized 7-(trifluoromethyl)pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives as promising anticancer and antibacterial agents.

A series of novel 1,2,3-triazole/isoxazole functionalized pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives 6a-c, 7a-h and 8a-e were prepared in series of synthetic steps. All the compounds screened for the anticancer activity against four human cancer cell lines using Nocodazole as standard. Compounds 7d and 7h showed highest activity against PANC-1 (pancreatic cancer) and A549 (lung cancer) cell lines respectively and more than standard. All the compounds also screened for antibacterial activity using Rifampicin and Ciprofloxacin as standards and identified promising compounds further evaluated for minimum inhibitory concentration to validate the data.

Synthesis, cytotoxicity, antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activities of novel pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine and pyrimidine functionalized 1,2,3-triazole derivatives.

A series of novel pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine and pyrimidine functionalized 1,2,3-triazole derivatives 8a-g and 9a-g were prepared starting from 6-trifluoromethylpyridine-2(1H)one 2 via selective O-alkylation, followed by cyclisation using hydrazine hydrate to obtain 6-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridin-3-amine 4. Compound 4 was diazotized followed by reaction with sodium azide, resulted in 3-azido-6-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine 5. Compound 5 was further cyclized with N-/O-propargylated pyrimidine derivatives under Sharpless conditions and obtained compounds 6 and 7, respectively. Each set of compounds 6 and 7 were alkylated with different alkyl halides and obtained respective products 8 and 9. All the products were screened for cytotoxicity against four human cancer cell lines such as A549-Lung (CCL-185), MCF7-Breast (HTB-22), DU145-Prostate (HTB-81) and HeLa-Cervical (CCL-2), compounds 9d, 9e and 9f which showed promising activity have been identified. The products were also screened for antimicrobial, anti bio-film and MBC activities. Promising compounds in each case have been identified.

Fractionation behavior of heavy metals in soil during bioleaching with Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans.

The effects of bioleaching on the fractionation of soil heavy metals were investigated in this study. Bioleaching of heavy metals from contaminated soil was carried out in shake flask experiments. Acidophilic sulfur oxidizing bacteria Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans isolated from soil was used for bioleaching. Bioleaching resulted in removal of heavy metals at higher levels. Variations in the binding forms of heavy metals before, during and after bioleaching were evaluated. It was noticed that bioleaching affected the binding forms of all the heavy metals present in the soil. The major contaminant chromium bound mainly to the fractions of soil which are not very reactive (organic and residual fractions) also showed good removal efficiency. Bioleaching influenced the fractionation of metals in soil after treatment and most of the remnant heavy metals were bound either to residual fraction or to other not easily mobile fractions of soil. The results of this study indicated that the bioleaching process can be useful for efficient removal of heavy metals from soil. Further, the soil with remnant metals can be disposed off safely.