Diabetic neuropathy: an insight on the transition from synthetic drugs to herbal therapies.

The global pandemic of prediabetes and diabetes has led to a severe corresponding complication of these disorders. Neuropathy is one of the most prevalent complication of diabetes is, affecting blood supply of the peripheral nervous system that may eventually results into loss of sensations, injuries, diabetic foot and death. The utmost identified risk of diabetic neuropathy is uncontrolled high blood glucose levels. However, aging, body mass index (BMI), oxidative stress, inflammation, increased HbA1c levels and blood pressure are among the other key factors involved in the upsurge of this disease. The so far treatment to deal with diabetic neuropathy is controlling metabolic glucose levels. Apart from this, drugs like reactive oxygen species (ROS) inhibitors, aldose reductase inhibitors, PKC inhibitors, Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), anticonvulsants, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonists, are the other prescribed medications. However, the related side-effects (hallucinations, drowsiness, memory deficits), cost, poor pharmacokinetics and drug resistance brought the trust of patients down and thus herbal renaissance is occurring all over the word as the people have shifted their intentions from synthetic drugs to herbal remedies. Medicinal plants have widely been utilized as herbal remedies against number of ailments in Indian medicinal history. Their bioactive components are very much potent to handle different chronic disorders and complications with lesser-known side effects. Therefore, the current article mainly concludes the etiology and pathophysiology of diabetic neuropathy. Furthermore, it also highlights the important roles of medicinal plants and their naturally occurring bioactive compounds in addressing this disease.

Hybridoma technology; advancements, clinical significance, and future aspects.

BACKGROUND: Hybridoma technology is one of the most common methods used to produce monoclonal antibodies. In this process, antibody-producing B lymphocytes are isolated from mice after immunizing the mice with specific antigen and are fused with immortal myeloma cell lines to form hybrid cells, called hybridoma cell lines. These hybridoma cells are cultured in a lab to produce monoclonal antibodies, against a specific antigen. This can be achieved by an in vivo or an in vitro method. It is preferred above all the available methods to produce monoclonal antibodies because antibodies thus produced are of high purity and are highly sensitive and specific. Monoclonal antibodies are useful in diagnostic, imaging, and therapeutic purposes and have a very high clinical significance. Once hybridoma cells become stable, these cell lines offer limitless production of homogenized antibodies. This method is also cost-effective. The antibodies produced by this method are highly sensitive and specific to the targeted antigen. It is an important tool used in various fields of research such as in toxicology, animal biotechnology, medicine, pharmacology, cell, and molecular biology. Monoclonal antibodies are used extensively in the diagnosis and therapeutic applications. Radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies are used as probes to detect tumor antigens in the living system; also radioisotope coupled antibodies are used for therapeutic target specific action on oncogenic cells. SHORT CONCLUSION: Presently, the monoclonal antibodies used are either raised in mice or rats; this poses a risk of disease transfer from mice to humans. There is no guarantee that antibodies thus created are entirely virus-free, despite the purification process. Also, there are some immunogenic responses observed against the antibodies of mice origin. Technologically advanced techniques such as genetic engineering helped in reducing some of these limitations. Advanced methods are under development to make lab-produced monoclonal antibodies as human as possible. This review discusses the advantages and challenges associated with monoclonal antibody production, also enlightens the advancement, clinical significance, and future aspects of this technique.

Growth response modulation by putrescine in Indian mustard Brassica juncea L. under multiple stress.

Plants, in general, are put to various kinds of stress, biotic and abiotic, both natural and manmade. Infestation by insect pests and diseases, and extreme conditions such as salinity, temperature, etc., as well as heavy metal contamination affect their growth performance. Here, we studied the impact of salinity and heavy metal pollution on the growth performance of Indian Mustard Brassica juncea L. and its amelioration by the diamine, putrescine, a known media supplement. We evaluated the putrescine (Put) modulation potential on multiple stress effect in 7-day old Indian mustard. The germination, seedlings length and photosynthetic pigments decline under salinity and metal (Cd/Pb) stress condition, alone or in combination, were checked by putrescine. The stress induced increase in root-shoot ratio, RNA and total amino acids content, as well as Na⁺/K⁺ ratio in leaf tissues were also comparatively less. The increased endogenous Cd/Pb accumulation in plants exposed to either metal further elevated under salinity was also found decelerated. However, the multiple stressed seedlings showed increase in glutathione content, which was further elevated with putrescine application. The increase in protein contents in leaf under single or combined stresses in the presence of putrescine could be a qualitative change. The differential changes in parameters examined here resulted in improved growth (> 10%) suggests stress mitigation by the putrescine up to an extent.

Enhanced biosynthesis of quercetin occurs as A photoprotective measure in Lycopersicon esculentum mill. under Acute UV-B exposure

Lycopersicon esculentum respond to UV-B by enhanced synthesis of flavonoid quercetin, a strong antioxidant that helps the plants to well acclimatize to UV-B stress. Three weeks old plants of L. esculentum were subjected to acute UV-B irradiation for 20, 40 and 60 minutes daily until 28 days and analyzed for the morphological and biochemical changes. UV-B exposure for 40 and 60 minutes considerably affected the growth and biomass of L. esculentum. The leaves were deformed, developed chlorosis and abscised early as compared to the unexposed plants. Biomass declined by 35% and total chlorophyll decreased by 24.7% due to disintegration of chloroplasts. Enhancement was seen in the content of carotenoids, anthocyanins and total flavonoids by 15, 33.3 and 22.8%, respectively, which was attributed to the photoprotective role of these compounds as potential quenchers of excess excitation energy. Quercetin content decreased on UV-B exposure to 20 and 40 min, and thereafter increased significantly by 5.19% on 60 min of exposure. This pattern probably indicated that the over-expression of genes involved in its biosynthesis such as phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), chalcone synthase (CHS), flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H) and dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) occurred only after certain threshold exposure (60 min), which could be the strategy for developing tolerance against UV-B stress in L. esculentum.

Cadaverine: a lysine catabolite involved in plant growth and development.

The cadaverine (Cad) a diamine, imino compound produced as a lysine catabolite is also implicated in growth and development of plants depending on environmental condition. This lysine catabolism is catalyzed by lysine decarboxylase, which is developmentally regulated. However, the limited role of Cad in plants is reported, this review is tempted to focus the metabolism and its regulation, transport and responses, interaction and cross talks in higher plants. The Cad varied presence in plant parts/products suggests it as a potential candidate for taxonomic marker as well as for commercial exploitation along with growth and development.

Effect of cadaverine on Brassica juncea (L.) under multiple stress.

The cadaverine (Cad), an organic diamine was examined for its response on growth in salinity and metal stressed B. juncea cv RH-30 vis-à-vis compared the response of ammonium nitrate. The Cad (1 mM) application ameliorated the effect caused by salinity and metal stress on seed germination and plant growth. The plant growth recovery (dry biomass accumulation) was dependent on stress and diamine type. The higher growth recovery potential of Cad under both stresses was due to elevation in photosynthetic pigments, nitrate reductase activity and organic nitrogen as well as soluble protein, It is inferred that growth in stressed seedlings was mediated by Cad through lowering endogenous Cd/Pb and Na+ / K+ level in leaf and shoot tissues.