Assessment of Glycemic status, Insulin Resistance and Hypogonadism in HIV Infected Male Patients.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to assess the glycemic status measured as Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG) and glycosylated haemoglobin (A1C); prevalence of Insulin Resistance (IR), hypogonadism and to study their correlation with CD4 (CD4 lymphocyte) counts in HIV infected patients receiving ART. Correlation between percentage android fat and IR was also studied. METHODS AND MATERIALS: 84 HIV male patients as diagnosed by ELISA test aged 18 to 70 years were included in this case control study. Software IBM SPSS 20.1 and Microsoft Excel 2013 was used for analysis of data. The numerical data was compared using two tailed student t-test. Log transformation was used for the conversion of qualitative data (% android fat) to quantitative data so that it can be correlated to HOMA-IR. The level of significance was considered 0.05. RESULTS: Out of total 84 patients, 19 had FPG ≥ 100. 11(13%) had Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG) and 8 (9.5%) had Diabetes Mellitus (DM). 20 patients had A1C > 5.6. Nine (10.7%) patients had Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) and 11 (13.1%) patients had DM on the basis of A1C. 11 (13.1%) patients had DM based on either FPG or A1C criteria. Patients with higher percentage android fat had significantly higher IR. 33 (39%) patients had hypogonadism, six patients (7.1%) had primary hypogonadism; 24 (28.6%) had secondary hypogonadism and 3 (3.6 %) had compensatory hypogonadism. CONCLUSION: Patients with lower CD4 counts had significantly higher dysglycemia and IR. Serum testosterone levels were progressively lower (insignificant) with decreasing CD4 counts.

Origin and varietal based proteomic and peptidomic fingerprinting of Theobroma cacao in non-fermented and fermented cocoa beans.

It is well known that the development of chocolate flavor is initiated during cocoa bean fermentation. Storage proteins undergo the most intensive breakdown yielding peptides and free amino acids, which both serve as flavor precursors. A comprehensive analysis of cocoa proteins and oligopeptides of non-fermented and fermented beans from various geographic origins allows the assessment of systematic differences with respect to their origin as well as fermentation status. Protein quantities as well as their profiles derived from two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, showed striking differences for non-fermented beans depending on their geographical origin. From fermented beans, oligopeptides were relatively quantified by utilizing UHPLC-ESI-Q-q-TOF and annotated based on their characteristic fragmentation pattern in the positive-ion mode. With >800 unique oligopeptides, excluding di- and tri-peptides, across 25 different samples, we are herein reporting on the largest collection of cocoa oligopeptides ever observed and identified. The detected diversity of peptides could not be correlated to the geographical origin but rather to the degree of fermentation. Our findings suggest that the variability in peptide patterns depends on the fermentation method applied in the country of origin ultimately indicating diversified proteolytic activities. Furthermore, our results showed that well-fermented and fair-fermented beans can be differentiated from partially fermented and under-fermented ones by higher numbers and total amounts of oligopeptides.

Comparative validation of a microcapsule-based immunoassay for the detection of proteins and nucleic acids.

To detect and study diseases, research and clinical laboratories must quantify specific biomarkers in the plasma and urine of patients with precision, sensitivity, and cost-effectiveness. Newly developed techniques, such as particle-based immunoassays, must be validated in these terms against standard methods such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Here, we compare the performance of assays that use hollow polyelectrolyte microcapsules with assays based on solid plastic beads, and with standard microplate immunoassays. The polyelectrolyte microcapsules detect the disease biomarker beta-2 microglobulin with a fifty-fold increase in sensitivity than polystyrene (PS) beads. For sequence-specific nucleic acid detection, the oligonucleotide-coated microcapsules exhibit a two-fold lower increase in sensitivity over PS beads. The microcapsules also detect the presence of a monoclonal antibody in hybridoma supernatant at a fifty-six-fold increase in sensitivity compared to a microplate assay. Overall, polyelectrolyte microcapsule-based assays are more sensitive for the detection of protein and nucleic acid analytes than PS beads and microplate assays, and they are viable alternatives as a platform for the rapid quantitative detection of analytes at very low concentrations.

Changes in the fucoxanthin production and protein profiles in Cylindrotheca closterium in response to blue light-emitting diode light.

BACKGROUND: Marine diatoms have a higher fucoxanthin content in comparison to macroalgae. Fucoxanthin features many potent bioactive properties, particularly anti-obesity properties. Despite the great potential for harvesting larger amounts of fucoxanthin, the impacts of light quality (light source, intensity, and photoperiod) on fucoxanthin production and the essential proteins involved in fucoxanthin biosynthesis in marine diatoms remain unclear. RESULTS: In the present study, Cylindrotheca closterium was selected from four different species of diatoms based on its high fucoxanthin content and productivity. Optimal light conditions (light source, intensity, and regime) were determined by a "Design of Experiment" approach (software MODDE Pro 11 was used). The model indicated that an 18/6 light/darkness regime increased fucoxanthin productivity remarkably as opposed to a 12/12 or 24/0 regime. Eventually, blue light-emitting diode light, as an alternative to fluorescent light, at 100 µmol/m2/s and 18/6 light/darkness regime yielded maximum fucoxanthin productivity and minimal energy consumption. The fucoxanthin production of C. closterium under the predicted optimal light conditions was assessed both in bottle and bag photobioreactors (PBRs). The high fucoxanthin content (25.5 mg/g) obtained from bag PBRs demonstrated the feasibility of large-scale production. The proteomes of C. closterium under the most favorable and unfavorable fucoxanthin biosynthesis light/darkness regimes (18/6 and 24/0, respectively) were compared to identify the essential proteins associated with fucoxanthin accumulation by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry. Six proteins that were up-regulated in the 18/6 regime but down-regulated in the 24/0 were identified as important chloroplastic proteins involved in photosynthesis, energy metabolism, and cellular processes. CONCLUSIONS: Blue light-emitting diode light at 100 µmol/m2/s and 18/6 light/darkness regime induced maximum fucoxanthin productivity in C. closterium and minimized energy consumption. The high fucoxanthin production in the bag photobioreactor under optimal light conditions demonstrated the possibility of commercialization. Proteomics suggests that fucoxanthin biosynthesis is intimately associated with the photosynthetic efficiency of the diatom, providing another technical and bioengineering outlook on fucoxanthin enhancement.

Metabolic Status and Hypogonadism in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-infected Males.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of hypogonadism in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected males and to study its relation to age, CD4 count, body mass index (BMI), duration of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), and metabolic status. METHODOLOGY: Eighty-one HIV positive cases and 82 healthy controls were included in this case-control study. Each case underwent a complete physical examination and serum fasting plasma glucose, A1c, lipid profile, total testosterone (TT), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels were estimated. Serum TT level <300 ng/dl, or TT >300 ng/dl with high LH and FSH (compensatory hypogonadism) were taken as markers for hypogonadism, and it was correlated with age, CD4 count, duration of HAART, and metabolic status of the patient. RESULTS: Out of 81 cases, 21 (25.9%) were found to have hypogonadism as compared to 4 (4.9%) out of 82 controls. Of these 21, 14 cases had secondary hypogonadism, five had primary, and the remaining two had compensatory hypogonadism. The mean serum TT value among cases (371.7 ± 102.9 ng/dl) was significantly lower than that among controls (419.7 ± 71.5 ng/dl) (P = 0.007). Hypogonadism was found to be significantly associated with the age of the patient (P = 0.007), CD4 count (P = 0.002), and duration of HAART (P = 0.04) and was independent of the BMI (P = 0.9) and the waist circumference (P = 0.8). Dyslipidemia and dysglycemia were significantly more common among cases as compared to controls (P < 0.05) but were not associated with hypogonadism. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of hypogonadism is higher among HIV-infected males as compared to healthy individuals. Hypogonadism was significantly associated with age, CD4 count, and duration of HAART and was independent of BMI, glycemic status, and dyslipidemia.