Successful fertility outcome in a couple with recurrent implantation failure and testicular cancer survivor: A case report.

A couple of Indo-American descent, presented to our clinic with a history of primary infertility and repeated IVF implantation failure. Male was a testicular cancer survivor who had erectile dysfunction and azoospermia. Female partner had polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOD). She had three unsuccessful attempts of embryo transfer at another fertility clinic. At our clinic, she underwent controlled ovarian stimulation, COH started from day two period with rFSH (follicle stimulating hormone) followed by HMG (human menopausal gondadotropin) with antagonist protocol followed by preimplantation genetic screening of embryos. Subsequently, she began HRT (hormone replacement Therapy) protocol for ERA cycle from day 2, where she also underwent hysteroscopy on day 7. After five days of progesterone supplementation, she underwent endometrial biopsy for ERA (endometrial receptivity assay). Frozen embryo transfer cycle was started with the same HRT protocol used in her previous ERA cycle. Post embryo transfer, immunotherapy with steroids and fortnightly intralipids was given. Pregnancy test was positive with a BHCG value of 290 mIU/mL. and she delivered naturally after 39 completed weeks of gestation. A stepwise personalized treatment approach maximizes the chances of a successful outcome in presence of both male and female factors. Frozen or fresh sperms for ICSI with PGS along with hysteroscopy, ERA and under cover of immune modulation yielded positive results.

A model to predict the function of hypothetical proteins through a nine-point classification scoring schema.

BACKGROUND: Hypothetical proteins [HP] are those that are predicted to be expressed in an organism, but no evidence of their existence is known. In the recent past, annotation and curation efforts have helped overcome the challenge in understanding their diverse functions. Techniques to decipher sequence-structure-function relationship, especially in terms of functional modelling of the HPs have been developed by researchers, but using the features as classifiers for HPs has not been attempted. With the rise in number of annotation strategies, next-generation sequencing methods have provided further understanding the functions of HPs. RESULTS: In our previous work, we developed a six-point classification scoring schema with annotation pertaining to protein family scores, orthology, protein interaction/association studies, bidirectional best BLAST hits, sorting signals, known databases and visualizers which were used to validate protein interactions. In this study, we introduced three more classifiers to our annotation system, viz. pseudogenes linked to HPs, homology modelling and non-coding RNAs associated to HPs. We discuss the challenges and performance of these classifiers using machine learning heuristics with an improved accuracy from Perceptron (81.08 to 97.67), Naive Bayes (54.05 to 96.67), Decision tree J48 (67.57 to 97.00), and SMO_npolyk (59.46 to 96.67). CONCLUSION: With the introduction of three new classification features, the performance of the nine-point classification scoring schema has an improved accuracy to functionally annotate the HPs.

HYPO: A Database of Human Hypothetical Proteins.

BACKGROUND: There are genes whose function remains obscure as they may not have similarities to known regions in the genome. Such known 'unknown' genes constituting the Open Reading Frames (ORF) that remain in the epigenome are termed as orphan genes and the proteins encoded by them but having no experimental evidence of translation are termed as 'Hypothetical Proteins' (HPs). OBJECTIVES: We have enhanced our former database of Hypothetical Proteins (HP) in human (HypoDB) with added annotation, application programming interfaces and descriptive features. The database hosts 1000+ manually curated records of the known 'unknown' regions in the human genome. The new updated version of HypoDB with functionalities (Blast, Match) is freely accessible at http://www.bioclues.org/hypo2. METHODS: The total collection of HPs were checked using experimentally validated sets (from Swiss-Prot) or non-experimentally validated set (TrEMBL) or the complete set (UniProtKB). The database was designed with java at the core backend, integrated with databases, viz. EMBL, PIR, HPRD and those including descriptors for structural databases, interaction and association databases. RESULTS: The HypoDB constituted Application Programming Interfaces (API) for implicitly searching resources linking them to other databases like NCBI Link-out in addition to multiple search capabilities along with advanced searches using integrated bio-tools, viz. Match and BLAST were incorporated. CONCLUSION: The HypoDB is perhaps the only open-source HP database with a range of tools for common bioinformatics retrievals and serves as a standby reference to researchers who are interested in finding candidate sequences for their potential experimental work.

Diagnostics of microwave assisted electron cyclotron resonance plasma source for surface modification of nylon 6.

Looking at the increasing scope of plasma processing of materials surface, here we present the development and diagnostics of a microwave assisted Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma system suitable for surface modification of polymers. Prior to the surface-treatment, a detailed diagnostic mapping of the plasma parameters throughout the reactor chamber was carried out by using single and double Langmuir probe measurements in Ar plasma. Conventional analysis of I-V curves as well as the elucidation form of the Electron Energy Distribution Function (EEDF) has become the source of calibration of plasma parameters in the reaction chamber. The high energy tail in the EEDF of electron temperature is seen to extend beyond 60 eV, at much larger distances from the ECR zone. This proves the suitability of the rector for plasma processing, since the electron energy is much beyond the threshold energy of bond breaking in most of the polymers. Nylon 6 is used as a representative candidate for surface processing in the presence of Ar, H2 + N2, and O2 plasma, treated at different locations inside the plasma chamber. In a typical case, the work of adhesion is seen to almost get doubled when treated with oxygen plasma. Morphology of the plasma treated surface and its hydrophilicity are discussed in view of the variation in electron density and electron temperature at these locations. Nano-protrusions arising from plasma treatment are set to be responsible for the hydrophobicity. Chemical sputtering and physical sputtering are seen to influence the surface morphology on account of sufficient electron energies and increased plasma potential.

Hematological and Molecular Findings in the First Case of Hb J-Norfolk [HBA2: c.173G>A (or HBA1] in an Indian Patient.

We here report a case of a 23-year-old female from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India who was detected to carry the α chain variant Hb J-Norfolk [HBA2: c.173G>A (or HBA1]. She had no clinical symptoms and was referred to us for routine investigations and screening. An abnormal peak was detected on both high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) with a fast-moving band on cellulose acetate electrophoresis. There is no detailed study on the HPLC and CE pattern of this hemoglobin (Hb) variant, and therefore, this study will help in detecting and avoiding missing these variants during routine investigations and population screening. This is the first report of this variant in the Indian population.