Fate of pulpectomized deciduous teeth: Bilateral odontogenic cyst?

Pulpectomy is preferably more conservative treatment option than the extraction of deciduous teeth despite few undesirable consequences of obturating materials of which odontogenic cysts are one. This article aims to report a case of an 11-year-old female child having bilateral odontogenic cysts, i.e., radicular and infected dentigerous cyst followed by pulpectomy of deciduous molars using zinc oxide eugenol which was surgically enucleated and followed up to 6 months until satisfactory healing of bone was observed. The article also emphasizes on the importance of regular follow-up of the pulpectomized tooth which can be harmful otherwise.

Siderophore as a potential plant growth-promoting agent produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa JAS-25.

Siderophores scavenges Fe(+3) from the vicinity of the roots of plants, and thus limit the amount of iron required for the growth of pathogens such as Fusarium oxysporum, Pythium ultimum, and Fusarium udum, which cause wilt and root rot disease in crops. The ability of Pseudomonas to grow and to produce siderophore depends upon the iron content, pH, and temperature. Maximum yield of siderophore of 130 µM was observed at pH 7.0 ± 0.2 and temperature of 30 °C at 30 h. The threshold level of iron was 50 µM, which increases up to 150 µM, favoring growth but drastically affecting the production of siderophore by Pseudomonas aeruginosa JAS-25. The seeds of agricultural crops like Cicer arietinum (chick pea), Cajanus cajan (pigeon pea), and Arachis hypogaea (ground nut) were treated with P. aeruginosa JAS-25, which enhanced the seed germination, root length, shoot length, and dry weight of chick pea, pigeon pea, and ground nut plants under pot studies. The efficient growth of the plants was not only due to the biocontrol activity of the siderophore produced by P. aeruginosa JAS-25 but also may be by the production of indole acetic acid (IAA), which influences the growth of the plants as phytohormones.

Co(III)(salen)-catalyzed phenolic kinetic resolution of two stereocentered benzyloxy and azido epoxides: its application in the synthesis of ICI-118,551, an anti-hypertensive agent.

The salen Co(III)-catalyzed phenolic kinetic resolution of racemic anti- or syn-azido and benzyloxy epoxides provides a practical route to a range of enantioenriched anti- or syn-1-aryloxy-3-azido or benzyloxy-2-alcohols in excellent yields and ees. The synthetic potential of this protocol is illustrated with an enantioselective synthesis of ICI-118,551, a ß-blocker, in a highly optically pure form (99% ee).

Production, purification and characterization of L-asparaginase from Streptomyces gulbargensis

L-asparaginase is an anti-neoplastic agent used in the lymphoblastic leukaemia chemotherapy. In the present study a novel strain, Streptomyces gulbargensis was explored for the production of extra-cellular L-asparaginase using groundnut cake extract. The optimum pH, temperature, inoculum size and agitation speed for enzyme production were pH 8.5, 40ºC, 1x10(8)spores/ml and 200 rev/min respectively. Maltose (0.5 percent) and L-asparagine (0.5 percent) proved to be the best carbon and nitrogen sources respectively. The enzyme was purified 82.12 fold and the apparent molecular weight of the enzyme was found to be 85 kDa. The optima pH and temperature for the enzyme were 9.0 and 40ºC respectively. The enzyme was more stable at the alkaline pH than at the acidic one and it retained 55 percent of the activity at 80ºC for 60 min.

Production, purification and characterization of l-asparaginase from streptomyces gulbargensis.

L-asparaginase is an anti-neoplastic agent used in the lymphoblastic leukaemia chemotherapy. In the present study a novel strain, Streptomyces gulbargensis was explored for the production of extra-cellular L-asparaginase using groundnut cake extract. The optimum pH, temperature, inoculum size and agitation speed for enzyme production were pH 8.5, 40°C, 1x10(8)spores/ml and 200 rev/min respectively. Maltose (0.5%) and L-asparagine (0.5%) proved to be the best carbon and nitrogen sources respectively. The enzyme was purified 82.12 fold and the apparent molecular weight of the enzyme was found to be 85 kDa. The optima pH and temperature for the enzyme were 9.0 and 40°C respectively. The enzyme was more stable at the alkaline pH than at the acidic one and it retained 55% of the activity at 80°C for 60 min.

Oncogenomics.

The rapid developments in the field of genomics and proteomics are expected to lead to a further increase in the potential for early diagnosis, the fine-tuning of prognostic features of specific tumors and the detection of cancer predisposition. Oncogenomics has identified new drug targets for genotype-specific treatments and provided strategies to validate these targets and to develop drugs. With the potential need to stratify patients by genotype, clinical testing of targeted drugs has become more complicated while expectations of patients, investors, and funding agencies have become accelerated. Oncogenomics has progressed logically from molecular profiling to model systems, cancer pharmacology and clinical trials. Oncogenomics covers cutting-edge issues such as array-based diagnostics, pharmacogenomics, pharmacoproteomics and molecularly targeted therapeutics includes discussions of ethical, legal, and social issues related to cancer genomics and clinical trials.

Enzymatic studies of cisplatin induced oxidative stress in hepatic tissue of rats.

Cisplatin is an active cytotoxic agent that has proved to be successful in the treatment of various types of solid tumors. The drug-induced nephrotoxicity has been very well documented in clinical oncology. However, hepatotoxicity has been rarely characterized and paid attention to, and is the least studied. We have used rat as the model to evaluate the effect of cisplatin on liver antioxidant enzymes and to determine whether these modulations in enzymatic activities are involved in hepatotoxicity. Reports obtained from our study indicate that cisplatin increases lipid peroxidation in the treated tissue of rat. The drug is also involved in altering the thiol status of the tissue with concomitant alterations in the enzymatic antioxidants. Glutathione and glutathione reductase levels were significantly decreased after cisplatin therapy, whereas glutathione peroxidase, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase and catalase showed a significant increase. No statistically significant change was observed in glutathione-S-transferase activity. After cisplatin treatment, cytochrome P 450 showed a significant increase, whereas cytochrome b5 was decreased. Thus, an alteration in enzymatic antioxidant status with increase in lipid peroxidation indicates that the enzymes play an important role in combating free radical induced oxidative stress on the tissue.

Optimization of process for the production of fungal pectinases from deseeded sunflower head in submerged and solid-state conditions.

Pectinase production studies were carried out in submerged and solid-state conditions from deseeded sunflower head employing Aspergillus niger. The two potential strains of A. niger, DMF 27 for submerged and DMF 45 for solid-state were isolated by multi-step screening technique based on coefficient of pectolysis and capability of pectinase production. Process variables such as size of inoculum, pH, temperature, particle size and moisture content were optimized with an aim to achieve the maximum production of pectinases. The increased level of pectinase production was recorded at pH 5.0 and temperature 34 degrees C in submerged and solid-state conditions. The optimum inoculum size was 1x10(5)ml(-1) for submerged and 1x10(7)g(-1) for solid-state conditions. Five hundred micrometer particle size and 65% moisture content of the substrate were optimum for the maximum production of pectinases in solid-state condition. Under optimum conditions, maximum production of exo-pectinase was 34.2U/g in SSF and endo-pectinase was 12.6U/ml in SmF.

Production of pectinase from deseeded sunflower head by Aspergillus niger in submerged and solid-state conditions.

Studies were carried out on the production of pectinases using deseeded sunflower head by Aspergillus niger DMF 27 and DMF 45 in submerged fermentation (SmF) and solid-state fermentation (SSF). Higher titres of endo- and exo-pectinases were observed when medium was supplemented with carbon (4% glucose for SmF and 6% sucrose for SSF) and nitrogen (ammonium sulphate, 0.3% for both SmF and SSF) sources. Green gram husk proved to be relatively a better supplement to attain higher yield of endo-pectinase (11.7 U/g) and exo-pectinase (30.0 U/g) in solid-state conditions. Maximum production of endo-pectinase (19.8 U/g) and exo-pectinase (45.9 U/g) by DMF 45 were recorded in SSF when compared to endo-pectinase (18.9 U/ml) and exo-pectinase (30.3 U/ml) by DMF 27 in SmF under optimum process conditions.

In vitro activity of norfloxacin against uropathogens and drug efficacy in simulated bladder model under diabetic conditions.

PURPOSE: The in vitro activity of norfloxacin was determined to maximize the correlation between susceptibility testing of the drug and the results of clinical therapy of urinary tract infection in diabetics. This study was carried out to observe the effect of changing concentration of norfloxacin on the growth of uropathogens under diabetic conditions. METHODS: The standard broth microdilution method was carried out to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) using Mueller Hinton broth by varying pH of the medium (5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0) and glucose concentration (100, 250, 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/dL). A specially designed mechanical bladder model system simulating hydrokinetic conditions that exist in the urinary tract of diabetics was employed. RESULTS: The loss of activity of norfloxacin was more pronounced (> four folds) at pH 5.0 and 2000 mg/dL sugar concentration. These findings were consistent with the experiment 'in vitro simulated bladder model' by exposing bacterial growth to varied norfloxacin and sugar concentration. CONCLUSIONS: Although norfloxacin is a drug of choice for non-diabetic and diabetic individuals with mild to moderate glucosuria, in severe diabetic individuals norfloxacin may not be an effective drug.

Increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance and multi drug resistance among uropathogens.

A study was conducted to examine the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the strains of bacteria isolated from patients with suspected urinary tract infection. A total of 348 bacterial isolates were grown from semi quantitative urine culture and were of significant bacteriuria. The antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed on Muller-Hinton agar by disc diffusion method according to the standard criteria of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards, Antibiotic susceptibility testing revealed a high prevalence of resistance to ampicillin (55.4%) followed by nitrofurantoin (45.4%), gentamicin (45.1%), amikacin (41.4%) and co-trimoxazole (30.5%). E. coli and Klebsiella pneumonia showed 78.8 % and 75.3 % resistance to three or more drugs respectively. Cefotaxime (87.1%) appeared to be the most active antibiotic against the majority of isolates, followed by Norfloxacin (83.3%).