Cytotoxic potential and metabolomic profiling of alkaloid rich fraction of Tylophora indica leaves.

Tylophora indica (Burm f.) Merrill, belong to family Asclepiadaceae, is considered to be a natural remedy with high medicinal benefits. The objective of this work is to assess the metabolomic profile of T. indica leaves enriched in alkaloids, as well as to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxicity of these leaves using the MTT assay on human breast MCF-7 and liver HepG2 cancer cell lines. Dried leaves of T. indica were extracted by sonication, using methanol containing 2 % (v/v) of acetic acid and obtained fraction was characterized by HPTLC and UPLC-MS. The UPLC-MS study yielded a preliminary identification of 32 metabolites, with tylophorine, tylophorine B, tylophorinine, and tylophorinidine being the predominant metabolites. The cytotoxicity of the extract of T. indica was evaluated on HepG2 and MCF-7 cell lines, yielding inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 75.71 µg/mL and 69.60 µg/mL, respectively. Data suggested that the phytochemical screening clearly showed presence of numerous secondary metabolites with moderate cytotoxic efficacy. In conclusion, the future prospects of T. indica appear promising for the advancement of phytopharmaceutical-based anticancer medications, as well as for the design of contemporary pharmaceuticals in the field of cancer chemotherapy.

Therapeutic importance of Kigelia africana subsp. africana: an alternative medicine.

AIM: To summarise a detailed up-to-date review of the traditional uses, phytoconstituents, and pharmacological activities of various parts of Kigelia africana. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Google Scholar, PubMed, PubChem, Elsevier, King Draw, indianbiodiversity.org. RESULT: The phytochemical analysis of Kigelia africana subsp. africana has revealed the presence of approximately 145 compounds extracted from different parts of the plant. These bioactive extracts of the plant possess anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antineoplastic, and anti-urolithic activities. Due to its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immune-booster properties, Kigelia can prove to be an essential source of drugs for treating various disorders. CONCLUSION: Knowledge of the phytoconstituents, non-medicinal and medicinal traditional uses, pharmacological activities, and products obtained from Kigelia is described in this review with the hope that the updated findings will promote research on its biological pathways.

Traditional medicinal importance of Kigelia africana subsp. africanaPhytoconstituents present in extracts from different parts of the plantPharmacological activities of phytochemicals extracted from KigeliaAnti-inflammatory and antioxidant role in preventing oxidative stressPotential as ethnopharmacological therapeutic in treating respiratory ailmentsToxicity evaluation of Kigelia africana subsp. africana.

Plant metabolite diosmin as the therapeutic agent in human diseases.

Plant-derived flavonoids have been the focus of research for many years mainly in the last decade owing to their therapeutic properties. So far, about 4000 flavonoids have been identified from plants and diosmin (a flavone glycoside) is one of them. Online databases, previous studies, and reviews have been used to gather information on anti-oxidant, immunomodulatory, anti-cancer, anti-parasitic, and anti-microbialproperties of diosmin. Effects of diosmin in combination with other flavonoids have been reviewed thoroughly and its administrative routes are also summarized. Additionally, we studied the effect of diosmin on critical protein networks. It exhibits therapeutic effects in diabetes and its associated complications such as neuropathy and dyslipidemia. Combination of diosmin with hesperidin is found to be very effective in the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency and haemorrhoids. Diosmin is an exquisite therapeutic agent alone as well as in combination with other flavonoids.

Gene Expression Profiling of Early Acute Febrile Stage of Dengue Infection and Its Comparative Analysis With Streptococcus pneumoniae Infection.

Infectious diseases are the disorders caused by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites. Although many of them are permentantly hazardous, a number of them live in and on our bodies and they are normally harmless or even helpful. Under certain circumstances, some organisms may cause diseases and these infectious diseases may be passed directly from person to person or via intermediate vectors including insects and other animals. Dengue virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae are the critical and common sources of infectious diseases. So, it is critical to understand the gene expression profiling and their inferred functions in comparison to the normal and virus infected conditions. Here, we have analyzed the gene expression profiling for dengue hemorrhagic fever, dengue fever, and normal human dataset. Similar to it, streptococcus pneumoniae infectious data were analyzed and both the outcomes were compared. Our study leads to the conclusion that the dengue hemorrhagic fever arises in result to potential change in the gene expression pattern, and the inferred functions obviously belong to the immune system, but also there are some additional potential pathways which are critical signaling pathways. In the case of pneumoniae infection, 19 pathways were enriched, almost all these pathways are associated with the immune system and 17 of the enriched pathways were common with dengue infection except platelet activation and antigen processing and presentation. In terms of the comparative study between dengue virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae infection, we conclude that cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), MAPK signaling pathway, natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity, regulation of actin cytoskeleton, and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction are commonly enriched in all the three cases of dengue infection and Streptococcus pneumoniae infection, focal adhesion was enriched between classical dengue fever - dengue hemorrhagic fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever-normal samples, and SP, and antigen processing and presentation and Leukocyte transendothelial migration were enriched in classical dengue fever -normal samples, dengue hemorrhagic fever-normal samples, and Streptococcus pneumoniae infection.

Urbanization and energy consumption effects on carbon dioxide emissions: evidence from Asian-8 countries using panel data analysis.

The developing world is facing pivotal challenges in recent times. Among these, global warming has ominous repercussions on every segment of society, thus tracing its underlying causes is imperative. This research attempts to investigate the impact of urbanization and energy consumption on carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) for a panel of 8 Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) over the period 1982 to 2017. The analyses are executed using panel co-integration and Granger causality techniques. The main findings of panel co-integration reveal a long-run relationship between urbanization, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the results indicate a positive and significant impact of urbanization and energy consumption on CO2 emissions, indicating that urban development and high energy consumptions are barriers to improve environmental quality in the long run. The results also highlight bi-directional causality between energy consumption and urbanization, while unidirectional causality exists between energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Based on the obtained results, this study offers useful policy implications for plummeting carbon emissions.

Chromatography Based Metabolomics and In Silico Screening of Gymnema sylvestre Leaf Extract for Its Antidiabetic Potential.

Gymnema sylvestre, popularly known as gurmar, is extensively used in traditional systems of medicine for diabetes, stomach ailments, liver diseases, and cardiac disorders. Dried leaf powder of G. sylvestre was extracted through soxhlation using 70% (v/v) alcohol. The hydroalcoholic extract was concentrated to 1/4th of its volume and basified to isolate gymnemic acid enriched extract using chloroform. The isolated extract was checked for its antioxidant potential against 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH), which showed scavenging activity of 82.31% at 80 µg/mL of extract. Quality control analysis of the extract was carried out by TLC. Chloroform and methanol (9.5:0.5, v/v) were used as a solvent system and separated compounds were detected at 254 and 366 nm. A total of 13 metabolites were separated. However, major peaks were at Rf 0.12, 0.69, 0.79, and 0.85. Further, UPLC-MS fingerprinting of the extract was done using acetonitrile and 0.5% formic acid in water as mobile phase in gradient elution mode. A total of 21 metabolites were separated and tentatively identified from the database. Deacyl gymnemic acid and quercetin are the two major metabolites found in the extract. Gymnemic acid, deacyl gymnemic acid, and quercetin were docked with ten different proteins associated with glucose metabolism, transport, and glucose utilization. It has been observed that gymnemic acid was more potent than deacyl gymnemic acid in terms of binding affinity towards proteins and showed a favorable interaction with amino acid residues at the active site. Thus, the present study gives an insight of identified metabolites with protein interaction and a reason for the hypoglycemic potential of deacyl gymnemic acid enriched extract, which can be further explored for in vitro and in vivo studies to establish its phytopharmacological and therapeutic effect.

Hypoglycemic Potential of Aqueous Extract of Moringa oleifera Leaf and In Vivo GC-MS Metabolomics.

Moringa oleifera Lam. (family; Moringaceae), commonly known as drumstick, have been used for centuries as a part of the Ayurvedic system for several diseases without having any scientific data. Demineralized water was used to prepare aqueous extract by maceration for 24 h and complete metabolic profiling was performed using GC-MS and HPLC. Hypoglycemic properties of extract have been tested on carbohydrate digesting enzyme activity, yeast cell uptake, muscle glucose uptake, and intestinal glucose absorption. Type 2 diabetes was induced by feeding high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks and a single injection of streptozotocin (STZ, 45 mg/kg body weight, intraperitoneally) was used for the induction of type 1 diabetes. Aqueous extract of M. oleifera leaf was given orally at a dose of 100 mg/kg to STZ-induced rats and 200 mg/kg in HFD mice for 3 weeks after diabetes induction. Aqueous extract remarkably inhibited the activity of α-amylase and α-glucosidase and it displayed improved antioxidant capacity, glucose tolerance and rate of glucose uptake in yeast cell. In STZ-induced diabetic rats, it produces a maximum fall up to 47.86% in acute effect whereas, in chronic effect, it was 44.5% as compared to control. The fasting blood glucose, lipid profile, liver marker enzyme level were significantly (p < 0.05) restored in both HFD and STZ experimental model. Multivariate principal component analysis on polar and lipophilic metabolites revealed clear distinctions in the metabolite pattern in extract and in blood after its oral administration. Thus, the aqueous extract can be used as phytopharmaceuticals for the management of diabetes by using as adjuvants or alone.

Macrolide resistance in Streptococcus species.

BACKGROUND: The Streptococci are Gram-positive spherical bacteria (cocci) that characteristically form pairs and chains during growth. Some macrolide-resistant bacteria lack the proper receptor on the ribosome (through methylation of the rRNA). This may be under plasmid or chromosomal control. AIM AND OBJECTIVES: The aim was to study the prevalence of macrolide resistance among the isolate and evaluate the degree of resistance by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method. And also to detect the phenotypic pattern of macrolide resistance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All age group attending general medicine OPD and pediatric OPD with symptoms of respiratory and pyogenic infections are included in the study. Various samples are collected with detailed case history and processed for macrolide resistance among beta hemolytic Streptococci MIC method and D-test. RESULTS: According to our studies resistance pattern in Group A Streptococci by D-test, cMLS was 27.85%, iMLS was 13.92%, M-type was 55.69%, in GCS, cMLS was 17.6%, M-type was 82.35% In GGS, cMLS was 31.58%, iMLS was 10.53% and M-type was 57.89%. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore by this study, we would like to highlight the necessity to do antibiotic sensitivity testing for all isolates, and limit the usage of antibiotics, whenever necessary and select the appropriate antibiotics for resistant strains.