Spectroscopic, computational, cytotoxicity, and docking studies of 6-bromobenzimidazole as anti-breast cancer agent.

6-Bromobenzimidazole (6BBZ) has been calculated in this study utilizing the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set and the Becke-3-Lee-Yang-Parr density functional approaches. The basic frequencies and geometric optimization are known. FTIR, FT-Raman, and UV-Vis spectra of the substance are compared between its computed and observed values. The energy gap between highest occupied molecular orbital-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital and molecule electrostatic potentials has been represented by charge density distributions that may be associated with the biological response. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations in the gas phase and dimethyl sulfoxide were carried out to ascertain the electronic properties and energy gap values using the same basis set. Molecular orbital contributions are investigated using the overlap population, partial, and total densities of states. Natural bond analysis was found to have strong electron delocalization by means of π(C4-C9) → π*(C5-C6), LP (N1) → π*(C7-C8), and LP(Br12) → π*(C5-C6) interactions. The Fukui function and Mulliken analysis have been explored on the atomic charges of the molecule. The nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shifts for 1 H and 13 C have been computed using the gauge-independent atomic orbital technique. With the highest binding affinity (-6.2 kcal mol-1 ) against estrogen sulfotransferase receptor (PDB ID: 1AQU) and low IC50 value of 17.23 µg/mL, 6BBZ demonstrated potent action against the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Studies on the antibacterial activity and ADMET prediction of the molecule have also been carried out.

'Ironing out the risk': Assessing the effect of plateletpheresis donation frequency on iron stores in South-Asian male donors.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Repeated blood donation is a well-known cause of iron deficiency among donors. However, present scientific literature lacks comprehensive evidence regarding the impact of regular plateletpheresis procedures on body iron reserves. In this study, we aimed to detect and correlate iron deficiency (using iron indices) with the frequency of platelet donations. Additionally, we also analysed the correlation between other iron and haematological indices with serum ferritin to determine cost-effective parameters that may serve as an initial screening approach to determine which donors should be subjected to serum ferritin testing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 180 male participants from our platelet donor registry were enrolled in this observational cross-sectional study. Enrolment questionnaires were administered to eligible donors, and biological samples were collected during plateletpheresis donation. Biological tests such as complete blood count, reticulocyte indices, iron indices, vitamin B12 and folate were performed. RESULTS: Donors with ≥12 donations per year showed the highest prevalence of low ferritin (serum ferritin: 15-30 ng/mL) and absent iron stores (serum ferritin <15 ng/mL) (41.3% and 26.7%, respectively). Ferritin showed a significant negative correlation with recent (r = -0.346) and lifetime donations (r = -0.196). The efficacy of other indices for identifying iron depletion was much better using a serum ferritin value <15 ng/mL. CONCLUSION: Regular plateletpheresis donations can lead to varying severities of non-anaemic iron deficiency. Blood centres must regularly monitor frequent plateletpheresis donors (especially donors with more than 11 donations in a calendar year) and ideally maintain their serum ferritin above 30 ng/mL.

Hybrid Optimization Algorithm Enabled Deep Learning Approach Brain Tumor Segmentation and Classification Using MRI.

The unnatural and uncontrolled increase of brain cells is called brain tumors, leading to human health danger. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is widely applied for classifying and detecting brain tumors, due to its better resolution. In general, medical specialists require more details regarding the size, type, and changes in small lesions for effective classification. The timely and exact diagnosis plays a major role in the efficient treatment of patients. Therefore, in this research, an efficient hybrid optimization algorithm is implemented for brain tumor segmentation and classification. The convolutional neural network (CNN) features are extracted to perform a better classification. The classification is performed by considering the extracted features as the input of the deep residual network (DRN), in which the training is performed using the proposed chronological Jaya honey badger algorithm (CJHBA). The proposed CJHBA is the integration of the Jaya algorithm, honey badger algorithm (HBA), and chronological concept. The performance is evaluated using the BRATS 2018 and Figshare datasets, in which the maximum accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity are attained using the BRATS dataset with values 0.9210, 0.9313, and 0.9284, respectively.

Zinc substituted hydroxyapatite/silk fiber/methylcellulose nanocomposite for bone tissue engineering applications.

Fibrous bio-composite based on silk fiber (SF), methylcellulose (MC) and zinc substituted hydroxyapatite (ZnxCa5-x (PO4)3(OH) (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 1.0)) were obtained with the use of electrospinning (E-Spin) method. XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDAX, swelling, porosity and mechanical properties of the composites were analyzed. The elongation at break (%) (20.97-317.20 %) and tensile strength (29.85-110.92 MPa) of nanocomposites was increased with an increase in the wt% of Zn-HAP in SF/MC. An increase in the zone of inhibition with an increase in the wt% of Zn-HAP into the SF/MC was observed against E. coli (34 ± 0.33 to 47 ± 1.15), S. aureus (28 ± 0.24 to 38 ± 1.32) and C. albicans (24 ± 0.36 to 39 ± 2.36). The in-vitro biomineralization study using SBF (simulated body fluid) showed apatite layer formation on the nano-composite. In addition, the optimized (20 wt % of Zn1.0Ca4.0(PO4)3(OH)/SF/MC) nano-composite showed good cell viability against human bone osteosarcoma (MG-63) cells.

Synthesis of cerium and bismuth doped nickel aluminate for the photodegradation of methylene blue, methyl orange and rhodamine B dyes.

In the current research, NiAl2O4, NiAl1.98Bi0.02O4 and NiAl1.98Ce0.02O4 are fabricated by the sol-gel method. Doping of larger ions (Ce3+ and Bi3+) into smaller aluminium ion lattice increased the lattice constant from 8.0091 Å to 8.9732 Å and 8.0272 Å respectively. XPS spectra of NiAl1.98Ce0.02O4 confirmed the existence of Ce ion in Ce3+ and Ce4+. Spherical shaped particles with visible pores are noticed in the Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The bandgap of the tailored materials has decreased to 2.25 eV and 2.98 eV and increased the catalytic efficiency due to the decrease in electron-hole pair recombination rate. The photocatalytic efficiency of the materials was tested against methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine B (RhB) dyes. In the case of MB degradation, the efficiency of nickel aluminate (0.5 mg/mL) was 54% under UV light irradiation after 60 min, which was increased to 94% and 89% through cerium doped and bismuth doped nickel aluminate catalyst respectively. A drastic increase from 31% to 94% (NiAl1.98Ce0.02O4) and 91% (NiAl1.98Bi0.02O4) was noticed against MO degradation. Doping of cerium and bismuth in nickel aluminate enhanced the photocatalytic activity against the selected coloured organic pollutants.

The determinants of donor safety and product quality in optimization of apheresis granulocyte harvest: An experience from a tertiary care oncology centre in India.

Allogeneic granulocyte transfusions play a substantial role in treatment of lifethreatening neutropenia-associated infections in patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Granulocyte harvest by apheresis is considered a safe and effective method to obtain adequate therapeutic granulocyte dosage for clinical effectiveness. This study described the experiences associated with apheresis granulocyte harvest procedures in our tertiary care haemato-oncology centre. We have analysed the incidence of adverse events (AEs) with associated potential risk factors contributing to donor safety and improvement in product quality. Retrospective data of 131 healthy allogeneic donors who underwent granulocyte harvest from May 2016 to July 2020 were analyzed. AEs were observed in overall 29 procedures (22.13%), including 14.50% citrate reactions, 7.6% venous access-related reactions, and 1.52% vasovagal reactions. Older age (p = 0.012) and higher body mass index (p = 0.015) in donors were significant variables found associated with a higher incidence of AEs. There was no significant impact of AEs on granulocyte product yield (p = 0.41) with a median collection yield of 1.73 × 10 10 cells/ unit. In multivariate analysis, post-mobilization parameters like total leukocyte counts (p = 0.036), absolute neutrophil counts (p = 0.042), and platelet counts (p = 0.006) showed a positive correlation with higher product yield. All the donors successfully donated and tolerated granulocyte colony stimulating factor plus dexamethasone mobilization and granulocyte apheresis harvest without any serious AEs. Our study shows that optimal technical and procedural modifications during apheresis granulocyte harvest procedures can overcome the associated potential risks by providing donor safety and improving product quality.

Synthesis, characterization of acrylate polymer having chalcone moiety: evaluation of antimicrobial, anticancer and drug release study.

This article describes synthesis, characterization, antimicrobial, drug-releasing and anti-cancer activity of acrylate monomer and its polymer containing chalcone moiety. The synthesized polymers were characterized through IR, 1H NMR and UV-visible spectroscopy techniques. The molecular weight of the obtained polymer is found to be around 4000 g/mol. The synthesized polymers are thermally stable up to 260 °C. The monomer and its polymer show higher activity against gram-negative bacteria and these compounds show remarkable activity over breast cancer cells. The synthesized monomer and polymers showed higher anticancer activity. The inhibitory potential of monomers and polymers premeditated using optimized in vitro evaluation MTT assay and live cell images. The drug release potential was controlled through co-monomer, pH and temperature.

Diagnostic dilemma of an isolated inguinal clinical cold abscess - ? Suppurative,? EPTB, ? NTM infection- a rare and interesting case report.

Cold abscess is an abscess without local pain and warmth and it usually accompanies Tuberculosis. The site varied depending upon the organ affected and cervical region is the commonly affected one. Cyto-morphology of cold abscess usually showed caseation type of necrosis, lymphocytes and granuloma with degenerated epithelioid cells. Here we presented an inguinal cold abscess in 9 years old girl with unique cyto-morphology of plenty of neutrophils, foam cells and lymphocytes in fine needle aspiration smear without caseation necrosis and epithelioid cells. Presence of Mycobacterium in the aspirated pus was proved by Ziehl-Neelsen as well as Auramine fluorescent staining. This characteristic cyto-morphology of mycobacterium infection mimicking pyogenic abscess emphasizes the importance of Ziehl-Neelsen staining in all abscess for early specific diagnosis and effective treatment.

Innovative nano-carriers in anticancer drug delivery-a comprehensive review.

In the scientific field, nanotechnology has offered multipurpose and designated functional nanoparticles (NPs) for the development of applications in nano-medicine. This present review focuses on cutting edge of nanotechnology in biomedical applications as drug carries in cancer treatment. The nanotechnology overcomes several limitations of drug delivery systems used in distinct therapeutic approaches of cancer treatment. The serious effect of conventional chemotherapeutics by nonspecific targeting, the lack of solubility, and the inability of chemotherapeutics entry to cancer cells which, offers a great opportunity for nanotechnology to play significant roles in cancer biology. The selective delivery of nano-drugs to the targeted cancer cells by the programmed way and avoiding nonspecific interactions to the healthy cells. The present review focuses on the methods of improving the size, shape and characteristics of nanomaterials which can be exploited for cancer therapy. The successful designing of nanocarriers can be tailored for cancer treatment for upcoming future as nano-medicines.

Two-dimensional bismuth oxybromide coupled with molybdenum disulphide for enhanced dye degradation using low power energy-saving light bulb.

In the present work, two-dimensional bismuth oxybromide (BiOBr) was synthesized and coupled with co-catalyst molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) via a simple hydrothermal process. The photoactivity of the resulting hybrid photocatalyst (MoS2/BiOBr) was evaluated under the irradiation of 15 W energy-saving light bulb at ambient condition using Reactive Black 5 (RB5) as model dye solution. The photo-degradation of RB5 by BiOBr loaded with 0.2 wt% MoS2 (MoBi-2) exhibited more than 1.4 and 5.0 folds of enhancement over pristine BiOBr and titanium dioxide (Degussa, P25), respectively. The increased photocatalytic performance was a result of an efficient migration of excited electrons from BiOBr to MoS2, prolonging the electron-hole pairs recombination rate. A possible charge transfer diagram of this hybrid composite photocatalyst, and the reaction mechanism for the photodegradation of RB5 were proposed.

Is long term storage of cryopreserved stem cells for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation a worthwhile exercise in developing countries?

BACKGROUND: Stem cell units (SCUs) that are cryopreserved prior to both autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants (for donor lymphocyte infusion) remain unused or partially used several times, and become an increased burden to blood banks/SCU repositories. Because of the scarcity of data regarding the duration for which the storage is useful, there is no general consensus regarding disposal of SCUs. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective audit of SCU utilization in 435 patients who planned to undergo either autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT) (N=239) or allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) (N=196) at a tertiary cancer care center between November 2007 to January 2015. RESULTS: Our cohort consisted of 1,728 SCUs stored for conducting auto-SCT and 729 SCUs stored for conducting donor lymphocyte infusions (DLIs) after allo-SCT. Stem cells were not infused in 12.5% of patients who had planned to undergo auto-SCT, and 80% of patients who underwent allo-SCT never received DLI. Forty-one percent of SCUs intended for use in auto-SCT remained unutilized, with a second auto-SCT being performed only in 4 patients. Ninety-four percent of SCUs intended for carrying out DLIs remained unused, with only minimal usage observed one year after undergoing allo-SCT. CONCLUSION: The duration of storage of unused SCUs needs to be debated upon, so that a consensus can be reached regarding the ethical disposal of SCU.

Novel T-C@AgNPs mediated biocidal mechanism against biofilm associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (Bap-MRSA) 090, cytotoxicity and its molecular docking studies.

Staphylococcus aureus is a commonly found pathogen that can cause food-spoilage and life threatening infections. However, the potential molecular effects of natural active thymol molecules and chitosan silver nanoparticles (C@AgNPs) in bacteria remain unclear. This gap in the literature has prompted us to study the effects of thymol loaded chitosan silver nanoparticles (T-C@AgNPs) against biofilm associated proteins in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (Bap-MRSA) 090 and also their toxicity, anti-cancer activity, and validation of their in silico molecular docking. The results showed excellent antibacterial activity of T-C@AgNPs against Bap-MRSA 090, having a minimum inhibitory concentration of 100 µg mL-1 and a 10.08 ± 0.06 mm zone of inhibition (ZOI). The cyclic voltammogram (CV) analysis clearly showed pore forming of T-C@AgNPs at 300 µg mL-1 concentration, and evidence of the interruption of the electron transport chain was clearly seen. The 200 µg mL-1 concentration exhibited a 52.60 ± 0.25% anti-biofilm property by T-C@AgNPs against Bap-MRSA 090. The T-C@AgNPs showed no toxicity to peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) (IC50 = 221 ± 0.71 µg mL-1) compared to the control, and anti-cancer activity against human triple negative breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231) (IC50 110 ± 1.0 µg mL-1) compared to the standard drug Doxorubicin (IC50 = 19 ± 1.0). The excellent properties of T-C@AgNPs were validated by in silico molecular docking studies and showed best match scoring to target proteins compared to standards. These excellent properties of T-C@AgNPs highlight for the first time its pharmacology and potential in medicinal drug development applications for future research.

Is long term storage of cryopreserved stem cells for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation a worthwhile exercise in developing countries?

BACKGROUND: Stem cell units (SCUs) that are cryopreserved prior to both autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants (for donor lymphocyte infusion) remain unused or partially used several times, and become an increased burden to blood banks/SCU repositories. Because of the scarcity of data regarding the duration for which the storage is useful, there is no general consensus regarding disposal of SCUs. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective audit of SCU utilization in 435 patients who planned to undergo either autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT) (N=239) or allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) (N=196) at a tertiary cancer care center between November 2007 to January 2015. RESULTS: Our cohort consisted of 1,728 SCUs stored for conducting auto-SCT and 729 SCUs stored for conducting donor lymphocyte infusions (DLIs) after allo-SCT. Stem cells were not infused in 12.5% of patients who had planned to undergo auto-SCT, and 80% of patients who underwent allo-SCT never received DLI. Forty-one percent of SCUs intended for use in auto-SCT remained unutilized, with a second auto-SCT being performed only in 4 patients. Ninety-four percent of SCUs intended for carrying out DLIs remained unused, with only minimal usage observed one year after undergoing allo-SCT. CONCLUSION: The duration of storage of unused SCUs needs to be debated upon, so that a consensus can be reached regarding the ethical disposal of SCU.

Endometrial Cholesterol Granuloma Associated with Prolapsed Uterus- A Rare Case Report with Unusual Clinical Presentation.

Cholesterol granuloma is a chronic inflammatory reaction to cholesterol deposition. It may develop in variety of sites including middle ear, mastoid process, para nasal sinuses, mediastinum, breast, testis and kidney. But endometrial cholesterol granuloma is a rarely reported case and is usually presented clinically as pyometra. This article reports a case of cholesterol granuloma in the endometrium associated with prolapsed uterus. In this case the patient clinically presented with urinary retention and overflow incontinence of urine. The reason of acute urinary retention in this case was pelvic fibrosis and adhesion secondary to this chronic inflammatory reaction. This was supported by the presence of pus like yellowish material over the uterine surface and pelvic adhesion, noted during surgery. Endometrial biopsy revealed cholesterol granuloma that confirmed the source of chronic inflammatory reaction and pelvic fibrosis.

A wavelet transform based feature extraction and classification of cardiac disorder.

This paper approaches an intellectual diagnosis system using hybrid approach of Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) model for classification of Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. This method is based on using Symlet Wavelet Transform for analyzing the ECG signals and extracting the parameters related to dangerous cardiac arrhythmias. In these particular parameters were used as input of ANFIS classifier, five most important types of ECG signals they are Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR), Atrial Fibrillation (AF), Pre-Ventricular Contraction (PVC), Ventricular Fibrillation (VF), and Ventricular Flutter (VFLU) Myocardial Ischemia. The inclusion of ANFIS in the complex investigating algorithms yields very interesting recognition and classification capabilities across a broad spectrum of biomedical engineering. The performance of the ANFIS model was evaluated in terms of training performance and classification accuracies. The results give importance to that the proposed ANFIS model illustrates potential advantage in classifying the ECG signals. The classification accuracy of 98.24 % is achieved.

Seroprevalence of human parvovirus B19 in healthy blood donors.

BACKGROUND: Human parvovirus B19 is an emerging transfusion transmitted infection. Although parvovirus B19 infection is connected with severe complications in some recipients, donor screening is not yet mandatory. To reduce the risk of contamination, plasma-pool screening and exclusion of highly viraemic donations are recommended. In this study the prevalence of parvovirus B19 in healthy blood donors was detected by ELISA. METHODS: A total of 1633 samples were screened for IgM and IgG antibodies against parvovirus B19 by ELISA. The initial 540 samples were screened for both IgM and IgG class antibodies and remaining 1093 samples were screened for only IgM class antibodies by ELISA. RESULTS: Net prevalence of IgM antibodies to human parvovirus B19 in our study was 7.53% and prevalence of IgG antibodies was 27.96%. Dual positivity (IgG and IgM) was 2.40%. CONCLUSION: The seroprevalence of human parvovirus B19 among blood donor population in our study is high, and poses an adverse transfusion risk especially in high-risk group of patients who have no detectable antibodies to B19. Studies with large sample size are needed to validate these results.

Characterization of oats (Avena sativa L.) cultivars using machine vision.

Machine vision or image analysis is an important tool in the study of morphology of any materials. This technique has been used successfully to differentiate the eleven oats cultivars based on morphological characters. The geometry of seeds was measured through image analyzer and the variation was observed and recorded. From the recorded data, the cluster analysis was carried out and it revealed that the cultivars could be grouped into two main clusters based on similarity in the measured parameters. Cultivar Sabzar, UPO 212, OL 9 and OL 88 formed one main cluster. The another main cluster includes cv. Kent, OS 6, UPO 94, HFO 114, OS 7, HJ 8 and JHO 822 with many sub clusters. Among the cultivars HJ 8 and JHO 822 has more similarity in all measured parameters than other cultivars. Thus morphological characterization through seed image analysis was found useful to discriminate the cultivars.

Synthesis and studies on Cu(II), Co(II), Ni(II) complexes of Knoevenagel ß-diketone ligands.

Transition metal complexes of various acetylacetone based ligands of the type ML [where M=Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II); L=3-(aryl)-pentane-2,4-dione] have been synthesized. The structural features have been derived from their elemental analysis, magnetic susceptibility, molar conductance, IR, UV-Vis, (1)H NMR, Mass and ESR spectral studies. Conductivity measurements reveal that all the complexes are non-electrolytic in nature. Spectroscopic and other analytical data of the complexes suggest octahedral geometry for other metal(II) complexes. The redox behavior of the copper(II) complexes have been studied by cyclic voltammetry. The free ligands and their metal complexes have been screened for their in vitro biological activities against the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus as well as the fungus Candida albicans by well diffusion method. The zone of inhibition value indicates that the most of the metal(II) complexes are found to possess increased activities compared to those of the free ligands. All synthesized compounds may serve as potential photoactive materials as indicated from their characteristic fluorescence properties. The second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency of the ligands (L1-L3) was found to be considerable effect than that of urea and KDP (potassium dihydrogen phosphate).

Simultaneous removal of carbon and nutrients from an industrial estate wastewater in a single up-flow aerobic/anoxic sludge bed (UAASB) bioreactor.

Simultaneous removal of carbon and nutrients (CNP) in a single bioreactor is highly significant for energy consumption and control of reactor volume. Basically, nutrients removal is dependant to the ratio of biochemical oxygen demand to chemical oxygen demand (BOD5/COD). Thus, in this study the treatment of an industrial estate wastewater with low BOD5/COD ratio in an up-flow aerobic/anoxic sludge bed (UAASB) bioreactor, with an intermittent regime in aeration and discharge, was investigated. Hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 12-36 h and aeration time of 40-60 min/h were selected as the operating variables to analyze, optimize and model the process. In order to analyze the process, 13 dependent parameters as the process responses were studied. From the results, it was found, increasing HRT decreases the CNP removal efficiencies. However, by increasing the BOD5 fraction of the feed, the total COD (TCOD), slowly biodegradable COD (sbCOD), readily biodegradable COD (rbCOD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) removal efficiencies were remarkably increased. Population of heterotrophic, nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria showed good agreement with the results obtained for TCOD and TN removal. The optimum conditions were determined as 12-15 h and 40-60 min/h for HRT and aeration time respectively.

Unsymmetrical tetrasubstituted ureas from tertiary carbamoylimidazole: activation by AlMe3.

An efficient and general method for the synthesis of unsymmetrical tetrasubstituted ureas from carbamoylimidazole is described. The conversion is achieved by the concurrent quarternization of the imidazole nitrogen and activation of amines with AlMe(3).