Predominant Motor Delay as a Major Presenting Clinical Sign in Cutis Laxa- Report of a Case with Review of Literature.

Cutis laxa is a set of genetically heterogeneous conditions with phenotypes ranging from progeria-like appearance, corneal clouding, clenched fingers with marked retardation of growth both pre and postnatal growth to very mild phenotypes with skin laxity becoming evident in 2nd or 3rd decade. A child who presents with predominant motor delay is written off with a clinical diagnosis of rickets in the absence of any clinical sign of lax skin. Here, we report a 2-year-old child who presented with motor delay and joint hyperlaxity. Mutation analysis demonstrated a heterozygous mutationc.G1867A in the exon 15 of ALDH18A1 gene known to cause autosomal dominant cutis laxa.

Bio-prospecting of soil Streptomyces and its bioassay-guided isolation of microbial derived auxin with antifungal properties.

The present study was aimed to isolate bioactive actinomycetes with antifungal properties. Twenty-seven distinct soil derived actinomycetes were investigated for their antifungal activities. Among these, one isolate exhibited significant antifungal activity. Phenotypic and 16s rRNA gene sequence analysis strongly suggested that the active isolate BG4 belonged to the genus Streptomyces. Further, the chemical investigation of the active extract resulted in the isolation of a major compound and it was structurally elucidated as phenyl acetic acid (PAA). PAA exhibited promising antifungal activity with 100% inhibition, ranging from 31.25 to 25µg/mL. It is to be noted that PAA is naturally occurring and biologically active auxin. In addition, it has also been hypothesized that phytohormone endorsing the source of soil-symbionts has similar pathways for synthesizing compounds and its congeners of host due to horizontal gene transfer. These findings demonstrate that microbially derived phytohormone can be used to treat fungal infections.

Crystal structure of methyl 1-methyl-2-oxo-spiro-[indoline-3,2'-oxirane]-3'-carboxyl-ate.

In the title compound, C12H11NO4, the dihedral angle between the indole ring system (r.m.s. deviation = 0.019 Å) and the oxirane ring is 88.8 (2)°. The oxirane O atom and the bridging ester O atom are in an approximate syn conformation [O-C-C-O = -25.4 (3)°] In the crystal, inversion dimers linked by pair of C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds generate R 2 (2)(8) loops, where the C-H donor group forms part of the oxirane ring. A second C-H⋯O inter-action arising from one of the C-H groups of the benzene ring links the dimers into [001] double chains.

Crystal structure of methyl (E)-2-(1-methyl-2-oxoindolin-3-yl-idene)acetate.

The title compound, C12H11NO3, is essentially planar, with the mean plane of the acetate side chain [-C-C(=O)-O-C] being inclined to the mean plane of the indole ring system by 12.49 (7)°. The five- and six-membered rings of the indole group are almost coplanar, making a dihedral angle of 1.76 (8)°. The conformation about the C=C bond is E and there is an intra-molecular C-H⋯O hydrogen bond present. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by pairs of C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds forming inversion dimers, with an R 2 (2)(16) ring motif. The dimers are linked by a second pair of C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, enclosing R 2 (2)(16) ring motifs, forming ribbons lying parallel to (-114). The ribbons are linked via C-H⋯π inter-actions, forming a three-dimensional structure.

(4S)-3-Methyl-5,6,7,8-tetra-hydro-4H-spiro-[[1,2]oxazolo[5,4-b]quinoline-4,3'-indole]-2',5-dione.

In the title compound, C18H15N3O3, the dihedral angle between the mean planes of the quinoline and indole ring systems [r.m.s. deviations = 0.189 (2) and 0.027 (2) Å, respectively] is 88.65 (5)°. The cyclo-hexene ring of the quinoline ring system adopts an envelope conformation with the central -CH2- C atom as the flap. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by two pairs of N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming inversion dimers, and enclosing R 2 (2)(14) ring motifs. This arrangement results in the formation of chains propagating along [100].

3'-[Hy-droxy(4-oxo-4H-chromen-3-yl)meth-yl]-2-oxospiro-[indoline-3,2'-pyrrolidine]-3'-carbonitrile.

In the title compound, C(23)H(19)N(3)O(4), the pyran ring adopts a half-chair conformation, while the pyrrolidine (with a C atom as the flap atom) and the five-membered ring in the indoline (with a C atom as the flap atom) ring system adopt slight envelope conformations. The pyrrolidine ring makes dihedral angles of 83.3 (1) and 60.4 (1)° with the mean plane through all non-H atoms of the indoline and chromene ring systems, respectively. In the crystal, mol-ecules are connected by two unique N-H⋯O and O-H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter-actions, which form centrosymmetric patterns described by graph-set motifs R(2) (2)(18) and R(2) (2)(14). These two motifs combine to form a hydrogen-bonded chain which propagates in the a-axis direction. The crystal structure is also stablized by C-H⋯O inter-actions and by aromatic π-π stacking inter-actions between the pyran and benzene rings of neighbouring mol-ecules [centroid-centroid distance = 3.755 (1) Šand slippage = 1.371 (2) Å].

3D deconvolution of spherically aberrated images using commercial software.

Refractive index mismatch between the specimen and the objective immersion oil results in spherical aberration, which causes distortion and spreading of the point spread function, as well as incorrect readings of the axial coordinates. These effects have to be taken into account when performing three-dimensional restoration of wide-field fluorescence images. By using objects with well-defined geometry (fluorescently stained Escherichia coli or actin filaments) separated from a cover slip by a layer of oil with known refractive index, we investigated the accuracy of three-dimensional shape restoration by the commercial programs Huygens and Autoquant. Aberration correction available in the software dramatically reduced the axial blur compared to deconvolution that ignored the refractive index mismatch. At the same time, it failed to completely recover the cylindrical symmetry of bacteria or of actin fibres, which showed up to a three to five times larger width along the optical axis compared to the lateral plane. The quality of restoration was only moderately sensitive to the exact values of the specimen refractive index but in some cases improved significantly by assuming a reduced NA of the objective. Because image restoration depends on the knowledge of the vertical scale, we also performed detailed measurements of the axial scaling factor and concluded (in agreement with some previous authors) that scaling is adequately described by the simple paraxial formula, even when high-NA oil-immersion objectives are used.

Hepatoprotective property of Thespesia populnea against carbon tetrachloride induced liver damage in rats.

The present study was carried out to evaluate the possible hepatoprotective activities of the medicinal plant Thespesia populnea in carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver injury in rats. The water suspension (500 mg/kg b.wt.) of leaf, flower and stem bark of T. populnea showed varying levels of protective action against CCl4-induced liver damage as evidenced from significant reduction in the activities of serum marker enzymes for liver damage (alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, and alkaline phosphatase), and bilirubin levels when compared with CCl4-intoxicated control rats. The stem bark suspension showed maximum hepatoprotection compared with leaf and flower. An ethanol extract of the stem bark was more active than n-hexane and water extracts, showing remarkable protection at a dose of 60 mg/kg b.wt. The hepatoprotective effect of this extract was almost comparable to that of silymarin (100 mg/kg), a reference herbal drug. Thus, the present study indicates that ethanol extract of T. populnea stem bark is promising for further studies leading to hepatoprotective drug development.