Paper presentation abstracts Medical microbiology
Title: Swine flu(swine influenza)- The deadly disease . Authors: K.Naga Sarvani and Nandashree .B.S One of the deadly diseases due to which world is in terror from past few months is SWINE FLU(swine influenza) which is first seen in Mexico. It should be termed novel H1N1 flu since it is mainly found infecting people and exhibits two main surface antigens, H1 (hemagglutinin type 1) and N1 (neuraminidase type1).Many researchers now consider that two main series of events can lead to swine flu becoming a major cause for influenza illness in humans. First, the influenza viruses (types A, B, C) are enveloped RNA viruses with a segmented genome; this means the viral RNA genetic code is not a single strand of RNA but exists as eight different RNA segments in the influenza viruses. Second, pigs can play a unique role as an intermediary host to new flu types because pig respiratory cells can be infected directly with bird, human, and other mammalian flu viruses. It is a respiratory disease caused by H1N1virus that infect the respiratory tract of pigs and result in nasal secretions, barking like cough, decreased appetite, and listless behavior. It can directly spread from pigs to people and vice versa from close proximity. There are various ways of investigations made are RT-PCR, Viral culture, Detection of antibodies. The standard infection control, which includes frequent washing of hands with soap and water or with alcohol based hand sanitizers. Since it is resistant to antiviral modern medicines, it is fatal. Source: internet
Cystic fibrosis Dhwani Ojha, 7th semester Department of biotechnology, Sapthagiri College of Engineering, Bangalore-560057 Email id- dhwani.biotech@gmail.com Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common diseases in children, wherein India has over 2500 children born with it every year. India has become a major hub for pharmaceutical, biotech manufacturing as well as contract research activities. There by unfolding the prospects of molecular drug designing. The designing is done by using CADD (Computer Aided Dry Designing) that helps to build an atomistic or virtual model to predict activity, affinity, toxicity on the pharmacokinetic parameter of the existing or hypothetic molecule. A mutant sequence (responsible for the disease) is created using Bio edit. The gene coding for the particular protein is found and is blasted to find similarities and the functional properties of the protein sequence. Modelling of the sequence (delta)F508 is done. It is then followed by prediction of ligands, which is processed for energy minimization. The macromolecular target (delta)F508 was docked with suitable ligand. This docked result was compared with the results obtained from docking the same target with drug like molecules exhibiting similar structures in order to understand the inhibitory mechanism. Based on the score and interaction the best molecule among them was chosen which can be used for further dry designing.
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Oncology Megha BIrdar Nishitha Nagabhushana Oncology (from the Ancient Greek onkos , meaning bulk, mass, or tumor, and the suffix -logy (λογία), meaning "study of") is a branch of medicine that deals with tumors (cancer).The cell is the basic unit of life. All organisms are composed of one or more cells. All cells, regardless of their function or location in the body, share common features and processes. Amazingly, cells are comprised almost entirely of just four basic types of molecules. Even though cancer cells are abnormal, they still require oxygen and nutrients. The development of blood vessels is an essential step in the growth of a tumor. Without vessels tumors cannot grow to be larger than a small fraction of an inch. the area around the cells in a tumor starts to get too far from a blood vessel, the oxygen and nutrient levels start to go down. A decrease in oxygen is also called hypoxia. Hypoxia triggers changes in the behavior of the tumor cells
DIABETES MELLITUS ROOPA.C & ANJALI K.R (3rd semester) Diabetes mellitus is a syndrome of impaired carbohydrate, fat & protein metabolism caused by either lack of insulin secretion or decreased sensitivity of the tissues to insulin. Insulin, a hormone released from the pancreas, controls the amount of sugar in the blood. When people eat or drink, food is broken down into materials, including the simple sugar glucose that the body needs to function. Sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream and stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin. The variation in blood sugar levels is usually within a narrow range, about 70 to 110 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) of blood. There are two general types of diabetes • •
Type I diabetes also referred to as JUVENILE DIABETES MELLITUS. Type II diabetes also referred to as ADULT ONSET DIABETES MELLITUS.
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NANOTECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS MEDICAL NANOBOTS:
SHRUTHI K YADAV. Someday, a man will walk into hospital with third degree brain cancer or diabetes, and within a few weeks, he will walk out with a healthy body and life without any operations. It will be possible in few decades by nanotechnology based applications like medical nanobots. Nanotechnology applications have excited many of us since nanotechnology came onto scene one among them is medical nanobots. Medical nanobots are tiny robots being used for medical purposes, with their implementation medical science would be revolutionized, and millions of people would be saved everyday. Theoretically implementations that nanobots have on the future of medicine is very large, its clear that focused research on this new field should definitely continue in order to effectively solve some of the obstacles that have been encountered today. By increasing our knowledge in the field of nanorobotics, we will be able to advance the medical science by many folds. Terminal diseases and damages of today will be fixed with the addition of a couple of nanobots through a simple syringe. Nanobot’s army attacks and kills cancer cells by injecting an RNA inhibitor that essentially starves the cells to death.The implications of nanobots in the medical field are infinite, and we are finding a new possibility every day. The speed at which nanorobotics is advancing is really amazing and advancement of medical nanobots will revolutionize the medical field. Source: By dark speed, Google medicine.\ Comparative study of gene therapy & stem cell therapy for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease Gurpreet Sanghera Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is mainly, but not exclusively, characterized by atrophy and death of nigrostriatal dopamine (DA) neurons. Mutations or duplications in the -synuclein ( -syn) gene were found to lead to PD in an autosomal dominant manner. There are various treatment options for curing Parkinson’s disease. In today’s scenario many experimental research work is in practice of which gene therapy and stem cell therapy are widely studied. Gene therapy is ‘the use of genes as medicine’ involving the transfer of a therapeutic gene into specific cells of an individual. Gene therapy involves encapsulated vector that delivers the genes into human cells in a pathogenic manner. The facts that make gene therapy for PD attractive are the symptoms of the disease that are caused by pathology in a highly specific localized brain region. Due to the fact that PD patients often live with the disease for many years, long-term to permanent delivery is probably required. Stem cells too help in understanding how they transform into the dazzling array of specialized cells. Pluripotent stem cells offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat a myriad of diseases, conditions, and disabilities including Parkinson's diseases. To conclude, we can say that both gene therapy and stem cell therapy have their own advantages and disadvantages in concern various technical and ethical issues..
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Stable RNA markers for identification of blood and saliva stains revealed from whole genome expression analysis of time-wise degraded samples Swathi, Adhvaryu Preya
Abstract Human body fluids such as blood and saliva represent the most common source of biological material found at a crime scene. Reliable tissue identification in forensic science can reveal significant insights into crime scene reconstruction and can thus contribute toward solving crimes. Limitations of existing presumptive tests for body fluid identification in forensics, which are usually based on chemoluminescence or protein analysis, are expected to be overcome by RNA-based methods, provided that stable RNA markers with tissue-specific expression patterns are available. To generate sets of stable RNA markers for reliable identification of blood and saliva stains we (1) performed whole-genome gene expression analyses on a series of time-wise degraded blood and saliva stain samples using the Affymetrix U133 plus2 GeneChip, (2) consulted expression databases to obtain additional information on tissue specificity, and (3) confirmed expression patterns of the most promising candidate genes by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction including additional forensically relevant tissues such as semen and vaginal secretion. Totally nine stable mRNA markers for blood and five stable mRNA markers for saliva detection were identified showing tissue-specific expression signals in stains aged up to 180 days of age, expectedly older. Although, all of the markers were able to differentiate blood/saliva from semen samples, none of them could differentiate vaginal secretion because of the complex nature of vaginal secretion and the biological similarity of buccal and vaginal mucosa. 14 stable mRNA markers were proposed for identification of blood and saliva stains in future forensic practice. Keywords: Body fluid identification, Gene expression, Blood, Saliva, Biological traces, RNA markers Source: Dmitry Zubakov,1 Eline Hanekamp,2 1
Department of Forensic Molecular Biology, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2
Department of Biology, Netherlands Forensic Institute, P.O. Box 24044, 2490 Den Haag, The Netherlands
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PLASTIC NANOPARTICLE ANTIBODIES
Priyanka Gupta Antibodies are globular proteins that are found in blood or other bodily fluids and are used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects called antigens and nano particles are ultrafine particles which behave as a whole unit in terms of its transport and properties having size of a few nanometers. In an attempt to mimic nature the technique of molecular imprinting has been developed which allows specific recognition sites to be formed in synthetic polymers through the use of templates. This unique technique of molecular imprinting has been utilized by scientists to build polymer/plastic antibodies which are 1/50,000th the width of human hair and are an artificial version of the proteins produced by the body’s immune system to recognize and fight infections and foreign substances which work in the blood stream of living animals.In this process the scientists gave lab mice lethal injections of melittin, the main toxin in bee venom which kills cells. Mice that then immediately received an injection of melittin-targeting plastic antibody showed a significantly higher rate of survival than that did not receive the nanoparticles. Never before have synthetic antibodies been shown to effectively function in living organisms .Such smart polymers could be fabricated for a variety of targets. This opens the door to serious consideration for these nanoparticles in all applications including the bio-medical field paving a way for the development of useful antibodies at a much faster rate and at a lower cost. REFERENCE: Yu Hoshino, Hiroyuki Koide, Takeo Urakami, Hiroaki Kanazawa, Takashi Kodama, Naoto Oku, Kenneth J. Shea.:, 2010; 132 (19): 6644 DOI: 10.1021/ja102148f
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Poster abstracts
Toxic and teratogenic silica nanowires in developing vertebrate embryos Swathi j,ramya CN,Preya
Abstract Silica-based nanomaterials show promise for biomedical applications such as cellselective drug delivery and bioimaging. They are easily functionalized, which allows for the conjugation or encapsulation of important biomolecules. Recent in vitro studies suggested that silica-derived nanomaterials are nontoxic, in vivo studies of silica nanomaterial toxicity have not been performed. Using the embryonic zebrafish as a model system, it is shown that silica nanomaterials with aspect ratios greater than 1 are highly toxic (LD50 = 110 pg/g embryo) and cause embryo deformities, whereas silica nonmaterial’s with an aspect ratio of 1 are neither toxic nor teratogenic at the same concentrations. Silica nanowires also interfere with neurulation and disrupt expression of sonic hedgehog, which encodes a key midline signaling factor. The results demonstrate the need for further testing of nanomaterials before they can be used as platforms for drug delivery. Silica-based nanomaterials show promise for biomedical applications such as cell-selective drug delivery and bioimaging. Using an embryonic zebrafish model system silica nanomaterials with aspect ratios greater than one were found to be highly toxic; whereas silica nanomaterials with an aspect ratio of one are neither toxic nor teratogenic. These results demonstrate the need for testing “nanomaterials� before they can be used as platforms for drug delivery. Keywords: Nanowires, Silica, Teratogenic, Toxicity, Zebrafish
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PLASTIC FROM PLANTS By Manasa Suresh and Pyanu, Third sem BT
The slow biodegradation rates of plastic materials have created a need for alternative materials with physical and industrial properties similar to petrochemical derived plastics but well biodegradable. A number of bioplastics based on cellulose, starch and polylactic acid (PLA) are common now a days. Unlike petroleum based plastics, these bioplastics can be conventionally managed, recycled and also landfilled, hence environmental friendly in nature. Starch is an inexpensive material derived from corn and other crops which is annually renewable. Biodegradable polyesters like polycarpolactone (PCL) increase flexibility and resistance to moisture in bioplastics . Potentially, plants offer an alternative approach to synthesize the bulk commodity products required for bioplastic at low cost, as it relies on water, soil nutrients, carbon dioxide and sunlight. The quality and quantity of phosphohydroxy butyrate (PHB) when produced by bacteria was found to be very low. Plants, on the other hand gave a better yield of the same compound. The hope behind green plastic research is to find methods of producing commercially viable replacements for petrochemical polymers, high level production of a limited number of useful PHAs and in developing efficient extraction processes
Nano dendrimers for sensing cancer cell apoptosis Sareen Aakritie & Prashanth Kumar H P* *Faculty, Department Of Biotechnology, Sapthagiri College Of Engg, Bangalore. Nano-medicine uses molecular knowledge to maintain human health at the molecular scale & ultimately will employ molecular machines to address medical problems. The objective being drug delivery through nano-medical by developing nanoscale particles & molecules to improve the bioavailability of the drug over a period of time. The reliance of drug delivery on Nano particles is justified because of the small size such that the cells accept them without facing rejections. Dendrimers originated from a Greek word "dendron" which translates to tree & they are mono disperse & highly symmetrical circular molecule consisting of a core, an inner shell, an outer shell and also a special property of being water soluble. Its one of the highly efficient and successful way of delivering anti-cancer drugs that is less harmful to the surrounding body. By the use of odd dendrimers one can locate and eliminate cancerous cells easily.A dendrimer consist of more than 100 hooks on it & allow it to attach to the cells in the body. Folic acid is attached to few of the hooks, as known by all, cancer cells have more vitamin receptors than the normal cells. So, the vitamin laden dendrimers will be absorbed by the cancer cells. The rest of the hooks of the dendrimers are loaded with anti-cancer drugs that will be absorbed too. There by delivering anti-cancer drug to the cancer cells and no where else. 7
Keywords: Dendrimers, Folic acid, Vitamin receptors, Anticancer drugs
SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES
Swine Flu Posted in Science at 8:44 am by David Bradley UPDATE: World Health Organisation took us to Phase 6 on June 11, which only means that they see the distribution of the virus across the globe as being at levels associated with a flu pandemic, the first such declaration since 1968. The virus itself has not become any worse nor have the chances of any individual dying from the disease increased. Swine flu is still with us although the media hype has died down. There have been numerous cases and many deaths, but nothing on the scale of the millions predicted early on. Could this first wave strain now be evolving into a more virulent form that will affect the northern hemisphere more severely after the summer is over? I’ve previously discussed the many latent diseases in hosts as rodents, birds, and cattle. Many of these are ready and willing to make the species leap to humans given the opportunity. For the last ten years or so bird flu and Asia have been the focus of much research and concern. However, the wave of swine flu (H1N1) infections that began in March-April 2009 in Mexico highlight the fact that a potentially lethal strain of virus can emerge from other species and not necessarily in Asia. Currently, not all the deaths attributed to swine flu have been definitively associated with type A H1N1 influenza, the actual mortality rate could be as low as 1% or as high as 6.5% depending on how you count. Should we be worried? No. We should be cautious, but not worried. While some observers are suggesting serious caution others are advising that there is no reason for real concern yet. We are not quite at the danger levels of even the worldwide SARS epidemic and certainly not close to the Spanish flu pandemic that ravaged the world in 1918-9. Is the WHO scaremongering too? The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Mexican/US swine flu outbreak as a “public health emergency of international concern”. It moved us to a Phase IV alert and then a Phase V alert and told us that the disease could no longer be contained. However, as things are panning out it would seem that this latest emergent virus is not even as bad as the common seasonal flu that kills tens of thousands of people every year. But, there a new strain could evolve in the coming weeks and months. What is swine flu? Swine flu is a type A influenza virus. It’s a subtype of H1N1 and is something of a misnomer. 8
Why is this new H1N1 virus called swine flu? In the original testing many of the viral genes were shown to be similar to influenza viruses that normally occur in pigs in North America. But further studies have shown that this new virus is very different. It also has two genes from flu viruses present in European and Asian pigs as well as genes from bird flu and human flu strains. It is referred to as a “quadruple reassortant” virus. What is unusual about the present strain? The new strain is a hybrid of swine, human and avian flu viruses and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it might spread from human to human but the level of virulence is not yet clear. UPDATE: There have been numerous deaths, but so far the vast majority of people infected have shown only mild symptoms and after treatment have recovered. What are the symptoms? Symptoms are similar to regular human flu: fever and chills, a cough, sore throat, aching limbs, headaches, and general malaise. However, there are reports of swine flu also causing diarrhoea and vomiting. Pneumonia and respiratory failure can occur leading to death as also happens in regular human flu. Are there warning signs in children? Children having trouble breathing, being averse to drinking, lethargy not waking up or not interacting, being so irritable that the child does not want to beheld, flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough, fever with a rash. Are there any drugs to treat swine flu? Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) are the possible pharmaceutical frontline defences against the virus and are proving effective in treating patients diagnosed early enough. There is as yet no vaccine, although researchers are working hard to develop one. It takes several months to create a flu vaccine and any such vaccine will be effective against only the specific strain for which it was created. By the time we have a vaccine the virus may have either died out or evolved into a different strain resistant to the vaccine. Has the disease spread to the USA? Cases in California, Texas, and Kansas, have been confirmed and tests are being carried out on students at a school in New York. Cases have been seen in New Zealand, Spain, Scotland, and elsewhere; those infected have been recovering well. How can we prevent the spread of swine flu? People at risk should cover their mouth when they cough. They should regularly wash their hands with an alcohol-based cleaner and and avoid close contact with the sick. Patients with the disease should stay at home. There is no need to avoid eating pork. Will there be a global flu epidemic? “We do not know whether this swine flu virus or some other influenza virus will lead to the next pandemic,” says, Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC, “However, scientists around the world continue to monitor the virus and take its threat seriously.” UPDATE: the
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WHO raised its alert level from Phase IV to V, with recent infection rates in Japan, the WHO has been hinting that they will need to upgrade to pandemic Phase VI.
Will there be a second wave? One of two outcomes are being forecast, first that this rather poorly virulent strain will continue spreading slowly but ultimately die out, thanks to a combination of low virulence and monitoring and isolation of outbreaks, or secondly it will mutate into something much more virulent and bring with it a fast-spreading and more lethal wave of influenza. Thankfully, in the Northern hemisphere, we are heading into summer and influenza viruses do not spread as efficiently in the summer as they do in the winter. What’s next? It is impossible to predict what virus will emerge from which host, there are countless different types of pathogen lying dormant in the countless different mammals across the globe. No one predicted SARS, AIDS, Ebola, West Nile virus, or swine flu. This time, health agencies have responded well and although the WHO is saying it is now impossible to “contain” swine flu, it seems that the first wave is not revealing itself to be quite as lethal as was at first feared. However, that does not detract from the possibility of a second wave of H1N1 emerging. Is this a wake-up call? At the very least this swine flu outbreak should wake us all up to either getting the dust off our (bird flu) pandemic plans (as the response is the same) or getting started with putting them together. This includes both businesses and individuals. If the outbreak dies out quickly and this turns out not to be the next global pandemic then we can be sure another strain will try to be at some point in the future. Pandemic preparedness for businesses should now be at the forefront of every business manager’s mind. What is cyberchondria? Cyberchondria is an anxiety disorder related to hyperchondria and brought on by reading too many tweets with the #swineflu tag, listening to conspiracy theorists, and viewing online news stories about diseases that scare the sheesh kebab out of you. But, just because you’re paranoid does not mean the disease isn’t out to get you.
By Ruhita gupta V sem
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Technical paper Indian homemade firearm--a technical review. Jain SK, Singh BP, Singh RP. Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Directorate of Forensic Science, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Sector 36A, Chandigarh 160036. skjain65@indiatimes.com
Abstract A wide variety of homemade (country made) firearms are involved in crime cases in India. These firearms are made up of very cheap material and are not safe for firing. Moreover, the country made firearms are different in their design, loading and locking mechanism, cocking and firing arrangements. In this paper we have studied the characteristic features of 300 country made firearms received for examination in the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh during last two decades. The characteristic features of these firearms are so unique that the fired crime bullets or cartridges can easily be matched with the test. It is hoped that such information will be useful for firearm experts in case of interpretation. PMID: 15240016 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Computational biology for biotechnology: Part I : The role of the computational infrastructure David T. Kingsbury Department of Microbiology, The George Washington University, University Medical Center, Room 701 Ross Hall, 2300 Eye Street NW, Washington DC 20037, USA Available online 26 August 2004. Today, researchers rely increasingly on ever-more powerful desktop computers and workstations. For many, these are indispensable tools for research productivity. However, maximizing this productivity needs a complex computational infrastructure, including user-friendly high-speed computer networks, a complex collection of databases accessible through networks, powerful computational engines for complex simulations and data analysis, and devices for visualizing the computational results. As the infrastructure continues to develop, bringing increased computational power to the desktop, the workstation will become even more essential in biotechnology.
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WORD BANK TECHNOLOGY BIOTECHNOLOGY CYTOSINE QUANINE ADENINEE TWISTED LADDER DEOXYRIBOSE PHOSPHATE GENE MANIPULATE CODE SUGAR MOLECULE BACTERIA PLASMID ALTERED ORGANISM NITROGEN BASE
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