Iresine herbstii: An Overview

Iresineherbstii (blood leaves) is a member of the Amaranthaceae family, native to tropical and subtropical areas. It is erect herbaceous, has red and white variety. Different phytochemical constituents were detected as alkaloids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, and others. This herb was used as a pH indicator, insecticide, and dye fabrics. Traditionally it was used for divination purposes and other purposes. Iresinin IV is the major colorant. Different studies were done to evaluate the CNS, immunomodulatory, antibacterial, antiviral, cytotoxic and other effects. Fresh leaves extract was hepatotoxic. This review aimed to demonstrate the morphological features of this herb and to show the clinical studies related to its traditional use.

Dynamic pH and Thermal Analysis of Paper-Based Microchip Electrophoresis

Paper-based microchip electrophoresis has the potential to bring laboratory electrophoresis tests to the point of need. However, high electric potential and current values induce pH and temperature shifts, which may affect biomolecule electrophoretic mobility thus decrease test reproducibility and accuracy of paper-based microfluidic electrophoresis. We have previously developed a microchip electrophoresis system, HemeChip, which has the capability of providing low-cost, rapid, reproducible, and accurate point-of-care (POC) electrophoresis tests for hemoglobin analysis. Here, we report the methodologies we implemented for characterizing HemeChip system pH and temperature during the development process, including utilizing commercially available universal pH indicator and digital camera pH shift characterization, and infrared camera characterizing temperature shift characterization. The characterization results demonstrated that pH shifts up to 1.1 units, a pH gradient up to 0.11 units/mm, temperature shifts up to 40 °C, and a temperature gradient up to 0.5 °C/mm existed in the system. Finally, we report an acid pre-treatment of the separation media, a cellulose acetate paper, mitigated both pH and temperature shifts and provided a stable environment for reproducible HemeChip hemoglobin electrophoresis separation.

Synthesis and Antiproliferative Activity of 2,4,6,7-Tetrasubstituted-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridines

A library of 2,4,6,7-tetrasubstituted-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridines was prepared from easily accessible 1-phenyl-3-(2-phenylethynyl)-1H-pyrazole-4-carbaldehyde via an iodine-mediated electrophilic cyclization of intermediate 4-(azidomethyl)-1-phenyl-3-(phenylethynyl)-1H-pyrazoles to 7-iodo-2,6-diphenyl-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridines followed by Suzuki cross-couplings with various boronic acids and alkylation reactions. The compounds were evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against K562, MV4-11, and MCF-7 cancer cell lines. The most potent compounds displayed low micromolar GI50 values. 4-(2,6-Diphenyl-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridin-7-yl)phenol proved to be the most active, induced poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) cleavage, activated the initiator enzyme of apoptotic cascade caspase 9, induced a fragmentation of microtubule-associated protein 1-light chain 3 (LC3), and reduced the expression levels of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). The obtained results suggest a complex action of 4-(2,6-diphenyl-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridin-7-yl)phenol that combines antiproliferative effects with the induction of cell death. Moreover, investigations of the fluorescence properties of the final compounds revealed 7-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2,6-diphenyl-2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridine as the most potent pH indicator that enables both fluorescence intensity-based and ratiometric pH sensing.

Screening for the Production and Characterization of L-asparaginase from Endophytic Fungi

L-asparaginase (EC 3.5.11. L-asparagine amidohydrolase) is first enzyme, studied very intensively in human beings with regard to its anti-tumor potential against tumor of lymphoid precursor, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The current drugs are suffering from many side effects like immune suppression, infertility, secondary neoplasm. The immunogenic complications associated with its present microbial sources Escherichia coli; Erwinia carotovora limits its medicinal frontier. So there exists a need of switching to novel natural sources to serve as non-immunogenic and better production sources of L-asparaginase. In the present study, four cultures of fungal endophytes viz. TSF-1, TSF-2, TSF-3 and TSF-4 selected on the basis of primary and secondary screening was carried on with L-asparagine as a sole carbon and nitrogen source and phenol red as pH indicator. The maximum protein content was observed to be present in TSF-2 i.e. 2.727 mg /mL and possessed maximum activity of 6.054 Units/ml. Sample was separated by SDS-PAGE, stained by silver staining, showed a single band with molecular weight of approximately ~45kDa.

A Brief Concept of Cell Culture: Challenges, Prospects and Applications

Cell culture is an in vitro technique in which cells, tissues, or organs (animal origin) are artificially grown with the support of an artificial environment that encompasses culture medium, CO2 level, pH indicator, temperature keeping tissues alive and growing appropriately. Organ culture, Primary explant culture, and Cell culture among them cell culture widely used for the understanding of cell growth, normal functions, identification of growth factors, viral vaccine development, recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology, and immunobiological research. Due to high feasibility, cell culture practices highly demandable in the pharmaceutical industry. As well as animal cell culture used in laboratory research to study the cytotoxicity of new drug metabolic studies, aging, therapeutic proteins, the effects of drugs and toxic compounds on the cells and mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. There are a lot of issues in cell culture, Mycoplasma is one of the major. During cell culture, a single antibiotic often cannot kill the mycoplasma. Besides, culture media, pH indicator, incubation, cryopreservation, thawing, passaging of cells, and trypsinization have a great impact on cell culture. This chapter will help the reader to understand the whole process of cell culture and its applications, which will take them one step forward in their virology and cell culture research along with inspiration. This chapter also aids in the concept of cell count, cell suspension, CCF measurement, MOI (Multiplicity of Infection), and cell infection. Eventually, the reader will get a crystal clear concept of cell culture.

Characterization of Anthocyanin Associated Purple Sweet Potato Starch and Peel-Based pH Indicator Films

In food packaging, smart indicator films based on natural resources have greatly attracted researchers to minimize the environmental issues as well as to satisfy consumer preferences for food safety. In this research, pH-sensitive films were prepared using purple-fleshed sweet potato starch (SPS) and sweet potato peel (SPP). Two categories of the film (i) SPS and (ii) SPS/SPP, were fabricated via solvent casting technique, incorporating different concentrations of commercial purple sweet potato anthocyanin (CA) at 0%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2% (w/v) and the physicochemical, mechanical, thermal, and morphological properties of the films were investigated. The thickness, water solubility, and swelling degree of the films increased with the increment of CA, whereas there were no significant changes in the water content (WC) of the films. Water vapor permeability (WVP) was decreased for SPS films while statistically similar for SPS/SPP films. The addition of CA reduced the tensile strength (TS) and tensile modulus (TM) yet increased the elongation at break (EaB) of the films as compared to films without CA. The FTIR results confirmed the immobilization of anthocyanin into the film. In SEM images, roughness in the surfaces of the CA-associated films was observed. A reduction of thermal stability was found for the films with anthocyanin except for the SPS/SPP CA 2% film. Furthermore, the CA-associated films showed a remarkable color response when subjected to pH buffers (pH 1 to 12) and successfully monitored chicken freshness. The fastest color migration was observed in acidic conditions when the films were immersed into aqueous, acidic, low fat, and fatty food simulants. The findings of this work demonstrated that the developed pH indicator films have the potential to be implemented as smart packaging to monitor food freshness and quality for safe consumption.