Immunotherapeutic role of Ag85B as an adjunct to antituberculous chemotherapy

Background

Immunotherapy to enhance the efficiency of the immune response in tuberculosis patients and to eliminate the persisters could be an additional valuable strategy to complement anti-mycobacterial chemotherapy. This study was designed to assess the immunotherapeutic potential of Ag85B as an adjunct to chemotherapy and its effect against active and persister bacteria left after therapy in mouse model of tuberculosis.

Methods

6-8 week old female Balb/c mice were infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and treated with chemotherapy or immunotherapy. Protective efficacy was measured in terms of bacterial counts in lungs and spleen. Immune correlates of protection in terms of Th1 and Th2 cytokines were measured by ELISA.

Results

Therapeutic effect of Ag85B was found to be comparable to that of short term dosage of antituberculous drugs (ATDs). The therapeutic effect of ATDs was augmented by the simultaneous treatment with rAg85B and moreover therapy with this protein allowed us to reduce ATD dosage. This therapy was found to be effective even in case of drug persisters. The levels of antigen specific IFNγ and IL-12 were significantly increased after immunotherapy as compared to the basal levels; moreover antigen specific IL-4 levels were depressed on immunotherapy with Ag85B.

Conclusion

We demonstrated in this study that the new combination approach using immunotherapy and concurrent chemotherapy should offer several improvements over the existing regimens to treat tuberculosis. The therapeutic effect is associated not only with initiating a Th1 response but also with switching the insufficient Th2 immune status to the more protective Th1 response.     

Multiferroic magnetoelectric coupling and relaxor ferroelectric behavior in 0.7BiFeO3-0.3BaTiO3 nanocrystals

The structural, microstructural, polarization, magnetization, dielectric constant, and relaxor characteristics of 0.7BiFeO₃-0.3BaTiO₃ (BF-BT) nanocrystals have been studied. BF-BT nanocrystals were prepared by a chemical route using polyvinyl alcohol as surfactant. The phase structure is confirmed by X-ray diffraction and average particle size by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The magnetoelectric coupling is studied by polarization hysteresis loops under the influence of applied magnetic field and the phase transition anomaly. The diffuse phase transition is studied by modified Curie-Weiss law and relaxor characteristics by Vogel-Fulcher relation.     

Exponential type vector variational-like inequalities and vector optimization problems with exponential type invexities

A new class of exponential form of vector variational-like inequality problems is introduced, and then the equivalence among (weakly) efficient solutions, vector critical points of vector optimization problem and the solutions of vector variational-like inequalities under the framework of (p,r)-invexity is established. To the best our knowledge, the presented results are new and highly application oriented to other results based on generalized invexities to the context of optimization problems in the literature.     

On Rockafellar’s theorem using proximal point algorithm involving -maximal monotonicity framework

On the basis of the general framework of H-maximal monotonicity (also referred to as H-monotonicity in the literature), a generalization to Rockafellar’s theorem in the context of solving a general inclusion problem involving a set-valued maximal monotone operator using the proximal point algorithm in a Hilbert space setting is explored. As a matter of fact, this class of inclusion problems reduces to a class of variational inequalities as well as to a class of complementarity problems. This proximal point algorithm turns out to be of interest in the sense that it plays a significant role in certain computational methods of multipliers in nonlinear programming. The notion of H-maximal monotonicity generalizes the general theory of set-valued maximal monotone mappings to a new level. Furthermore, some results on general firm nonexpansiveness and resolvent mapping corresponding to H-monotonicity are also given.     

The effect of length of single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on electrical properties of conducting polymer–SWNT composites

DC conductivity of conjugated polymer‐single‐walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) composite films has been measured for different SWNT concentrations. The composite was prepared by dispersing SWNTs in the poly (3‐octylthiophene), P3OT matrix already dissolved in xylene. The conductivity of the composite films showed a rapid increase as the SWNT concentration increases beyond a certain value. This behavior is explained in terms of percolating paths provided by the SWNTs in the volume of polymer matrix. To investigate the effect of length of nanotubes on the percolation conductivity, different SWNT samples were employed with similar diameter but varying tube lengths. It was found that the conductivity of the composite films is strongly dominated by the length of the nanotubes. Lower percolation limit and high conductivity value of composite films is observed for longer nanotubes. Furthermore, the conductivity is observed to be dependent on the size of the host polymer molecule also. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 48: 89–95, 2010     

Effects of head group of cationic surfactants on the hydrolysis of p‐nitrophenyl acetate catalyzed by α‐chymotrypsin

The kinetics of hydrolysis of p‐nitrophenyl acetate catalyzed by α‐chymotrypsin (α‐CT) has been studied in the presence of several cationic surfactants having different head groups maintaining the dodecyl hydrophobic residue and bromide counterion. The enzyme activity was tested in the presence of dodecyl trimethylammonium bromide (DTAB), dodecylpyridinium bromide (DPB), dodecyldimethylethanolammonium bromide (DDMEAB), dodecyldiethylethanolammonium bromide (DDEEAB), benzyldimethyldodecylammonium bromide (BDDAB), and dodecyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (DTPB) surfactants. The extent of superactivity depends upon head groups of surfactants. The activity of α‐CT depends on the surfactant concentration and it varies with the surfactant head group dimensions (DTPB > DDEEAB > DTAB > BDDAB > DDMEAB > DPB). For all surfactants, DTPB exhibits highest superactivity. The effects of surfactants on the apparent kinetic parameters like Michaelis constant K_m and the catalytic constant k_cat have been determined. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 41: 377–381, 2009     

Field theoretic calculation of energy cascade rates in non-helical magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Energy cascade rates and Kolmogorov’s constant for non-helical steady magnetohydrodynamic turbulence have been calculated by solving the flux equations to the first order in perturbation. For zero cross helicity and space dimensiond = 3, magnetic energy cascades from large length-scales to small length-scales (forward cascade). In addition, there are energy fluxes from large-scale magnetic field to small-scale velocity field, large-scale velocity field to small-scale magnetic field, and large-scale velocity field to large-scale magnetic field. Kolmogorov’s constant for magnetohydrodynamics is approximately equal to that for fluid turbulence (≈ 1.6) for Alfvén ratio 05 ≤r _A ≤ ∞. For higher space-dimensions, the energy fluxes are qualitatively similar, and Kolmogorov’s constant varies asd ^1/3. For the normalized cross helicity σ_c →1, the cascade rates are proportional to (1 − σ_c)/(1 + σ_c , and the Kolmogorov’s constants vary significantly with σ_cc.     

Untersuchungen über einige Eigenschaften von Gelen

Ohne Zusammenfassung übersetzt von Rud. Walter (Leipzig).     

Improvement in the yield and quality of kalmegh (Andrographis paniculata Nees) under the sustainable production system

Andrographis paniculata Nees is an annual erect herb with wide medicinal and pharmacological applications due to the presence of andrographolide and other active chemical constituents. The large-scale cultivation of the kalmegh is not in practice. The aim of this study was to establish sustainable production systems of A. paniculata cv CIM-Megha with the application of different bioinoculants and chemical fertilisers. A. paniculata herb and andrographolide yield in the dried leaves was found to be highest (218% and 61.3%, respectively) in treatment T₃ (NPK+Bacillus sp.) compared with T₁ (control). The soil organic carbon, soil microbial respiration, soil enzymes activity and available nutrients improved significantly with combined application of bioinoculants and chemical fertilisers.