Cognitive function in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with a history of neuropsychiatric manifestations: a longitudinal study

Poster PresentationBACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment is commonly reported in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and its associations with neuropsychiatric involvement (NPSLE) and psychiatric factors have been inconsistently reported in the literature. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate full neurocognitive function in relation to psychiatric factors including anxiety and depression in NPSLE patients longitudinally compared to …published_or_final_versio

Ginger extract (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) triggers apoptosis in hepatocarcinogenesis induced rats

Ginger extract has been reported previously by our group to exhibit anticancer and an-tioxidant effects by reducing tumour burden and lipid peroxidation respectively in he-patocarcinogenesis induced rats. The current study examined the expression of pro-apoptotic protein caspase-8 and anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 in hepatocarcinogenesis treated rats. Thirty normal male Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups based on the diet given: i) control (normal rat chow), ii) olive oil, iii) ginger extract (100mg/kg body weight), iv) choline deficient diet + ethionine, CDE (to induce liver cancer) and v) CDE+ ginger extract. Rats were killed at week 8, and liver tissues were excised for immuno-histochemical study to identify pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic proteins, caspase-8 and Bcl-2. The observation on H&E staining confirmed the CDE diet induced liver can-cer as indicated by the presence of numerous oval cells. Identification of Bcl-2 expres-sion showed that 91.6% (11/12) of the samples from the CDE group revealed positive staining while treatment with ginger extract however inhibited the expression with only 8.4% (1/12) samples showing positive staining for Bcl-2. As for caspase-8 protein, 41.7% (5/12) of the samples from CDE group showed positive staining, which in-creased to 100% (12/12) with ginger extract treatment. Our findings suggest that gin-ger extract has an anticancer effect by inducing apoptosis in liver cancer cells via up-regulation of the expression of pro-apoptotic protein, caspase-8 and down-regulation of the expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-

Enhanced Emission from WSe2 Monolayers Coupled to Circular Bragg Gratings

Two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) are of great interest for on-chip nanophotonics due to their unique optoelectronic properties. Here, we propose and realize coupling of tungsten diselenide (WSe2) monolayers to circular Bragg grating structures to achieve enhanced emission. The interaction between WSe2 and the resonant mode of the structure results in Purcell-enhanced emission, while the symmetric geometrical structure improves the directionality of the out-coupling stream of emitted photons. Furthermore, this hybrid structure produces a record high contrast of the spin valley readout (> 40%) revealed by the polarization resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements. Our results are promising for on-chip integration of TMDC monolayers with optical resonators for nanophotonic circuits

The mu problem and sneutrino inflation

We consider sneutrino inflation and post-inflation cosmology in the singlet extension of the MSSM with approximate Peccei-Quinn(PQ) symmetry, assuming that supersymmetry breaking is mediated by gauge interaction. The PQ symmetry is broken by the intermediate-scale VEVs of two flaton fields, which are determined by the interplay between radiative flaton soft masses and higher order terms. Then, from the flaton VEVs, we obtain the correct mu term and the right-handed(RH) neutrino masses for see-saw mechanism. We show that the RH sneutrino with non-minimal gravity coupling drives inflation, thanks to the same flaton coupling giving rise to the RH neutrino mass. After inflation, extra vector-like states, that are responsible for the radiative breaking of the PQ symmetry, results in thermal inflation with the flaton field, solving the gravitino problem caused by high reheating temperature. Our model predicts the spectral index to be n_s\simeq 0.96 due to the additional efoldings from thermal inflation. We show that a right dark matter abundance comes from the gravitino of 100 keV mass and a successful baryogenesis is possible via Affleck-Dine leptogenesis.Comment: 27 pages, no figures, To appear in JHE

Cytotoxicity Effect of Quercus infectoria Based Vaginal Cream on Hela Cells and its Preliminary in Vivo Toxicity Evaluation Towards Female Rats

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death among females in less developed countries. Drugs used in the treatment of cervical cancer were reported to exert a cytotoxic effect on the normal cells. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of Quercus infectoria (QI) vaginal cream towards cervical cancer cell, HeLa and its toxicity effect on the female rat model. Methods: MTT assays were utilized to determine the median concentration (IC50) for cell cytotoxicity of QIA and QI vaginal cream against cervical cancer cells, HeLa. Expression of HPV E6 and E7 protein in HeLa cells treated with QI vaginal cream for 24 hours were conducted by Western blot analysis. In separate experiments, the toxicity of QI vaginal cream on a lower reproductive tract of the female rat model has been assessed by histopathological examination after application for three weeks. The antioxidant activity of QIA extract and QI vaginal cream were assessed by DPPH radical scavenging assay. Results: A moderate cytotoxicity activity exerted by QIA extract and QI vaginal cream against HeLa cell with IC50 values of 13.90 ± 2.27, and 20.80 ± 1.94 respectively. Furthermore, QI vaginal cream suppressed the expression of HPV E6 and E7. Daily application of QI vaginal did not exert any inflammation to the vaginal mucosa and cervix. QIA extract and QI vaginal cream demonstrated high DPPH radical scavenging activity. Conclusion: Formulated QI vaginal cream has cytotoxic effect on HeLa cells without causing an adverse effect on the lower reproductive tract in female rat model

Suggestive Evidence of Slc2a9 Polymorphisms Association in Gouty Malay Males

Introduction: Solute carrier family 2, member 9 (SLC2A9) is thought to be an important urate transporter that influences the excretion and reabsorption of serum uric acid, thus has a strong effect on serum urate and risk of gout. SLC2A9 polymorphisms have been extensively studied in various populations in association with gout development. Our aim was to test for association of SLC2A9 SNPs with gout in Malay males. Methods: 78 gouty patients and 82 normal subjects were recruited and genotyped for rs3733591, rs5028843 and rs11942223 using PCR-RFLP technique. Single association and haplotype association analyses were conducted using SHEsis online software. Results: rs3733591 and rs5028843 showed association with gout with p value of 0.020 and 0.036, respectively, whilst rs11942223 yielded no association with p value of 0.08 with trend towards susceptibility projecting by OR=3.547, 3.667 and 2.732, respectively. It is noteworthy that haplotype 1/1/1 conferred protection in gout with p value 0.004 (OR=0.324 [0.147-0.716]). Conclusion: This study might suggest an evidence of association of SLC2A9 SNPs with gout among Malay males

Reduced loss of NH3 by coating urea with biodegradable polymers, palm stearin and selected micronutrients

In agricultural lands, the loss of NH3 from surface-applied urea and micronutrient deficiencies are the two most common problems, which can be solved by using coated urea with micronutrients and biodegradable natural materials. These coatings can improve the nutrient status in the soil and simultaneously reduce nitrogen loss from urea. To control ammonia loss and urea’s hydrolysis process, two laboratory studies were conducted to compare the effects of using coated urea with that of using only urea. Both studies consisted of consecutive incubation experiments that were conducted on the same Typic Paleudult soil (Serdang Series). Eight treatments (labeled as Urea, UPS1, UPS2, UPS3, UAG1%, UAG2%, UG1% and UG2%) in study 1 and six treatments (labeled U, UPSCu, UAGCu, UGCu, UCu, and UCuZn) in study 2 were prepared and used to determine the effects of various concentrations of natural materials and the inhibitory effects of micronutrients on both ammonia loss and the hydrolysis process. The NH3 loss was measured by forced draft techniques; the soil’s exchangeable ammonium, available nitrate and urea-N were determined by using standard procedures. The outcomes of the study did not show any significant difference among various concentrations ofnatural material. Coated urea treatments significantly reduced ammonia loss by 30 to 40% in study 1 and by 40 to 67% in study 2 in comparison to urea alone. The same observation was made with respect to urea hydrolysis. All of the coated urea treatments significantly slowed down the hydrolysis process in comparison to urea. The outcomes of the study may improve urea fertilizer by reducing the loss of NH3 volatilization.Key words: Biodegradable polymers, coated urea, CuSO4, NH3 volatilization loss, urease inhibitor, urea

Deriving a mutation index of carcinogenicity using protein structure and protein interfaces

With the advent of Next Generation Sequencing the identification of mutations in the genomes of healthy and diseased tissues has become commonplace. While much progress has been made to elucidate the aetiology of disease processes in cancer, the contributions to disease that many individual mutations make remain to be characterised and their downstream consequences on cancer phenotypes remain to be understood. Missense mutations commonly occur in cancers and their consequences remain challenging to predict. However, this knowledge is becoming more vital, for both assessing disease progression and for stratifying drug treatment regimes. Coupled with structural data, comprehensive genomic databases of mutations such as the 1000 Genomes project and COSMIC give an opportunity to investigate general principles of how cancer mutations disrupt proteins and their interactions at the molecular and network level. We describe a comprehensive comparison of cancer and neutral missense mutations; by combining features derived from structural and interface properties we have developed a carcinogenicity predictor, InCa (Index of Carcinogenicity). Upon comparison with other methods, we observe that InCa can predict mutations that might not be detected by other methods. We also discuss general limitations shared by all predictors that attempt to predict driver mutations and discuss how this could impact high-throughput predictions. A web interface to a server implementation is publicly available at http://inca.icr.ac.uk/