Permeabilization of the Blood-Brain Barrier via Mucosal Engrafting: Implications for Drug Delivery to the Brain

Utilization of neuropharmaceuticals for central nervous system(CNS) disease is highly limited due to the blood-brain barrier(BBB) which restricts molecules larger than 500Da from reaching the CNS. The development of a reliable method to bypass the BBB would represent an enormous advance in neuropharmacology enabling the use of many potential disease modifying therapies. Previous attempts such as transcranial catheter implantation have proven to be temporary and associated with multiple complications. Here we describe a novel method of creating a semipermeable window in the BBB using purely autologous tissues to allow for high molecular weight(HMW) drug delivery to the CNS. This approach is inspired by recent advances in human endoscopic transnasal skull base surgical techniques and involves engrafting semipermeable nasal mucosa within a surgical defect in the BBB. The mucosal graft thereby creates a permanent transmucosal conduit for drugs to access the CNS. The main objective of this study was to develop a murine model of this technique and use it to evaluate transmucosal permeability for the purpose of direct drug delivery to the brain. Using this model we demonstrate that mucosal grafts allow for the transport of molecules up to 500 kDa directly to the brain in both a time and molecular weight dependent fashion. Markers up to 40 kDa were found within the striatum suggesting a potential role for this technique in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. This proof of principle study demonstrates that mucosal engrafting represents the first permanent and stable method of bypassing the BBB thereby providing a pathway for HMW therapeutics directly into the CNS

The Motives and Roles of Female Terrorists of ISIS: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Open-Source Narratives

Research on the role of women in terrorism has emerged over the last several decades suggesting that female terrorists tend to have more passive roles than male terrorists. Female Islamic terrorists may engage in such acts due to trauma, revenge, religious ideology, peers, spouses, expression of community outrage. However, gaps about their motivations remain. For example, very little research has explored the roles, responsibilities, and motivation of female terrorists who are specifically part of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). This research seeks to fill these gaps by utilizing interpretative phenomenological analysis of qualitative research including documentaries, manifestos, magazines, memoir (written by female terrorists), and newspaper articles. Total twenty case studies were used to analyze on motives and roles, out of those, eighteen belonged from ISIS and rest from other terrorist groups. In pre-identified motives, there was no particular theme which highlighted the most whereas the findings of this research helped in developing a new typology on motives of female Islamic terrorists. For roles, majority women were found to be indulged in forefront roles. Future research, policy suggestions, and how ISIS different from other Islamic terrorist organizations along with limitation are also discussed in this study

India’s war on COVID-19: how the government is turning marginalised citizens into suspected enemies and criminals

In many of Narendra Modi’s speeches on tackling the spread of COVID-19, the Indian Prime Minister has employed a set of war-time metaphors to direct the nation’s response. Here Shreshtha Das (Independent Researcher, New Delhi) argues how this linguistic approach has turned citizens from some of the country’s marginalised groups into suspected enemies and criminals, against whom the wrath of the state and the society has been unleashed

Incidence of bacterial vaginosis in patients with idiopathic preterm labour

Background: The objectives of this study were to find the incidence of bacterial vaginosis in patients with idiopathic preterm labour and to assess maternal and fetal outcome.Methods: The study was carried out in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Patna Medical College, Patna from September 2011 to September 2013.Study was done in 100 pregnant women. 50 patients were cases and 50 were control. Cases were patients admitted with idiopathic preterm labour and controls were patients admitted with term pregnancy. A thorough general, systemic and obstetrical examination was done. Speculum examination was done to exclude leaking and to note the type of discharge which was collected for the pH estimation, amine testing and for making a smear for gram staining. Diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis was confirmed on the basis of Nugent criteria. Maternal and fetal outcome was assessed.Results: The incidence of bacterial vaginosis in patients with idiopathic preterm labour was 30 percent. Bacterial vaginosis was significantly (P <0.05) associated with idiopathic preterm labour. Out of 15 patients who had bacterial vaginosis, 13 had preterm delivery (<37 weeks). In 35 patients without bacterial vaginosis 21 had preterm delivery. Bacterial vaginosis was significantly associated with low birth weight babies (P <0.05). Bacterial vaginosis was significantly associated with neonatal jaundice and neonatal sepsis.Conclusions: Bacterial vaginosis is strongly associated with preterm labour and delivery as well as adversely affects neonatal outcome. Thus screening for bacterial vaginosis in all pregnant women complaining of vaginal discharge and also in all patients with preterm labour is justifiable.

Arrested States formed on Quenching Spin Chains with Competing Interactions and Conserved Dynamics

We study the effects of rapidly cooling to T = 0 a spin chain with conserved dynamics and competing interactions. Depending on the degree of competition, the system is found to get arrested in different kinds of metastable states. The most interesting of these has an inhomogeneous mixture of interspersed active and quiescent regions. In this state, the steady-state autocorrelation function decays as a stretched exponential $\sim \exp(-{(t/\tau_{o})}^{{1}\over{3}})$, and there is a two-step relaxation to equilibrium when the temperature is raised slightly.Comment: 4 pages, Latex, 3 postscript figures. Phys. Rev. E to appear (1999

Study of the causes and factors which affect compliance of the patient in directly observed short course chemotherapy in pulmonary tuberculosis in Central India

Background: TB is one of the most ancient diseases. World Health Organization (WHO) estimated 9.2 million new cases in 2014 out of which 2.2 million were from India. National tuberculosis programme was started since 1962 and short course chemotherapy was included in 1983. With this background in 1992 WHO and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) reviewed the programme. As a result, revised national tuberculosis programme (RNTCP) was started. RNTCP recommended directly observed short course chemotherapy in pulmonary tuberculosis (DOTS) and was implemented in 1993. Objective of present study was to find out the causes and factors affecting compliance of the patients in directly observed short course chemotherapy in pulmonary tuberculosis.Methods: We studied 100 patients of pulmonary tuberculosis, who were sputum smear positive for tubercle bacilli. Patients were treated with DOTS (Directly Observed Short Course Chemotherapy) recommended by RNTCP and we observed the causes and factors responsible for interruption of the treatment in noncompliant patients.Results: Overall compliance was 78% and 22% patients were noncompliant. Most common cause of noncompliance was side effects of drugs (12%), noncompliance was maximum (45.45%) between age group of 15-25 years. Illiterate and low socioeconomic status patients were more noncompliant 46.45% and 63.63% respectively.Conclusions: Eventually, after seeing all merits and demerits of DOTS, we have concluded that intensive health education may have favourable impact to improve further outcome of DOTS and compliance of the patients