Study of Active Screening to Detect Un-Registered Open Cases of Tuberculosis in Rural Areas of Capital District of Rajasthan, India

Tuberculosis is one among top 10 causes of deaths worldwide. Access to effective diagnosis by every TB patient is one among five missions of Global Plan. Active case finding among vulnerable groups has been the key focus area of National Strategic Plan to control TB in India 2017-25. This cross-sectional study was carried out to find out the additional open cases of TB through active screening of general & rural population in selected villages of Jaipur, the capital district in Rajasthan state of India. An active screening team of trained staff visited each house-hold in selected study villages for interviewing the head of house-hold or other adult member available at the time of visit. Family members of age ≥ 15 years were screened for complain of chronic cough of duration 2 weeks or more with study questionnaire. Presumptive cases found at screening were referred for seeking medical consultations from nearest designated microscopy centre. The referred patients were followed up on telephone up to five times for results of medical consultancies. Laboratory technicians of catchment DMCs were also followed up for verification of results. Total 19,306 individuals were covered. Study included 52.8% male, 69.3% ≥ 15 years age, and 99.3% Hindu participants. There were total 153 presumptive TB patients. Out of these, total 10 cases were confirmed as TB. The yield of detection was 0.51 cases/1000 population screened. Study finds active screening as a feasible and effective strategy in detecting additional cases of TB from general and rural population.

Screening for Anti-tumor Activity of Fractions from Buddleja officinalis Maxim

[Objectives]The anti-tumor activity of fractions from Buddleja officinalis Maxim.by petroleum ether,ethyl acetate,n-butanol and water solvent was studied.[Methods]The ethanol extract from B.officinalis Maxim.was extracted and then concentrated with petroleum ether,ethyl acetate,n-butanol and water,respectively,and the extracts were obtained.The inhibitory effects of the four different fractions on the growth of three tumor cell lines in vitro were detected by CCK-8 method,and the median inhibitory concentration(IC 50 value)was calculated.[Results]The four fractions inhibited the growth of the three tumor cell lines in vitro,among which the n-butanol fraction had the best anti-tumor activity.The IC 50 values of the n-butanol fraction on human gastric cancer(SGC-7901),human breast cancer(MCF-7)and human liver cancer(BEL-7404)cell lines were 0.08,1.58 and 0.12 mg/mL,respectively.[Conclusions]Petroleum ether,ethyl acetate,n-butanol and water fractions from the ethanol extract of B.officinalis Maxim.had certain anti-tumor effects,and the n-butanol fraction had the best anti-tumor activity.

Screening and field application of microbial-flooding activator systems

This study aims to further enhance the oil recovery of reservoirs in the Zhong-2 Block of the Gudao Oilfield by identifying the most effective microbial-flooding activator systems and applying them in the field.We began by analyzing the structure of the reservoirs'endogenous microbial communities to understand the potential impact of microbial flooding.This was followed by determining commonly used activator systems based on their abilities to stimulate oil-displacement functional bacteria.Through laboratory experiments on oil displacement efficiency and sweep characteristics,we determined the optimal activator injection method(injection ratio)and the requisite bacterial concentration for maximal microbial-flooding efficacy.Finally,we selected the optimal activator systems and applied them to field tests.Our findings suggest the target block is highly receptive to microbial-flooding.In terms of performance,the activator systems ranked as No.3>No.4>No.1>No.2.Interestingly,a deep activator system,when compared to the top-performing No.3 system,exhibited a higher bacterial concentration peak and longer peaking duration.Optimal oil displacement effects were observed at a 1:4 vol ratio between the No.3 activator and deep activator systems,with bacterial concentrations of up to 106 cells/mL or above.Field tests with the selected activator systems,following a specific injection protocol,demonstrated a notable increase in oil production and a reduction in water cut.

Activity Screening Study on the Anti-tumor Effects of Extracts from Mahoniae caulis

[Objectives]To explore the anti-tumor activity of the extracts of petroleum ether,ethyl acetate,n-butanol and aqueous solution from Mahoniae caulis.[Methods]The extracts were extracted with petroleum ether,ethyl acetate,n-butanol and aqueous solution respectively,and then concentrated.The inhibitory effects of these extracts on the growth of three tumor cell lines in vitro were detected by CCK-8 method,and the IC 50 value was calculated.[Results]The four extracts inhibited the growth of the three tumor cell lines in vitro,among which the n-butanol extract had the best anti-tumor activity.The IC 50 values of the n-butanol extract on human gastric cancer(SGC-7901),human breast cancer(MCF-7)and human liver cancer(BEL-7404)cell lines were 0.23,0.25 and 0.58 mg/mL,respectively.[Conclusions]The ethanol extract of Mahoniae caulis under petroleum ether,ethyl acetate,n-butanol and aqueous solution had certain anti-tumor effect,and n-butanol extract had the best anti-tumor activity.

Screening Psychrophilic Fungi of Cellulose Degradation and Characteristic of Enzyme Production

A fungus（WR-C1） decomposed cellulose was isolated from a hypothermal litter layer using Congo red medium as the preliminary screening culture medium and then using a filter as the secondary screening medium at low temperature. The experiment showed that the weight loss rate of filter paper on the 15 th days could reach 30.69%. A morphologic and ITS gene sequence analysis suggested that CF-C1 was Cladosporium. We mainly studied the effects of culture time, inoculation amount, initial p H and different sources of carbon, nitrogen and inorganic salt on the cellulase production of strain WR-C1. Under optimum cultural condition, the highest value of WR-C1 enzyme production and filter paper enzyme were 3.27 U · m L～（-1） and 0.51 U · m L～（-1）.

Accurate construction of cell membrane biomimetic graphene nanodecoys via purposeful surface engineering to improve screening efficiency of active components of traditional Chinese medicine

Biomimetic nanoengineering presents great potential in biomedical research by integrating cell membrane(CM) with functional nanoparticles. However, preparation of CM biomimetic nanomaterials for custom applications that can avoid the aggregation of nanocarriers while maintaining the biological activity of CM remains a challenge. Herein, a high-performance CM biomimetic graphene nanodecoy was fabricated via purposeful surface engineering, where polyethylene glycol(PEG) was used to modifying magnetic graphene oxide(MGO) to improve its stability in physiological solution, so as to improve the screening efficiency to active components of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM). With this strategy, the constructed PEGylated MGO(PMGO) could keep stable at least 10 days, thus improving the CM coating efficiency. Meanwhile, by taking advantage of the inherent ability of He La cell membrane(HM) to interact with specific ligands, HM-camouflaged PMGO showed satisfied adsorption capacity(116.2 mg/g) and selectivity. Finally, three potential active components, byakangelicol, imperatorin,and isoimperatorin, were screened from Angelica dahurica, whose potential antiproliferative activity were further validated by pharmacological studies. These results demonstrated that the purposeful surfaceengineering is a promising strategy for the design of efficient CM biomimetic nanomaterials, which will promote the development of active components screening in TCM.

Screening and Validation of Active Ingredients in Sini Decoction by Combination Method of Pharmacophore Modeling and Molecular Docking

Objective To screen the active compounds in Sini Decoction showing the potential to inhibit tumor necrosis factor α（TNFα） to alleviate Doxorubicin（DOX）-induced heart failure. Methods A chemical database of Sini Decoction was constructed from literature research. The generated pharmacophore models based on TNF-α used to screen active ingredients of Sini Decoction in the database by Discovery Studio 2.5. Molecular docking by Autodock 4.2 was adopted to demonstrate the hit compounds＇ affinities with TNFα. Furthermore, DOX-induced heart failure model on H9c2 cell line was constructed and cell viability was detected by CCK-8 to validate the therapeutic effect of potential active compounds. Results The higenamine showed potential cardiovascular protective effect through virtual screening. And the activity was identified in vitro. Conclusion In this study, we found that higenamine may inhibit TNF-ɑ through virtual docking and validated that higenamine may have the potential of treatment for heart failure in the model of doxorubicin-induced myocardial toxicity to H9c2 cells.

Research of Anti-Cancer Components in Traditional Chinese Medicine on Hollow Fibre Cell Fishing and Hollow Fibre Liquid Phase Microextraction

Hollow fibre cell fishing with HPLC (HFCF-HPLC) based on the human ovarian cancer cell line SKOV-3, human renal tubular cell line ACHN or hepatoma cell line HepG-2 was employed to screen active groups of coumarin and volatile oil in Radix angelicae sinensis, Radix angelicae dahuricae and Fructus citri sarcodactylis. Simultaneously, hollow fibre liquid phase microextraction with HPLC (HFLPME-HPLC) was conducted to enrich and determine the contents of active components in the same sample solution. Before application, for HFCF-HPLC, cells growth states and survival rates on the fibre, effect of ethanol concentration in the extract of samples on cell survival rates, non-specific binding between fibre active centres and the target components, positive and negative controls and repeatabilities were validated;for HFLPME, extraction solvent, sample phase pH, agitation speed, extraction time and sample phase volume were investigated. Many active components were screened from three medicines. Some of them, such as scoparone, psoralen, bergapten, oxypeucedanin, imperatorin, ligustilide, were identified by MS. The target fishing factors of active components and the cell apoptosis rates of three cells under the medicines effect were researched. The binding sites of active groups on HepG-2 cells were preliminarily determined. The results demonstrated that HFCF-HPLC, coupled with HFLPME-HPLC, is a simple and universal approach to find bioactive components at the cellular level, determine their content and research traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) entirety effect of multi-component and multi-target. The approach may provide us a new and good solution to clarify the material basis of anti-cancer effect and conduct personalized quality control for the components associated with efficacy in TCMs.

AN ORIGINAL DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM FOR MALARIA TO SCREEN THE ANTIPLASMODIAL ACTIVITY OF AFRICAN HERBAL MEDICINES

Malaria,caused by protozoa of the genus Plasmodium,causes some 198 million of confirmed cases and about584,000 of deaths per year.Its management needs both accurate diagnostic and treatments availability.The current diagnostic techniques(rapid diagnostic tests and microscopy)appear either too expensive,lowly sensitive or difficult to implement.The hemozoin('malaria pigment')

SCREENING OF MEDICINAL PLANTS FROM REUNION ISLAND FOR ANTIMALARIAL ACTIVITY

According to the last World Malaria Report,there were an estimated 584 000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2013.The problem of parasite resistance towards available medicines is increasing.Natural products could play an important role to discover new antimalarial drug.The aim of the study was to highlight the anti-plasmodial properties of plants used in traditional medicine on the Mascarene Islands.85

The discovery of new scaffold of plant activators：From salicylic acid to benzotriazole

Started from salicylic acid（SA） and related commercialized plant activators,based on molecular threedimensional shape and pharmacophore similarity comparison（SHAFTS）,a new lead compound benzotriazole was predicted and a series of benzotriazole derivatives were designed and synthesized.The bioassay showed that benzotriazole had high activity against a broad spectrum of diseases including fungi and oomycetes in vivo,but no activity in vitro.And the introduction of proper groups at the1＇-position and 5＇-position was beneficial to the activity.So,they had the potential to be exploited as novel plant activators.