Immunogenic potential and protective efficacy of formalin inactivated circulating Indian strain of West Nile virus

Objective:To assess the best suitable condition for virus inactivation.and to study the immunogenic potential and protective efficacy of a circulating West Nile virus(WNV) strain in Assam.Methods:Bulk preparation of circulating WNV:WNIRGC07(GeneBank ID:HQ246154).was undertaken in a bioreaclor using eytodex-1.Virus Inactivation was done in three different conditions:22 ℃.4 ℃ and room temperature.The virus preparations were evaluated for antigenicity by ELISA and toxicity by cell proliferation kit.Virus efficacy was done in-viro on swiss albino mice against standard Indian WNV and Japanese encephalitis virus(JKV)strain.Humoral and cell mediated immune response was evaluated in mice sera by ELISA and neutralization assay.Results:Inactivation at 22 ℃ was found to be more suitable in terms of less toxicity and high antigenicity.The same was selected to study the immune response and efficacy in mice.It induced neutralizing antibody titre of 1:625 and high EgG response.In vivo experiment showed 100% protective efficacy against WNV and 20.8% cross protective efficacy against JEV.Further assessment of cellular immunity through immunized mice revealed augmentation of high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and moderate levels of anti—cytokines indicating a mixed balance of Th1 and Th2 response.Conclusions:Findings suggest that formalin inactivated Indian WNV strain has a good immunogenic potential.This is the first study on assessment of immunogenic potential of a lineage 5 strain of WNV.Our study reveals that it would be a promising and effective candidate for vaccine studies which warrants further evaluation.

Variability in Grain Quality Characters of Upland Rice of Assam,India

The grain quality of 100 uplandlahu rice genotypes from Assam, India was assessed. The characteristics measured were grain length, grain width, cooked grain length, cooked grain width, grain elongation ratio after cooking, grain widening ratio after cooking, alkali spreading value, gel consistency, as well as starch, amylose, amylopectin and total soluble sugar contents. Considerable genetic variability among the 100 rice genotypes was observed for the characteristics under study. Analysis of vadance revealed highly significant differences among the genotypes for all the characteristics. The difference between genotypic coefficient of variation （GCV） and phenotypic coefficient of variation （PCV） was very small for all the characteristics analyzed. High GCV and PCV were found in the characteristic of total soluble sugar content followed by alkali spreading value. The high values for these traits signify the scope for selection to develop superior genotypes. High heritability was recorded in all the characteristics analyzed along with diverse genetic advance which varied from 9.71% to 52.83%. The characteristic of total soluble sugar content showed high heritability with high genetic advance, whereas alkali spreading value and grain widening ratio presented high hedtability with moderate genetic advance. This implies that these characteristics are mainly under additive gene effects and could be relied upon further selection based on phenotypic performance. The genotypic correlation coefficient was higher than the phenotypic correlation coefficient, indicating strong inherent associations among the characteristics studied.

<i>In Vitro</i>Anti-Diabetic Activities and Phytochemical Analysis of Bioactive Fractions Present in <i>Meriandra dianthera, Aloe camperi</i>and a Polyherb

This paper reports the in vitro anti-diabetic profile of certain medicinal plants traditionally used in Eritrea for the management of type 2 diabetes. The crude methanolic extracts and fractions of Meriandra dianthera, Aloe camperi, a Polyherb and their fractions were investigated. The in vitro screening of the crude extracts has generally elicited a dose dependent α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibition activities. M. dianthera displayed the highest α-glucosidase inhibitory activity (IC50: 0.074 ± 0.032 mg/mL) at the highest concentration tested (0.800 mg/mL) relative to A. camperi, the Polyherb and Acarbose (IC50: 0.37 ± 0.052, 0.56 ± 0.024 and 0.55 ± 0.029 respectively). The α-glucosidase inhibition activities of A. camperi and M. dianthera, except for the Polyherb and Acarbose, were significantly different (P < 0.05) at various ranges of concentrations (0.025 - 0.800 mg/mL). The percentage α-amylase inhibitions of M. dianthera, A. camperi, the Polyherb and Acarbose, at the highest concentrations (0.800 mg/mL), were 78.3%, 15.9%, 16.4%, and 82.9% respectively. A. camperi and the Polyherb displayed lower α-amylase inhibitory activities (IC50: 1.72 ± 0.06 and 2.57 ± 0.07 mg/mL respectively) compared to Acarbose and M. dianthera (IC50: 0.31 ± 0.01 and 0.43 ± 0.02 mg/mL respectively). For the α-amylase inhibition activity, even at lower concentrations (0.025 mg/mL), there were statistically significant differences (P < 0.01) among the values generated for all the extracts. The in vitro anti-diabetic screening of the fractions, at 0.800 mg/ml, displayed characteristic enzyme inhibition activities. Generally, the non-polar fractions showed higher enzyme inhibitory activities compared to the polar fractions. The most bioactive non-polar fractions, thus, were subjected to GC-MS analysis and presented various essential oils, fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) and benzoic acid derivatives in those plants.