Department of Bioscience & Bioengineering

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In Ayurveda system of medicine individuals are classified into seven constitution types, “Prakriti”, for assessing disease susceptibility and drug responsiveness. Prakriti evaluation involves clinical examination including questions about physiological and behavioural traits. A need was felt to develop models for accurately predicting Prakriti classes that have been shown to exhibit molecular differences. The present study was carried out on data of phenotypic attributes in 147 healthy individuals of three extreme Prakriti types, from a genetically homogeneous population of Western India. Unsupervised and supervised machine learning approaches were used to infer inherent structure of the data, and for feature selection and building classification models for Prakriti respectively. These models were validated in a North Indian population. Unsupervised clustering led to emergence of three natural clusters corresponding to three extreme Prakriti classes. The supervised modelling approaches could classify individuals, with distinct Prakriti types, in the training and validation sets. This study is the first to demonstrate that Prakriti types are distinct verifiable clusters within a multidimensional space of multiple interrelated phenotypic traits. It also provides a computational framework for predicting Prakriti classes from phenotypic attributes. This approach may be useful in precision medicine for stratification of endophenotypes in healthy and diseased populations. © 2017 Tiwari et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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PLoS ONE

Recapitulation of Ayurveda constitution types by machine learning of phenotypic traits

The present study delineates the synthesis of novel composite films using polyvinyl alcohol and carboxymethyl tamarind gum. The microscopic study results confirmed the formation of composite matrices. FTIR spectroscopy suggested the occurrence of hydrogen-bonding amongst the components of the films. The extent of hydrogen bonding was composition-dependent which reached a critical higher limit at a particular composition. At the critical composition, the instantaneous and the intermediate polymer relaxation time were longer. All the films were found to be viscoelastic in nature. The melting endotherm was also highest for the composition described above. Ciprofloxacin loaded films showed excellent antimicrobial property against E. coli, suggesting that the drug was released in its active form. Cell proliferation study using human keratinocytes suggested better cell proliferation in the CMT containing films as compared to the control (PVA only) film. In gist, the developed films can be explored for skin tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

Carbohydrate Polymers

Synthesis and characterization of polyvinyl alcohol- carboxymethyl tamarind gum based composite films

In the global context of increasing colonic diseases, colon specific oral drug delivery systems have shown promise as an effective therapeutic modality. Herein, we developed a mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) based enzyme responsive materials for colon specific drug delivery. We have utilized guar gum, a natural carbohydrate polymer as a capping layer to contain a model drug, such as 5-flurouracil (5FU) within the mesoporous channels of MSN. Analytical characterization including electron microscopy, PXRD, nitrogen sorption, thermogravimetric analysis and FTIR, confirmed that the synthesized MSN with size less than 100 nm is of MCM-41type. The studies further showed that the MSN maintained their discrete nanoparticle identity after guar gum capping through non-covalent interaction. The release of 5FU from guar gum capped MSN (GG-MSN) was specifically triggered via enzymatic biodegradation of guar gum by colonic enzymes in the simulated colonic microenvironment. Subsequently, the released drug manifested anticancer activity in colon cancer cell lines in vitro confirmed by flow cytometry and biochemical assay. The drug loaded GG-MSN system also demonstrated near perfect ‘zero release’ property in absence of enzymes in different simulated conditions of the gastrointestinal tract. Our study provides an important intermediate step to apply such GG-MSN based engineered nanomaterials for further detailed in vivo investigation. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces

Mesoporous silica nanoparticle based enzyme responsive system for colon specific drug delivery through guar gum capping

In this article, we validated the use of electric current as an external stimulus to induce an enhancement of drug release from magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) incorporated organogels (magnetogel) under iontophoretic conditions. For this purpose, we adopted a simple, two-step synthesis route to incorporate magnetic (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (MNP) and ciprofloxacin hydrochloride within the network of a soybean oil-based oleogel using stearic acid as gelator. We fabricated a series of MNP incorporated oleogels by varying the wt% of MNPs while keeping a constant weight ratio of soybean oil:stearic acid. The microstructures of the magnetogels were analyzed in MNP concentration-dependent manner by optical microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, FTIR, mechanical, and electrical studies. Detailed analysis of the electrical properties revealed that the gel sample with a maximum proportion of MNP (S4) allowed the maximum passage of current through it among all the compositions. Under the iontophoretic environment of the active condition, we observed nearly 2.5 fold increase in cumulative drug release in case of sample S4 compared to the corresponding passive condition. These observations suggested that in future, our magnetogel formulation can be further developed as AC field induced ‘remote controlled’ agent for therapeutic application. © 2017

Magnetic nanoparticle incorporated oleogel as iontophoretic drug delivery system

Agar–gelatin-based co-hydrogels were prepared with different compositions of the agar and the gelatin fractions. The intermolecular hydrogen bonding was higher in the co-hydrogels as compared to the gelatin hydrogel. Swelling studies indicated diffusion-mediated swelling. The electrical stability of the co-hydrogels was higher as compared to the gelatin hydrogel. Though the firmness of the co-hydrogels was higher, Weichert model of viscoelasticity indicated that the inherent mechanical stability of the gelatin hydrogel was superior. The release of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride was predominately Fickian diffusion-mediated. In gist, the co-hydrogels can be tried as polymeric constructs for controlled drug delivery applications. © 2017 Taylor & Francis.

Polymer - Plastics Technology and Engineering

An in-Depth Analysis of the Swelling, Mechanical, Electrical, and Drug Release Properties of Agar–Gelatin Co-Hydrogels

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases among elderly people around the world. The main pathophysiological pathway of AD is the misfolding of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide into fibrillar aggregates that result in formation of neurofibrillary tangles and severe brain damages. Carica papaya has been used as traditional herbal medicine against various diseases in India and China. In this manuscript, we have explored the effectiveness of tertiary butyl methyl ether fraction from methanol extract of dried papaya leaves as a neuroprotective candidate. We have performed Thioflavin T (ThT) assay and docking studies to perceive the inhibition of Aβ-42 aggregation, a hallmark of AD. This fraction is non-cytotoxic in nature and shows neuroprotection against anti-Nerve Growth Factor (anti-NGF) induced cytotoxicity in PC12 derived neurons and confers significant stability to intracellular microtubule. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

ChemistrySelect

Methanolic Extract of Papaya Leaves Shows Neuroprotective Effect

The fluorescence dynamics of Photosystem I (PSI) in bulk water and inside a confined environment like a liposome have been investigated using time resolved confocal microscopy. In bulk water, PSI exhibits a major emission peak at ∼680 nm, while in the liposome it exhibits a markedly blue shifted emission maximum at ∼485 nm. This is indicative of conformational changes due to entrapment and emergence of a stressed conformation of PSI inside the liposome. The observed time constants for the fluorescence lifetime of PSI inside the liposome are significantly high as opposed to PSI in bulk water. More interestingly, the fluorescence intensity of PSI in bulk water exhibits strong fluctuations with many high intensity jumps and these are anti-correlated with the fluorescence lifetime of PSI. In contrast, inside the liposome, no such anti-correlated behaviour is observed. We further demonstrated that PSI exhibits at least two conformational states in bulk water, whereas a single conformation is observed inside the liposome, indicating the conformational rigidity and locking of the PSI complex inside a liposome. © the Owner Societies 2018.

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

Probing the conformational dynamics of photosystem i in unconfined and confined spaces

We present the detailed dynamics of the particles in the β-Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou (FPUT) chain after the initiation of a localized nonlinear excitation (LNE) by squeezing a central bond in the monodispersed chain at time t = 0 while all other particles remain in their original relaxed positions. In the absence of phonons in the system, the LNE appears to initiate its relaxation process by symmetrically emitting two very weak solitary waves. The next stage involves the spreading of the LNE and the formation of nonsolitary wave-like objects to broaden the excitation region until a stage is reached when many weak solitary wave-like objects can be emitted as the system begins its journey to quasi-equilibrium and then to equilibrium. In addition to being of fundamental interest, these systems may be realized using cantilever systems and could well hold the key to constructing the next generation of broadband energy harvesting systems. © 2017 World Scientific Publishing Company.

International Journal of Modern Physics B

Early time evolution of a localized nonlinear excitation in the β -FPUT chain

We present a study of efficient dispersion of an impact onto structured and potentially scalable granular beds. We use discrete element method based dynamical simulations of shock wave propagation and dispersion in 2D and 3D arrangements of granular spheres. The spheres are geometrically packed in a nested columnar structure, which leads to the severe attenuation and spreading of the incident energy within the structure. We further show that by incorporating inhomogeneity in material properties, or by introducing layers of a dissimilar material in the middle of the arrangement, impact mitigation can be enhanced significantly. Such an arrangement can therefore be useful in the design of effective impact decimation systems. Using a 2D arrangement we first show the basic idea behind impact dispersion in such an arrangement. With this understanding the system is scaled to 3D. The influence of the system size and material properties on the wave propagation within the packing is also presented. © 2017 The Authors.

KONA Powder and Particle Journal

Impact dispersion using 2D and 3D composite granular packing

Amyloidogenesis is the aggregation of soluble proteins into structurally conserved fibers. Amyloid fibers are distinguished by their resistance to proteinase K, tinctorial properties and β-sheet-rich secondary structure. Amyloid formation is a hallmark of many human diseases including Alzheimer's, Huntington's and the prion diseases. Therefore, understanding amyloidogenesis will provide insights into the development of therapeutics that target these debilitating diseases. A new class of 'functional' amyloids promises a unique glimpse at how nature has harnessed the amyloid fiber to accomplish important physiological tasks. Functional amyloids are produced by organisms spanning all domains of life. Understanding how functional amyloid assembly is coordinated will provide new perspectives on what can go wrong when proteins adopt β-rich polymers. Herein we reviewamyloidogenesis, with special attention focused on the similarities and differences between the best characterized disease-associated amyloidogenic protein, amyloid-β (Aβ), and the formation of several functional amyloids. The implications of studying functional amyloidogenesis and the strategies organisms employ to limit exposure to toxic intermediates will also be discussed. © 2017 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.