Publications by authors named "Amit Kaushik"

Article Synopsis
  • - Hydrophobic pollutants like long-chain hydrocarbons and heavy metals are harmful to the environment and human health, and traditional chemical surfactants used for decontamination can be toxic.
  • - Biosurfactants, produced by various microbes, are a safer and more cost-effective alternative to chemical surfactants, capable of breaking down pollutants and enhancing their solubility by reducing surface tension.
  • - The effectiveness of biosurfactants in remediation depends on several factors such as temperature, pH, and media composition, and recent discussions include their potential in a circular bioeconomy by utilizing waste for biosurfactant production.
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A significant challenge in the development of long-acting injectable drug formulations, especially for anti-infective agents, is delivering an efficacious dose within a tolerable injection volume. Co-administration of the extracellular matrix-degrading enzyme hyaluronidase can increase maximum tolerable injection volumes but is untested for this benefit with long-acting injectable formulations. One concern is that hyaluronidase could potentially alter the tissue response surrounding an injection depot, a response known to be important for drug release kinetics of long-acting injectable formulations.

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Background: Achyranthes aspera L. (family Amaranthaceae) is a plant species valued in Ayurveda for the treatment of respiratory ailments. Scientific validation of its antiallergic potential was aimed.

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Background: The second wave of COVID-19 was disastrous and claimed many lives in India and abroad. The most challenging task was to provide the required treatment as per the patient's condition, within a limited span of time. The lack of prognostic predictors at the time of admission led to failure in prioritizing the patient's need for intensive care.

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Background: In the Asia-Pacific region, around one-third of the children who are out-of-school have a disability and given that teacher readiness and capability are key contributors for inclusive education, it is high time for a mapping of disability inclusive teacher professional development (TPD) interventions in this region.

Objectives: The key objective of this evidence and gap map (EGM) is to locate evidence on interventions for in-service TPD focussing on education for the inclusion of students with a disability in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the Asia-Pacific region.

Search Methods: A broad range of bibliographic databases and repositories were searched electronically to identify the evidence published between January 2000 and December 2021.

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Introduction: An unusually high blood glucose level is a hallmark of diabetes mellitus, with an imbalance between insulin levels and insulin sensitivity leading to an insulin functional deficit. Since it serves as both a risk indicator and a gauge of long-term glycemic control, the HbA1c concentration is a crucial component of standard diabetes treatment. The use of the HbA1c concentration in the diagnosis of diabetes is expanding as the test's accuracy increases.

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Introduction: Farmers' cognizance regarding pesticide use and overuse is limited and their practices for handling of pesticides is unsatisfactory. However, their perception concerning risks and safety of pesticides play a very important role in safe spraying and indirectly protect them from adverse health hazards.

Objective: To assess the cognizance about use and risks of overuse of pesticides and evaluate practices for the storage, preparation, and disposal of pesticides.

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Staphylococcus aureus is an important cause of various infections in humans, including bacteremia, skin and soft tissue infections, and infections associated with implanted medical devices. The emergence of hospital- and community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) underscores the urgent and unmet need to develop novel, safe, and effective antibiotics against these multidrug-resistant clinical isolates. Oxazolidinone antibiotics such as linezolid have excellent oral bioavailability and provide coverage against MRSA infections.

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The rise of antibiotic-resistant and non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections has placed ever-increasing importance on discovering new antibiotics to treat these diseases. Recently, a new penem, , was discovered to have strong antimicrobial activity against and . Here, a penem library of C2 side-chain variants was synthesized, and their antimicrobial activities were evaluated against HRv and ATCC 19977.

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In the absence of a sensitive and specific diagnostic modality capable of detecting all forms of tuberculosis (TB), proteomics may identify specific Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) proteins in urine, with a potential as biomarkers. To identify candidate biomarkers for TB, proteome profile of urine from pulmonary TB patients was compared with non-disease controls (NDC) and disease controls (DC, Streptococcus pneumonia infected patients) using a combination of two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS/MS).

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Background: In 2019, the global number of malaria cases was estimated at 229 million. An estimated 409,000 deaths were attributed to malaria in 2019. Under-five children are the most susceptible to malaria, accounting for 67% (274,000) of all malaria deaths worldwide in 2019.

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Objective: The present article aimed to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of carboplatin (CP) using the formulation of chitosan-poly (lactic glycolic acid) nanoparticles (CS-PLGA NPs).

Methods: Nanoparticles were synthesized by an ionic gelation method and were characterized for their morphology, particle size, and surface potential measurements by TEM and zeta sizer. This study was highlighted for the evaluation of drug entrapment, loading and in vitro drug release capabilities of the prepared nanoparticles by spectrophotometric analysis.

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Completion of preventive therapy is a major bottleneck in global tuberculosis control. Long-acting injectable drug formulations would shorten therapy administration and may thereby improve completion rates. Recently, a long-acting formulation of bedaquiline demonstrated antituberculosis activity for up to 12 weeks after injection in a validated mouse model of preventive therapy.

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According to prior research, teacher readiness and capability are key contributors for successful transition towards disability inclusive education, yet in-service teacher professional development for disability inclusion remains an under-researched area. The key objective of this evidence and gap map (EGM) is to locate evidence on interventions for disability inclusion focused teacher professional development (TPD) in low-to-middle-income-countries (LMICs) in the Asia-Pacific region. As such, it will illustrate different levels of evidence for TPD interventions as well as where there is no evidence (i.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The study assesses bedaquiline's effectiveness, a drug approved for tuberculosis, in combination with imipenem against M. abscessus in various conditions, revealing that bedaquiline can be bactericidal against nutrient-starved bacteria while antagonizing imipenem in actively growing cultures.
  • * Results indicate that the interaction between bedaquiline and imipenem depends on the growth conditions, suggesting that bedaquiline may enhance treatment outcomes against nutrient-starved or intracellular M. abscessus, despite previous observations of antagonism under
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We present further study of a subset of carbapenems, arising from a previously reported machine learning approach, with regard to their mouse pharmacokinetic profiling and subsequent study in a mouse model of sub-acute Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Pharmacokinetic metrics for such small molecules were compared to those for meropenem and biapenem, resulting in the selection of two carbapenems to be assessed for their ability to reduce M. tuberculosis bacterial loads in the lungs of infected mice.

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β-lactams are the most widely used antibiotic class to treat bacterial infections in humans. Mycobacteroides abscessus is an emerging pulmonary pathogen resistant to most antibiotics, including penicillins and cephalosporins. With no current FDA-approved treatment and cure rates <50%, there is a pressing need for effective therapies.

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Herein we demonstrate the expanded utility of a recently described -trifluoromethylthiolation protocol to sulfonimidamide containing substances. The novel -trifluoromethylthio sulfonimidamide derivatives thus obtained were evaluated for antibacterial activity against (.) and and Gram + Ve (, ), and Gram - Ve (, ) bacteria.

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We report an ancient genome from the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). The individual we sequenced fits as a mixture of people related to ancient Iranians (the largest component) and Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers, a unique profile that matches ancient DNA from 11 genetic outliers from sites in Iran and Turkmenistan in cultural communication with the IVC. These individuals had little if any Steppe pastoralist-derived ancestry, showing that it was not ubiquitous in northwest South Asia during the IVC as it is today.

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The new diazabicyclooctane-based β-lactamase inhibitors avibactam and relebactam improve the activity of β-lactam antibiotics against bacteria of the complex (MABC). Here, we evaluated the activities of two newer diazabicyclooctane-based β-lactamase inhibitors in clinical development, nacubactam and zidebactam, with β-lactams against clinical isolates of MABC. Both inhibitors lowered the MICs of their partner β-lactams, meropenem (8-fold) and cefepime (2-fold), respectively, and those of other β-lactams, similar to prior results with avibactam and relebactam.

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Tigecycline is used in multidrug regimens for salvage therapy of infections but is often poorly tolerated and has no oral formulation. Here, we report similar activity of two newly approved tetracycline analogs, omadacycline and eravacycline, against 28 drug-resistant clinical isolates of complex. Since omadacycline and eravacycline appear to be better tolerated than tigecycline and since omadacycline is also formulated for oral dosing, these tetracycline analogs may represent new treatment options for infections.

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The potent antituberculosis activity and long half-life of bedaquiline make it an attractive candidate for use in long-acting/extended-release formulations for the treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). Our objective was to evaluate a long-acting injectable (LAI) bedaquiline formulation in a validated paucibacillary mouse model of LTBI. Following immunization with rBCG30, BALB/c mice were challenged by aerosol infection with H37Rv.

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Pulmonary disease due to infection with complex (MABC) is notoriously difficult to treat, in large part due to the intrinsic resistance of MABC strains to most antibiotics, including β-lactams. MABC organisms express a broad-spectrum β-lactamase that is resistant to traditional β-lactam-based β-lactamase inhibitors but inhibited by a newer non-β-lactam-based β-lactamase inhibitor, avibactam. Consequently, the susceptibility of MABC members to some β-lactams is increased in the presence of avibactam.

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Background: In , five basic extraction procedures are mentioned in order of their decreasing potency. Swaras is considered as the most potent followed by, , , and .

Objective: Present study was carried out to investigate the antioxidant and hepatoprotective potential of swaras and hima extracts of and .

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Tuberculosis remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world, and the increased number of multidrug-resistant and extremely drug-resistant strains is a significant reason for concern. This makes the discovery of novel antitubercular agents a cogent priority. We have previously addressed this need by reporting a series of substituted 2-aminothiazoles capable to inhibit the growth of actively replicating, nonreplicating persistent, and resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains.

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