Quality by design (QbD) assisted Fabrication & evaluation of Simvastatin loaded Nano-Enabled thermogel for melanoma therapy.

Melanoma is a form of skin cancer that starts in melanocytes. Rampant chemo-resistance, metastasis, and inability to cross the skin barriers and accumulate within the tumor microenvironment render the conventional chemotherapeutic approaches ineffective. Simvastatin (SIM), a cholesterol synthesis inhibitor, has shown tremendous anticancer potential.

Perinatal Transmission and Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

Maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection can adversely affect the birth and neonatal outcomes. The authors prospectively enrolled 196 neonates born to 193 SARS-CoV-2-positive mothers to determine the rate of mother-to-baby transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and its effect on short-term neonatal outcomes in Indian population. Nineteen babies turned out to be RT-PCR-positive for SARS-CoV-2, carrying a perinatal transmission rate of 9.

Impact of untreated sewage and thermal effluent discharges on the air-sea CO fluxes in a highly urbanized tropical coastal region.

Various biotic and abiotic factors regulate carbon dioxide (CO) absorption and emission in coastal waters. Factors controlling the regional air-sea CO fluxes were studied in Tuticorin Bay, a highly urbanized region along the southeast coast of India. Significant spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of inorganic carbon components in the bay was observed based on the exposure to different anthropogenic pressures.

Macrobenthic community of a tropical bay system revisited: Historical changes in response to anthropogenic forcing.

The present study examines historical perspectives of the macrobenthic community in response to different phases of anthropogenic perturbations in Kakinada Bay, a tropical embayment on the east coast of India. Multivariate analysis of the snapshot data (1958-2017) revealed considerable changes in the Bay environment following a breakwater construction across the Bay mouth in 1997. Subsequently, port expansion activities, industrialization, urbanization, and geomorphic alterations in the Godavari delta brought deterrent changes in the Bay.

Assessing the in situ bacterial diversity and composition at anthropogenically active sites using the environmental DNA (eDNA).

In this study, we identified the in situ bacterial groups and their community structure in coastal waters influenced by anthropogenic inputs. The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) and high throughput sequencing (HTS) were employed to derive accurate and reliable information on bacterial abundance. The V3 and V4 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene were amplified and the sequences were clustered into operational taxonomic units to analyze the site-specific variations in community composition.

Improved growth and stress tolerance in the Arabidopsis oxt1 mutant triggered by altered adenine metabolism.

Plants perceive and respond to environmental stresses with complex mechanisms that are often associated with the activation of antioxidant defenses. A genetic screen aimed at isolating oxidative stress-tolerant lines of Arabidopsis thaliana has identified oxt1, a line that exhibits improved tolerance to oxidative stress and elevated temperature but displays no apparent deleterious growth effects under non-stress conditions. Oxt1 harbors a mutation that arises from the altered expression of a gene encoding adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APT1), an enzyme that converts adenine to adenosine monophosphate (AMP), indicating a link between purine metabolism, whole-plant growth responses, and stress acclimation.