Standardization and evaluation of an in-house ELISA for the detection of rabies antibody in a tertiary care centre in South India.

Background: Rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test (RFFIT), a neutralization-based assay for detecting rabies antibodies, is the gold standard. The National Action Plan for Dog Mediated Rabies Elimination (NAPRE) is a national program that strategizes the establishment of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) to detect rabies antibodies.

Objective: We developed an in-house ELISA to screen for rabies antibodies using rabies vaccine antigen to study vaccine response among health care workers (HCWs) who received pre-exposure prophylaxis and a few animal bite victims who received post-exposure prophylaxis with rabies vaccine.

Antioxidant activities and phenolics profiling of different parts of Carica papaya by LCMS-MS.

This article deals with the comparison of the antioxidant activity of aqueous extracts of various parts of Carica papaya L. The evaluation of total phenolic content and total flavonoid content revealed high antioxidant potential of the seeds and fruits. The free radical-scavenging potential of the aqueous extracts indicated the seeds to have better DPPH-scavenging activity than fruits.

A critical evaluation on the reliability of two aluminum chloride chelation methods for quantification of flavonoids.

Flavonols kaempferol, quercetin, myricetin and gossypetin, and flavones apigenin, acacetin, luteolin, orientin and tricin, are subjected to two AlCl(3) spectrophotometric methods used for determination of total flavonoid content. The method developed by Woisky and Salatino involves addition of AlCl(3) solution to the flavonoid solution and recording of optical density at 420nm. All flavonols except kaempferol have absorption maxima above 440nm and so readings at 420nm are erroneous.

Permanent neonatal diabetes due to KCNJ11 gene mutation.

Permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus (PNDM) is characterized by the onset of diabetes within the first six months of life and insulin dependence life long. It has been recently discovered that mutation in KCNJ11 gene encoding Kir6.2, the pore forming subunit of ATP sensitive potassium channel (K ATP) is the most common cause and such patients may respond better to oral sulphonylurea drugs than insulin.

Phenylketonuria in Indian children.

Three untreated phenylketonuric Indian children aged respectively 3 1/2 years, 1 1/2 years and 1 year showed rapid neurological deterioration. Plasma, cerebrospinal fluid and urine phenylalanine concentrations were significantly raised and the phenylalanine-tyrosine ratio was high. Analysis of a biopsy of the right frontal lobe of the brain in one case showed the myeline lipids--cerebroside and sulphatide--to be decreased.