Myotubularin-related protein 6 is an ion channel-associated pro-leishmanial phosphatase.

Residing obligatorily as amastigotes within the mammalian macrophages, the parasite Leishmania donovani inflicts the potentially fatal, globally re-emerging disease visceral leishmaniasis (VL) by altering intracellular signaling through kinases and phosphatases. Because the phosphatases that modulate the VL outcome in humans remained unknown, we screened a human phosphatase siRNA-library for anti-leishmanial functions in THP-1, a human macrophage-like cell line. Of the 251 phosphatases, the screen identified the Ca-activated K-channel-associated phosphatase myotubularin-related protein-6 (MTMR6) as the only phosphatase whose silencing reduced parasite load and IL-10 production in human macrophages.

Effect of Different Surfactants on the Interfacial Behavior of the n-Hexane-Water System in the Presence of Silica Nanoparticles.

This paper presents the effect of negatively charged silica nanoparticles (NPs) on the interfacial tension of the n-hexane-water system at variable concentrations of four different surfactants, viz., an anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and two nonionic surfactants, Tween 20 and Triton X-100 (TX-100). The presence of negatively charged silica nanoparticles is found to have a different effect depending on the type of surfactant.