Enzymes for pharmaceutical and therapeutic applications.

Enzymes are highly efficient and selective biocatalysts, present in the living beings. They exist in enormous varieties in terms of the types of reactions catalyzed by them for instance oxidation-reduction, group transfers within the molecules or between the molecules, hydrolysis, isomerization, ligation, bond cleavage, and bond formation. Besides, enzyme based catalyses are performed with much higher fidelity, under mild reaction conditions and are highly efficient in terms of number of steps, giving them an edge over their chemical counter parts.

Molecular characterization of nucleoprotein gene of rabies virus from Maharashtra, India.

Context: Rabies poses a serious public health concern in developing countries such as India.

Aims: The study focuses on molecular diagnosis of street rabies virus (RABV) from human clinical specimens received from Maharashtra, India.

Materials And Methods: Nucleoprotein gene from eight (of total 20 suspected samples) rabies cases that tested positive for rabies antigen using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were sequenced.

High-resolution microarray in the assessment of fetal anomalies detected by ultrasound.

Aims: The main aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of using high-resolution microarray to assist with prenatal diagnosis of ultrasound-detected fetal abnormality and to describe the frequency of abnormal results in different categories of fetal anomalies.

Methods: Prospective cross-sectional study was conducted on women diagnosed with a fetal anomaly (ies) between February 2009 and December 2011 who were offered testing by microarray analysis (Affymetrix 2.7M SNP) and fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) instead of standard karyotyping.

A 2-year follow-up study of patients on automated peritoneal dialysis.

Automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) is increasingly being used for the treatment of end stage renal disease. We present our experience of APD at a government run tertiary care institute. APD was initiated for 22 patients between 2002 and 2010.