Publications by authors named "Ragunathan M"

Article Synopsis
  • - The integration of biology and computational science has transformed our understanding of biological systems and paved the way for innovative solutions to global issues like disease and environmental challenges.
  • - Genetic engineering and biomolecular simulation are key components of this evolution, offering insights into molecular processes and enabling the development of advanced therapies for genetic disorders and new pharmaceuticals.
  • - The ongoing advancements in computational biology are expected to significantly impact fields like cancer treatment and environmental restoration, showcasing its potential to revolutionize our understanding and enhancement of biological systems.
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Objective: Effective "task shared," or nonspecialist delivered, psychological interventions for children and adolescents have been developed or adapted in low- and middle-income countries with the aim of closing the global treatment gap for youth mental health care. Yet, delivery remains limited, in part due to the lack of knowledge of associated implementation, or process, outcomes. This scoping review aims to describe, examine the quality of, and synthesize findings on implementation outcomes of child and adolescent psychological interventions in low-and middle-income countries.

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Congenital heart disease (CHD) surges from fetal cardiac dysmorphogenesis and chiefly contributes to perinatal morbidity and cardiovascular disease mortality. A continual rise in prevalence and prerequisite postoperative disease management creates need for better understanding and new strategies to control the disease. The interaction between genetic and non-genetic factors roots the multifactorial status of this disease, which remains incompletely explored.

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The unprecedented rise in COVID-19 cases in Sri Lanka since July 2021 led to a situation where the health system was getting overwhelmed. The priority shifted toward triaging patients and identifying those who need immediate medical intervention and managing the rest in home settings. An integrated patient management system where patients could access a medical professional through a short messages service (SMS) and calling system was established.

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Increased industrialization demand using synthetic dyes in the newspaper, cosmetics, textiles, food, and leather industries. As a consequence, harmful chemicals from dye industries are released into water reservoirs with numerous structural components of synthetic dyes, which are hazardous to the ecosystem, plants and humans. The discharge of synthetic dye into various aquatic environments has a detrimental effect on the balance and integrity of ecological systems.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parent concerns about children's oral language, reading, and related skills and their children's performance on standardized assessments of language and reading, with a particular focus on whether those relationships differed between children recruited for in-school versus online participation.

Method: This study used data from a larger, longitudinal project focused on children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) and/or dyslexia. The "in-school" sample ( = 133) completed assessments in-person before school closures, and the "online" sample ( = 84) recruited via advertisements completed assessments online.

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Plant-derived antioxidants are a large group of natural products with the capacity to reduce radical-scavenging. Due to their potent therapeutic and preventive actions, these compounds receive a lot of attention from scientists, particularly pharmacologists. The pharmacological activities of the Lam.

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Introduction: The present study aimed to realize human recombinant leptin 's ability to synthesize VEGF A while inducing neovascularization through PI3K/Akt/mTOR/S6 kinase involved signaling pathway.

Methods: To examine the PI3K/Akt/mTOR/S6 kinase pathway involvement in leptin-induced VEGF A synthesis, the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) was incubated with human recombinant leptin and specific inhibitors of the proposed signaling molecules (rapamycin and wortmannin). We analyzed the role of specified signaling molecules in human recombinant leptin-induced physiological angiogenesis via VEGF A synthesis in detail with the support of various methodologies.

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Hypoxia is known to be a major player during pathological angiogenesis and adenosine as a negative feedback signaling to maintain oxygen delivery in pathological ischemic condition. We mimicked hypoxic condition and studied angiogenesis by inducing adenosine receptors using forskolin, a plant compound and NECA analogue of adenosine using zebrafish model. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to play a key role during pathological angiogenesis and regulated by the factors HIF1a under hypoxic condition and recently Notch is proposed to play a negative feedback loop mechanism along with VEGF signaling but the role of adenosine receptor during the process is not known.

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The biological quality of secondary treated sewage effluent was evaluated using a toolbox approach, which combined a larval developmental bioassay and measurement of fecal indicator organisms. The zoea developmental toxicity of Scylla serrata from stage I to stage II was determined by exposing to a range of secondary treated sewage concentrations. Results indicated that the relative progress of zoea stage I to zoea stage II negatively correlated with increasing sewage concentrations.

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The primary objective of this study was to understand the impact of monsoon and summer seasons on the Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB's) and petroleum hydrocarbon compounds (PHC's) load in Ennore estuary and how the physiological response of estuarine Scylla serrata inhabiting in this estuary changed with reference to antioxidant defense. Seasonal levels of PCB's and PHC's were assessed in the water along with their bioaccumulation in gills, hemolymph, hepatopancreas and ovary of S. serrata.

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Angiogenesis, formation of new blood vessels is an important process involved in neovascular diseases and tumor progression. Understanding and defining novel therapeutic targets of neovascular diseases like retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration have been hindered by a lack of appropriate animal models. Zebrafish provides an excellent vertebrate model to study above disorders since its circulatory system and retinal layers are similar to mammals.

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Background: Leptospirosis and dengue are endemic in countries with subtropical or tropical climates and have epidemic potential. The incidence of both these diseases peaks during monsoons and both diseases present with similar clinical manifestations making differentiation of leptospirosis from dengue difficult. It is important to distinguish leptospirosis from dengue as early antibiotic therapy in leptospirosis leads to a favourable outcome, while dengue has no specific treatment, yet early recognition is vital for close monitoring and careful fluid management.

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Background: Osteosarcoma is the most common primary tumor that affects usually children. Due to its cellular complex and osteoid formation it is very difficult to understand the mechanism behind the progressiveness of osteosarcoma. Various animal models are available to study the issue but they are time consuming and costly.

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Background: Leptin, the cytokine produced by white adipose tissue is known to regulate food energy homeostasis through its hypothalamic receptor. In vitro studies have demonstrated that leptin plays a major role in angiogenesis through binding to the receptor Ob-R present on ECs by stimulating and initiating new capillary like structures from ECs. Various in vivo studies indicate that leptin has diverse effect on angiogenesis.

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Consensus on management of complicated cases of dengue infection is evolving. Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) occasionally progress to fulminant liver failure with high fatality rate. Inadvertent use of blood products to control massive bleeding in dengue shock syndrome may worsen fluid overload and subsequently the multi-organ dysfunction.

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Introduction: With more than one-third of the world's population living in areas at risk for transmission, dengue fever is a leading cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics. Despite the high incidence of dengue fever, rhabdomyolysis leading to acute renal failure is an extremely rare complication of dengue fever. Only a few such cases have been reported in the literature.

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Background: Obesity, characterised by increased fat mass and is currently regarded as a pro-inflammatory state and often associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) including Myocardial infarction. There is an upregulation of inflammatory markers such as interleukin-6, interleukin-6 receptor and acute phase protein CRP in Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) patients but the exact mechanism linking obesity and inflammation is not known. It is of our interest to investigate if serum leptin (ob gene product) is associated with AMI and correlated with inflammatory proteins namely Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and high sensitivity - C reactive protein (hs-CRP).

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Introduction: Isolated hepatic tuberculosis is an uncommon manifestation of one of the most common infections worldwide, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Extremely high serum ferritin, which is regarded as a marker of adult onset Still's disease, has not been observed in patients with tuberculosis of the liver. We report a case of hepatic tuberculosis who presented with clinical criteria of adult-onset Still's disease and extreme hyperferritinemia, which posed a diagnostic confusion.

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Heparin is an anticoagulant agent known to have diverse effects on angiogenesis with some reports suggesting that it can induce angiogenesis while a few have indicated of its inhibitory property. Cancer patients treated for venous thromboembolism with low molecular heparin had a better survival than the unfractionated heparin (UFH). Heparin is known to interact with various angiogenic growth factors based on its sulfation modifications within the glycosaminoglycan chains.

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Introduction: Concurrent rheumatoid factor seropositivity is occasionally detected in ankylosing spondylitis and often causes confusion in clinical routine. Overlap between various seronegative arthritides is a known but uncommon association. Differentiation of spondyloarthropathy from rheumatoid arthritis is important, since the natural history, complications, treatments and prognosis of the two diseases differ significantly.

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A cross-sectional study pertaining to the practices and perceptions of modern and traditional health practitioners on Traditional Medicine (TM) was carried out from February 25 to April 4, 2008. The results of the study showed that almost all the practitioners in both systems expressed their willingness to collaborate among each other to promote the positive elements of TM. As traditional healing knowledge is still being handed over from one generation to the next, mainly through word of mouth, which will lead to distortion or a total demise of the original knowledge, this report indicates the urgency to document the same.

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Objective: To compare the efficacy of conventional medical treatment versus transtympanic dexamethasone application into middle ear as treatment modality in Meniere's disease.

Study Design: Prospective randomized study.

Setting: Tertiary referral centre.

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The change in the neurosecretory cells with males with respect to seasons was investigated. The brain is provided with three types of neurosecretory cells namely A, B and C and thoracic ganglion with four types of neurosecretory cells A, B, C and D. They vary in number and neurosecretory activity according to seasons which may be responsible for the increase in the size and development of the reproductive and associated structures.

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