Marker Based In-vitro Antioxidant Potential,Microscopy and Validated High Performance Thin Layer Chromatographic Method for Saffron

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological Sciences - In vitro antioxidant potential of methanolic extract of saffron and crocetin was assessed along with...     

Development trends for generation of single-chain antibody fragments

Recombinant antibodies are increasingly being employed as therapeutic agents especially in combination with anti-cancer drugs. The single-chain antibody fragments are small antigen-binding proteins which provide the most commonly used antibody formats for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. These antibody fragments have more rapid tumor penetration and clearance from the serum relative to full-length monoclonal antibodies. There are in vitro antibody-display technologies such as phage display, cell surface display, ribosome display and mRNA display that can be used to isolate high specificity and affinity single-chain antibodies against a wide variety of targets. We review these strategies for generation of stable and active antibody fragments in the present article.     

Surface and thermal properties of synthesized cationic poly(ethylene oxide) gemini surfactants: the role of the spacer

The solubility and heat stability of surfactants are the prerequisites for their oilfield applications. Most commercial surfactants undergo hydrolysis at high temperature and prolonged heating at 40 °C or above leads to decomposition. In this report, three cationic poly(ethylene oxide) gemini surfactants (GSs) containing flexible and rigid spacers were synthesized for oilfield applications. The chemical structures of the GSs were elucidated with the aid of ¹³C NMR, ¹H NMR, FT-IR, and MALDI-TOF MS. The GSs exhibit pronounced solubility in deionized water, seawater, and formation brine and no cloudiness, phase separation, or precipitation were detected after keeping GS solutions in an oven at 90 °C for three weeks. According to thermal gravimetric analysis, the degradation temperature of all the GSs was above 240 °C, which is higher than the existing oilfield temperature (≥90 °C). The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the synthesized GSs decreases upon increasing the temperature. Additionally, CMC values were observed to increase even further with increasing salinity. The low CMC values of gemini surfactants containing a flexible structure indicate that they create a more closely packed micelle structure compared with gemini surfactants with a rigid structure. The distinct surface and thermal features of the synthesized GSs reveal them to be appropriate materials for high salinity and elevated temperature reservoirs.

Synthesis of new cationic poly(ethylene oxide) gemini surfactants containing flexible and rigid spacer groups to tolerate harsh reservoir condition.     

Discovery and antiproliferative evaluation of new quinoxalines as potential DNA intercalators and topoisomerase II inhibitors

In continuation of our previous work on the design and synthesis of topoisomerase II (Topo II) inhibitors and DNA intercalators, a new series of quinoxaline derivatives were designed and synthesized. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against a panel of three cancer cell lines (Hep G‐2, Hep‐2, and Caco‐2). Compounds 18b, 19b, 23, 25b , and 26 showed strong potencies against all tested cell lines with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.26 ± 0.1 to 2.91 ± 0.1 µM, comparable with those of doxorubicin (IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.65 ± 0.1 to 0.81 ± 0.1 µM). The most active compounds were further evaluated for their Topo II inhibitory activities and DNA intercalating affinities. Compounds 19b and 19c exhibited high activities against Topo II (IC₅₀ = 0.97 ± 0.1 and 1.10 ± 0.1 µM, respectively) and bound the DNA at concentrations of 43.51 ± 2.0 and 49.11 ± 1.8 µM, respectively, whereas compound 28b exhibited a significant affinity to bind the DNA with an IC₅₀ value of 37.06 ± 1.8 µM. Moreover, apoptosis and cell‐cycle tests of the most promising compound 19b were carried out. It was found that 19b can significantly induce apoptosis in Hep G‐2 cells. It has revealed cell‐cycle arrest at the G2/M phase. Moreover, compound 19b downregulated the Bcl‐2 levels, indicating its potential to enhance apoptosis. Furthermore, molecular docking studies were carried out against the DNA–Topo II complex to examine the binding patterns of the synthesized compounds.     

Assessment of dental anxiety and its correlation with denture satisfaction in edentulous patients

Objective: The objectives of this study were to measure the level of dental anxiety and its correlation with dental history, denture satisfaction and other variables. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 150 completely edentulous patients reporting to the Department of Prosthodontics, KLES's Institute of Dental Sciences, Belgaum, over a period of 17 months (August 2005 to March 2007). The anxiety level of the patients was assessed with the help of a questionnaire, after obtaining an informed consent. Reliability of the dental anxiety scale was assessed by means of coefficient alpha. Results: The results of this study concluded that dental anxiety scale for edentulous patients was a reliable scale for measuring dental anxiety. The anxiety score was higher for female than male patients. A significant correlation was found between denture satisfaction score and anxiety. Discussion: Anxiety plays a major role in denture satisfaction. The variables included: Previous denture experience, occupation, medical history, age, gender, dental anxiety scale, period of edentulousness, age of previous dentures, number of complete dentures, denture satisfaction score, and the score on the Hamilton anxiety scale Conclusion: The study indicated that gender correlates significantly with dental anxiety. Patients with medical history were found to be more anxious than normal patients. Patients with higher anxiety values were less satisfied with the treatment. Lastly, subjects with higher general anxiety showed greater values on the dental anxiety scale. Clinical significance: The assessment of dental anxiety will help the prosthodontist in the management of anxious patients and secondly to provide evidence-based research into this psychological construct which has been shown to predict dental avoidance. Keywords: Dental anxiety, Denture satisfaction, Completely edentulous patients. How to cite this article: Shrivastava R, Srivastava R, Shigli K, Prashanth MB, Kumaraswamy BN, Nethravathi TD. Assessment of Dental Anxiety and its Correlation with Denture Satisfaction in Edentulous Patients. J Contemp Dent Pract 2012;13(3):257-260. Source of support: Nil Conflict of interest: None declared.