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The present study was taken up to evaluate the apoptosis inducing ability of alcoholic extract of whole plant of Anagallis arvensis (AAE) in HL-60 cells. We observed time and concentration dependent decrease in cell viability after treatment with AAE. Fluorescent staining and scanning electron micrographs of treated HL-60 cells demonstrated chromatin condensation, nuclear fragmentation and formation of apoptotic blebs. There was a marked increase in hypodiploid population of cells as observed by cell cycle analysis. Annexin V-FITC/PI also depicted the presence of apoptotic cells. Anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 was observed to be decreased by 62% at 20 µg/ml concentration and a significant increase in ROS production up to 6.9-fold was observed in time dependent manner. In addition, alteration in mitochondrial membrane potential was observed, which was followed by cytochrome c release to cytoplasm. Activated levels of mitochondrial downstream pathway protein namely Caspase-3 and 9, were detected in treated HL-60 cells by colorimetric analysis. DNA ladder formation, a biochemical hallmark of apoptosis was also observed in treated HL-60 cells. The results of the present study support the apoptotic potential of AAE and probability of its promising role in development as effective anticancer agent against leukemia cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences in human phenotypes and susceptibility to complex diseases are an outcome of genetic and environmental interactions. This is evident in diseases that progress through a common set of intermediate patho-endophenotypes. Precision medicine aims to delineate molecular players for individualized and early interventions. Functional studies of lymphoblastoid cell line (LCL) model of phenotypically well-characterized healthy individuals can help deconvolute and validate these molecular mechanisms. In this study, LCLs are developed from eight healthy individuals belonging to three extreme constitution types, deep phenotyped on the basis of Ayurveda. LCLs were characterized by karyotyping and immunophenotyping. Growth characteristics and response to UV were studied in these LCLs. Significant differences in cell proliferation rates were observed between the contrasting groups such that one type (Kapha) proliferates significantly slower than the other two (Vata, Pitta). In response to UV, one of the fast growing groups (Vata) shows higher cell death but recovers its numbers due to an inherent higher rates of proliferation. This study reveals that baseline differences in cell proliferation could be a key to understanding the survivability of cells under UV stress. Variability in baseline cellular phenotypes not only explains the cellular basis of different constitution types but can also help set priors during the design of an individualized therapy with DNA damaging agents. This is the first study of its kind that shows variability of intermediate patho-phenotypes among healthy individuals with potential implications in precision medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, two novel triphenylene−ammonium−ammonium−triphenylene diads were synthesised. The effect of the peripheral chain length around triphenylene and the length of the linker connecting triphenylene with an ammonium moiety on the liquid crystalline behaviour was studied. The molecular structures were verified using proton and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. The liquid crystalline properties of these compounds were determined by polarising optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction studies. These triphenylene−ammonium-based gemini dimers with tetrafluoroborate as the counter ion were found to exhibit liquid crystalline behaviour with a hexagonal columnar phase morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analytical models of multi-product manufacturing systems operating under CONWIP control are composed of closed queuing networks with synchronization stations. Under general assumptions, these queuing networks are hard to analyze exactly and therefore approximation methods must be used for performance evaluation. This research proposes a new approach based on parametric decomposition. Two-moment approximations are used to estimate the performance measures at individual stations. Subsequently, the traffic process parameters at the different stations are linked using stochastic transformation equations. The resulting set of non-linear equations is solved using an iterative algorithm to obtain estimates of key performance measures such as throughput, and mean queue lengths. Numerical studies indicate that the proposed method is computationally efficient and yields fairly accurate results when compared to simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]