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Background: The pancreas contains Vitamin D (Vit.-D) and an enzyme that regulates insulin levels. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with several severe health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, various cancers, and multiple sclerosis (MS). Therefore, the objective of the current study is to investigate the correlation between Vitamin D levels and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in both patients and controls. Materials and Methods: The study enrolled 163 T2DM (Group I) and 174 healthy (Group II) subjects to estimate the level of Vit.-D and HbA1c in the blood serum of all subjects, using radioimmunoassay and high-performance liquid chromatography, respectively. Results: The results revealed that Group I had a lower level of Vit.-D (17.82 ± 2.23 ng/mL) than Group II. Similarly, they have high HbA1c levels, showing significant (P < 0.001; Student's t -test). Further, in Group I, Vit.-D levels were negatively correlated with HbA1c levels (P < 0.001; r2 = 0.07, linear regression). Group I and II combined analysis revealed an inverse relationship between Vit.-D levels and HbA1c (P < 0.001; r2 = 0.021). Conclusion: The study concluded a negative correlation between Vit.-D levels and HbA1c levels in T2DM. However, Vit.-D therapy can recover this correlation, which helps control glycemic levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depression is among the most common mental health problems among people with chronic complications like type 2 diabetes mellitus is brought on by flaws in insulin secretion and activity; however, genetic factors also play a role in both insulin resistance and beta-cell failure, but environmental factors also play a role in aggravating both problems. The presence of depression in patients with type 2 diabetes may interfere with treatment and efficacy. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depression in this metabolic variant clinical condition, type 2 diabetes mellitus, in major tertiary care hospitals in the South-Eastern Uttar Pradesh cities of Allahabad and Varanasi. Subjects and methods: For this study, 206 subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus from rural and urban areas were recruited. Demographic, clinical, and diabetes-related data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ9), a standardized questionnaire developed in the United States and validated in the Indian population. Results: The prevalence of depression in diabetics in the community was 43.2%. The most common type of depression was mild (29.3%, 26), and the least common was severe depression (3, 3.37%). Several factors were associated with depression in the female gender: living in a rural area, unemployment, and being single. The complications of diabetes and other chronic conditions, such as hypertension and obesity, are also associated with depression. Conclusion: Depression was found to be particularly high in the study population. Because depression can significantly impede patient adherence to treatment, there is an urgent need for early diagnosis and treatment. This requires integrating mental health care for diabetes patients.

The herbal medicines have reached extensive acceptability as therapeutic agents for various clinical diseases due to global demand. Therefore, standardization is the essential and initial step to drug development. It is for the establishment of consistent biological activity, a consistent chemical profile and biomarker identification. It improves the safety and efficacy of herbal medicine to provide the best herbal medicine to society and increase popularity rather than non-standardized extracts. In addition, it is essential to practice or maintain a quality assurance program for the production and manufacturing of herbal medicine that includes the basis of organoleptic characters and photomicrographs, physicochemical, proximate analysis phytochemical evaluation and quality control analysis and order to assess the quality of drugs, based on the concentration of their active principles. WHO has provided specific guidelines for the assessment of the safety, efficacy and quality of herbal drugs as a prerequisite for global harmonization and of utmost importance. In the present study, the herbal extracts were cleaned, dried in the shade and powdered by passing through the sieve as per the method described in the standard protocol. An overview covering various techniques employed in the extraction and characterization of Nyctanthes arbortristis, Hippophae salicifolia, Ocimum tenuiflorum and Reinwardtia indica, standardization is reported in this study. The obtained data would be very significant for future clinical aspects, as the bioactive molecules present in the extracts may exhibit synergistic effect with other bioactive compound and show a better therapeutic value. Thus, this study provides standardized and therapeutically potential data of active polyherbal formulations for the different ailments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antidepressant effects of the polyherbal formulation (PF) (contain four extracts of medicinal plants namely: Nyctanthes arbortristis, Hippophae salcifolia, Ocimum tenuiflorum and Withania somnifera) was examined by evaluating the extent of reduction of behavioural alterations and neurotransmitter in the rats stressed by forced swim test (FST). In the present study, compared with the model control group (FST), the altered behavioural parameters were attenuated significantly (P < 0.05) in the group treated with the PF (100,200 and 400 mg kg-1), comparable with the standard drug treated group, Sertraline (10mg kg-1). The PF and Sertraline significantly (P < 0.05) increased the level of the neurotransmitter such as serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine and noradrenalin whereas decreased the level of monoamine oxidase along with oxidant in the brain of the stressed rats. PF and Sertraline were also involved in the reduced oxidant and generated antioxidant in the stressed rats. The results indicated that polyherbal formulation exhibited significant antidepressant activity, as indicated by its ability to decrease force swim stress, induced immobility time in rats as well as restoring the biogenic amines to normal level that were altered by the swim induced stress in whole rat brain. Therefore, PF can be a potential candidate for treatment of depression as well as a potent antidepressant. However, further studies are required to substantiate the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work discusses the establishment of a green route for the rapid synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using an alcoholic extract of Reinwardtia indica (AERI) leaves which act as a reducing as well as a capping agent. The change in color from yellowish green to dark brown confirmed the synthesis of AgNPs. A characteristic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band at 436 nm advocated the presence of AgNPs. The synthesis process was optimized using one factor at a time approach where 1.0 mM AgNO3 concentration, 5 mL 0.4% (v/v) of AER inoculum dose and 30 min of sunlight exposure were found to be the optimum conditions. The synthesized AgNPs was characterized by several characterizing techniques such as HR- TEM, SAED, HR-SEM, EDX, XRD, FTIR and AFM analysis. For evaluation and comparison of AgNPs with AERI used human pathogen E. coli, P. aeurogenosa, S. aeurus and C. albicans for antimicrobial, for cytotoxicity study SiHa cell line at concentration of (10, 50, 100, 250 and 500 µg mL−1) and for enzymatic assay superoxide dismutase, catalase, malondialdehyde and glutathione peroxidase method were used. The size of nanoparticle in the range of 3-15 nm was confirmed TEM, spherical shape by SEM and crystal lattice nature by XRD. AFM results revealed the 2 D and 3 D pattern of particle scatter nature on the surface. This protocol as simple, rapid, one step, eco-friendly, nontoxic and AgNPs showed strong antimicrobial activity as well as cytotoxic potential in comparison to AERI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deals with a study which discussed the photoluminescence and cathodluminescence properties of a-Si:H treated undoped and tellurium-compensated p-GaSb. Background to the study; Experimental details; Results and discussion.