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Repurposing drugs and adjuvants is an attractive choice of present therapy that reduces the substantial costs, chances of failure, and systemic toxicity. Mycobacterium indicus pranii was originally developed as a leprosy vaccine but later has been found effective against Leishmania donovani infection. To extend our earlier study, here we reported the immunotherapeutic modulation of the splenic and circulatory neutrophils in favour of hosts as neutrophils actually serve as the pro‐parasitic portable shelter to extend the Leishmania infection specifically during the early entry into the hosts' circulation. We targeted to disrupt this early pro‐parasitic incidence by the therapeutic combination of M. indicus pranii and heat‐induced promastigotes against antimony‐resistant L. donovani infection. The combination therapy induced the functional expansion of CD11b+Ly6CintLy6Ghi neutrophils both in the post‐infected spleen, and also in the circulation of post‐treated animals followed by the immediate Leishmania infection. More importantly, the enhanced expression of MHC‐II, phagocytic uptake of the parasites by the circulatory neutrophils as well as the oxidative burst were induced that limited the chances of the very early establishment of the infection. The enhanced expression of pro‐inflammatory cytokines, like IL‐1α and TNF‐α indicated resistance to the parasite‐mediated takeover of the neutrophils, as these cytokines are critical for the activation of T cell‐mediated immunity and host‐protective responses. Additionally, the induction of essential transcription factors and cytokines for early granulocytic lineage commitment suggests that the strategy not only contributed to the peripheral activation of the neutrophils but also promoted granulopoiesis in the bone marrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anti‐leishmanial effect of the 'carbohydrate‐fraction', isolated from an edible mushroom Astraeus hygrometricus, was evaluated against Leishmania donovani infection both in vitro and in vivo. Ahf‐Car induced the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase 2 (iNOS2) and pro‐inflammatory cytokines like TNF‐α and IL‐12, with subsequent downregulation of the anti‐inflammatory cytokines as TGF‐β and IL‐10, in vitro and in vivo along with a remarkable increase in the expressions of IL‐6, IL‐1β, IFN‐γ and IRFs, IRF‐7 and IRF‐8 in vivo. Ahf‐Car also reduced the parasite burden in the spleen and liver dose‐dependently with a simultaneous proliferation of Ly6C+ cells in the bone marrow of Leishmania‐infected experimental animals. It also increased the monocyte population dose‐dependently and the expression of the myeloid transcription factor PU.1, in vivo, which presumably signifies the expansion of protective macrophages. Thus, Ahf‐Car might be a potent anti‐leishmanial lead with unique and effective adjuvant capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce the uncertainty in the black carbon (BC) induced climatic impacts from the global and regional aerosol-climate model simulations, it is a foremost requirement to improve the prediction of modelled BC distribution. And that specifically, over the regions where the atmosphere is loaded with a large amount of BC, e.g., the Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) in the Indian subcontinent. Here we examine the wintertime radiative perturbation due to BC with an efficiently modelled BC distribution over the IGP in a high-resolution (0.1° χ0.1°) chemical transport model, CHIMERE, implementing new BC emission inventories. The model efficiency in simulating the observed BC distribution was assessed executing five simulations: Constrained and bottom-up (Smog, Cmip, Edgar, Pku) implementing respectively, the recently estimated India-based constrained BC emission and the latest bottom-up BC emissions (India-based: Smog-India, and global: Coupled Model In-tercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6), Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research-V4 (EDGAR-V4) and Peking University BC Inventory (PKU)). A low estimated value of the normalised mean bias (NMB) and root mean square error (RMSE) from Constrained estimated BC concentration (NMB: < 17%) and aerosol optical depth due to BC (BC-AOD) (NMB: 11%) indicated that simulation with constrained BC emissions in CHIMERE could simulate the distribution of BC pollution over the IGP more efficiently than with the bottom-up. The large BC pollution covering the IGP region comprised of wintertime all-day (daytime) mean BC concentration and BC-AOD from the Constrained, respectively, in the range 14-25 (68) μg m-3 and 0.04-0.08, with a strong correlation between the variance in BC emission and simulated BC mass concentration or BC-AOD. Five main hotspot locations were identified in and around Delhi (northern-IGP), Prayagraj/Allahabad-Varanasi (central-IGP), Patna-Palamu (upper/ lower mideastern-IGP), and Kolkata (eastern-IGP). The wintertime radiative perturbation due to BC aerosols from the Constrained included a wide-spread enhancement in atmospheric radiative warming by 2-3 times and a reduction in surface cooling by 10%-20%, with net warming at the top of atmosphere (TOA) of 10-15 W m-2, compared to the atmosphere without BC, for which, a net cooling at the TOA was, although, exhibited. These perturbations were spotted being the strongest around megacities (Kolkata and Delhi) extended to the eastern coast, and were inferred as 30%-50% lower from the bottomup than the Constrained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was conducted to assess the seasonal variations of soil enzymes (amylase, invertase, cellulase, and urease), and physicochemical parameters of soil in an arsenic (As)-contaminated area. Ten different sampling sites of Purbasthali, West Bengal, India, were chosen for this experiment, and the collected data were compared with that of the control area, Burdwan University Farm, Burdwan. The As concentrations were found to be high in all experimental soil samples. Only urease and amylase activities were found to vary significantly (p < 0.01) with organic carbon content during pre-monsoon season but nonsignificant (p > 0.05) relationships were recorded between soil enzyme activities and organic carbon content during the post-monsoon period. Again urease and cellulase activities were found to vary significantly (p < 0.05) with soil As content in both pre- and post-monsoon periods, respectively. Similar observations were recorded from cluster analysis in both the seasons. Moreover, all tested soil enzymes activities except urease in post-monsoon period have shown significant relationship (p < 0.01,p < 0.05) with soil moisture in both pre- and post-monsoon periods. Therefore, it is suggested that the study of enzymatic activities and physicochemical parameters of soil may be helpful in assessing the effects of As on the biochemical quality of soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-energy excitations in the rare earth kagome spin system Pr3Ga5SiO14 (PGS) have been investigated using high-field electron spin resonance (ESR) techniques. Previous work has shown that PGS does not exhibit long-range magnetic order at temperatures down to 30 mK. The present low-temperature (1.3-20 K) field-scan measurements, made on a single crystal sample in applied fields up to 30 T and for several microwave frequencies, give a series of temperature-dependent absorption peaks that are very different to conventional ESR spectra. The observed response is interpreted in terms of discrete spin-wave excitations in antiferromagnetically correlated spin clusters. We present a theoretical model which, in the limit of small magnetic frustration effects, qualitatively describes the microwave-induced transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]