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The hippocampal complex of birds is a narrow-curved strip of tissue that plays a crucial role in learning, memory, spatial navigation, and emotional and sexual behavior. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of unpredictable chronic mild stress in multipolar neurons of 3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-week-old chick's hippocampal complex. This study revealed that chronic stress results in neuronal remodeling by causing alterations in dendritic field, axonal length, secondary branching, corrected spine number, and dendritic branching at 25, 50, 75, and 100 µm. Due to stress, the overall dendritic length was significantly retracted in 3-week-old chick, whereas no significant difference was observed in 5- and 7-week-old chick, but again it was significantly retracted in 9-week-old chick along with the axonal length. So, this study indicates that during initial days of stress exposure, the dendritic field shows retraction, but when the stress continues up to a certain level, the neurons undergo structural modifications so that chicks adapt and survive in stressful conditions. The repeated exposure to chronic stress for longer duration leads to the neuronal structural disruption by retraction in the dendritic length as well as axonal length. Another characteristic which leads to structural alterations is the dendritic spines which significantly decreased in all age groups of stressed chicks and eventually leads to less synaptic connections, disturbance in physiology, and neurology, which affects the learning, memory, and coping ability of an individual., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Japanese Association of Anatomists.)

The avian dorsomedial surface of the cerebral hemisphere is occupied by the hippocampal complex (HCC), which plays an important role in learning, memory, cognitive functions, and regulating instinctive behavior patterns. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of chronic mild stress (CMS) in 4, 6, and 8 weeks and after chronic stress removal (CSR) in 6 and 8 weeks, on neuronal plasticity in HCC neurons of chicks through the Golgi-Cox technique. Further, behavioral study and open field test were conducted to test of exploration or of anxiety. The study revealed that the length of CMS and CSR groups shows a similar pattern as in nonstressed (NS) chicks, while weight shows nonsignificant decrease due to CMS as compared to NS and after CSR. The behavioral test depicts that the CMS group took more time to reach the food as compared to the NS and CSR groups. Due to CMS, the dendritic field of multipolar neurons shows significant decrease in 4 weeks, but in 6- and 8-week-old chicks, the multipolar, pyramidal, and stellate neurons depict significant decrease, whereas after CSR all neurons show significant increase in 8-week-old chicks. In 4- and 8-week-old chicks, all neurons depict significant decrease in their spine number, whereas in 6 weeks only multipolar neurons show significant decrease, but after CSR significant increase in 8-week-old chicks was observed. The study revealed that HCC shows continuous neuronal plasticity, which plays a significant role in normalizing and re-establishing the homeostasis in animals to survive., (© 2023 Anatomical Society.)

Over time, scientists have been fascinated by the complex connections among nutrition, brain development, and behavior. It's been well understood that the brain's peak performance relies on having the right nutrients available. Thus, nutritional insufficiency, where an organism lacks vital nutrients crucial for optimal growth and function, can upset the body's balance, potentially triggering stress responses. However, our grasp of how the brain reacts to insufficient nutrition, particularly in avian species like domestic chickens, has shown inconsistencies in our understanding. Domestic chickens have frequently served as subjects for studying memory and learning, primarily focusing on the hippocampus-a region highly responsive to environmental changes. Yet, another critical brain region, the parahippocampal region, integral to memory and spatial cognition, had received relatively little attention concerning the consequences of inadequate nutrition and hydration. To address this knowledge gap, our study sought to investigate the impact of stress induced by nutritional insufficiency on the neuronal cells within the region parahippocampalis in two distinct age groups of domestic chickens, Gallus gallus domesticus: fifteen and thirty days old. We employed the Golgi-Cox-Impregnation technique to explore whether the structural characteristics of neuronal cells, specifically the dendritic spines, underwent changes under transient stressful conditions during these crucial developmental stages. The results were intriguing. Stress evidently induced observable alterations in the dendritic spines of the parahippocampal neuronal cells, with the extent of these changes being age-dependent. In fifteen-day-old chickens, stress prompted substantial modifications in the dendritic spines of parahippocampal multipolar and pyramidal neurons. In contrast, among thirty-day-old chickens, the response to stress was less comprehensive, with only specific parahippocampal multipolar neurons displaying such alterations. These findings underscored the influential role of stress in reshaping the structure of parahippocampal neurons and emphasized the importance of considering age when studying the impact of stress on the brain. Through this research, we aim to enhance our understanding of the intricate interplay between stress, brain structure, and the critical role of adequate nutrition, especially during pivotal developmental stages. Our future research objectives include a deeper investigation into the intracellular events including cellular and molecular mechanisms precipitating these changes and determining whether these alterations have downstream effects on crucial brain functions like learning and memory., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declared no conflict of interest among them to disclose, whether financial or non-financial., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This article deals with the experimental and theoretical evaluations of N-pyridoxal-salicylic acid hydrazide (H 2 pd-sah) 1 and its mixed-ligand copper(II) complex with 2-methylimidazole, [Cu(pd-sah)(MeImdH)] 2 . The compounds were characterized based on spectral (UV/Vis. IR) methods, powder-XRD, elemental analysis, and molar conductivity measurements. Both compounds' molecular structure and charge analysis were computed through B3LYP with 6-311 G (d, p) and LANL2DZ basic set using the Gaussian 09 W program package. The time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) approach is used in gas-phase electronic transitions of 2 using the LANL2DZ basis set. Also, the computed UV-Vis based upon TD-DFT results and IR spectra were simulated for comparison with the experimental ones. The molecular structure based on theoretical investigation reveals that compound 2 adopts a distorted square planer N 2 O 2 coordination sphere around the Cu(II). The ONO donor atoms of hydrazone moiety and one nitrogen of 2-methylimidazole constitute the N 2 O 2 basal plane. Moreover, the in-vitro antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH assay in both compounds. In addition, Molecular docking studies were performed to predict the binding interaction between compound 2 and the Human Serum Albumin HSA (PDB ID: 1H9Z).Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

To study the stress effect on neuronal architecture in the avian hippocampus (a vital component of the neural circuitry mediating stress responses), chick constitutes an interesting animal model. The hippocampus due to its susceptible and vulnerable nature towards acute-stress effect shows pronounced structural and morphological plasticity. Therefore, to perform a detailed investigation of the acute-stress effect on neuronal architecture in the hippocampus, the present study targets to examine the role of a single acute-stress session of 24-hours food and water deprivation in inducing structural plasticity in 15 and 30-day-old chick by using Golgi-Cox staining technique.The findings of the present study have displayed that the chick hippocampus contains highly spinous multipolar, pyramidal, and stellate neuronal cells, along with four variably shaped spines namely filopodia, thin, stubby, and mushroom, over their dendritic branches. In the hippocampus of a 15-day-old chick, the multipolar projection and the stellate neurons show a significant decrease in their spine density under acute-stress, while the pyramidal projection neurons show a significant increase. All the hippocampus neuronal cells of 30-day-old chicks have shown a significant decrease in their dendritic spine density under stressful environment. Therefore, the present research study establishes structural plasticity in hippocampus neurons due to changes in environmental conditions that may affect the animal's behavior., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

In the prevailing covid times, scientific community is busy in developing vaccine against COVID-19. Under such fascination this article describes the possible role of nitric oxide (NO) releasers in aiding the immune system of a human body against this dreadful pandemic disease. Despite some prodrug antiviral compounds are in practice to recover the patients suffering from covid-19, however, co-morbidity deaths are highest among the total deaths happened so far. This concurrence of a number of diseases in a patient along with this viral infection is indicative of the poor immunity. Literature background supports the use of NO as immunity boosting agent and hence, the nitric oxide releasing compounds could act as lucrative in this context. Some dietary suggestions of NO-containing food items have also been introduced in this article. Also, the profound effect of NO in relieving symptomatic severity of covid-19 has been opined in this work.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Several studies conducted on chicken have shown that a single stress exposure may impair or improve memory as well as learning processes. However, to date, stress effects on neuronal morphology are poorly investigated wherefore it was of interest to evaluate this further in chicks. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the role of single acute stress (AS) of 24 h food and water deprivation in neuronal plasticity in terms of spine density of the corticoid complex (CC) in 15-day-old chick, Gallus domesticus, by using three neurohistological techniques: Cresyl Violet, Golgi Colonnier, and Golgi Cox technique. The dorsolateral surface of the cerebral hemisphere is occupied by CC which can be differentiated into two subfields: an intermediate corticoid (CI) subfield (arranged in layers) and a dorsolateral corticoid (CDL) subfield. Based on different criteria such as soma shape, dendritic branching pattern, and dendritic spine density, two main moderately spinous groups of neuronal cells were observed in the CC, namely, projection neurons (comprising of multipolar and pyramidal neurons) and stellate neurons. In the present study, the stellate neurons have shown a significant decrease as well as an increase in their spine density in both CI and CDL subfields, whereas the multipolar neurons had shown a significant increase in their spine density in the CDL region only. The present study shows that AS induces neuronal plasticity in terms of spine density in both CI and CDL neurons. The morphological changes in the form of decreased dendritic branches due to stress have been observed in the CI region in comparison to CDL region, which could be linked to more effect of stress in this region. The avian CDL corresponds to the entorhinal cortex of mammals on the basis of neuronal morphology and bidirectional connections between adjacent areas. The projection neurons increase their branches and also their spine number to cope with the stress effects, while the stellate neurons show contrasting effect in their spine density. Therefore, this study will establish that slight modifications in natural stimuli or environmental changes faced by the animal may affect their dorsolateral forebrain which shows neuronal plasticity that help in the development of an adaptive capacity of the animal to survive under changing environmental conditions., (© 2021 Anatomical Society.)

With the COVID-19 outbreak, many challenges are posed before the scientific world to curb this pandemic. The diagnostic testing, treatment, and vaccine development for this infection caught the scientific community's immediate attention. Currently, despite the global proliferation of COVID-19 vaccination, the specific treatment for this disease is yet unknown. Meanwhile, COVID-19 detection or diagnosis using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based me hods is expensive and less reliable. Moreover, this technique needs much time to furnish the results. Thus, the elaboration of a highly sensitive and fast method of COVID-19 diagnostics is of great importance. The spectroscopic approach is herein suggested as an efficient detection methodology for COVID-19 diagnosis, particularly Raman spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry., (© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021.)

This work describes the synthesis and characterization of three molybdenum dinitrosyl Schiff base complexes of the general formula [Mo(NO) 2 (L)(OH)], where L is N -(dehydroacetic acid)-4-aminoantipyrene (dha-aapH), N -(4-acetylidene-3-methyl-1-phenyl-2-pyrazolin-5-one)-4-aminoantipyrine (amphp-aapH) or N -(3-methyl-1-phenyl-4-propionylidene-2-pyrazolin-5-one)-4-aminoantipyrine (mphpp-aapH). The complexes were formulated on the basis of spectroscopic analyses, elemental composition, magnetic susceptibility measurements, molar conductance behaviour and determination of the respective decomposition temperatures. A comparative experimental-theoretical approach was followed to elucidate the structure of the complexes. Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetry (TG) and electronic spectral insights were mainly focused on the confirmation of the formation of the complexes. The computational density functional theory (DFT) calculations evaluated in the study involve the molecular specification for the use of LANL2DZ/RB3LYP formalism for metal atoms and 6-311G/RB3LYP for the remaining non-metal atoms. The study reveals a suitable cis- octahedral geometry for the complexes. The TG curve of one of the representative complexes was evaluated to find the respective thermodynamic and kinetic parameters using various physical methods. The Freeman & Carroll (FC) differential method, the Horowitz and Metzger (HM) approximation method, the Coats-Redfern method and the Broido method were employed to present a comparative thermal analysis of the complex. The Broido method proved the best fit to the results for the compound under question. In addition to structural and thermal analyses, the study also deals with the in vitro antimicrobial and anticancer sensitivity of the complexes. The results revealed potent biological properties of the representative complex containing dha-aapH. Cell toxicity tests against COLO-205 human cancer cell line using a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2 H -tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay showed an IC 50 value of 53.13 μgm mL -1 for the Schiff base and 10.51 μgm L -1 for the respective complex. Similarly the same complex proved to be an effective antimicrobial agent against Aspergillus , Pseudomonas , E. coli and Streptococcus . The results indicated a more pronounced activity against Pseudomonas and Streptococcus than the other two microbial species., Competing Interests: No conflict(s) of interest is declared by the authors., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment that uses photosensitizing agents to kill cancer cells. Scientific community has been eager for decades to design an efficient PDT drug. Under such purview, the current report deals with the computational photodynamic behavior of ruthenium(II) nitrosyl complex containing N, N'-salicyldehyde-ethylenediimine (SalenH 2 ), the synthesis and X-ray crystallography of which is already known [Ref. 38,39]. Gaussian 09W software package was employed to carry out the density functional (DFT) studies. DFT calculations with Becke-3-Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP)/Los Alamos National Laboratory 2 Double Z (LanL2DZ) specified for Ru atom and B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) combination for all other atoms were used using effective core potential method. Both, the ground and excited states of the complex were evolved. Some known photosensitizers were compared with the target complex. Pthalocyanine and porphyrin derivatives were the compounds selected for the respective comparative study. It is suggested that effective photoactivity was found due to the presence of ruthenium core in the model complex. In addition to the evaluation of theoretical aspects in vitro anticancer aspects against COLO-205 human cancer cells have also been carried out with regard to the complex. More emphasis was laid to extrapolate DFT to depict the chemical power of the target compound to release nitric oxide. A promising visible light triggered nitric oxide releasing power of the compound has been inferred. In vitro antiproliferative studies of [RuCl 3 (PPh 3 ) 3 ] and [Ru(NO)(Salen)(Cl)] have revealed the model complex as an excellent anticancer agent. From IC 50 values of 40.031mg/mL in former and of 9.74mg/mL in latter, it is established that latter bears more anticancer potentiality. From overall study the DFT based structural elucidation and the efficiency of NO, Ru and Salen co-ligands has shown promising drug delivery property and a good candidacy for both chemotherapy as well as light therapy., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The present study, based on neurohistological techniques (Nissl-staining, Golgi-impregnation), focuses on the cytoarchitecture of the corticoid complex in the strawberry finch, Estrilda amandava. This complex in birds occupies the dorsolateral surface of the telencephalic pallium and remains subdivided into an intermediate corticoid area (CI) and a dorsolateral corticoid area (CDL). The CDL in the strawberry finch is a thin superficial part of the caudal pallium adjoining the medially situated hippocampal formation, whereas the CI is demarcated between the CDL and the parahippocampal area of telencephalon. Neurons of the corticoid complex are classified into three main cell groups: predominant projection neurons, local circuit neurons and stellate neurons. The spinous projection neurons send out distant projecting axons that typically extend several varicose collaterals. Most of these collaterals lie parallel to the ventricle. These neurons are subclassified into pyramidal neurons (localized only in the CI) and multipolar neurons (present in both the CI and CDL). The CDL also possesses small and medium-sized horizontal cells, which are bitufted or multipolar with smooth, moderately branching dendrites. The aspinous local circuit neurons extend short axons that ramify locally. Stellate neurons have sparse spinous dendrites and locally arborizing axons. The corticoid complex of birds corresponds to the lateral cerebral cortex of lizards and to the entorhinal cortex of mammals on the basis of neuronal morphology and bidirectional connections between adjacent areas.

The cyto-architecture and morphology of the neuronal types of the dorsomedial cortex of the lizard, Hemidactylus flaviviridis has been studied with the help of Cresyl violet staining and Golgi impregnation method. The dorsomedial cerebral cortex displayed three neuronal layers. Layer-I contains only few neuronal somas and also the dendrites ascending from the subjacent layers. Layer-II is characterized by two to three cell thick densely packed neuronal somas. Layer-III contains loosely packed neuronal somas and the dendrites and axon descending from layer-I and II. Below the layer-III an ependymal layer is observed just above the ventricle. Six classes of neurons were distinguished in the cellular layer of dorsomedial cortex of Hemidactylus flaviviridis: bitufted neurons, pyramidal neurons, inverted pyramidal neurons, bipyramidal neurons, multipolar neurons, and candelabra-like monotufted neurons. The pyramidal cells were large showing more or less single type present in the cellular layer. The multipolar neurons have mostly intracortical dendritic branching and connections. Bipyramidal neurons showed pyramidal appearance of their soma and send dendritic branches towards the superficial plexiform layer and deep plexiform layer. The candelabra-like monotufted neurons have very high dendritic branching. The comparison of the neuronal types of dorsomedial cortex of reptiles with the parahippocampal area of birds and CA3 region of mammalian hippocampus suggests possibility of their homology.

Neurons in the hippocampal complex (dorsomedial forebrain) were described and located following Golgi impregnation. Five fields were recognized in the hippocampal complex: medial and lateral hippocampus, parahippocampal area, central field of the parahippocampal area and crescent field. In the medial hippocampus three layers have been observed: suprapyramidal towards the pial surface, pyramidal at the central and infrapyramidal adjacent to the ventricle. Neurons of the hippocampal complex were classified in to two main cell groups: predominant projection neurons with spinous dendrites and local circuit neurons. Projection neurons were further sub classified into three main types: pyramidal, pyramidal like, and multipolar neurons. In addition to these neurons, monotufted and bitufted neurons were also observed in the medial and lateral hippocampus with low frequency. The pyramidal neurons were dominant neuronal types in the pyramidal layer-II of the medial hippocampus, mixed with pyramidal like and multipolar neurons. Pyramidal and pyramidal-like neurons were found restricted in the pyramidal layer II of the medial hippocampus while the multipolar neurons were uniformly distributed in all subfields of the hippocampal complex. In the lateral hippocampus irregular shaped radial glial cells were present near the ventricular wall and projecting their dendrites towards the pia. Second group of local circuit neurons with local arborization of their projections were present in the medial hippocampus and in parahippocampal area.