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Malaria is a vector born parasitic disease causing millions of deaths every year. Despite the high mortality rate, an effective vaccine against this mosquito-borne infectious disease is yet to be developed. Up to date, RTS,S/AS01 is the only vaccine available for malaria prevention; however, its efficacy is low. Among a variety of malaria antigens, merozoite surface protein-1(MSP-1) and ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen (RESA) have been proposed as promising candidates for malaria vaccine development. We developed peptide-based Plasmodium falciparum vaccine candidates that incorporated three previously reported conserved epitopes from MSP-1 and RESA into highly effective liposomal polyleucine delivery system. Indeed, MSP-1 and RESA-derived epitopes conjugated to polyleucine and formulated into liposomes induced higher epitope specific antibody titres. However, immunized mice failed to demonstrate protection in a rodent malaria challenge study with Plasmodium yoelii. In addition, we found that the three reported P. falciparum epitopes did not to share conformational properties and high sequence similarity with P. yoelii MSP-1 and RESA proteins, despite the epitopes were reported to protect mice against P. yoelii challenge.

In recent years, the popularity of medicinal plants as a remedy has been increased manifold due to having minimal adverse effects. The current study aimed to compare the hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic and hepatoprotective effects of the ethanolic extract of Asparagus racemosus (EEAR) Linn. alone and combinedly with conventional antidiabetic agents (gliclazide and pioglitazone) in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced in male Wister albino rats by the administration of single intra-peritoneal injection of alloxan monohydrate (120 mg/kg b.w.). Effect of oral administration of two different doses of EEAR (200 and 400 mg/kg b.w.), gliclazide (10 mg/kg b.w.) and pioglitazone (10 mg/70kg/b.w.) alone for 2 weeks and a combination of EEAR (200 mg/kg b.w.) with either gliclazide (10 mg/kg b.w.) or pioglitazone (10 mg/70kg/b.w.) for 2 weeks were examined on hypoglycemic activity on 0th, 5th, 10th and 14th day of treatment. After 2 weeks of treatment, hypolipidemic and hepatoprotective effects were estimated by serum biochemical markers such as total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL), serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminases (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate trans-aminases (SGPT) and total protein (TP) with the help of commercially available kits. The survival rate, body weight and organ weight were also measured. Alloxan treatment resulted in persistent hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and liver dysfunction in rats. Treatment with EEAR at different doses improved hyperglycemia significantly (p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.001; p < 0.05, p < 0.01; p < 0.05) by reducing the blood glucose levels in rats on 10th and 14th day of treatment in a dose-dependent mood when compared to the disease control rats, gliclazide treated rats and pioglitazone treated rats. The combination therapy significantly (p < 0.001; p < 0.01, p < 0.001; p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.001) promoted the glucose-lowering activity on 5th, 10th and 14th day of treatment as compared to that of disease control rats, gliclazide treated rats and pioglitazone treated rats. Proposed adjunct therapy also markedly (p < 0.001; p < 0.01, p < 0.001) improved serum TG, HDL and LDL level with insignificant change in VLDL and TC level while comparing with groups receiving gliclazide treated rats and pioglitazone treated rats. Administration of different doses of EEAR markedly (p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.001; p < 0.05, p < 0.01; p < 0.05) reduced the activity of TC, TG, LDL, VLDL and HDL cholesterol levels in a dose-dependent approach with respect to that of gliclazide treated rats and pioglitazone treated rats. The effect of combination therapy significantly (p < 0.001; p < 0.001; p < 0.01, p < 0.001) decreased the SGOT, SGPT and TP hepatic enzyme levels when compared to disease control rats, gliclazide treated rats and pioglitazone treated rats indicated improvement in liver dysfunctions. Administration of different doses of EEAR noticeably (p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.001; p < 0.05, p < 0.01; p < 0.05, p < 0.01) reduced the liver enzymes level including SGOT, SGPT and TP in a dose-dependent manner as compared to the disease control rats, gliclazide treated rats and pioglitazone treated rats. The maximum survival rate (100%) was observed in rats of combination treated rats. No significant changes in the body weight and organ weight to body weight ratio were observed except the groups that were given combined therapy showed improvement in the liver and pancreas weight. Our study suggests that the EEAR potentiates the activity of gliclazide and pioglitazone in controlling blood glucose levels, modifies the lipid profile and improves in liver dysfunction on alloxan-induced diabetic rats.

The aim of this present work is to investigate the antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of methanol extract of Polygonum orientale (Family: Polygonaceae). Antimicrobial activity of methanol extract of Polygonum orientale was tested by Disc Diffusion Method. Standard antibiotic discs of Kanamycin (30µg/disc) for bacterial species was used as standard and crude extracts were used at a concentration of (20mg/disc) and (40mg/disc) for leaves and (10mg/disc) and (20mg/disc) for shoot extracts. The methanol extracts of leaves and shoots showed mild activity against gram positive bacteria, gram negative bacteria and fungi. Most of the organisms were susceptible to the extract in various degrees. The extract showed highest zone of inhibition (13mm) against the Gram (+)ve Bacillus megaterium and and gram (-)ve Escherichia coli (zone of inhibition 10mm). Antioxidant property of the plant extracts against stable DPPH (1, 1-Dipheny1-2-picrydrazole) radical was investigated. Ascorbic acid was used as standard. The extract was found low in antioxidant property. The absorbance was taken at 517nm by UV Spectrophotometer. The IC 50 values were found in leaf extract and shoot extract are (1244.58µg/ml and (1506µg/ml). For ascorbic acid IC 50 value was (139.19µg/ml). Cytotoxic activity of the crude extract by using Brine Shrimp Lethality Bioassay. Vincristin sulphate was used as standard. LC 50 value of leaf extract was found (6.85µg/ml) and (9.7104µg/ml) for the shoot extract. In conclusion, the extract of the experimental plants have mild antimicrobial, low antioxidant and good cytotoxic properties.

Malaria is a life-threatening disease and one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the human population. The disease also results in a major socio-economic burden. The rapid spread of malaria epidemics in developing countries is exacerbated by the rise in drug-resistant parasites and insecticide-resistant mosquitoes. At present, malaria research is focused mainly on the development of drugs with increased therapeutic effects against Plasmodium parasites. However, a vaccine against the disease is preferable over treatment to achieve long-term control. Trials to develop a safe and effective immunization protocol for the control of malaria have been occurring for decades, and continue on today; still, no effective vaccines are available on the market. Recently, peptide-based vaccines have become an attractive alternative approach. These vaccines utilize short protein fragments to induce immune responses against malaria parasites. Peptide-based vaccines are safer than traditional vaccines, relatively inexpensive to produce, and can be composed of multiple T- and B-cell epitopes integrated into one antigenic formulation. Various combinations, based on antigen choice, peptide epitope modification and delivery mechanism, have resulted in numerous potential malaria vaccines candidates; these are presently being studied in both preclinical and clinical trials. This review describes the current landscape of peptide-based vaccines, and addresses obstacles and opportunities in the production of malaria vaccines.

Quality control is an essential operation of pharmaceutical industries. Drugs must be marketed as safe and therapeutically active formulations whose performance is consistent and predictable. New and better medicinal agents are being produced at an accelerated rate. At the same time more exacting and sophisticated analytical methods are being developed for their evaluation. Currently, world-wide efforts have been made to ensure the practice of quality along with coast effective good quality medicines. Parenterals are the sterile preparation that is directly administered into the circulatory system avoiding the enteral route. These preparations provide rapid onset of action compared to others, but the most concerning topics related to this, is their stability problem that arises from microbial contamination of the products. Therefore, to ensure their sterility and stability, regulations regarding to quality control through pharmacopeial specifications has a great importance. Pharmacopeias provides an effective guideline to overcome those problems by following current good manufacturing practices and establishing standard operating procedures. In-process quality control tests are done with a motive to remove error from every stage in production and maintain the quality of the final product with the compendial standards as specified in the pharmacopoeias. The quality of final products depends on in-process control tests, because it helps to incorporate excellence within the products. The qualitative and quantitative parameters of pharmaceutical products are checked by finished product quality controls tests. Therefore, the drive of this study is to provide concise information on the in-process and finished product quality control tests for parenteral preparations as per different pharmacopoeias. Keywords: Parenteral pharmaceuticals, Pharmacopoeia, Specification, In-process quality control, Finished product quality control.

Amphetamines are central nervous system (CNS) stimulants and belong to psychoactive drugs that affect chemicals in the brain, nerves and exert a constant contribution to hyperactivity and impulse control. The communal group of amphetamines comprises amphetamine, dextroamphetamine and methamphetamine. Amphetamines show its action on the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward system by inducing release of dopamine and to some extent norepinephrine, in the synaptic clefts of the nucleus accumbens and other terminal areas. They offer not only a sense of euphoric state, but also addiction. Amphetamines are frequently prescribed for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, adolescents and adults, narcolepsy and obesity. At therapeutic doses, amphetamine causes emotional and cognitive effects such as euphoria, change in desire for sex, increased wakefulness, improved cognitive control, etc. The balance of benefit/risk is the main challenge for its clinical use. When overused these medications can be highly addictive, are often diverted from the user to be used as recreational drugs. Adverse effects include anxiety, aggression, headache, insomnia, hyperactivity, palpitations, increased breathing rate, increased blood pressure, tachycardia, arrhythmia, dilated pupils, paranoia, etc. However, at large doses, these drugs may impair cognitive function and induce rapid muscle breakdown. Even higher doses may give rise to hallucinations, paranoia, psychosis and potentially lifethreatening conditions such as convulsions, stroke, kidney failure, etc. The furthermost serious health implications of amphetamine resulting from chronic use are dependence, considered by compulsive drug-seeking and drug use and a phenomenon notorious as amphetamine psychosis. Therefore the objective of this study was to explore the functions of the amphetamines as recreation drug of abuse.

Autophagy is an intracellular catabolic system by which cells degrade and recycle cytoplasmic constituents such as organelles and proteins through the lysosome-dependent path. Belgian biochemist, Christian de Duve coined the name "autophagy" in 1963. The identification of autophagy-related genes and finally discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy led to the award of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology to Japanese cell biologist, Yoshinori Ohsumi specializing in autophagy. Autophagy shows a crucial role in removing aggregated proteins and damaged organelles in order to conserve intracellular homeostasis. In order to control cellular homeostasis and disease states autophagy illustrates a vital role. For insulin resistant patients, insulin secretion and the mass of pancreatic β-cells is increased on account of alterations in the expression and activities of numerous proteins in β-cells. Simultaneously, autophagic activity seems to also be upgraded to adjust to the dynamic changes taking place in β-cells. Actually, faulty autophagy in β-cells recaps a number of features that are perceived in pancreatic islets in the course of the formation of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In contrast, the dyregulation of autophagic function is also appears to happen in the β-cells of T2DM patients. Furthermore, autophagy deficiency is linked with the diabetes-related organ dysfunction. Therefore the intention of this study was to provide the impacts of autophagy based on current researches in the development of T2DM and to explore new therapeutic strategies for stopping T2DM pathogenesis.