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India is the second largest producer of tomato with 11 per cent global share and cultivated on an estimated area of 0.76 million hectares with productivity of 24 tonnes per hectare. Less than 1% of the produce is processed when compared to 26% in other major producing countries. Of the estimated more than 41 million tonnes of tomato processed globally, only 130,000 tonnes were processed in India and domestic demand for processed tomato products is expanding at an estimated 30% annually. At present traditional fresh market tomato cultivars are being processed though such cultivars are unsuitable for processing. Processors in India are looking for high yielding tomato cultivars with high total soluble solids (5-6 º Brix), acidity not less than 0.4%, pH less than 4.5 and uniform red colour with a/b colour value of at least 2. In addition, firm fruited tomato cultivars with joint less pedicel (j2) which facilitate mechanical harvesting or rapid hand picking. ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research has recently developed two high yielding F1 hybrids in tomato viz: Arka Apeksha and Arka Vishesh suitable for processing. On evaluation for three years, both the hybrids recorded good level of total soluble solids (4.5-5º Brix) and colour value of 2. Further, both the hybrids had high yield potential (80-90 tonnes / hectare) with triple disease resistance to tomato leaf curl disease, bacterial wilt and early blight. Arka Apeksha and Arka Vishesh were also bred with jointless pedicel making them suitable for mechanical harvesting. Our experimental studies on vine storability revealed that all the fruits were intact on plants even 110 days after transplanting in the main field facilitating once over harvest.

Optimization of process parameters is a critical requirement in food processing and food product industries for the development of highly acceptable product. Quantification of mass transfer kinetics under different processing conditions is essential step for optimizing the osmotic dehydration process. A Box-Behnken Design (BBD), adopted from response surface methodology (RSM) approach was used for evaluating and quantifying the moisture loss and solids gain kinetics of aonla segments in salt solution during the osmotic dehydration process. The independent variables were fixed at three levels (salt concentration- 2, 4, 6%; process temperature - 45, 50, 55 OC and process time - 60, 120, 180 minutes). The process responses were water loss percentage (WL%) and solids gain percentage (SG%). Validation experiments were conducted at optimum conditions to verify predictions and adequacy of the models. The optimum conditions predicted were 5.02% salt concentration, 54.8 OC temperature and 60.64 minutes process time to attain a desired effect of maximum water loss (6.42%) and minimum solid gain (1.09%) in osmotic dehydration of aonla in salt medium.

The study aimed to develop a pomegranate beverage by substituting sucrose with an artificial sweetener sucralose and incorporating germinated flour from foxtail and little millet to enhance nutritional quality. The developed beverage was analyzed for physicochemical, bioactive, and sensory parameters. The result showed that substituting 100 % sucrose with sucralose had less total soluble solid content. Total and reducing sugar content was significantly high in control samples compared to sucralose-added treatments. However, total polyphenols and antioxidant activity were 20 and 18.50 % less in sucralose treatments, respectively, compared to the control. Incorporating germinated millet flour did not significantly increase the bioactive compounds of the pomegranate beverage. Further, substituting sucrose with sucralose was not accepted organoleptically, however, there was no change in the taste due to the incorporation of germinated millet flours. Hence, the substitution of sucrose with sucralose depends on the fruit type in the preparation of RTS (Ready-to-serve) beverage and the incorporation of germinated millet flours depends on the concentration to enhance the bioactive compounds of the beverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is a promising dual purpose (fodder and grain) crop. The present investigation was carried to evaluate the effect of liquid microbial inoculants on the quality traits of forage pearl millet. Experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with a total of 12 treatment combinations of liquid microbial inoculants (Azotobacter sp., Sphingobacterium sp., Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Burkholderia seminalis) with 100% Recommended Dose of Fertiliser (RDF) and replicated thrice. The application of the liquid microbial inoculants showed improvement in the quality traits over the uninoculated control at both the locations. The treatment T9 (RDF + B. seminalis + S. maltophilia) showed significant increase in the total sugars, ash content, CP (crude protein) and IVDMD (in vitro dry matter digestibility), while significant decrease in the ADF (acid detergent fibre) and NDF (neutral detergent fibre). Further, very strong positive and significant correlation was observed between ADF, NDF and the various antinutrients while they were recorded to be negatively correlated with rest of the quality parameters. Therefore, it can be concluded that liquid microbial inoculants could play a predominant role in improving the forage quality of forage pearl millet

Hardeep S Oberoi,1 Natalia V Nukolova,1,2 Frederic C Laquer,3 Larisa Y Poluektova,4 Jiangeng Huang,1 Yazen Alnouti,1 Masanao Yokohira,5 Lora L Arnold,5 Alexander V Kabanov,1,2 Samuel M Cohen,5 Tatiana K Bronich,1,21Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Center for Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine, College of Pharmacy, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA; 2Department of Chemistry, MV Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, Moscow, Russia; 3Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska at Omaha, 4Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 5Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USAAbstract: Polymer micelles with cross-linked ionic cores are shown here to improve the therapeutic performance of the platinum-containing anticancer compound cisplatin. Biodistribution, antitumor efficacy, and toxicity of cisplatin-loaded core cross-linked micelles of poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(methacrylic acid) were evaluated in a mouse ovarian cancer xenograft model. Cisplatin-loaded micelles demonstrated prolonged blood circulation, increased tumor accumulation, and reduced renal exposure. Improved antitumor response relative to free drug was seen in a mouse model. Toxicity studies with cisplatin-loaded micelles indicate a significantly improved safety profile and lack of renal abnormalities typical of free cisplatin treatment. Overall, the study supports the fundamental possibility of improving the potential of platinum therapy using polymer micelle-based drug delivery.Keywords: cross-linked micelle, cisplatin, ovarian cancer, block ionomer complex, drug delivery

Nanomedicine drug products have reached an unprecedented high in terms of global commercial acceptance and media exposure with the approvals of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in 2021. In this paper, we examine the current state of the art for nanomedicine technologies as applied for pharmaceutical products and compare those trends with results from a recent IQ Consortium industry survey on nanomedicine drug products. We find that 1) industry companies continue to push the envelope in terms of new technologies for characterizing their specific drug products, 2) new analytical technologies continue to be utilized by industry to characterize the increasingly complex nanomedicine drug products and 3) alignment and communication are key between industry and regulatory authorities to better understand the regulatory filings that are being submitted. There are many CMC challenges that a company must overcome to successfully file a nanomedicine drug product. In 2022, the FDA Guidance on Drug Products containing Nanomaterials was published, and it provides a roadmap for submission of a nanomedicine drug product. We propose that our paper serves as a complimentary guide providing knowledge on specific CMC issues such as quality attributes, physicochemical characterization methods, excipients, and stability., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) is an enabling approach utilized to deliver poorly soluble compounds. ASDs can spontaneously generate drug-rich amorphous nanoparticles upon dissolution, which can act as a reservoir for maintaining supersaturation during oral absorption. But, conventional ASDs are often limited in drug loadings to < 20 %. For indications where the dose is high, this can translate into a significant pill burden. The aim of this research was to develop a high drug loading (DL) amorphous nanoparticle (ANP) formulation that can release the drug-rich nanoparticles into solution upon contact with aqueous environment. Nanoparticles were directly engineered using solvent/anti-solvent precipitation. The obtained nanoparticle suspension was then concentrated followed by solidification to a re-dispersible amorphous dosage form using spray drying or lyophilization. The impact of process variables was studied using dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was observed that spray drying led to a non-re-dispersible formulation. Sucrose and trehalose containing lyocakes resulted in re-dispersible formulations. The trehalose containing lyocakes, in a dog study, gave comparable performance to the reference tablet in the fasted state but lower area under the curve (AUC) in fed state., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: AbbVie sponsored and funded the study; contributed to the design; participated in collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; and in writing, reviewing, and approval of the final version. Hitesh S. Purohit, Mengqi Yu, Hardeep Oberoi, Angélica de L Rodríguez López, Manish Kelkar, Yan He, Bradley Gates, Nandkishor Nere, Devalina Law are AbbVie employees and may own AbbVie stock. Maryam Zaroudi contributed to the research during her summer internship at AbbVie. Deliang Zhou contributed to the research during his employment at AbbVie., (Copyright © 2023 American Pharmacists Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aflatoxins are polyketide secondary metabolites that are produced by certain fungal species in the Aspergillus section Flavi, particularly Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus which contaminate human food as well as animal feed. These are among the most carcinogenic substances known. Due to the toxic and carcinogenic properties of aflatoxins, there is a need to develop reliable methods to detect the presence of aflatoxigenic Aspergilli in contaminated food and feed. Not all Aspergillus strains are able to produce aflatoxins. It requires a detection methodology which can specifically distinguish between the aflatoxin producing and nonproducing strains of Aspergillus. Present communication reports validation of a PCR based detection system based on three genes viz., nor-1, apa-2 and omt-1 involved in aflatoxin biosynthesis, that can specifically distinguish the two aflatoxin producing species viz. Aspergillus flavus ,and Aspergillus parasiticus from non-producers i.e., A. niger, A. fumigates and A. oryzae.

A heterokaryon 28, derived through protoplast fusion between Aspergillus nidulans and Aspergillus tubingensis (Dal8), was subjected cyclic mutagenesis followed by selection on increasing levels of 2-deoxy glucose (2-DG) as selection marker. The derived deregulated cellulase hyper producing mutant '64', when compared to fusant 28, produced 9.83, 7.8, 3.2, 4.2 and 19.74 folds higher endoglucanase, β-glucosidase, cellobiohydrolase, FPase and xylanase, respectively, under shake cultures. The sequence analysis of PCR amplified β-glucosidase gene from wild and mutant showed nucleotide deletion/substitution. The mutants showed highly catalytic efficient β-glucosidase as evident from low Km and high Vmax values. The expression profiling through zymogram analysis also indicated towards over-expression of cellulases. The up/down regulated expressed proteins observed through SDS-PAGE were identified by Peptide mass fingerprinting The cellulase produced by mutants in conjunction with cellulase free xylanase derived from Thermomyces lanuginosus was used for efficient utilization of alkali treated rice straw for obtaining xylo-oligosaccharides and ethanol., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

While ion pairs are readily identified in crystal structures, longer range electrostatic interactions cannot be identified from the three-dimensional structure alone. These interactions are likely to be important in large, multisubunit proteins that are regulated by allosteric interactions. In this paper, we show that these interactions are readily detected by electrostatic modeling, using, as an example, unliganded Escherichia coli aspartate transcarbamylase, a widely studied allosteric enzyme with 12 subunits and a molecular weight of 310 kD. The Born, dipolar, and site-site interaction terms of the free energy of protonation of the 810 titratable sites in the holoenzyme were calculated using the multigrid solution of the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation. Calculated titration curves are in good agreement with experimental titration curves, and the structural asymmetry observed in the crystal structure is readily apparent in the calculated free energies and pK1/2 values. Most of the residues with pK1/2 values that differ substantially from those of model compounds are buried in the low dielectric medium of the protein, particularly at the intersubunit interfaces. The dependence of the site-site interaction free energies on distance is complex, with a steep dependence at distances less than 5 A and a more shallow dependence at longer distances. Interactions over distances of 6 to 15 A require a bridging residue and are often not apparent in the structure. The network of interactions between ionizable groups extends across and between subunits and provides a potential mechanism for transmitting long-range structural effects and allosteric signals.

Thirty eight patients underwent Holter ECG monitoring for a 48 hour period covering dialysis and intermediate period to detect incidence of myocardial ischemia manifesting as ST segment changes. Seventeen patients (44.7%) had 165 episodes of dynamic ST segment changes lasting from 1 to 177 minutes, with maximum ST depression of 4 mm. The mean age of patients was 45 ± 14 years and 14 (82.6%) of them were males. Ten (58.8%) patients had hypertension, and 5 (29.4%) patients each had diabetes mellitus and pre-existing coronary artery disease. Six (35.3%) patients with dynamic ST segment changes had ventricular ectopics ranging from isolated ventricular premature contractions to episodes of ventricular tachycardia. No significant hypotension or angina was documented during these episodes of ST segment deviation. We concluded that hemodialysis plays an important role in the genesis of the above ECG changes.