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The biogenic approach for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles provides an efficient eco-friendly alternative to chemical synthesis. This study presents a novel route for the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using aqueous sandalwood (SW) leaf extract as a source of reducing and capping agents under mild, room temperature synthesis conditions. The bioreduction of Ag+ to Ago nanoparticles (SW-AgNPs) was accompanied by the appearance of brown color, with surface plasmon resonance peak at 340-360 nm. SEM, TEM and AFM imaging confirm SW-AgNP's spherical shape with size range of 10-32 nm. DLS indicates a hydrodynamic size of 49.53 nm with predominant negative Zeta potential, which can contribute to the stability of the nanoparticles. FTIR analysis indicates involvement of sandalwood leaf derived polyphenols, proteins and lipids in the reduction and capping of SW-AgNPs. XRD determines the face-centered-cubic crystalline structure of SW-AgNPs, which is a key factor affecting biological functions of nanoparticles. This study is novel in using cell culture methodologies to evaluate effects of SW-AgNPs on proliferating cells originating from plants and human cancer. Exposure of groundnut calli cells to SW-AgNPs, resulted in enhanced proliferation leading to over 70% higher calli biomass over control, enhanced defense enzyme activities, and secretion of metabolites implicated in biotic stress resistance (Crotonyl isothiocyanate, Butyrolactone, 2-Hydroxy-gamma-butyrolactone, Maltol) and plant cell proliferation (dl-Threitol). MTT and NRU were performed to determine the cytotoxicity of nanoparticles on human cervical cancer cells. SW-AgNPs specifically inhibited cervical cell lines SiHa (IC50–2.65 ppm) and CaSki (IC50–9.49 ppm), indicating potential use in cancer treatment. The opposing effect of SW-AgNPs on cell proliferation of plant calli (enhanced cell proliferation) and human cancer cell lines (inhibition) are both beneficial and point to potential safe application of SW-AgNPs in plant cell culture, agriculture and in cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a type of clinical depression which can affect woman after childbirth. PPD is very common among women and is a major public health problem. It is estimated that overall 10 to 15% women experience PND while it ranges from 3.5 to 63.3% in Asian countries. But it is one of the most underdiagnosed conditions due to lack of adequate number of studies on the subject. Hence the current study was conducted with an objective of assessing the prevalence of postnatal depression among subjects with normal and cesarean deliveries and to compare the socio-demographic profile between normal and cesarean deliveries. Materials and methods: The study was a cross sectional study, conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, Apollo institute of medical sciences and research (AIMSR), Chittor. The data collection for the study was done between January 2015 to November 2015. The study population included people who were undergoing normal and cesarean deliveries. Post natal depression was assessed by EPDS score. Results: The highest proportion of patients belonged to 21-25 years and 26-30 years age groups in both the study groups Normal delivery and Caesarean delivery, the association of age groups between the study groups was statistically significant (P value<0.001). The maximum proportion of patients were housewives in both the study groups. The rural area patients were more in normal and caesarean deliveries as 44% and 39% respectively, the locality showed statistically significant association with the study groups (P value<0.05). All the individual EPDS scores mean values were high in cesarean group when compared to normal delivery group. The mean Total EPDS score mean in normal delivery patients was 8.85 and in cesarean delivery patients 10.85 with t value=-4.766. The proportion of patients with postnatal depression prevalence was high (30%) in cesarean group where as it was only 15% in normal delivery group. The t value was 6.452. Conclusions: Prevalence of postnatal depression was comparably high in caesarean sections compared to normal deliveries with clear statistics about the same, EPDS scores also reflected the higher risk of depression in caesarean section when compare with normal deliveries knocking the alarm to concentrate on the patients more with caesarean sections by providing good counselling, better medication and positive environment in each stage during and after pregnancy from both the patient's family side and medical staff side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decade since the availability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) genome sequence, no promising drug has seen the light of the day. This not only indicates the challenges in discovering new drugs but also suggests a gap in our current understanding of Mtb biology. We attempt to bridge this gap by carrying out extensive re-annotation and constructing a systems level protein interaction map of Mtb with an objective of finding novel drug target candidates. Towards this, we synergized crowd sourcing and social networking methods through an initiative 'Connect to Decode' (C2D) to generate the first and largest manually curated interactome of Mtb termed 'interactome pathway' (IPW), encompassing a total of 1434 proteins connected through 2575 functional relationships. Interactions leading to gene regulation, signal transduction, metabolism, structural complex formation have been catalogued. In the process, we have functionally annotated 87% of the Mtb genome in context of gene products. We further combine IPW with STRING based network to report central proteins, which may be assessed as potential drug targets for development of drugs with least possible side effects. The fact that five of the 17 predicted drug targets are already experimentally validated either genetically or biochemically lends credence to our unique approach.