Double emulsion‐encapsulated guggul exhibits improved in vivo hypocholesterolaemic action in rats

Guggul tree or Commiphora mukul is a small thorny herb having remarkable hypocholesterolaemic properties. Its therapeutic effects are because of its biocomponent guggulsterones, especially guggulsterone E and Z. In this research, double emulsion‐based spread was tried to improve the bioavailability of the herb guggul in in vivo rat model. The effect of the different diets with encapsulated and nonencapsulated guggul was evaluated and compared after 6 weeks, based on the final body weight and analysis of organs, serum and faeces of normal and hypercholesterolaemic (H) rats. It was evident from the results that double emulsion‐encapsulated guggul showed better control on weight of H rats (25.98% lower), inhibition of HMG CoA reductase (3.95 times less) activity and reduction in atherosclerotic index (47.2%), as compared to diet with unencapsulated guggul. Encapsulation of guggul also improved faecal excretion of bile acids, lipids and total cholesterol in H and normal rats.     

A Novel Mouse Monoclonal Antibody C42 against C-Terminal Peptide of Alpha-1-Antitrypsin

The C-terminal-fragments of alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) have been identified and their diverse biological roles have been reported in vitro and in vivo. These findings prompted us to develop a monoclonal antibody that specifically recognizes C-36 peptide (corresponding to residues 359–394) resulting from the protease-associated cleavage of AAT. The C-36-targeting mouse monoclonal Immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody (containing κ light chains, clone C42) was generated and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-tested by Davids Biotechnologie GmbH, Germany. Here, we addressed the effectiveness of the novel C42 antibody in different immunoassay formats, such as dot- and Western blotting, confocal laser microscopy, and flow cytometry. According to the dot-blot results, our novel C42 antibody detects the C-36 peptide at a range of 0.1–0.05 µg and shows no cross-reactivity with native, polymerized, or oxidized forms of full-length AAT, the AAT-elastase complex mixture, as well as with shorter C-terminal fragments of AAT. However, the C42 antibody does not detect denatured peptide in SDS-PAGE/Western blotting assays. On the other hand, our C42 antibody, unconjugated as well as conjugated to DyLight488 fluorophore, when applied for immunofluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry assays, specifically detected the C-36 peptide in human blood cells. Altogether, we demonstrate that our novel C42 antibody successfully recognizes the C-36 peptide of AAT in a number of immunoassays and has potential to become an important tool in AAT-related studies.     

Boosted Pro-Inflammatory Activity in Human PBMCs by Lipopolysaccharide and SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Is Regulated by α-1 Antitrypsin

For the treatment of severe COVID-19, supplementation with human plasma-purified α-1 antitrypsin (AAT) to patients is currently considered. AAT inhibits host proteases that facilitate viral entry and possesses broad anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities. Researchers have demonstrated that an interaction between SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S) and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) enhances pro-inflammatory responses in vitro and in vivo. Hence, we wanted to understand the potential anti-inflammatory activities of plasma-derived and recombinant AAT (recAAT) in a model of human total peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) exposed to a combination of CHO expressed trimeric spike protein and LPS, ex vivo. We confirmed that cytokine production was enhanced in PBMCs within six hours when low levels of LPS were combined with purified spike proteins (“spike”). In the presence of 0.5 mg/mL recAAT, however, LPS/spike-induced TNF-α and IL-1β mRNA expression and protein release were significantly inhibited (by about 46–50%) relative to LPS/spike alone. Although without statistical significance, recAAT also reduced production of IL-6 and IL-8. Notably, under the same experimental conditions, the plasma-derived AAT preparation Respreeza (used in native and oxidized forms) did not show significant effects. Our findings imply that an early pro-inflammatory activation of human PBMCs is better controlled by the recombinant version of AAT than the human plasma-derived AAT used here. Considering the increasing clinical interest in AAT therapy as useful to ameliorate the hyper-inflammation seen during COVID-19 infection, different AAT preparations require careful evaluation.     

FPGA implementation and performance study of spectrum sensing based on entropy estimation using cyclic features

This work presents a spectrum sensing technique based on the entropy of frequency domain autocorrelation of receiving signal at different cyclic frequencies. The performance of the proposed sensing technique is compared with other sensing techniques such as energy detection using Bayesian and Neyman–Pearson criteria, entropy estimation under frequency domain, cyclostationary feature detection. The performance of sensing algorithms is also analyzed for single node and multinode/cooperative environment under most probable channel effects such as fading, shadowing, receiver’s uncertainty and free space path loss using Monte-Carlo methods. Simulation results reveal that the proposed sensing technique is able to detect signals of signal-to-noise ratio up to −24 dB with five nodes in cooperation while maintaining a false alarm probability of 0.1 and a detection probability of 0.9. The proposed sensing algorithm is also implemented in Virtex-4 Field Programmable Gate Arrays.     

Field-effect transistors based on thermally treated electron beam-induced carbonaceous patterns

Electron beam-induced carbonaceous deposition (EBICD) derived from residual hydrocarbons in the vacuum chamber has many fascinating properties. It is known to be chemically complex but robust, structurally amorphous, and electrically insulating. The present study is an attempt to gain more insight into its chemical and electrical nature based on detailed measurements such as Raman, XPS, TEM, and electrical. Interestingly, EBIC patterns are found to be blue fluorescent when excited with UV radiation, a property which owes much to sp(2) carbon clusters amidst sp(3) matrix. Temperature-dependent Raman and electrical measurements have confirmed the graphitization of the EBICD through the decomposition of functional groups above 300 °C. Finally, graphitized EBIC patterns have been employed as active p-type channel material in the field-effect transistors to obtain mobilities in the range of 0.2-4 cm(2)/V s.     

Cooperative wideband sensing based on cyclostationary features with multiple malicious user elimination

Spectrum sensing is an essential concept in cognitive radio. To overcome the single node sensing issue that arises due to channel impediments, cooperative/multinode sensing is being used. Although cooperation among multiple cognitive users enhances the sensing performance, presence of few malicious cognitive users may severely degrade the efficiency of the system. In this paper, generalized extreme studentized deviate (GESD) and adjusted box-plot (ABP) methods are introduced to increase the sensing reliability of cooperative network by eliminating multiple malicious cognitive users. The performance of the cyclostationary feature detection method is compared with the energy detection method under different channel impediments. The simulation results are carried out with false alarm probability of 0.01 and a detection probability of 0.9. The simulation results reveal that there is a significant improvement in cooperative sensing performance by elimination of multiple malicious user in the network.     

Nutritional and Nutraceutical Properties of Triticum dicoccum Wheat and Its Health Benefits: An Overview

Triticum dicoccum wheat is one of the ancient wheat species and is gaining popularity due to its suggested health benefits as well as its suitability for organic farming. In some parts of the world, certain traditional foods prepared with dicoccum wheat are preferred due to their better taste, texture, and flavor. It is rich in bioactive compounds and its starch has been reported to have slow digestibility. However, content and composition of bioactive compounds is reported to vary depending on the geographical location, seasonal variations, varieties used, and the analytical methods followed. Therefore, in the present study, we report the food uses, digestibility of starch, nutritional and nutraceutical compositions of dicoccum wheat grown in different parts of the world, and also its health benefits in ameliorating diabetes and celiac disease.