Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University

About: Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University is a education organization based out in Varanasi, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Visceral leishmaniasis. The organization has 3622 authors who have published 4579 publications receiving 84718 citations.

Nanotheranostics: Emerging Strategies for Early Diagnosis and Therapy of Brain Cancer.

Abstract: Nanotheranostics have demonstrated the development of advanced platforms that can diagnose brain cancer at early stages, initiate first-line therapy, monitor it, and if needed, rapidly start subsequent treatments. In brain nanotheranostics, therapeutic as well as diagnostic entities are loaded in a single nanoplatform, which can be further developed as a clinical formulation for targeting various modes of brain cancer. In the present review, we concerned about theranostic nanosystems established till now in the research field. These include gold nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, magnetic nanoparticles, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, quantum dots, polymeric nanoparticles, upconversion nanoparticles, polymeric micelles, solid lipid nanoparticles and dendrimers for the advanced detection and treatment of brain cancer with advanced features. Also, we included the role of three-dimensional models of the BBB and cancer stem cell concept for the advanced characterization of nanotheranostic systems for the unification of diagnosis and treatment of brain cancer. In future, brain nanotheranostics will be able to provide personalized treatment which can make brain cancer even remediable or at least treatable at the primary stages.

Anxiogenic action of caffeine: an experimental study in rats.

Abstract: The anxiogenic action of caffeine (10, 25 and 50 mg/kg, i.p.) was investigated in rats and compared with that of yohimbine (2 mg/kg, i.p.). The experimental methods used were the open-field, elevated plus-maze, social interaction and novelty-suppressed feeding latency tests. Caffeine produced a dose-related profile of behavioural changes, which were qualitatively similar to those induced by yohimbine and which indicate an anxiogenic activity in rodents. Thus, both the drugs reduced ambulation and rears, and increased immobility and defaecation in the open-field test. They decreased the number of entries and time spent on the open arms of the elevated-plus maze, reduced social interaction in paired rats and increased the feeding latency in an unfamiliar environment in 48-h food-deprived rats. Lorazepam, a well known benzodiazepine anxiolytic agent, attenuated the anxiogenic effects of caffeine and yohimbine. Subchronic administration of caffeine (50 mg/kg, i.p.) for 21 days, in different groups of animals,...

Availability of miltefosine for the treatment of kala-azar in India

Abstract: Miltefosine an alkylphospholipid was registered in India for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) in 2002. The identification of miltefosine was an important therapeutic advance because it is the first effective oral agent for treating kala-azar including infection that is resistant to conventional therapy with pentavalent antimony and it has opened the door to outpatient management. However these clinical advances are being undermined and action is required. India carries approximately 50% of the world’s burden of kala-azar. Ninety per cent of cases of kala-azar in India occur in people living in poverty in rural Bihar State where daily family income is approximately US$ 1; infection there remains epidemic and transmission (anthroponotic) is high. Bihar is also the only endemic region where large-scale resistance probably the result of years of suboptimal treatment has ended the usefulness of antimony treatment Thus approximately 45% of the world’s kala-azar patients are in a precarious position. (excerpt)