North Eastern Hill University

About: North Eastern Hill University is a education organization based out in Shillong, Meghalaya, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Ruthenium. The organization has 2318 authors who have published 4476 publications receiving 48894 citations.

Design of a multi-epitope subunit vaccine for immune-protection against Leishmania parasite.

Abstract: Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is an insect-borne neglected disease caused by the protozoan parasite Leishmania donovani. In the absence of a commercial vaccine against VL, chemotherapy is currently the only option used for the treatment of VL. Vaccination has been considered as the most effective and powerful tool for complete eradication and control of infectious diseases. In this study, we aimed to design a peptide-based vaccine against L. donovani using immuno-bioinformatic tools. We identified 6 HTL, 18 CTL, and 25 B-cell epitopes from three hypothetical membrane proteins of L. donovani. All these epitopes were used to make a vaccine construct along with linkers. An adjuvant was also added at the N-terminal to enhance its immunogenicity. After that, we checked the quality of this vaccine construct and found that it is nontoxic, nonallergic, and thermally stable. A 3D structure of the vaccine construct was also generated by homology modeling to evaluate its interaction with innate immune receptors (TLR). Molecular docking was performed, which confirmed its binding with a toll-like receptor-2 (TLR-2). The stability of vaccine-TLR-2 complex and underlying interactions were evaluated using molecular dynamic simulation. Lastly, we carried out in silico cloning to check the expression of the final designed vaccine. The designed vaccine construct needs further experimental and clinical investigations to develop it as a safe and effective vaccine against VL infection.

Statistical analysis of the spontaneously emitted photon signals from palm and dorsal sides of both hands in human subjects

Abstract: Photon signals emitted spontaneously from dorsal and palm sides of both hands were recorded using 6000 time windows of size T=50. ms in 50 healthy human subjects. These photon signals demonstrated universal behaviour by variance and mean. The data sets for larger time windows up to T=50. s were obtained by merging the data recorded with T=50. ms. The behaviour of Fano factor regarding different window sizes was investigated. The Fano factor hovered around one in signals up to T=3. s and increased slowly with the increase in window size. This indicated super-Poissonian distribution of photo counts. The Fano factor curve F(T) obtained by averaging all subjects and locations had a characteristic shape. Data suggest that the shape is essentially a combination of a smaller sub-population of individuals with sub-Poissonian and a larger sub-population with predominantly super-Poissonian photo count distribution. Averaging the data obtained by randomly shuffling observed data sets was flat and did not show any structure with T. The same applied both to the observed background data sets and the data sets obtained by randomly shuffling background in 50 measurements. The Fano factor was also flat in 50 measurements documented both by a standard LED as well as its shuffled data sets. The structure in the shape F(T) is characteristic of human signals. It may contain valuable information about metabolic processes and may have diagnostic relevance. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Somatic embryogenesis and high frequency plantlet regeneration in callus cultures of Thevetia peruviana

Abstract: Plantlet regeneration through somatic embryogenesis has been achieved in the apocynaceous medicinal treeThevetia peruviana L. Calluses obtained by culturing young leaf discs on MS medium containing 9 μM 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 4.6 μM kinetin, when subjected to reduced levels of the growth regulators followed by higher cytokinin treatment, produced numerous somatic embryos. Somatic embryos developed into complete plantlets on a medium devoid of growth regulators. An average of 40–50 plantlets were obtained from 50 mg of embryogenic callus. Survival of transplants was 60% under glasshouse conditions.

Proteomic and genomic modulations induced by γ-irradiation of human blood lymphocytes.

Abstract: Purpose: Quantitative evaluation of early response proteins (ERPRO) and early response genes (ERG) following γ-irradiation of human lymphocytes; identification of specific proteins and genes as candidate biomarkers for the development of a novel biodosimeter.Materials and methods: Human peripheral blood lymphocytes were exposed to clinically relevant doses (1, 2 and 4 Gy) of γ-radiation ex-vivo. Analyses of protein and gene expression modulation were conducted 2 h post-irradiation. Global modulations were monitored using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) and DNA microarray analyses of the samples originating from one human donor. On the proteome level, both phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated proteins were considered. Proteins and genes of specific interest were further targeted using Western blot (WB) and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) techniques, employing samples from several human donors (n = 3).Results: A set of ERPRO and ERG showing significan...