Central University of Rajasthan

Cancer is an abnormal state of cells where they undergo uncontrolled proliferation and produce aggressive malignancies that causes millions of deaths every year. With the new understanding of the molecular mechanism(s) of disease progression, our knowledge about the disease is snowballing, leading to the evolution of many new therapeutic regimes and their successive trials. In the past few decades, various combinations of therapies have been proposed and are presently employed in the treatment of diverse cancers. Targeted drug therapy, immunotherapy, and personalized medicines are now largely being employed, which were not common a few years back. The field of cancer discoveries and therapeutics are evolving fast as cancer type-specific biomarkers are progressively being identified and several types of cancers are nowadays undergoing systematic therapies, extending patients' disease-free survival thereafter. Although growing evidence shows that a systematic and targeted approach could be the future of cancer medicine, chemotherapy remains a largely opted therapeutic option despite its known side effects on the patient's physical and psychological health. Chemotherapeutic agents/pharmaceuticals served a great purpose over the past few decades and have remained the frontline choice for advanced-stage malignancies where surgery and/or radiation therapy cannot be prescribed due to specific reasons. The present report succinctly reviews the existing and contemporary advancements in chemotherapy and assesses the status of the enrolled drugs/pharmaceuticals; it also comprehensively discusses the emerging role of specific/targeted therapeutic strategies that are presently being employed to achieve better clinical success/survival rate in cancer patients.

) values available in the literature so far. Different mode of action of anti biofilm molecules addressed here are inhibition via interference in the quorum sensing pathways, adhesion mechanism, disruption of extracellular DNA, protein, lipopolysaccharides, exopolysaccharides and secondary messengers involved in various signaling pathways. From this study, we conclude that the molecules considered here might be used to treat biofilm-associated infections after significant structural modifications, thereby investigating its effective delivery in the host. It should also be ensured that minimum effective concentration of these molecules must be capable of eradicating biofilm infections with maximum potency without posing any adverse side effects on the host.

In the last few decades, the vast potential of nanomaterials for biomedical and healthcare applications has been extensively investigated. Several case studies demonstrated that nanomaterials can offer solutions to the current challenges of raw materials in the biomedical and healthcare fields. This review describes the different nanoparticles and nanostructured material synthesis approaches and presents some emerging biomedical, healthcare, and agro-food applications. This review focuses on various nanomaterial types (e.g., spherical, nanorods, nanotubes, nanosheets, nanofibers, core-shell, and mesoporous) that can be synthesized from different raw materials and their emerging applications in bioimaging, biosensing, drug delivery, tissue engineering, antimicrobial, and agro-foods. Depending on their morphology (e.g., size, aspect ratio, geometry, porosity), nanomaterials can be used as formulation modifiers, moisturizers, nanofillers, additives, membranes, and films. As toxicological assessment depends on sizes and morphologies, stringent regulation is needed from the testing of efficient nanomaterials dosages. The challenges and perspectives for an industrial breakthrough of nanomaterials are related to the optimization of production and processing conditions.

Food wastage and its accumulation are becoming a critical problem around the globe due to continuous increase of the world population. The exponential growth in food waste is imposing serious threats to our society like environmental pollution, health risk, and scarcity of dumping land. There is an urgent need to take appropriate measures to reduce food waste burden by adopting standard management practices. Currently, various kinds of approaches are investigated in waste food processing and management for societal benefits and applications. Anaerobic digestion approach has appeared as one of the most ecofriendly and promising solutions for food wastes management, energy, and nutrient production, which can contribute to world's ever-increasing energy requirements. Here, we have briefly described and explored the different aspects of anaerobic biodegrading approaches for food waste, effects of cosubstrates, effect of environmental factors, contribution of microbial population, and available computational resources for food waste management researches.

Biosynthesized nanoparticles are gaining attention because of biologically active plant secondary metabolites that help in green synthesis and also due to their unique biological applications. This study reports a facile, ecofriendly, reliable, and cost-effective synthesis of silver nanoparticles using the aqueous leaf extract of Cucumis prophetarum (C. prophetarum) and their antibacterial and antiproliferative activity. Silver nanoparticles were biosynthesized using the aqueous leaf extract of C. prophetarum, which acted as a reducing and capping agent. The biosynthesized C. prophetarum silver nanoparticles (Cp-AgNPs) were characterized using different techniques, such as UV–visible spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX). Phytochemical analysis was performed to determine the phytochemicals responsible for the reduction and capping of the biosynthesized Cp-AgNPs. The antioxidant activity of the biosynthesized nanoparticles was determined using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) assays. Their antibacterial activity was checked against Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive) and Salmonella typhi (Gram-negative) bacteria. The biosynthesized nanoparticles showed dosage-dependent inhibition activity with a significant zone of inhibition and were more effective toward S. typhi as compared to S. aureus. Their antiproliferative activity was evaluated using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay on selected cancer cell lines. The IC50 values of Cp-AgNPs on A549, MDA-MB-231, HepG2, and MCF-7 were found to be 105.8, 81.1, 94.2, and 65.6 μg/mL, respectively, and this showed that the Cp-AgNPs were more potent toward MCF-7 as compared to other cell lines used in this study. This work revealed that the biosynthesized silver nanoparticles using C. prophetarum leaf extract were associated with good antibacterial activity and antiproliferative potential against selected cancer cell lines. The biosynthesized C. prophetarum AgNPs can be further exploited as a potential candidate for antioxidant, antibacterial, and anticancer agents.

Modern seafood processing practices result in amassment of a large volume of waste products, i.e., skin, head, tails, shells, scales, backbones, etc. These waste products may often encompass several high-value products which are still untapped due to the dearth of appropriate management. Moreover, inadequate disposal of waste also has negative implications on both environment and human health. This seafood waste often contains a huge amount of chitin, a polysaccharide that exhibits exceptional inherent characteristics including biocompatibility, biodegradability, antimicrobial, antitumor and antioxidant activities. The present review summarizes the existing methods for recovery of chitin and its derivatives from marine waste. The preparation of chitin nanoparticles was discussed along with blending of chitin and chitosan with other biopolymers. The recent trends of the application of chitin and chitosan nanostructures in various sectors were explored. This review is an attempt to highlight the extraction methods of chitin and chitosan from marine waste resources and its transformation into valuable commercial products as a solution to waste management.

The hunt for alternative sources of energy generation that are inexpensive, ecofriendly, renewable and can replace fossil fuels is on, owing to the increasing demands of energy. One approach in this direction is the conversion of plant residues into biofuels wherein lignocellulose, which forms the structural framework of plants consisting of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, is first broken down and hydrolyzed into simple fermentable sugars, which upon fermentation form biofuels such as ethanol. A major bottleneck is to disarray lignin which is present as a protective covering and makes cellulose and hemicellulose recalcitrant to enzymatic hydrolysis. A number of biomass deconstruction or pretreatment processes (physical, chemical and biological) have been used to break the structural framework of plants and depolymerize lignin. This review surveys and discusses some major pretreatment processes pertaining to the pretreatment of plant biomass, which are used for the production of biofuels and other value added products. The emphasis is given on processes that provide maximum amount of sugars, which are subsequently used for the production of biofuels.

Acinetobacter baumannii is a multi-drug resistant opportunistic pathogen, which causes respiratory and urinary tract infections. Its prevalence increases gradually in the clinical setup. Carbapenems (beta-lactam) are most effective antibiotics till now against A. baumannii, but the development of resistance against it may lead to high mortality. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to develop an alternative drug against A. baumannii. In the present study, we have synthesized ZnO nanoparticle (ZnO-NPs) and characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and UV-Visible spectroscopy. Prepared ZnO-NPs have the size of 30nm and have different characteristics of ZnO nanoparticles. Growth kinetics and disc diffusion assay showed that ZnO nanoparticle demonstrated good antibacterial activity against carbapenem resistant A. baumannii. We have also investigated the mechanism of action of ZnO-NPs on the carbapenem resistant strain of A. baumannii. The proposed mechanism of action of ZnO involves the production of reactive oxygen species, which elevates membrane lipid peroxidation that causes membrane leakage of reducing sugars, DNA, proteins, and reduces cell viability. These results demonstrate that ZnO nanoparticle could be developed as alternative therapeutics against A. baumannii.

Abstract Xylan is the second most abundant naturally occurring renewable polysaccharide available on earth. It is a complex heteropolysaccharide consisting of different monosaccharides such as l -arabinose, d -galactose, d -mannoses and organic acids such as acetic acid, ferulic acid, glucuronic acid interwoven together with help of glycosidic and ester bonds. The breakdown of xylan is restricted due to its heterogeneous nature and it can be overcome by xylanases which are capable of cleaving the heterogeneous β-1,4-glycoside linkage. Xylanases are abundantly present in nature (e.g., molluscs, insects and microorganisms) and several microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, yeast, and algae are used extensively for its production. Microbial xylanases show varying substrate specificities and biochemical properties which makes it suitable for various applications in industrial and biotechnological sectors. The suitability of xylanases for its application in food and feed, paper and pulp, textile, pharmaceuticals, and lignocellulosic biorefinery has led to an increase in demand of xylanases globally. The present review gives an insight of using microbial xylanases as an “Emerging Green Tool” along with its current status and future prospective.

Abstract Dengue is considered as a major health issue which causes a number of deaths worldwide each year; tropical countries are majorly affected by dengue outbreaks. It is considered as life threatening issue because, since many decades not a single effective approach for treatment and prevention of dengue has been developed. Therefore, to find new preventive measure, we used immunoinformatics approaches to develop a multi-epitope based subunit vaccine for dengue which can generate various immune responses inside the host. Different B-cell, T C cell, and T H cell binding epitopes were predicted for structural and non-structural proteins of dengue virus. Final vaccine constructs consisting of T C and T H cell epitopes and an adjuvant (β-defensin) at N-terminal of the construct. Presence of B-cell and IFN-γ inducing epitopes confirms the humoral and cell mediated immune response developed by designed vaccine. Designed vaccine was not found allergic and was potentially antigenic in nature. Modeling of tertiary structure and the refined model was used for molecular docking with TLR-3 (immune receptor). Molecular docking and dynamics simulation confirms the microscopic interactions between ligand and receptor. In silico cloning approach was used to ensure the expression and translation efficiency of vaccine within an expression vector.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a fatal form of leishmaniasis which affects 70 countries, worldwide. Increasing drug resistance, HIV co-infection, and poor health system require operative vaccination strategy to control the VL transmission dynamics. Therefore, a holistic approach is needed to generate T and B memory cells to mediate long-term immunity against VL infection. Consequently, immunoinformatics approach was applied to design Leishmania secretory protein based multi-epitope subunit vaccine construct consisting of B and T cell epitopes. Further, the physiochemical characterization was performed to check the aliphatic index, theoretical PI, molecular weight, and thermostable nature of vaccine construct. The allergenicity and antigenicity were also predicted to ensure the safety and immunogenic behavior of final vaccine construct. Moreover, homology modeling, followed by molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation study was also performed to evaluate the binding affinity and stability of receptor (TLR-4) and ligand (vaccine protein) complex. This study warrants the experimental validation to ensure the immunogenicity and safety profile of presented vaccine construct which may be further helpful to control VL infection.

Carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) have received tremendous interest in the area of nanotechnology due to their unique properties and flexible dimensional structure. CNMs have excellent electrical, thermal, and optical properties that make them promising materials for drug delivery, bioimaging, biosensing, and tissue engineering applications. Currently, there are many types of CNMs, such as quantum dots, nanotubes, nanosheets, and nanoribbons; and there are many others in development that promise exciting applications in the future. The surface functionalization of CNMs modifies their chemical and physical properties, which enhances their drug loading/release capacity, their ability to target drug delivery to specific sites, and their dispersibility and suitability in biological systems. Thus, CNMs have been effectively used in different biomedical systems. This review explores the unique physical, chemical, and biological properties that allow CNMs to improve on the state of the art materials currently used in different biomedical applications. The discussion also embraces the emerging biomedical applications of CNMs, including targeted drug delivery, medical implants, tissue engineering, wound healing, biosensing, bioimaging, vaccination, and photodynamic therapy.

Network lifetime plays an integral role in setting up an efficient wireless sensor network. The objective of this paper is twofold. The first one is to deploy sensor nodes at optimal locations such that the theoretically computed network lifetime is maximum. The second is to schedule these sensor nodes such that the network attains the maximum lifetime. Thus, the overall objective of this paper is to identify optimal deployment locations of the given sensor nodes with a pre-specified sensing range, and to schedule them such that the network lifetime is maximum with the required coverage level. Since the upper bound of the network lifetime for a given network can be computed mathematically, we use this knowledge to compute locations of deployment such that the network lifetime is maximum. Further, the nodes are scheduled to achieve this upper bound. In this paper, we use artificial bee colony algorithm and particle swarm optimization for sensor deployment problem followed by a heuristic for scheduling. A comparative study shows that artificial bee colony algorithm performs better for sensor deployment problem. The proposed heuristic was able to achieve the theoretical upper bound in all the experimented cases.

The emergence of drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii is the global health problem associated with high mortality and morbidity. Therefore it is high time to find a suitable therapeutics for this pathogen. In the present study, subtractive proteomics along with reverse vaccinology approaches were used to predict suitable therapeutics against A. baumannii. Using subtractive proteomics, we have identified promiscuous antigenic membrane proteins that contain the virulence factors, resistance factors and essentiality factor for this pathogenic bacteria. Selected promiscuous targeted membrane proteins were used for the design of chimeric-subunit vaccine with the help of reverse vaccinology. Available best tools and servers were used for the identification of MHC class I, II and B cell epitopes. All selected epitopes were further shortlisted computationally to know their immunogenicity, antigenicity, allergenicity, conservancy and toxicity potentials. Immunogenic predicted promiscuous peptides used for the development of chimeric subunit vaccine with immune-modulating adjuvants, linkers, and PADRE (Pan HLA-DR epitopes) amino acid sequence. Designed vaccine construct V4 also interact with the MHC, and TLR4/MD2 complex as confirm by docking and molecular dynamics simulation studies. Therefore designed vaccine construct V4 can be developed to control the host-pathogen interaction or infection caused by A. baumannii.

Internet of Things (IoT) network is the latest technology which is used to connect all the objects near us. Implementation of IoT technology is latest and growing day-by-day, it is coming with risk itself. So, it required the most efficient model to detect malicious activities as fast as possible and accurate. In our paper, we considered Deep Neural Network (DNN) for identifying the attacks in IoT. Intelligent intrusion detection system can only be built if there is availability of an effective dara set. Performance of DNN to correctly identify the attack has been evaluated on the most used data sets, i.e., KDD-Cup’99, NSL-KDD, and UNSW-NB15. Our experimental results showed the accuracy rate of the proposed method using DNN. It showed that accuracy rate is above 90% with each dataset.

Malaria fever has been pervasive for quite a while in tropical developing regions causing high morbidity and mortality. The causal organism is a protozoan parasite of genus Plasmodium which spreads to the human host by the bite of hitherto infected female Anopheles mosquito. In the course of biting, a salivary protein of Anopheles helps in blood feeding behavior and having the ability to elicit the host immune response. This study represents a series of immunoinformatics approaches to design multi-epitope subunit vaccine using Anopheles mosquito salivary proteins. Designed subunit vaccine was evaluated for its immunogenicity, allergenicity and physiochemical parameters. To enhance the stability of vaccine protein, disulfide engineering was performed in a region of high mobility. Codon adaptation and in silico cloning was also performed to ensure the higher expression of designed subunit vaccine in E. coli K12 expression system. Finally, molecular docking and simulation study was performed for the vaccine protein and TLR-4 receptor, to determine the binding free energy and complex stability. Moreover, the designed subunit vaccine was found to induce anti-salivary immunity which may have the ability to prevent the entry of Plasmodium sporozoites into the human host.

We theoretically propose a surface-plasmon-based fiber optic biosensor in metal/graphene/MoS2 configuration with molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as a bio recognition layer. The proposed configuration works in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum with a very high sensitivity. A comparative theoretical study of the sensors with different metallic layers of gold (Au), copper (Cu), and aluminum (Al) has been performed. The sensor has been found to be the most sensitive in both Cu/graphene/MoS2 and Al/graphene/MoS2 configurations with sensitivity of 6.2 μm/RIU. In both of the configurations the thicknesses of Cu and Al layers is 50 nm and the number of layers of graphene is 16 and 27, respectively, while only a single layer of MoS2 has been used. The sensitivity of the sensor in the Au/graphene/MoS2 configuration is 5.0 μm/RIU with comparatively high depth of resonance.

Today we are witnessing a global energy crisis due to huge energy demands and limited resources. Non-renewable energy sources are depleting and renewable energy sources are not properly utilized. There is an immediate need for search of alternate routes for energy generation. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology, which uses microorganisms to transform chemical energy of organic compounds into electricity is considered a promising alternative. Extensive studies have corroborated new insights into MFC, which show that a wide array of carbon sources including wastes can be employed using a variety of microbes. Consequently, microbial transformation of wastes using novel bioremediation strategies such as MFC for energy generation is considered as an efficient and environmentally benign approach. This paper deals with critical review of different classes of xenobiotics and wastes that can be employed for bioenergy generation, microorganisms involved, power output, major benefits, challenges and pit holes of MFC technology.

Salinity stress is one of the significant abiotic stresses that influence critical metabolic processes in the plant. Salinity stress limits plant growth and development by adversely affecting various physiological and biochemical processes. Enhanced generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced via salinity stress subsequently alters macromolecules such as lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, and thus constrains crop productivity. Due to which, a decreasing trend in cultivable land and a rising world population raises a question of global food security. In response to salt stress signals, plants adapt defensive mechanisms by orchestrating the synthesis, signaling, and regulation of various osmolytes and phytohormones. Under salinity stress, osmolytes have been investigated to stabilize the osmotic differences between the surrounding of cells and cytosol. They also help in the regulation of protein folding to facilitate protein functioning and stress signaling. Phytohormones play critical roles in eliciting a salinity stress adaptation response in plants. These responses enable the plants to acclimatize to adverse soil conditions. Phytohormones and osmolytes are helpful in minimizing salinity stress-related detrimental effects on plants. These phytohormones modulate the level of osmolytes through alteration in the gene expression pattern of key biosynthetic enzymes and antioxidative enzymes along with their role as signaling molecules. Thus, it becomes vital to understand the roles of these phytohormones on osmolyte accumulation and regulation to conclude the adaptive roles played by plants to avoid salinity stress.

Interference and chaos among different electromagnetic signals become the prime challenge of the current era which relies on wireless communication. Effective shielding of electromagnetic interference (EMI) waves with advanced materials thus emerges as major research field to prevent cross-talking among electronic devices. This article reviews the current research status of polymer-based EMI shielding materials with a particular focus on a high-performance hybrid with diverse nanomaterials filler. Compatibility and synergist of polymer host with filler materials have been illuminated in this article. Developments of polymer-based EMI hybrid with carboneous, metallic, magnetic and nano/micro materials have been summarized in detail. Emphasis has been given to discuss the role of nano/micro materials size and shape, their electronic, mechanical, chemical properties in tuning the EMI shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) of polymer hybrid. A specific correlation of surface chemical modification/doping of filler materials with EMI SE of their polymer hybrid have been summarized. In the last section, future research direction has been proposed to overcome the existing technological bottlenecks to realize most advanced EMI shielding materials for future use.