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Sickle cell diseases (SCD) are the most common genetic disorders with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide, including in India. The high prevalence of this disorder in many geographical regions calls for the use of a point-of-care rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for early screening and management of the diagnosed cases to reduce the allied clinical severity. In view of this, the present study was undertaken for the validation of a point-of-care RDT kit (SICKLECHECK TM ) for the screening of SCD. This validation and diagnostic accuracy study was conducted among the cases advised for screening of SCD. For validation, all the recruited cases were investigated for both the SICKLECHECK TM RDT kit and HPLC (Variant-II) considering HPLC as a gold standard. A total of 400 cases were screened for both tests. For the presence and absence of sickle cell hemoglobin in the samples, SICKLECHECK TM RDT kit results showed a sensitivity and specificity of 99.39% and 98.73% respectively with references to HPLC findings. For the detection of the ‘AS’ pattern, the SICKLECHECK TM RDT kit has shown a sensitivity and specificity of 99.07% and 98.81% respectively. For the detection of the ‘SS’ pattern, the SICKLECHECK TM RDT kit has shown a sensitivity and specificity of 97.92% and 100.0% respectively. Cases with β thalassemia trait, hemoglobin E trait, hemoglobin Lepore trait and trait for hereditary-persistence-of-fetal-hemoglobin (high HbF %) diagnosed in HPLC were resulted with ‘AA’ pattern in SICKLECHECK TM RDT kit. The high sensitivity and specificity of the SICKLECHECK TM RDT kit insist on its use as a point-of-care screening tool for SCD especially where there is a lack of laboratory facilities as well as in hospital-based set-up requiring immediate diagnosis and management of SCD. However, for further confirmation, the samples should be analyzed with other gold standard techniques like HPLC.

Considerable attention has been given to Magnesium oxide nanoparticles lately due to their antimicrobial potential, low toxicity to humans, high thermal stability, biocompatibility, and low cost of production. However, their successful transformation into sustainable drugs is limited due to their low membrane permeability, which reduces their bioavailability in target cells. Herein we propose Cerium-doped magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgOCeNPs) as a powerful solution to above mentioned limitations and are compared with MgO NPs for their membrane permeability and antimicrobial activity. Both pure and Ce-doped were characterized by various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques, in which an X-ray diffraction (XRD) examination reveals the lattice patterns for doped nanoparticles. Furthermore, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) revealed the three-dimensional (3D) structure and height of the nanoparticle. The crystal structure (FCC) of MgO did not change with Ce doping. However, microstructural properties like lattice parameter, crystallite size and biological activity of MgO significantly changed with Ce doping. In order to evaluate the antimicrobial potential of MgOCeNPs in comparison to MgO NPs and to understand the underlying mechanisms, the antibacterial activity was investigated against human pathogenic bacteria E. coli and P. aeruginosa, and antifungal activity against THY-1, a fungal strain. MgOCeNPs were studied by several methods, which resulted in a strong antibacterial and antifungal activity in the form of an elevated zone of inhibition, reduced growth curve, lower minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC80) and enhanced cytotoxicity in both bacterial and fungal strain as compared to MgO nanoparticles. The study of the growth curve showed early and prolonged stationary phase and early decline log phase. Both bacterial and fungal strains showed dose-dependent cytotoxicity with enhancement in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and formation of pores in the membrane when interacting with egg-phosphatidylcholine model Large Unilamellar Vesicles (LUVs). The proposed mechanism of MgOCeNPs toxicity evidently is membranolytic activity and induction of ROS production, which may cause oxidative stress-mediated cytotoxicity. These results confirmed that MgOCeNPs are a novel and very potent antimicrobial agent with a great promise of controlling and treating other microbes.

Sickle cell diseases (SCD) are the most common genetic disorders with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide, including in India. The high prevalence of this disorder in many geographical regions calls for the use of a point-of-care rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for early screening and management of the diagnosed cases to reduce the allied clinical severity. In view of this, the present study was undertaken for the validation of a point-of-care RDT kit (SICKLECHECK.sup.TM) for the screening of SCD. This validation and diagnostic accuracy study was conducted among the cases advised for screening of SCD. For validation, all the recruited cases were investigated for both the SICKLECHECK.sup.TM RDT kit and HPLC (Variant-II) considering HPLC as a gold standard. A total of 400 cases were screened for both tests. For the presence and absence of sickle cell hemoglobin in the samples, SICKLECHECK.sup.TM RDT kit results showed a sensitivity and specificity of 99.39% and 98.73% respectively with references to HPLC findings. For the detection of the 'AS' pattern, the SICKLECHECK.sup.TM RDT kit has shown a sensitivity and specificity of 99.07% and 98.81% respectively. For the detection of the 'SS' pattern, the SICKLECHECK.sup.TM RDT kit has shown a sensitivity and specificity of 97.92% and 100.0% respectively. Cases with [beta] thalassemia trait, hemoglobin E trait, hemoglobin Lepore trait and trait for hereditary-persistence-of-fetal-hemoglobin (high HbF %) diagnosed in HPLC were resulted with 'AA' pattern in SICKLECHECK.sup.TM RDT kit. The high sensitivity and specificity of the SICKLECHECK.sup.TM RDT kit insist on its use as a point-of-care screening tool for SCD especially where there is a lack of laboratory facilities as well as in hospital-based set-up requiring immediate diagnosis and management of SCD. However, for further confirmation, the samples should be analyzed with other gold standard techniques like HPLC.

In this work, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were synthesised using the fresh leaves extract of Pongamia pinnata (PLE) and characterized using various analytical techniques such as UV–visible spectroscopy, TEM, SEM, EDX, and XRD. UV–Visible spectra showed surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peaks in the range of 520–540 nm signifying the synthesis of colloidal AuNPs stabilised by PLE. Further, we investigated the cytotoxic effects of AuNPs against human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa). MTT assay screened IC 50 value of 200 μg/mL at 24 h for AuNPs formed at varying HAuCl 4 concentration. Flow cytometry measurements using H 2 DCFDA showed that the toxicity of AuNPs was attributed to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Besides, the in vitro anticancer activities of AuNPs were studied in HeLa cells by several assays which resulted in altered cell morphology, reduced potential of wound healing, inactive mitochondria due to loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and cell cycle arrest. AuNPs showed dose-dependent selective toxicity towards HeLa cells and were non-toxic against human embryonic kidney cell line (HEK293). The study revealed an efficient, ecofriendly and simple method for synthesis of multifunctional AuNPs using green synthetic approach with high anticancer potential for cervical cancer cell line.

Biomediated synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using plant extract is a favorable alternative to traditional physicochemical based methods. Biological synthesis assists in the generation of stable and biocompatible nanoparticles (NPs). The aim of the present work was to fabricate AuNPs using Pongamia pinnata leave extract. The synthesized AuNPs were characterized by various analytical techniques such as UV–visible spectroscopy, TEM, EDX, and XRD. Absorption spectra showed SPR peaks in the range of 520–540 nm signifying the formation of AuNPs stabilized by P. pinnata extract. The average size of NPs was found in the range 10–25 nm as obtained from TEM analysis. Moreover, the synthesized NPs showed antifungal activity. The antifungal activities of AuNPs were tested against oomycetes SR1 and BP1120. The MIC 80 value was observed at the concentrations 1.6 and 0.8 mg/mL of AuNPs in SR1 and BP1120 fungus, respectively. The study revealed an efficient, eco-friendly and simple method for synthesis of stable AuNPs using green synthetic approach.