Biological Sciences and Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad&nbsp;(IIT Palakkad or IIT PKD) is a public autonomous&nbsp;engineering&nbsp;and&nbsp;research&nbsp;institute located in&nbsp;Palakkad,&nbsp;Kerala. It was&nbsp;one of the five new&nbsp;IITs&nbsp;proposed in the&nbsp;2014 Union budget of India. The campus was inaugurated on 3 August 2015. The institute has 94 faculty, 978 students, and 63 non-teaching staffs.

IT Palakkad currently offers four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) and two years MS programmes in 8 different engineering disciplines including&nbsp;Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Civil among others.

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IIT Palakkad

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EUROPEAN BIOPHYSICS JOURNAL WITH BIOPHYSICS LETTERS

Functional amyloids from the fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is a pooled preparation of normal IgG obtained from several thousand healthy donors. It is widely used in the immunotherapy of a large number of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The mechanisms of action of IVIG are complex and, as discussed in this review, experimental and clinical data provide an indicator that the therapeutic benefit of IVIG therapy is due to several mutually non-exclusive mechanisms affecting soluble mediators as well as cellular components of the immune system. These mechanisms depend on Fc and/or F(ab')2 fragments. A better understanding of the effector functions of IVIG should help in identification of biomarkers of responses to IVIG in autoimmune patients. © The Japanese Society for Immunology. 2017.

Fulltext

International Immunology

IVIG-mediated effector functions in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases

Background. Human dendritic cell (DC) response to a-(1,3)-glucan polysaccharide of Aspergillus fumigatus and ensuing CD4+ T-cell polarization are poorly characterized. Methods. a-(1,3)-Glucan was isolated from A. fumigatus conidia and mycelia cell wall. For the analysis of polarization, DCs and autologous naive CD4+ T cells were cocultured. Phenotype of immune cells was analyzed by flow cytometry, and cytokines by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Blocking antibodies were used to dissect the role of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) in regulating a-(1,3)-glucan-mediated DC activation and T-cell responses. DCs from TLR2-defcient mice were additionally used to consolidate the fndings. Results. a-(1,3)-Glucan induced the maturation of DCs and was dependent in part on TLR2. "a-(1,3)-Glucan-educated" DCs stimulated the activation of naive T cells and polarized a subset of these cells into CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs). Mechanistically, Treg stimulation by a-(1,3)-glucan was dependent on the PD-L1 pathway that negatively regulated interferon-gamma (IFN-α) secretion. Short a-(1,3)-oligosaccharides lacked the capacity to induce maturation of DCs but signifcantly blocked a-(1,3)-glucan-induced Treg polarization. Conclusions. PD-L1 dictates the balance between Treg and IFN-α responses induced by a-(1,3)-glucan. Our data provide a rationale for the exploitation of immunotherapeutic approaches that target PD-1-PD-L1 to enhance protective immune responses to A. fumigatus infections. © 2017 The Author(s).

Journal of Infectious Diseases

Aspergillus fumigatus cell wall a-(1,3)-glucan stimulates regulatory T-cell polarization by inducing PD-L1 expression on human dendritic cells

Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Human basophils may not undergo modulation by DC-SIGN and mannose receptor–targeting immunotherapies due to absence of receptors

Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases of Livestock

Preface

We report the use of graphitic carbon nitride, g-­C3N4 (g­-CN) based electrochemical genosensor for the ultrahigh sensitive detection of DNA, taking breast cancer (BRCA1) gene as a model gene. The sensor uses the traditional sandwich detection strategy, in which the capture probe DNA (DNA­-c) was immobilized on g-­CN modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surface. Use of a gold nanoparticle cluster (AuNPC) as electrochemical label in reporter probe DNA and g-­CN as immobilization platform for capture probe DNA in the sensor design leads to highly sensitive electrochemical detection of BRCA1 gene. The sensor could detect down to 10 attomolar target DNA. Endonuclease reaction provided high selectivity to the mismatched DNA and the sensor was found to be stable and reproducible.

Sensors and Actuators, B: Chemical

Graphitic carbon nitride as immobilization platform for ssDNA in a genosensor

Development of a sensitive, specific and cost-effective DNA detection method is motivated by increasing demand for the early stage diagnosis of genetic diseases. Recent developments in the design and fabrication of efficient sensor platforms based on nanostructures make the highly sensitive sensors which could indicate very low detection limit to the level of few molecules, a realistic possibility. Electrochemical detection methods are widely used in DNA diagnostics as it provide simple, accurate and inexpensive platform for DNA detection. In addition, the electrochemical DNA sensors provide direct electronic signal without the use of expensive signal transduction equipment and facilitates the immobilization of single stranded DNA (ssDNA) probe sequences on a wide variety of electrode substrates. It has been found that a range of nanomaterials such as metal nanoparticles (MNPs), carbon based nanomaterials, quantum dots (QDs), magnetic nanoparticles and polymeric NPs have been introduced in the sensor design to enhance the sensing performance of electrochemical DNA sensor. In this review, we discuss recent progress in the design and fabrication of efficient electrochemical genosensors based on carbon nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, graphene oxide and nanodiamonds.

Biosensors and Bioelectronics

Carbon nanostructures as immobilization platform for DNA: A review on current progress in electrochemical DNA sensors

Haematologica

Demystification of enigma on antigen-presenting cell features of human basophils: Data from secondary lymphoid organs

We previously identified the chemokine receptor CCR4 as part of the molecular signature of melanoma brain metastasis. The aim of this study was to determine the functional significance of CCR4 in melanoma brain metastasis. We show that CCR4 is more highly expressed by brain metastasizing melanoma cells than by local cutaneous cells from the same melanoma. Moreover, we found that the expression of CCR4 is significantly higher in paired clinical specimens of melanoma metastases than in samples of primary tumors from the same patients. Notably, the expression of the CCR4 ligands, Ccl22 and Ccl17 is upregulated at the earliest stages of brain metastasis, and precedes the infiltration of melanoma cells to the brain. In-vitro, CCL17 induced migration and transendothelial migration of melanoma cells. Functionally, human melanoma cells over-expressing CCR4 were more tumorigenic and produced a higher load of spontaneous brain micrometastasis than control cells. Blocking CCR4 with a small molecule CCR4 antagonist in-vivo, reduced the tumorigenicity and micrometastasis formation of melanoma cells. Taken together, these findings implicate CCR4 as a driver of melanoma brain metastasis. © Klein et al.

Oncotarget

CCR4 is a determinant of melanoma brain metastasis

Electrochemical DNA sensors represent a simple, accurate and economical platform for DNA detection. Gold nanoparticles are known to be efficient labels in electrochemical sensors and to be viable materials to modify the surface of electrodes thereby to enhance the detection limit of the sensor. For surface modification, gold nanoparticles are used in combination with nanomaterials like graphene, graphene oxide, or carbon nanotubes to improve electrochemical performance in general. This review (with 116 refs.) mainly covers the advances made in recent years in the use of gold nanoparticles in DNA sensing. It is divided into the following main sections: (a) An introduction covers aspects of electrochemical sensing of DNA and of appropriate nanomaterials in general. (b) The use of gold nanoparticles in DNA is specifically addressed next, with subsections on AuNPs acting as electrochemical labels, electron transfer mediators, signal amplifiers, carriers of electroactive molecules, catalysts, immobilization platforms, on silver enhancement strategies, on AuNPs modified with carbonaceous materials (such as graphenes and nanotubes) and on multiple amplification schemes. The review concludes with a discussion of current challenges and trends in terms of highly sensitive DNA based sensing using AuNPs. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]