Efficacious transmittal of COVID-19 has compelled numerous countries worldwide to embrace temporary yet dramatic measures such as locking down entire cities, restricting all forms of transportation, imposing lockdowns, maintaining social distancing etc. These actions have considerably enhanced the quality of ambient air and water. India, being a densely populated country, imposed a strict nationwide lockdown mandate since the last week of March 2020. This paper discusses the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on several aspects of environment broadly in Indian scenario. The forward course of action in the present and probable scenarios has also been addressed. As the disease spread is still underway, lockdown restrictions yet to be lifted and the availability of metadata hitherto being restrictive, firm deductions and explications could not be made. This case study i.e. observing the effects of lockdown, is a unique opportunity to understand how the environment reacts to sharp reductions in anthropogenic activity.

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Enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction of oil from oilseeds is a relatively recent technique. In the present study, peanut oil was extracted under optimized aqueous extraction conditions using Protizyme TM , which is predominantly a mixture of acid, neutral, and alkaline proteases. The optimal conditions were: enzyme concentration of 2.5% (w/w) in 10 g of peanut seeds, pH 4.0, 40°C, and 18 h incubation with constant shaking at 80 rpm. Centrifuging the mixture at 18,000 × g for 20 min separated the oil with a recovery of 86-92%. The merits of this process over existing solvent extraction and/or mechanical pressing methods are discussed.

BackgroundPotential biomarkers to aid diagnosis and therapy need to be identified for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a progressive motor neuronal degenerative disorder. The present study was designed to identify the factor(s) which are differentially expressed in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SALS; ALS-CSF), and could be associated with the pathogenesis of this disease.ResultsQuantitative mass spectrometry of ALS-CSF and control-CSF (from orthopaedic surgical patients undergoing spinal anaesthesia) samples showed upregulation of 31 proteins in the ALS-CSF, amongst which a ten-fold increase in the levels of chitotriosidase-1 (CHIT-1) was seen compared to the controls. A seventeen-fold increase in the CHIT-1 levels was detected by ELISA, while a ten-fold elevated enzyme activity was also observed. Both these results confirmed the finding of LC-MS/MS. CHIT-1 was found to be expressed by the Iba-1 immunopositive microglia.ConclusionElevated CHIT-1 levels in the ALS-CSF suggest a definitive role for the enzyme in the disease pathogenesis. Its synthesis and release from microglia into the CSF may be an aligned event of neurodegeneration. Thus, high levels of CHIT-1 signify enhanced microglial activity which may exacerbate the process of neurodegeneration. In view of the multifold increase observed in ALS-CSF, it can serve as a potential CSF biomarker for the diagnosis of SALS.

Neuropsychological symptoms are probably among the most commonly ignored complications in stroke patients. Depression is a common yet often unrecognized neuropsychological consequence of stroke, having biological, psycho-behavioral, and social dimensions. The reported prevalence of depression following a stroke varies from 20% to 50% within the first year, with an apparent peak within the first 6 months of onset event. The disparity of reported prevalence rates significantly depends on study methodology, diagnostic assessment tools, and time elapsed after stroke onset. The etiology of depression after a stroke is complex; it is likely determined by multiple factors, including lesion location, social handicap, and family support. Depression impedes rehabilitation progress following stroke and is associated with impaired functional outcome, cognitive decline, and increased mortality. Similarly, depression has been linked to increased risk of stroke occurrence. Despite high prevalence and serious sequels, poststroke depression (PSD) remains undetected and untreated. Early diagnosis and successful intervention may improve clinical outcome and should be considered a key for better stroke care. In this article, we review the clinical presentation, epidemiology, pathogenesis, and consequences of PSD and summarize current recommendations for therapeutic intervention.

Enzyme catalysis in aqueous-organic cosolvent mixtures has wide applications. However, inadequate attention has been paid to the issue of stability of enzymes in such media. The results with polyphenol oxidase, peroxidase, acid phosphatase, and trypsin show that solvents with polarity indexes of 5.8 and above are "good" solvents. These solvents when used as cosolvents in aqueous-organic solvent media do not denature the enzymes irreversibly. Enzyme(s) exposed to these solvents retain most of their activity even after 48 h of exposure, whereas solvents with polarity indexes of <5.1 denature the enzyme completely within 0-4 h in most of the cases studied. It appears that at higher concentrations (50% and above) cosolvents effectively compete with the water layer around the enzyme. Fluorescence spectroscopy shows that, although the presence of all the organic cosolvents cause conformational changes in the enzyme molecule at a concentration of 50% (v/v), these changes were completely reversible (when the concentration of organic solvent is diluted with aqueous buffer) in case of solvents having polarity indexes of 5.8 and above. In cases of the solvents having polarity indexes of 5.0 and below, the exposure at 50% concentration changed the conformation of the enzymes irreversibly. Thus, a simple parameter, viz. polarity index, may help in medium engineering of enzyme catalysis in nonaqueous surroundings.

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) induced in the genome of higher eukaryotes by ionizing radiation (IR) are predominantly removed by two pathways of non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) termed D-NHEJ and B-NHEJ. While D-NHEJ depends on the activities of the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) and DNA ligase IV/XRCC4/XLF, B-NHEJ utilizes, at least partly, DNA ligase III/XRCC1 and PARP-1. Using in vitro end-joining assays and protein fractionation protocols similar to those previously applied for the characterization of DNA ligase III as an end-joining factor, we identify here histone H1 as an additional putative NHEJ factor. H1 strongly enhances DNA-end joining and shifts the product spectrum from circles to multimers. While H1 enhances the DNA-end-joining activities of both DNA Ligase IV and DNA Ligase III, the effect on ligase III is significantly stronger. Histone H1 also enhances the activity of PARP-1. Since histone H1 has been shown to counteract D-NHEJ, these observations and the known functions of the protein identify it as a putative alignment factor operating preferentially within B-NHEJ.