Nidhi Puranik

• Doctor of Philosophy
• International Research Assistant Professor at Yeungnam University

The most common neurodegenerative illness and leading cause of death in the world is Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is extremely expensive to treat. None of the AD treatments that are currently in the market with approval have any effect on disease progression. However, numerous clinical studies aimed at reducing amyloid beta (Aβ) plaque developme...

Cancer is still the primary cause of mortality worldwide and is a serious health issue. As our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms behind the development of cancer has grown, a vast array of anticancer drugs has been created. The use of pharmaceuticals produced chemically has not significantly raised the overall survival rate during the last few...

Cancer is also known as the malignant tumor, representing a significant global health challenge capable of affecting any part of the body (Siegel RL, Miller KD, Jemal A, CA Cancer J Clin 70:7–30, 2020). Metastasis is the formation of secondary malignant tumors in distant areas from the primary cancer location during the growth of cancer cells. Canc...

Nutrients and diet are key factors in the development, management, and treatment of diseases as diet influence each physiopathologic process in body. Diet which is usually viewed as a lifestyle factor, influences many chronic ailments, including cancers. More recently, investigations in animal models have led to the conclusion that dietary changes...

Despite significant advancements in the field, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the primary cancer therapeutic methods. Nevertheless, they are linked to several adverse effects that significantly lower cancer patients’ quality of life. Due to their diverse range of chemicals and adaptable biological characteristics, plants can be used as adjuvant...

Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are the most common neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs). The development of aberrant protein aggregates and the progressive and permanent loss of neurons are the major characteristic features of these disorders. Although the precise mechanisms causing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are still unknown,...

Early identification of cancer raises the chances of recovery and survival dramatically. Liquid biopsy, which is based on the examination of body fluids, has received a lot of attention in the quest for cancer biomarkers. Thanks to recent advances in analytical techniques, it has gradually become possible to diagnose breast cancer early through the...

Gamma-glutamate is an important excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (CNS), which plays an important role in transmitting synapses, plasticity, and other brain activities. Nevertheless, alterations in the glutamatergic signaling pathway are now accepted as a central element in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathophysiology. One of th...

This chapter will focus on different point-of-care paper-based diagnostic systems that are used for the detection of cancer biomarkers (such as proteins, nucleic acids, exosomes, and secondary metabolites). These may reduce the current challenges in the diagnosis of different cancers and give future prospects for the safe and easy detection of mult...

Growth-factor-induced cell signaling plays a crucial role in development; however, negative regulation of this signaling pathway is important for sustaining homeostasis and preventing diseases. SPROUTY2 (SPRY2) is a potent negative regulator of receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) signaling that binds to GRB2 during RTK activation and inhibits the GRB2-S...

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) are a diverse group of neurological disorders characterized by alterations in the structure and function of the central nervous system. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), characterized by impaired memory and cognitive abilities, is the most prevalent type of senile dementia. Loss of synapses, intracellular aggregation of hy...

Slitrk proteins belong the leucine-rich repeat transmembrane family and share structural similarities with the Slits and tropomyosin receptor kinase families, which regulate the development of the nervous system. Slitrks are highly expressed in the developing nervous system of vertebrates, modulating neurite outgrowth and enhancing synaptogenesis;...

Globally, cancer is a major contributor to the disease burden. A poor lifestyle and exposure to potentially dangerous environmental elements are the main causes of cancer development. Out of all cancer forms, breast cancer is most prevalent in women and has emerged as a global public health concern. Based on molecular profiles, breast cancer is oft...

This book is based on detailed coverage of the role of phytochemicals as an epigenetic modifier to prevent various cancers. It presents the novel features of phytochemicals and their role in preventing cancer by regulating DNA, RNA, and protein levels. It also covers the role of various phytochemicals, especially vitamins, flavonoids, polyphenols,...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a central nervous system (CNS) immune-mediated disease that mainly strikes young adults and leaves them disabled. MS is an autoimmune illness that causes the immune system to attack the brain and spinal cord. The myelin sheaths, which insulate the nerve fibers, are harmed by our own immune cells, and this interferes with...

According to a 2020 WHO study, cancer is responsible for one in every six fatalities. One in four patients die due to side effects and intolerance to chemotherapy, making it a leading cause of patient death. Compared to traditional tumor therapy, emerging treatment methods, including immunotherapy, gene therapy, photothermal therapy, and photodynam...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects most people worldwide. AD is a complex central nervous system disorder. Several drugs have been designed to cure AD, but with low success rates. Because the blood–brain and blood–cerebrospinal fluid barriers are two barriers that protect the central nervous system, the...

Although various treatments are currently being developed, lung cancer still has a very high mortality rate. Moreover, while various strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer are being used in clinical settings, in many cases, lung cancer does not respond to treatment and presents reducing survival rates. Cancer nanotechnology, also...

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is the most common metabolic disorder that occurs due to the loss, or impaired function of insulin‐secreting pancreatic beta cells, which are of two types - type 1 (T1D) and type 2 (T2D). To cure DM, the replacement of the destroyed pancreatic beta cells of islet of Langerhans is the most widely practiced treatment. For this,...

Point-of-care testing devices for early detection, screening, and diagnosis have been proven to significantly improve patient survival rates and quality of life, as well as significantly reduce the cost and complexity of disease treatment. This has proven to be particularly applicable to appropriate environments within low-income and developing nat...

Cancer is a broad term for a group of diseases involving uncontrolled cell growth and proliferation. There is no cure for cancer despite recent significant improvements in screening, treatment, and prevention approaches. Among the available treatments, immunotherapy has been successful in targeting and killing cancer cells by stimulating or enhanci...

Marine natural products are a discerning arena to search for the future generation of medications to treat a spectrum of ailments. Meanwhile, cancer is becoming more ubiquitous over the world, and the likelihood of dying from it is rising. Surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy are the mainstays of cancer treatment worldwide, but their extensive side...

Dementia is a clinical syndrome characterized by progressive cognitive decline, and the symptoms could be gradual, persistent, and progressive. In the present study, we investigated 47 genes that have been linked to dementia. Compositional, selectional, and mutational forces were seen to be involved. Nucleotide components that influenced A- and GC-...

Depression or major depressive disorder is a psychiatric disorder affecting mood, behavior, and mental and physical health. Depression runs in families, suggestive of the genetic basis of the disease. Much research is going to understand the molecular basis of depression. In the present work, we tried to envisage the codon usage pattern analysis of...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune, neurodegenerative disease associated with the central nervous system (CNS). Autoimmunity is caused by an abnormal immune response to self-antigens, which results in chronic inflammation and tissue death. Ubiquitination is a post-translational modification in which ubiquitin molecules are attached to protein...

Background: Cancer is a prominent cause of disease burden all over the world. Primary cause of the development of cancer is exposure to potentially hazardous environmental factors and unhealthy lifestyle. Among all types of cancer, breast cancer is most common in women and becomes a public health issue on a global scale. There has been considerable...

Chickpea is the second most significant legume grain, growing in 14.80 mhs regions all over the world. It contributes roughly 14.24 million people to the global food basket each year. Desi and Kabuli chickpeas are widely grown in India, and both cultivars have distinct physiochemical characteristics such as seed size and shape, hydration capacity,...

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Traditional approaches, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy have been the main cancer therapeutic modalities in recent years. Cancer immunotherapy is a novel therapeutic modality that potentiates the immune responses of patients against malignancy. Immune checkpoint proteins express...

A novel coronavirus, designated as 2019-nCoV, hit the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late December 2019, and subsequently spread rapidly to all provinces of China and multiple countries. Epidemiological investigations have suggested that the outbreak was associated with a seafood market in Wuhan. Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (S...

We determined various forces involved in shaping codon usage of the genes linked to brain iron accumulation and infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy. The analysis paved the way for determining the forces responsible for composition, expression level, physical properties and codon bias of a gene. An interesting observation related to composition was that...

Objective: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most common non-communicable disease and the leading cause of death worldwide. To reduce the global burden of CVD and related morbidity and mortality, early prediction of CVD risk is essential. Various tools are available to access the risk of cardiovascular disorders. In the present study, we evaluat...

Wound infections are a public health problem worldwide. However, progress has been made in improving surgical techniques and antibiotic treatment. Misuse / overuse of antibiotics to prevent and treat bacterial infections eventually leads to increased bacterial resistance with rising incidences of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial strains. The wi...

The ubiquitin system, present in all eukaryotes, contributes to regulating multiple types of cellular protein processes such as cell signaling, cell cycle, and receptor trafficking, and it affects the immune response. In most types of cancer, unusual events in ubiquitin-mediated signaling pathway modulation can lead to a variety of clinical outcome...

Several human neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Huntington’s disease, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and brain stroke, are caused by the injury to neurons or glial cells. The recent years have witnessed the successful generation of neurons and glia cells driving efforts...

Organ or cell transplantation is medically evaluated for end-stage failure saving or extending the lives of thousands of patients who are suffering from organ failure disorders. The unavailability of adequate organs for transplantation to meet the existing demand is a major challenge in the medical field. This led to day-day-increase in the number...

Uneven codon usage within genes as well as among genomes is a usual phenomenon across organisms. It plays a significant role in the translational efficiency and evolution of a particular gene. EPB41L3 is a tumor suppressor protein-coding gene, and in the present study, the pattern of codon usage was envisaged. The full-length sequences of the EPB41...

Anthrax, a zoonotic disease caused by Bacillus anthracis is important for biowarfare as well as public health point of view. The virulence factors of B. anthracis are encoded by the two plasmids, pXO1 and pXO2. Protective antigen (PA), an 83 kDa protein encoded by pXO1 along with lethal factor (LF, 90 kDa) or edema factor (EF, 89 kDa), makes the an...

Gene therapy is one the frontier fields of medical breakthroughs that poses as an effective solution to previously incurable diseases. The delivery of the corrective genetic material or a therapeutic gene into the cell restores the missing gene function and cures a plethora of diseases, incurable by the conventional medical approaches. This discove...

Changes in protein structure and function, alteration in protein-protein interaction, and significant difference in protein concentration inside the body could play an important role in indicating the pathological evidence of abnormalities before the development of clinical symptoms and act as a critical detection and diagnostic tool commonly known...

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem granulomatous disease with nonspecific clinical manifestations that commonly affects the pulmonary system and other organs including the eyes, skin, liver, spleen, and lymph nodes. Sarcoidosis usually presents with persistent dry cough, eye and skin manifestations, weight loss, fatigue, night sweats, and erythema nodosu...

Detection of spores of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax in human and animals in environment is cumbersome due to the presence of spores of other closely related Bacillus species. The Extractable Antigen 1 (EA1), an extracellular protein is considered as a biomarker for detection of B. anthracis spores. In the present work, we have...

Aim: Category A classified B. anthracis is highly fatal pathogen that causes anthrax and creates challenges for global security and public health. In this study, development of a safe and ideal next generation subunit anthrax vaccine has been evaluated in mouse model. Method and results: Protective antigen (PA) and BA3338, a surface layer homolo...

Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax poses serious threat to human health. Genetically, B. anthracis is very close to the other species of this group. Hence, it is important to develop a rapid screening test for B. anthracis. Surface array protein (Sap), a surface layer protein produced by B. anthracis is considered an important bioma...

Anthrax, caused by Bacillus anthracis is an important disease of biowarfare and public health importance. It is imperative to develop a simple system which can detect and differentiate B. anthracis from other closely related species. The surface array protein (Sap), which is secreted during the early growth phase of bacteria can be an important bio...

In this study, an ELISA was developed for simultaneous detection of antibodies against both the important toxins of B. anthracis i.e. protective antigen (PA) and lethal factor (LF). A chimera of PA and LF was made by fusion and cloned and expressed in E. coli. The purified recombinant protein was used in plate ELISA for serodiagnosis of anthrax. Th...

Surface array protein (Sap) can be an important biomarker for specific detection of Bacillus anthracis, which is released by the bacterium during its growth in culture broth. In the present work, we have cloned and expressed Sap in Escherichia coli. The culture conditions and cultivation media were optimized and used in batch fermentation process f...

Anthrax is an important disease caused by B anthracis, a spore forming Gram positive bacterium. Being an agent of public health as well as biodefence importance, it is required to develop a specific early detection system of B. anthracis. The surface array protein (Sap), an essential marker of B. anthracis is secreted during the early phase of grow...

Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax is widely distributed and cases have been reported from almost every country. Development of a detection assay is an important aspect for timely control of spread of Anthrax epidemic. Anthrax surface array (SA) protein is an important antigen wh...

Monoclonal Antibody Therapeutics- A Biological Seminar

Anthrax, caused by Bacillus anthracis is known to occur globally since antiquity. Besides being an important biothreat agent, it is an important public health importance pathogen also in countries like India. B. anthracis secretes three distinct toxins, namely protective antigen (PA), lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF). PA is the central moie...

Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax is a Gram positive, spore forming bacterium. Bacillus species form a specialized cell type, known as spore, during a multistep differentiation process that is initiated in response to starvation. Recent studies have shown that B. anthracis is quite similar genotypically and phenotypically to some o...