Pragna Rao

Manipal Academy of Higher Education | MAHE · Department of Biochemistry, Kasturba Medical College.Manipal

Malaria, dengue and leptospirosis are three tropical infectious diseases that present with severe hematological derangement causing significant morbidity and mortality, especially during the seasonal monsoons. During the course of these infectious diseases, circulating red blood cells are imperiled to the direct ill-effects of the infectious pathog...

Gold nanoparticles have found a wide range of application in biomedical sciences. Unique properties of these metal nanoparticles include surface plasmon resonance and size dependent colour change. Various molecules have been functionalized on the gold nanoparticles surface but carbohydrates have garnered attention due to their properties and their...

Introduction Secreted frizzled related protein 4 (SFRP4) is a modulator of the Wnt pathway. Its secretion is regulated by interleukin-1β. Objectives Primary objective was to assess the serum levels of SFRP4 in cases of T2DM and normoglycemic (NG) controls. Secondary objectives was to assess the association of serum levels of SFRP4 with chronic mic...

Derangements in bilirubin metabolism and/or dysfunctions in the hepato-biliary system lead to the unhealthy buildup of bilirubin in blood, resulting in jaundice. During the course of this disorder, circulating red cells are invariably subjected to toxic effects of serum bilirubin and an array of inflammatory compounds. This study aimed to investiga...

Objectives The undergraduate medical students must be made aware of the ethical and humanistic values of cadaveric dissection. This study therefore designed, implemented, and evaluated the impact of the module ‘Cadaver as a Teacher’ (CrAFT) that examines the ethical values of cadaveric dissection. Methods This prospective, multimethod study involv...

Aim: Certain rare inborn errors of metabolism clinically present with intractable seizures that readily respond to vitamin therapy. If identified early, brain damage due to seizures can be prevented. Methodology: A LC–MS method was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of the biomarkers in selected vitamin responsive pediatric...

Eryptosis is the suicidal destruction-process of erythrocytes, much like apoptosis of nucleated cells, in the course of which the stressed red cell undergoes cell-shrinkage, vesiculation and externalization of membrane phosphatidylserine. Currently, there exist numerous methods to detect eryptosis, both morphometrically and biochemically. This stud...

The evaluation of coronary artery disease (CAD) concerning the metabolic status and body mass index (BMI) is poorly studied. This study was designed to observe the relationship between insulin resistance (IR) and the severity of CAD on the basis of the metabolic and phenotypic status in stable-angina patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted...

Thiamine deficiency, if detected early in infancy, can be treated with thiamine supplementation and can prevent seizures, other disabilities and death. The dried blood spot sampling technique is an attractive sample collection technique for infants. The present study reports the development and validation of a highly sensitive and precise method fo...

Methyl malonic acid and branched-chain keto acids are important biomarkers for the diagnosis of cobalamin deficiencies and maple syrup urine disease. We report the development and validation of a HILIC-ESI-MS2 method for the quantification of these organic acids from neonatal urine. The samples were 100 times diluted and analyzed on a ZIC-HILIC col...

Introduction: Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is a time-integrated marker for glycemic control. It also helps in predicting the risk of coronary artery disease among diabetic patients. In this study, we examined the HbA1c association with the incidence of coronary artery disease among normal, pre-diabetic and diabetic subjects. Objective: To determ...

25-Hydroxyvitamin D (25-(OH)D) deficiency is recently been described as one of the multiple factors responsible for pediatric seizures. 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 and 25-Hydroxyvitamin D2 are the well-known markers to determine Vitamin D status. In this work we report the development of a sensitive and cost effective HPLC technique for the quantification...

Aims The aim was to evaluate the association between oxidative stress with the severity of endometriosis in blood and peritoneal fluid. Settings and Design This study was a prospective observational study conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynecology in a tertiary center over 2 years in patients with endometriosis requiring laparoscopy....

Background Meta-analysis is useful for combining the results of different studies statistically to confirm genuine associations in genetics. Based on earlier reports, we aimed to investigate the association between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) genetic variants identified in a previous meta-analysis in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in an In...

This work was aimed at developing an analytical tool for the simultaneous quantification of methylmalonic acid, glutaric acid, succinyl acetone, homogentisic acid, and pipecolic acid in pediatric urine samples. Organic acids were isolated from urine by liquid-liquid extraction. The extracted samples were then derivatized by using BSTFA + 1% TMCS so...

Introduction: Glycosylated HaemoglobinA1c (HbA1c) is a time-integrated marker for glycaemic control. It also helps in predicting the risk of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) among diabetic patients. Aim: To determine the association between HbA1c and severity of CAD in patients with stable angina. Materials and Methods: A total of 144 patients with th...

Pyridoxine dependent epilepsy is a condition where the affected infant or child has prolonged seizures (status epilepticus), which are nonresponsive to anticonvulsant therapy but can be treated with pharmacological doses of pyridoxine. If identified earlier and treated prophylactically with pyridoxine, severe brain damage due to seizures can be pre...

Introduction: Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) occurs due to atherosclerosis which results in progressive narrowing of coronary artery lumen. N-Terminal pro Brain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-proBNP) has been used as a marker of heart failure. However, its role in stable coronary artery disease without left ventricular dysfunction is limited. Aim: To measu...

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the activity of L-amino acid oxidase in ovarian cancer patients. Material and Methods: In total, 50 women with ovarian cancer enrolled in this study. Serum samples were collected from ovarian cancer patients (n=50) before and after treatment and 50 healthy women were included in this study. In...

Secreted frizzled-related proteins control a multitude of biological phenomena throughout development and adult life in humans. In parallel, aberrant gene expression and abnormal secreted protein levels accompany a wide range of pathologies in humans. In this review, we provide a brief introduction to sFRP4, an update of the pathways it's involved,...

Introduction: Amlodipine is a third generation dihydropyridine group of calcium channel blocker and having an excellent antihypertensive profile. Pedal Oedema (PE) is the major drawback of amlodipine therapy and the incidence of Amlodipine Induced Pedal Oedema (AIPE) has been found significantly high. Several neurohumoral factors influence the inci...

Introduction: Hypertension is a major health issue worldwide. Calcium Channel Blockers (CCBs) are the most commonly used antihypertensive agents. CCBs act on voltage-dependent calcium channels and they were categorized into two subclasses, Dihydropyridine (DHP) and non-Dihydropyridine (non-DHP) derivative. Amlodipine is a third generation L-type of...

Introduction: Prevalence of vitamin D is very high in India. The aim of the present study was to determine according to age groups, the status of vitamin D among individuals using samples received at clinical biochemistry laboratory. Materials and methods: The study population was grouped according to gender and age in decades. They were divided in...

The aim of the study is to demonstrate the resolution of Amlodipine induced pedal edema by substitution of Cilnidipine with an adequate hypertension control. This was a prospective, Interventional study. Conducted at the tertiary care center in south India. A total number of 66 (n = 66) patients with essential hypertension with the amlodipine-induc...

Aim: The purpose of this study to evaluate the levels of potent angiogenic factors, such as VEGF-A (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-A) and HIF-1 alpha (Hypoxia Induced Factor) in patients with Heavy Menstrual Bleeding (HMB). In addition, serum copper and ceruloplasmin as modulator of angiogenesis were investigated. We evaluated haemoglobin conce...

Objective: To study the edema causing factors in hypertensive, amlodipine-induced pedal edema patients. Methods: The present was a prospective, observational study. A total of one hundred and twenty-four essential hypertensive patients, of either gender attending the outpatient department of cardiology and medicine, were recruited for this study. O...

Introduction: The availability of the haemoglobin A1c test has been a major advance in diabetic care and its measurement has become an integral part for the management of diabetes. When glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) is estimated by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), one of the fractions that are eluted is known as "P3" fraction which is...

BACKGROUND Thermal injury is associated with several biochemical and histopathological alteration in tissue. Analysis of these objective parameters in research and clinical field are common to determine healing rate of burn wound. Negative pressure wound therapy has been achieved wide success in treating chronic wounds. This study determines superf...

There are some serious congenital disorders and Inborn Errors of Metabolism (IEM), which lead to disability and death of an infant. Most of these congenital disorders have safe and effective management, and if treated early can prevent significant mortality and morbidity. By the time symptoms are manifested, it is often too late and result in sever...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) are non synonymous forms of diabetes. Glucokinase (GCK) plays a key role in glucose metabolism. The relationship between the GCK promoter and specific types of diabetes, such as PTDM and T2DM, in the Asian Indian population is unknown. We examined the occurrence of a speci...

Introduction Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the common complications of Diabetes mellitus. Serum Cystatin C level has been suggested as a marker for cardiac complications in diabetes. The utility of serum Cystatin C in diabetic patients without CVD needs further study particularly in developing world where CVD is are increasing. We studied...

Purpose: The initial stage of proliferation of epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOCa) is usually asymptomatic. Due to the lack of sensitive and reliable markers in majority of patients the disease is widespread at the time of diagnosis. The reliable serum biomarkers currently accepted is CA125 but there is limitation in case of sensitivity of CA125 as...

Aim: Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has achieved widespread success in the treatment of chronic wounds. However, its effects have been only partially explored, and investigations have generally concentrated on the wound-dressing interface; a detailed histopathological description of the evolution of wounds under NPWT is still lacking. The p...

Angiogenesis plays a crucial role in wound healing by forming new blood vessels from preexisting vessels by invading the wound clot and organizing in to a microvascular network throughout the granulation tissue. This dynamic process is highly regulated by signals from both serum and the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) environment. Vascular e...

Aim: Emerging evidence favors the important role of antioxidants, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and nitric oxide (NO) in the healing of diabetic wounds. There is a lack of substantial evidence regarding the effects of negative pressure on antioxidants, MMPs and NO in chronic wounds associated with diabetes. Methods: A total of 55 type 2 diabetic...

Negative pressure wound therapy has emerged as an attractive treatment modality for the management and healing of chronic ulcers. Though numerous clinical studies are available, there is a lack of biochemical and histological studies evaluating the healing of chronic wounds. In the present study, a total 60 patients were divided into two groups: Li...

Citation: Khan IA, Shaik NA, Kamineni V, Jahan P, Hasan Q and Rao P (2015) Evaluation of gestational diabetes mellitus risk in South Indian women based on MTHFR (C677T) and FVL (G1691A) mutations. Front. Pediatr. 3:34. We aimed to scrutinize the extent to which single amino acid substitutions in the MTHFR and factor V Leiden (FVL) genes affect the...

The rs7903146 and rs13266634 polymorphisms in the TCF7L2 and SLC30A8 genes, respectively, have been reported to be associated with type 2 diabetes. However, little is known about the association of these polymorphisms with post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM). To study this linkage, we determined a distribution of allele and genotype frequencie...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) share a common pathophysiology. However, diabetes mellitus is a complex disease, and T2DM and PTDM have different etiologies. T2DM is a metabolic disorder, characterized by persistent hyperglycemia, whereas PTDM is a condition of abnormal glucose tolerance, with variable o...

Biochemical and histopathological analyses are commonly used objective parameters in research and clinical fields to assess the healing status of burn wounds. In this study, the effect of newer intermittent negative-pressure wound therapy in combination with moist environment [limited access dressing (LAD)] on burn wound healing is studied. Various...

Aims The aim of this study was to explore the possible association between the −850 C/T polymorphism in the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) gene promoter, and pregnancy-associated diseases such as gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and preeclampsia (PE), in south Indian women. GDM and PE are common complications that occur during pregnancy and...

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance of variable severity with onset of first recognition during pregnancy. GDM occurs in at least 30% of women with a family history of T2DM/GDM, suggesting that some women are genetically predisposed to develop GDM. Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) on chromosome 10 is a tumor-s...

Background Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) are part of a heterogeneous and complex metabolic group of disorders that share common pathophysiological circumstances, including β-cell dysfunction and insulin resistance. The protein Calpain 10 (CAPN10) plays a role in glucose metabolism, pancreatic β-cell insulin...

In this study we scrutinized the association between the A8344G/A3243G mutations and a 9-bp deletion polymorphism with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in an Asian Indian population. The A3243G mutation in the mitochondrial tRNA Leu(UUR) causes mitochondrial encephalopathy myopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS), while the A8...

Best poster award

Pregnancy is the stage of development of foetus and also a transition in the anatomy and physiology of the mother. During this time various metabolic changes occur in the mother. These changes are necessary to support the growing embryo. Micronutrients, which include vitamins and minerals, are important during all stages of life particularly in pre...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) also known as coronary heart disease is one of the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Genetic and environmental factors play an important role in the pathogenesis and progression of CAD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the combined contribution of 3 gene polymorphisms to the risk of CAD and gene-gen...

Alcohol is detoxified in the liver by the enzymes alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase. The available literature suggests that activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase is less than alcohol dehydrogenase among Asians; hence it leads to accumulation of acetaldehyde during excess intake of alcohol. Accumulated acetaldehyde due to its electrophil...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) has become the most common cause of mortality in the entire world. Homocysteine is implicated as an early atherosclerotic promoter. We studied the relationship between levels of serum homocysteine with severity of coronary artery disease. Total of 70 subjects who scheduled for coronary angiogram consented to participat...

Oxidative stress plays a role in long-term complications of diabetes promotes lipid peroxidation leading to atherogenesis. Malondialdehyde (MDA) is a highly toxic by-product formed in part by lipid oxidation derived free radicals. Human serum paraoxonase is an enzyme that is physically bound to high density lipoproteins (HDL) and plays a role in an...

Relationship between thyroid disease and breast tissue has long been debated as both the tissues have same embryological origin. Recent studies have implicated the possible role of thyroid dysfunction in the development and progression of breast related disorders. In view of increased prevalence of hypo and hyper thyroidism globally, there is a pos...

Background: Healing ability of nonhealing chronic ulcers can be assessed by estimating hydroxyproline, total protein and enzymatic antioxidants such as glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione S-transferase (GST) in the granulation tissue. Materials and Method: A total of 34 patients were analysed from two groups: Limited access dressing (LAD) gr...

Introduction: The new high sensitivity (hs) troponin T is specific biomarkers of myocardial necrosis. It has significant benefits for early recognition of acute myocardial infarction. CK-MB in serum is an important marker in diagnosis of myocardial ischemia. Aim and objective: We aimed to analyse and compare the relationship between glycated haemog...

GBS is an autoimmune polyneuropathy which presents with acute onset and rapid progression of flaccid, hyporeflexi quadriparesis. Both sensory and autonomic nerve involvement is seen. Guillain Barre Syndrome has various subtypes that vary in thei pathophysiology. The pathogenesis involves an immune response triggered by a preceding event which may b...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a multifactorial disease with the underlying involvement of environment, life style and nuclear genetics. However, the role of extranuclear genetic material in terms of somatically acquired mutations in mitochondrial tRNA and protein coding genes in the initiation or progression of CAD is not well defined. Hence, in...

The mucopolysaccharidoses (MPSs) are a heterogeneous group of rare inherited disorders caused by deficiency of lysosomal enzyme necessary to break down mucopolysaccharides or glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). We had combined clinical findings and ophthalmological features. Biochemical test for urine glycosaminoglycans was done for confirmation of diagnosi...

Angiogenesis is a hallmark of wound healing, the menstrual cycle, cancer, and various ischemic and inflammatory diseases. A rich variety of pro and anti-angiogenic molecules have already been identified. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an interesting inducer of angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, because it is a highly specific mitogen...

Background: Objective of current study was to study serum copper and ceruloplasmin levels in abnormal endometrial angiogenesis observed in dysfunctional uterine bleeding patients. Methods: Design: The present cross sectional study was undertaken in the departments of biochemistry and department of OBG , Kasturba medical college, Manipal University,...

Objectives: Rifampicin is an antibiotic that imparts an orange-red colour to the urine for a few hours after a dose. About 7% of the administered drug is excreted through the urine. This study compared the urine colour expression of rifampicin in normal and hyperlipidaemic subjects. Methods: A cohort pilot study was conducted at a tertiary care hos...

Practical examination in Biochemistry involves spotters requiring rotation of students through ten stations in batches. As the number of students is large, it adds more difficulty in conducting such examination within the given time frame. Moreover, some of the stations require the use of an instrument or reagents which have to be arranged with the...

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance first recognized during pregnancy. Insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of a 287 bp Alu repetitive sequence in intron 16 of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene has been widely investigated in Asian Indian populations with different ethnic origins. The present study exam...

A 32-year-old woman presented to Kasturba Hospital, Manipal with the features of gastroenteritis and one episode of generalised tonic clonic seizure with loss of consciousness for 5 min. No abnormalities were found during neurological examination. Her baseline investigations showed low sodium, low serum osmolality, normal renal and liver function t...

Medical education in India is at an important crossroad; we can either continue along the same road which has not led us to a desirable place or we can turn along a path to a more contemporary, and relevant location. This article is a reflection on the background, the current issues and possible future course as I see it. Keywords: Medical educati...

The formation of new blood vessels is the initial step in neovascularisation. The first stage in angiogenesis is the activation of endothelial cells. Copper ions stimulate proliferation and immigration of endothelial cells. It has been shown that serum copper concentration increases as the cancer disease progresses and correlates with tumour incide...