Pushpender Kumar Sharma

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Verified

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• PhD
• Associate Professor , Jaipur Campus at Amity University

Background and Objective: Centella asiatica is a perennial herbaceous plant that is commonly used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine. The purpose of this study was to investigate its phytochemical profile and pharmacognostic properties. Methods: Centella asiatica's strong phytochemical profile supports its potential as a pharmaceutical agent. A plan...

Anxiety is a widespread psychological disorder affecting both humans and animals. It is a typical stress reaction; however, its longer persistence can cause severe health disorders affecting the day-to-day life activities of individuals. An intriguing facet of the anxiety-related disorder can be addressed better by investigating the role of neurotr...

Plastic waste present in different forms in the environment has greatly impacted ecosystem in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. From primary producers to tertiary consumers, all have shown the presence of micro- and nano-plastics within cells and tissues. Notably, in comparison to the environmental accumulation of plastic, its degradation occ...

Suppressing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), its receptor (VEGFR2), and the VEGF/VEGFR2 signaling cascade system to inhibit angiogenesis has emerged as a possible cancer therapeutic target. The present work was designed to discover and evaluate bioactive phytochemicals from the Clerodendrum inerme (L.) Gaertn plant for their anti-angiogen...

The global pandemic caused by COVID-19 posed a significant challenge to public health, necessitating rapid scientific interventions to tackle the spread of infection. The review discusses the key areas of research on COVID-19 including viral genomics, epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnostics, and therapeutics. The genome sequencing of the virus faci...

Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent malignancy among women around the world. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a tyrosine kinase receptor (RTK) of the ErbB/HER family. It is essential for triggering the cellular signaling cascades that control cell growth and survival. However, perturbations in EGFR signaling lead to cancer develo...

The rise of multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens poses a significant challenge to the field of infectious disease treatment. To overcome this problem, novel strategies are being explored to enhance the effectiveness of antibiotics. Antibiotic adjuvants have emerged as a promising approach to combat MDR pathogens by acting synergistically with antib...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and degrading autoimmune disorder mainly targeting the central nervous system, leading to progressive neurodegeneration, demyelination, and axonal damage. Current treatment options for MS are limited in efficacy, generally linked to adverse side effects, and do not offer a cure. Stem cell therapies have emerged...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, leading to motor symptoms such as tremors, rigidity, and bradykinesia. Current therapeutic strategies for PD are limited and mainly involve symptomatic relief, with no available treatment for...

Process Safety and Environmental Protection Available online 10 June 2023 In Press, Journal Pre-proofWhat’s this? “Recent advances in the omics-based assessment of microbial consortia in the plastisphere environment: Deciphering the dynamic role of hidden players.” Author links open overlay panelNaveen Malik a 1, Sudarshan Singh Lakhawat a 1, Vikra...

Designing effective diagnostics, biotherapeutics, and biocatalysts are a few interesting potential outcomes of protein engineering. Despite being just a few decades old, the discipline of de novo protein designing has provided a foundation for remarkable outcomes in the pharmaceuticals and enzyme industries. The technologies that will have the bigg...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) related autoimmunity is developed at mucosal sites due to the interplay between genetic risk factors and environmental triggers. The pre-RA phase that leads to anti-citrullinated protein antibodies, rheumatoid factor, and other autoantibodies spread in the systemic circulation may not affect articular tissue for years unti...

The most severe clinical manifestations of the horrifying COVID-19 disease, that claimed millions of lives during the pandemic time, were Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), Coagulopathies, septic shock leading eventually to death. ARDS was a consequence of Cytokine storm. The viral SARS-COV2infection lead to avalanche of cytokines and eico...

Fatal "cytokine storms (CS)" observed in critically ill COVID-19 patients are consequences of dysregulated host immune system and over-exuberant inflammatory response. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multi-system organ failure, and eventual death are distinctive symptoms, attributed to higher morbidity and mortality rates among these pa...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitously present in the environment. These compounds have demonstrated both mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. In the past few decades, scientists have constantly been looking for a possible route to their biological degradation. Bacterial ring hydroxylating dioxygenases (RHDs) implicated in the p...

The rapid growth of pollutants, both biological and non-biological, puts environmental systems in jeopardy. In view of this, the current study demonstrates the synthesis of undoped and Cobalt-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles (Co doped ZnO NPs) via co-precipitation method. The confirmation of incorporation of the Co dopant into ZnO NPs was verified th...

COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019), a life-threatening viral infection, is caused by a highly pathogenic virus named SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2). Currently, no treatment is available for COVID-19; hence there is an urgent need to find effective therapeutic drugs to combat COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the fact tha...

There is persistently a high demand for fresh fruits and vegetables all over the world. One of the crucial factors that reduces the shelf life of fruits and vegetables is temperature- dependent oxidation during transportation and long storage. Fruits and vegetables coating using eco-friendly coatings hold great advantage over the other synthetic co...

The major drawbacks of biofuel production at the commercial level are its low yield, non-availability of feedstock, feedback inhibition, presence of inhibitory pathways in various organisms, and biofuel intolerance of organisms. The present review focuses on the implications of the CRISPR-Cas9 mediated gene editing tool to alter the genome of bacte...

Lignocellulose waste arising from agricultural residues offers an excellent opportunity to seek alternative energy solutions in addition to fossil fuels. Besides, the unrestrained burning of agricultural residues can lead to the destruction of the soil microflora and associated soil sterilization. However, the difficulties associated with the biode...

Aim This study was designed to screen and identify an antimicrobial peptide from rhizosphere soil. The study was further focused towards overexpression, purification and characterization of this antimicrobial peptide, and to functionally validate its efficiency and efficacy as an antimicrobial agent. Yet the study was further aimed at corroborating...

High-throughput sequencing of metatranscriptomes from various environments has enabled researchers in accessing information about both the known and unknown transcripts expressing in natural communities. Metatranscriptomics allows investigator to retrieve information about whole microbial community, with main emphasis on active functional genes. It...

Rhizosphere microbiome is a diverse and dynamic communities affecting both plant health and nutrition. A better understanding of these ecosystems however remain uncharted owing to lack of tools that facilitate comprehensive profiling of microbial communities and processes which are largely constituted by uncultivable subset. Recent advances in mole...

Lipases have a characteristic folding pattern of α/β-hydrolase with mostly parallel β-sheets, flanked on both sides by α-helixes in the structure. The active site is formed by a catalytic triad (serine, aspartic/glutamic acid, and histidine), which is highly conserved. In this study, we have used an integrated experimental and computational approac...

In the present investigation, a lipid hydrolyzing gene RPK01was cloned from metagenome source of hot spring. Expression and purification of recombinant protein revealed a protein band of ~24 KDa on 12% SDS-PAGE and is well corroborated with the deduced molecular weight calculated from its amino acid sequence. The purified protein displayed high act...

In the present investigation, we report cloning, expression, purification and characterization of a novel Bleomycin Resistance Dioxygenase (BRPD). His-tagged fusion protein was purified to homogeneity using Ni-NTA affinity chromatography, yielding 1.2 mg of BRPD with specific activity of 6.25 U mg⁻¹ from 600 ml of E. coli culture. Purified enzyme w...

Background: Studying expression of genes by direct sequencing and analysis of metatranscriptomes at a particular time and space can disclose structural and functional insights about microbial communities. The present study report comparative analysis of metatranscriptome from two distinct soil ecosystems referred as M1 (Agriculture soil) and O1 (Or...

Antimicrobial peptides in recent years have gained increased interest among scientists, health professionals and the pharmaceutical companies owing to their therapeutic potential. These are low molecular weight proteins with broad range antimicrobial and immuno modulatory activities against infectious bacteria (Gram positive and Gram negative), vir...

Abstract Rhizosphere bacteria play crucial role in numerous biochemical and ecological processes ranging from biomass disintegration, mineralization, biological nitrogen fixation and de nitrification. The present investigation was carried out to delineate the microbial diversity of rhizosphere soil using metagenomic approach. Extraction of metageno...

The development of new strategies for thermal stability and storage of enzymes is very important considering the non-retention of catalytic activity by enzymes under harsh conditions of temperature. Following this, herein, a new approach based on interfacial adsorption of Lysozyme (LYZ) at nano-interfaces of ionic liquid (IL) based microemulsions,...

Graphene oxide (GO) is a biocompatible material that is easily dispersible in water making its mixing easy with ceramic or polymer matrixes while trying to enhance their properties. In the present study, the photocatalytic and antibacterial activities of GO have been studied. GO has been synthesized by modified Hummer’s method. The synthesized mate...

Abstract: Objectives: Main objective of this study was to investigate the molecular diversity of α- subunit of bacterial Ring hydroxylating dioxygenases (RHD) in agriculture soil. These enzymes catalyze break down of poly aromatic hydrocarbon to non-toxic form without forming harmful products like 3-PBA (3-Phenoxybenzoic acid). To meet our objectiv...

In the present study, we report presence of heavy metals and pesticides from the agricultural soil and groundwater samples of Mansa District of Punjab India. The investigation of the soil and water samples revealed presence of heavy metals Ni (47.7 mgkg-1), Hg (23.8 mgkg-1), Se (21.1 mgkg-1) and Cd (3.1 mgkg-1) above the permissible limit, as set b...

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are a class of proteins that play important role in protein folding, maintaining homeostasis, and suppressing the aggregation of misfolded proteins. The synthesis of these proteins in the cell is highly regulated, and is induced under various stress conditions that include the pH, temperature, and starvation, UV and chemi...

Abstract: Objectives: Extraction and manipulation of bacterial nucleic acid directly from soil has emerged as indispensable technique to explore the genomic potential of uncultured microbes. Major difficulty in separating humic acid from soil DNA is attributed to its strong interactions with the humic acid. Previously several methods were used to p...

Sequencing and analysis of 16S rRNA genes holds immense potential in identifying novel and uncharacterized bacterial phyla from any ecological habitats. Present study was designed to delineate and understand the bacterial diversity from hot spring soil of Manikaran, Himachal Pradesh, India (32°02'N, 77°21'E; elevation 1,760 m). The average tempera...

In the present study, we report sequencing and analysis of metatranscriptome from agriculture soil having long history of usage of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. To meet our objectives, we estimated the presence of pesticides and heavy metals in this agriculture soil, followed by extraction of total RNA from soil in replicates. Enrichment of...

Hot water springs or hydrothermal springs are places where warm or hot water comes out of earth surfaces regularly or for a significant period, in a year. These ecosystems present an epitome of extreme environments, and are extensively distributed all over the globe. Geographically, these ecosystems encompass unique physical and chemical characteri...

Objectives: This review will present and summarize latest research being carried out on heat shock proteins. It will also highlight the clinical and prognostic features of HSP27, HSP60, HSP70, HSP90 and HSP110, and will further shed light into future implications of these HSPs in diagnosis and prognosis of cancer. Furthermore, role of heat shock p...

Bioinformatics has played important role in better understanding the structure and function of biological macromolecules that primarily include the DNA and the proteins. Using bioinformatics tools, it has even become possible to get better insights about the important regulatory network of the cells, it ha...

Hot water springs or hydrothermal springs are places where warm or hot water comes out of earth surfaces regularly or for a significant period, in a year. These ecosystems present an epitome of extreme environments and are extensively distributed all over the globe. Geographically, these ecosystems encompass unique physical and chemical characteris...

The poly-ionic nature of a protein, Gelatin (G), derived from partial hydrolysis of collagen, is utilized to prepare ionogels (IGs) in conjunction with aqueous mixtures of a polar ionic liquid (IL), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate, [C2mim][C2OSO3]. Highly polar nature of IL-H2O mixture (50/50 v/v %) supported the high solubility of G, wher...

Abstract: Metagenomics has emerged as one of the important tools that can endow bottomless insights about the molecular diversity, distribution, ecological roles, microbial grouping and fastidious biological functions of microorganisms in a particular environment. In the present investigation, we explored metagenomics to delineate the molecular di...

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) belong to a class of proteins that play important role in protein folding, maintaining homeostasis in cells, and suppressing the aggregation of mis-folded proteins. The synthesis of these proteins in the cell is highly regulated and is induced under various stress conditions that include the pH, temperature, starvation, U...

In the present study, we report presence of heavy metals and pesticides from the agricultural soil and groundwater samples of Mansa District of Punjab India. The investigation of the soil and water samples revealed presence of heavy metals Ni (47.7 mgkg-1), Hg (23.8 mgkg-1), Se (21.1 mgkg-1) and Cd (3.1 mgkg-1) above the permissible limit, as set b...

Abstract: Under stress environment conditions, organisms express a class of proteins that helps in maintaining their proper function and makes them survive under adverse environmental conditions. These proteins are also referred as Heat Shock proteins (HSPs) and are ubiquitously synthesized by all prokaryotes and eukaryotes. They help in proper fo...

A new hybrid ion-exchange membrane was prepared from a novel composite obtained by dispersion of polyaniline into an inorganic matrix of zirconium(iv) phosphoborate employing a sol-gel method. The composite was characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM and TGA/DTA analysis. Membrane potential, transport number, permselectivity and fixed charge density w...

Zinc oxide, zirconium (IV) phosphate (ZnOZrP) nanocomposite was synthesized by sol gel method at pH ≈ 2.It was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR),and thermal analysis (TGA/DTA/...

In the present investigation, a gene encoding extracellular lipase was cloned from a Bacillus licheniformis. The recombinant protein containing His-tag was expressed as inclusion bodies in Esherichia coli BL21DE3 cells, using pET-23a as expression vector. Expressed protein purified from the inclusion bodies demonstrated ~22kDa protein band on 12% S...

In this study we have showed combined effect of two single point mutations S311C (LipR2) and R214C (LipR3) on the protein stability and overall change in biochemical properties. We found that both of these mutations are near the surface and individually enhanced the thermal stability of the protein (T1/2 for S311C=4.5 h & R214C=7 h at 60°C). But, t...

16S rRNA gene analysis has emerged as one of the valuable tools that are being utilized in investigating the molecular phylogenetic structure of the particular environment. Here, we embarked upon understanding and delineating the molecular phylogeny structure of microbes in polluted soil samples from cancer prone belt of the Punjab, India, which is...

Protein amyloid aggregates are implicated in a variety of debilitating human disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and prion diseases. The transition from a normal functional protein to an abnormal misfolded form involves a profound conformational change that serves as the key step in amyloid assembly leading to nanoscopic oligomers, pores and...

Human β2-microglobulin (β2m) aggregation is implicated in dialysis-related amyloidosis. Previously, it has been shown that β2m adopts an ensemble of partially unfolded states at low pH. Here we provide detailed structural and dynamical insights into the acid unfolded and yet compact state of β2m at pH 2.5 using a host of fluorescence spectroscopic...

In the present investigation, a thermostable mutant lipase was generated employing directed evolution approach. The mutant exhibited 144 fold enhanced thermostability over the wild type enzyme at 60 °C. The mutant enzyme showed high catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km). Biophysical investigation employing circular dichroism spectroscopy demonstrated that...

Rational mutagenesis was performed (at the vicinity of the active site residues D317 and H358 of a mature polypeptide) to investigate the role of amino acids in the thermostability/activity of a lipase enzyme. The single variant enzyme created with E315G (lip M2) mutation near one of the active site residue (D317) found to be an important residue i...

Bacillus subtilis lipase, being extracellular and smallest known lipase has been characterized extensively by several research groups. These enzymes found immense applications in industries. Structural engineering methods offer valuable opportunity in modifying various properties of these enzymes essentially required in various industrial applicati...

Biocatalyst plays an important role in the catalysis of biochemical/chemical reactions. Unfortunately, the majority of natural occurring enzyme lacks characteristic features essentially required during industrial processes e.g. thermostability/solvent stability/enantio-selectivity. Protein engineering methods play an important role in altering the...

Mutation altering biochemical properties generally exist close to active site. In the present investigation, a WT lipase gene cloned from a metagenome source revealed more than 90% homology to a lipase of thermophillic Bacillus species. During the biochemical characterization of the WT enzyme, we observed mere differences in the biochemical propert...

ABSTRACT: Amyloid formation is implicated in a variety of human diseases. It is important to perform high-resolution optical imaging of individual amyloid fibrils to delineate the structural basis of supramolecular protein assembly. However, amyloid fibrils do not lend themselves to the conventional microscopic resolution, which is hindered by the...

Majority of the naturally occurring enzymes lacks essential features required during the harsh conditions of the industrial processes, because of their less stability. Protein engineering tool offers excellent opportunity to improve the biochemical properties of these biocatalysts. These techniques further help in understanding the structure and fu...

The term metagenomics refers to genomic analysis of those microorganisms, which are difficult to cultivate in standard cultivation medium. The 16S rRNA study from various environments has provided a strong evidence for the existence of uncultured microorganism. The novel genes and gene products discovered by metagenomic approach include many hydrol...

A highly thermostable mutant lipase was generated and characterized. Mutant enzyme demonstrated 144 fold enhanced thermostability over the wild type enzyme at 60°C. Interestingly, the overall catalytic efficiency (k(cat/)K(m)) of mutant was also enhanced (~20 folds). Circular dichroism spectroscopy, studied as function of temperature, demonstrated...

A gene encoding extracellular lipase was cloned and characterized from metagenomic DNA extracted from hot spring soil. The recombinant gene was expressed in E. coli and expressed protein was purified to homogeneity using hydrophobic interactions chromatography. The mature polypeptide consists of 388 amino acids with apparent molecular weight of 43...

An improved method for purification of intact metagenomic DNA from soil has been developed using Q-Sepharose, which purified the DNA from phenolic and humic acid contaminants in a single step. The entire procedure for purification took only 45 min. A total of 81% of DNA was recovered after purification and there was 84% reduction in humic acid cont...