Loperamide is over-the-counter antidiarrheal agent acting on peripherally located μ opioid receptors. It is gaining popularity among drug abusers as opioid substitute. We report a case of a 46-year-old male that was presented after cardiac arrest. After ruling out ischemia, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary embolism, central nervous system pathology, sepsis, and other drug toxicity, we found out that patient was using around 100 mg of Loperamide to control his chronic diarrhea presumably because of irritable bowel syndrome for last five years and consumed up to 200 mg of Loperamide daily for last two days before the cardiac arrest. We hypothesize that the patient's QTc prolongation and subsequent cardiac arrest are due to Loperamide toxicity. Patient experienced gradual resolution of tachyarrhythmia and gradual decrease in QTc interval during hospitalization which supports the evidence of causal relationship between Loperamide overdose and potentially fatal arrhythmias. It also provided the clue that patient may have congenital long QT syndrome which was unmasked by Loperamide causing ventricular arrhythmias. This case adds one more pearl in the literature to support that Loperamide overdose related cardiac toxicity does exist and it raises concerns over Loperamide abuse in the community.

Objectives: This study describes Zinc biofortification of wheat using a rhizospheric isolate, Pseudomonas fluorescens strain Psd.Methods: The strain was used as a bio-ionculant in soil deficient in zinc and the plant-growth promoting potential and biofortification was assessed using a number of physical and biochemical parameters. The enzymatic studies indicated towards the zinc supply mediated by the strain Result: This plant-growth-promoting strain, apart from the Zn accumulation potential, has the ability to solubilise Zn and was also able to leach out Zn from ore-tailings. The application of a Zn-laden biomass of the strain in soil resulted in increased growth and productivity of wheat crop as demonstrated by pot experiments. The beneficial effect was also reflected in increased activities of some enzymes. In addition, grain Zn 2+ content was enhanced by ~85% in comparison to wheat grown in Zn 2+ -deficient soil.

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Bacterial systems have evolved a number of mechanisms, both active and passive, to manage toxic concentrations of heavy metals in their environment. The present study is aimed at describing the zinc resistance mechanism in a rhizospheric isolate, Pseudomonas fluorescens strain Psd. The strain was able to sustain an external Zn(2+) concentration of up to 5 mM in the medium. The strategy for metal management by the strain was found to be extracellular biosorption with a possible role of exopolysaccharides in metal accumulation. The attainment of equilibrium in biosorption reaction was found to be dependent on initial Zn(2+) concentration, with the reaction reaching equilibrium faster (50 min) at high initial Zn(2+) concentration. Biosorption kinetics of the process was adjusted to pseudo-first order rate equation. With the help of Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms, it was established that Zn(2+) biosorption by the bacterium is a thermodynamically favourable process.