From the results it can be concluded that the leaves extracts of S. xanthocarpum can be a potential candidate in treating the hyperglycemic conditions and suits to be an agent to reduce oxidative stress.

Background In cancers, maintenance of telomeres often occurs through activation of the catalytic subunit of telomerase, encoded by TERT. Yet, most cancers show only modest levels of TERT gene expression, even in the context of activating hotspot promoter mutations (C228T and C250T). The role of epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, in regulating TERT gene expression in cancer cells is as yet not fully understood. Methods Here, we have carried out the most comprehensive characterization to date of TERT promoter methylation using ultra-deep bisulfite sequencing spanning the CpG island surrounding the core TERT promoter in 96 different human cell lines, including primary, immortalized and cancer cell types, as well as in control and reference samples. Results In general, we observed that immortalized and cancer cell lines were hypermethylated in a region upstream of the recurrent C228T and C250T TERT promoter mutations, while non-malignant primary cells were comparatively hypomethylated in this region. However, at the allele-level, we generally found that hypermethylation of promoter sequences in cancer cells is associated with repressed expression, and the remaining unmethylated alleles marked with open chromatin are largely responsible for the observed TERT expression in cancer cells. Conclusions Our findings suggest that hypermethylation of the TERT promoter alleles signals transcriptional repression of those alleles, leading to attenuation of TERT activation in cancer cells. This type of fine tuning of TERT expression may account for the modest activation of TERT expression in most cancers.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of acanthosis nigricans (AN) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its correlation with various anthropometric measurements in Indians. Methods: One hundred and fifty consecutive subjects with T2DM attending the diabetes clinic at a tertiary referral centre in North India were considered as cases and 150 age and sex matched healthy attendants of non-diabetic subjects as controls. All the cases and controls were screened for the presence of AN and its severity. Anthropometric measurements of all of them were measured in standard method. Regression analysis was done to determine the association of AN with T2DM and various anthropometric measurements. Results: The prevalence of AN in subjects with diabetes and healthy controls was 62.6% and 40% respectively, and this difference was significant (p,0.05). Body mass index (BMI) between cases and controls was comparable by chance. There was a statistically significant correlation of increasing severity of AN with increasing BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-hip ratio, skinfold thickness, and body fat percentage in diabetic patients. However, in regression analysis after considering all the confounding factors there was a significant correlation of AN, only with diabetes mellitus and BMI. Conclusions: Indians have high prevalence of AN and it is an independent cutaneous marker of both T2DM and BMI.

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Plectranthus amboinicus (PA), commonly known as country borage, is a folkoric medicinal plant. Juice from its leaves is commonly used for illnesses including liver and renal conditions in the Asian sub-continent. Acetaminophen (APAP), used as an analgesic, produces liver and kidney necrosis in mammals at high doses. The aim of this study was to investigate the nephroprotective, diuretic, and antioxidant activities of the ethanol extract of PA at two doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg bw on APAP-induced toxicity in rats. This study shows that APAP significantly increases the levels of serum urea (UR), hemoglobin (Hb), total leukocyte count, creatinine, raised body weight, and reduced levels of neutrophils, granulocytes, uric acid, and platelet concentration. Ethanol extract of PA rescued these phenotypes by increasing anti-oxidative responses as assessed by biochemistry and histopathology. In addition, the ethanol extract of PA at two doses showed a significant diuretic activity by increased levels of total urine output and urinary elerolytes such as sodium and potassium. In conclusion, these data suggest that the ethanol extract of PA possess nephroprotective and antioxidant effects against APAP-induced nephrotoxicity and strong diuretics effect in rats.