Alkyl-glycosides and-polyglycosides are environment friendly, non-ionic surfactants with favourable properties like biodegradability and chemical stability. These are extensively used in personal care products, pharmaceutical preparations and membrane protein research. Commercial production of these surfactants is carried out in multiple steps through Fischer glycosylation reactions under extreme conditions in the presence of toxic catalysts. β-glycosidases provide an alternative enzymatic method for their synthesis as these are easily available from microbial systems and exhibit broad substrate specificity and high stereo-selectivity. This review highlights the recent progress in glycosidase catalyzed synthesis of alkyl-glycosides. Several reaction parameters that affect the overall reaction kinetics, such as, water activity, nature of the glycosyl donor, pH of the reaction medium, reaction time, temperature and source of enzyme are discussed. Strategies available to enhance the yield, including two-phase solvent systems and immobilization are described. Current challenges and future prospects in the biological routes of synthesis are also reviewed.

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Background: Phenytoin is the most commonly used anti-epileptic drug (AED) in this set up due to cost effectiveness and easy availability. Significant fluctuations in serum phenytoin levels leading to toxicities or treatment failures make it an ideal candidate for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM).Methods: Patients of age ≥18 years who were put on phenytoin were enrolled in this study. Estimation of serum phenytoin levels was done using HPLC. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20.0. Chi square test, Kruskal Wallis test were used to analyse the data.Results: A total of 105 patients enrolled in the study, twenty patients (19%) had normal or therapeutic serum phenytoin levels. Thirty-nine patients (37.2%) had sub therapeutic serum phenytoin levels, while forty-six patients (43.8%) had toxic serum phenytoin levels.Conclusions: The TDM of phenytoin should adopt a multi-disciplinary approach with active involvement of neuro-physicians, pharmacologists, pharmacists and other technical staff for improving the overall management of epilepsy. TDM data will provide the clinicians with greater insight into the factors determining the patient’s response to drug therapy.

(1) Background: Inflammation is one of the primary responses of the immune system and plays a key role in the pathophysiology of various diseases. Recent reports suggest that various phytochemicals exhibit promising anti-inflammatory and immunomodulation activities with relatively few undesirable effects, thus offering a viable option to deal with inflammation and associated diseases. The current study evaluates the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects of withaferin A (WA) in immune cells extracted from BALB/c mice. (2) Methods: MTT assays were performed to assess the cell viability of splenocytes and anti-inflammatory doses of WA. Under aseptic conditions, the isolation of macrophages and splenocytes from BALB/c mice was performed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of WA. Analysis of the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and associated signaling mediators was performed using proinflammatory assay kits, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and immunoblotting, while the quantification of B and T cells was performed by flow cytometry. (3) Results: Our results demonstrated that WA exhibits anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects in LPS-stimulated macrophages and splenocytes derived from BALB/c mice, respectively. Mechanistically, we found that WA promotes an anti-inflammatory effect on LPS-stimulated macrophages by attenuating the secretion and expression of proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and the inflammation modulator NO, both at the transcriptional and translational level, respectively. Further, WA inhibits LPS-stimulated inflammatory signaling by dephosphorylation of p-Akt-Ser473 and p-ERK1/2. This dephosphorylation does not allow IĸB-kinase activation to disrupt IĸB–NF-ĸB interaction. The consistent interaction of IĸB with NF-ĸB in WA-treated cells attenuates the activation of downstream inflammatory signaling mediators Cox-2 and iNOS expression, which play crucial roles in inflammatory signaling. Additionally, we observed significant immunomodulation of LPS-stimulated spleen-derived lymphocytes by suppression of B (CD19) and T (CD4+/CD8+) cell populations after treatment with WA. (4) Conclusion: WA exhibits anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity by modulating Akt/ERK/NF-kB-mediated inflammatory signaling in macrophages and immunosuppression of B (CD19) and T cell (CD4+/CD8+) populations in splenocytes after LPS stimulation. These results suggest that WA could act as a potential anti-inflammatory/immunomodulatory molecule and support its use in the field of immunopharmacology to modulate immune system cells.