حمید صدیقی
افسوس ہے کہ گذشتہ مہینے زائر حرم حمید صدیقی نے وفات پائی، وہ اس دور کے بہترین نعت گو تھے ان کی نعتیں محض شاعرانہ صناعی نہیں بلکہ سچے جذبات اور دلی کیفیات کی ترجمان ہیں، وہ جیسی پاکیزہ نعتیں کہتے ویسے ہی ترنم سے پڑھتے بھی تھے، ان کی نعتیں صاحب نعتؐ کی بارگاہ میں اتنی مقبول تھیں کہ ان کو دس بارہ مرتبہ آستان نبوی کی حاضری سعادت حاصل ہوئی طبعاً بھی بڑے مہذب اور شریف تھے، ادھر عرصہ سے ان کی صحت خراب رہتی ایک دن معلوم ہوا کہ ریاض نبوی کا زمزمہ سنج باغ رضوان میں پہنچ گیا، اﷲ تعالیٰ مدحِ نبویؐ کے طفیل میں ان کی مغفرت فرمائے۔
(شاہ معین الدین ندوی، مارچ ۱۹۶۵ء)
‘A great man’, says Justice Oliver Wendell, Jr, ‘represents a great ganglion in the nerves of society, or to vary the figure, a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists in being there’. (italic ours). And Maulana Muhammad Ali was one such nerve-centre in Indo-Muslim society during the second and third decades of the twentieth century. Indeed, he was one such strategic point in the onward march of Indo-Muslim politics that eventually found culmination and crystallization in the emergence of Pakistan. Actually no one else represented the tone, tenor and temper of the romanticist, Khilafatist era (in the 1910s and 1920s) as he did in his hectic life, his revolutionary activities his numerous discomfitures, and in his tragic death. Whether he led a hectic life, whether he took recourse to a revolutionary path, or whether he goaded himself to die a tragic death outside the frontiers of his motherland cataclysmically, in whatever he did, he, consciously or unconsciously, carried forward the campaign of Indo-Muslim history: the redemption of Islam in India and abroad. In other words, he stood, above all, for an honourable existence for Muslims in India and in the rest of the troubled Muslim world in the existential crisis that convulsed Muslim India and that world.
Synthesis, Characterization and In–vitro Evaluation of Anticancer Potential of Chitosan–coated Polyoxometalates Nanoparticles Polyoxometalates (POMs) are discrete anions and have become significant in biomedical research due to their structural diversity which renders them highly active against bacterial, viral, cancer and HIV infection. In this study six different POMs were resynthesized and encapsulated within chitosan (CTS) through inotropic gelation technique. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized in terms of their surface morphology, particle size and zeta potential. All nanoparticles were observed non–spherical with hollow surface having particle diameter below 200 nm. For each formulation the observed zeta potential value was in acceptable limits (> 25 mV). The lowest particle diameter (91 ± 4 nm) was recorded for CTS–TiW11Co with zeta potential 52.0 ± 5.21 mV. The entrapment efficiency, dissolution studies and release kinetics were estimated for all nano formulations. The CTS–P5W30 nanoparticles showed the maximum entrapment efficiency (92 ± 9 %) while the release pattern of POMs from nanoparticles was observed as diffusion and polymer surface erosion. Enzyme inhibition study on tissue non–specific alkaline phosphatase was determined where free POMs and their nanoparticles were analyzed and compared with the standard inhibitor. The inhibition constant (Ki) value for CTS–TiW11Co (10.2 ± 9 ng/mL) was ten–fold lower than the Ki of levamisole (137.5 ± 29 ng/mL). The anticancer potential of free POMs and CTS conjugated nanoparticles were studied on two different cancer cell lines including human cervical cancer cells (HeLa cells) and human breast cancer cells (MCF–7 cells). Furthermore, the toxicity of these compounds was studied on normal cells (vero cells). The compounds CTS–TiW11Co and CTS–P5W30 were very effective on HeLa cells with IC50 of 8.94 ± 2.33 and 7.26 ± 2.55 μg/mL respectively. While these compounds showed the minimum toxicity on vero cells. The CTS–TiW11Co and CTS–P5W30 compounds also showed the lowest IC50 values when tested on MCF–7 cells with 4.55 ± 1.98 and 6.36 ± 1.22 (μg/mL) correspondingly. Based on maximum potential of cytotoxicity on x cancer cells and low toxicity toward normal cells, CTS–TiW11Co and CTS–P5W30 were selected for further experiments. The CTS–TiW11Co and CTS–P5W30 were morphologically analyzed for any signs of apoptosis with DAPI staining. The treated cells (HeLa and MCF–7) were characterized by chromatin condensation, cell shrinkage and formation of apoptotic bodies. A microscopic analysis of the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was carried out with the help of fluorescent dye DCFH–DA. The dye was incubated with HeLa and MCF–7 cells after treatment with CTS–TiW11Co and CTS–P5W30 nanoparticles. The treated cells were characterized by glowing cells showing signs of lipid peroxidation and chromatin condensation. Furthermore, a DNA fragmentation analysis was carried out on HeLa and MCF–7 cells separately. The existence of DNA fragments had confirmed apoptosis in HeLa and MCF–7 cells treated with CTS–TiW11Co and CTS–P5W30 nanoparticles.