In this report, Polyurethane (PU) degrading microorganisms (fungi and bacteria) were isolated from soil through enrichment. The isolated fungal strain was identified by examination of colony morphology i.e. color, size and colony diameter and shape, color, size and structure of conidia, hyphae, conidiophores and conidial head as Aspergillus tubingensis. PU films incubated for one month on MSM-Agar plates inoculated with A. tubingensis demonstrated visible signs of degradation in terms of changes in color and flexibility. Thick mycelial growth and adherence of fungal biomass with surface of PU was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Fourier transformed infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) spectrum of the treated PU film, when compared to that of untreated control revealed changes in important functionalities. Two bacterial strains isolated from the same soil were identified as Bacillus subtilis MZA-75 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa MZA-85 by colony morphology, microscopy, biochemical characterization and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The degradation of PU film pieces exposed to both strain MZA-75 and MZA-85 was investigated by SEM, FTIR and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). SEM micrographs of PU film pieces, treated with strains MZA- 75 and MZA-85, showed alterations in the morphological features of surface. FTIR spectrum demonstrated rise in organic acid functional groups and fall in ester functionality. GPC results revealed increase in polydispersity, which shows that long chains of polyurethane polymer are cleaved into shorter chains by microbial action. Increase in cell growth and CO 2 concentration detected through Sturm Test, in comparison to control further elaborate the degradative capability of strains MZA-75 and MZA-85. MZA-85 was found capable of producing cell associated esterase measured on the basis of p-Nitrophenyl acetate (pNPA) hydrolysis assay. Time course study for cell associated esterase in the presence and absence of PU in MSM broth revealed that this enzyme is induced by the presence of PU in the medium. Crystal violet staining and SEM results shows that MZA-85 forms biofilm on the surface of PU. In case of MZA-75 increase in both cell bound and extracellular esterases was observed in the presence of PUR films in MSM as compared to control when analyzed through p-Nitrophenyl acetate (pNPA) hydrolysis assay. PUesterase was purified from xiithe MZA-75 by using Sephadex G-75 column chromatography. The purified enzyme gave single band on SDS-PAGE corresponding to molecular weight 51 KDa. Substrate specificity analysis was done using p-Nitrophenyl acyl esters of varying carbon numbers. Maximum esterolytic activity was observed in case of p-Nitrophenyl butyrate (C 4 ). Analysis of the cell free supernatant by GC-MS, revealed that 1, 4-butanediol and adipic acid monomers were produced as result of degradation of PU by both MZA-75 and MZA-85 and both the strains were capable of utilizing these intermediates as carbon source. Both MZA-75 and MZA-85 are subject to further studies to understand their interaction with PU completely, which may be helpful in PU bioremediation and biochemical monomer recycling from PU wastes.
کیفیؔ اعظمی مشہور و مقبول ترقی پسند اور اردو کے انقلابی شاعر جناب کیفی اعظمی ۱۰؍ مئی کو صبح ساڑھے چھ بجے ممبئی کے جس لوک اسپتال میں انتقال کرگئے جہاں سانس کی تکلیف کی وجہ سے دو ماہ پہلے داخل ہوئے تھے، ۱۱؍ مئی کو اندھیری ویسٹ کے چار بنگلہ قبرستان میں سپرد خاک کئے گئے۔ کیفی صاحب ۱۹۱۸ء میں اعظم گڑھ کی تحصیل پھول پور کے ایک گاؤں مجواں کے زمین دار شیعہ گھرانے میں پیدا ہوئے، ان کے والد جناب سید فتح حسین رضوی اودھ کی ریاست بلہرا میں تحصیل دار تھے۔ کیفی صاحب کا اصلی نام سید اطہر حسین رضوی تھا، یہ سات بھائی بہن تھے، بڑے بھائیوں نے انگریزی تعلیم حاصل کی تھی، ان کو ان کے والد بزرگوار نے عربی تعلیم دلانے کے لیے فرقہ شیعہ کی مشہور درس گاہ سلطان المدارس لکھنو میں داخل کرایا مگر ان کا جی یہاں نہیں لگا، غالباً مدرسے کی سخت گیری اور مذہبی شدت پسندی سے گھبرا کر انہوں نے تعلیم ہی نہیں چھوڑی بلکہ مذہب سے بھی برگشتہ ہوگئے، اور غالباً آخر تک رہے، تاہم مدرسہ کی تعلیم کو خیر باد کہنے کے باوجود انہوں نے لکھنو اور الٰہ آباد کی یونیورسٹیوں سے مشرقی امتحانات دیئے اور اپنی ذاتی محنت و مطالعہ سے اپنی استعداد بڑھائی، اردو فارسی کے علاوہ غالباً وہ عربی، ہندی اور سنسکرت سے بھی واقف تھے۔ کیفی اعظمی کا طرۂ امتیاز ان کی شاعری ہے جس کو اس کے مخصوص لب و لہجہ ، باغیانہ تیور اور انقلابی افکار و خیالات کی بنا پر بہت پسند کیا گیا، ان کے گھر میں پہلے ہی سے شعر و سخن کا چرچا تھا، اردو ہی نہیں فارسی کا ذوق بھی عام تھا، ان کے تینوں بڑے بھائی بھی شاعری کا مذاق رکھتے تھے اور صاحب بیاض تھے، خاندانی کتب خانے...
Education is a compulsory component of life. The first man of this world Adam (A.S) has got his basic education through the angels by the permission and grace of Almighty Allāh. In the light of the Qur’ānic verse “and He taught Adam the names of all the articles (things), the importance of education for the mankind was very well proved. The last and the final Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was sent by Almighty Allah for the completion of edÉucation as a code forever in the shape of Qur’an and Sunnah but with the passage of time, education has expanded and modern issues and sciences have become the integral parts of today’s educational system. There are many aspects of education especially in the present time, the Western World have explored new angles of discoveries, inventions, and creations through education. How Islam looks into these new issues and matters of education, has been discussed in this article.
XRCC2, XRCC3 and RAD51 are the main molecules of the homologous recombinant repair (HRR) pathway related to thyroid cancer. Polymorphisms in these genes have been reported frequently in literature and are known to show diverse patterns in different populations. The present study was designed to screen these genes in thyroid cancer patients and controls at the DNA, mRNA and protein levels. A total of 456 pathologically confirmed thyroid cancer patients and 400 healthy controls were recruited. ARMS-PCR was used for genetic analysis followed by sequencing. In this study, various reported polymorphisms were analysed in HRR pathway genes at the germline level in thyroid cancer patients. Significant association of these SNPs were observed with age of diagnosis, gender, smoking, staging, histological subtype and treatment strategies of cancer. Significant association of these functional, promoter based and non-coding polymorphisms in HRR pathway genes and associations of these SNPs with important risk factors highlights their possible role in thyroid carcinogenesis. Further haplotype analysis revealed that most of the haplotypes in XRCC2, XRCC3 and RAD51 are linked with a significant increase in thyroid cancer risk. While some of the haplotypes were associated with a significant reduced thyroid cancer risk. RAD51 SNP, rs1801321 were observed consistent in reduced risk of thyroid cancer in association with risk factors analysed in this study. HRR pathway genes were further investigated at mRNA and protein expression levels. Thyroid cancer samples (n=102) along with equal numbers of un-involved tissues as controls were used for expression analysis. Quantitative real time PCR was used for determination of mRNA expression levels and immunohistochemistry was performed to analyse the protein expression of these genes. Expression analysis of XRCC2, XRCC3, RAD51 and proliferation marker Ki67 at mRNA level revealed significant deregulations. Significant downregulation (p<0.01) of XRCC2 and up-regulations of XRCC3 (p<0.01), RAD51 (p<0.001) and proliferation marker Ki67 (p<0.001) were observed in the expression profile of HRR molecules. These were significantly correlated (negatively and positively) with an up-regulated expression profile of the tumor proliferation marker, Ki67. XRCC3 and RAD51 expression was up-regulated in higher stages and aggressive tumor stages. Immunohistochemical analysis of HRR molecules revealed that among 102 tumor samples, 87% samples showed down- regulation of XRCC2 (p<0.0001), 75% samples showed up-regulation of XRCC3 (p<0.001), 76% samples showed up-regulation of RAD51 (p<0.0001) and 82% samples showed up-regulation (p<0.0001) of proliferation marker, Ki67. These IHC analysis results support our qPCR findings. Polymorphisms in HRR genes and abnormal expression at transcription and translation levels besides defective DNA damage may suggest that HRR pathway genes are correlated with thyroid tumorigenesis and aggressive proliferative behaviour of thyroid cancer in the Pakistani population. Furthermore, the role of XRCC2 and XRCC3 genes were explored in a thyroid cancer cell line (8505C) cells using in-vitro experiments. Effects of genetic modifications were observed for XRCC2 and XRCC3 in thyroid cancer cells by CRISPR-Cas9. These two genes were expressed using lentivirus having GFP, Cas9 and guide RNA. Gene knockouts for these genes were observed after single cell isolation. A gene cleavage assay showed successful genetic modifications and altered behaviour of these genes in thyroid cancer cells. Therefore, potential knockout of these genes gave an insight into molecular mechanism of thyroid cancer. XRCC3 gene function was further explored in the thyroid cancer cell line. Gene knockdown was produced by siRNA technology and successful knockdowns were confirmed using western blots. XRCC3 knockdown cells of anaplastic thyroid cancer (8505C) cell line showed decreased cell growth (p<0.01) as well as decreased cell proliferation after cell colony forming assay (p<0.001) when compared to controls. Decreased invasion (p<0.001), increased adhesion ability (p<0.001) and decreased migration abilities (i.e. wound closure for XRCC3 with siRNA knockdown was 86%) of the cells migrated for wound closure after 24 hours compared to ~98% cell migration of control cells. XRCC3 siRNA knockdown showed significant genetic alterations after treatment with topoisomerase inhibitor drugs (i.e. camptothecin, phleomycin and etoposide). Effect of these drugs on XRCC3 knockdowns were observed by colony PCR and metaphase analysis. Therefore overexpression of XRCC3 caused significant increase in cancerous characteristics of thyroid cancer which is in accordance with observed results at the mRNA and protein levels of expression. For a better insight into these genes in thyroid carcinogenesis, further work is needed to explore the interesting domains playing important role in carcinogenesis. Study of different factors affecting the thyroid cancer will not only assist in understanding thyroid cancer disease progression but will also help to establish future personalized cancer risk prediction.