Blue copper proteins promote a number of critical biological processes including electron transfer, controlled radical reactions, excretion of toxic substances, degradation processes, enzyme activation, toxic radical scavenging and formation of metabolic intermediates. The most important function of blue copper proteins is to transfer electrons through a highly co-ordinate covalent bond between Cu (II) and sulfur atom. The structure, properties and function of copper blue proteins can be obtained by building small molecular analogues. However, the synthesis of copper thiolate is challenging because of relative instability of thiolate group toward both electrophillic attack and oxidative damage. Copper thiolates shows a reaction of dimerization and auto-redox reactions and form disulfides. Making of copper thiolates, need a steric bulk, noncoordinating solvents and strictly avoiding of potentially coordinating counter ions. In this study we have prepared six copper (II) thiol complexes by using mechano-chemical reaction between copper (II) ion and thiol (-SH) functional group containing molecules lcysteine (LCS), n-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC), glutathione reduced (GSH), d-penicillamine (PEN), mercaptosuccinic acid (MSH) and dl-dithiothreitol (DTT). Color change of thiol molecules after reaction with copper (II) ion indicates the complex formation. All thiol molecules changed into blue color except dl-dithiothreitol which is in parrot green color. Further, complex formation was verified through FT-IR, PXRD, thermal analysis, magnetic properties and DNA cleavage studies. FT-IR spectra shows thiol (-SH) stretch at 2545 cm-1 while it is missing in all copper (II) thiol complexes, indicating that thiol (- SH) group is deprotonated and coordinate as thiolate with copper (II) ion. Powder x-ray diffraction of thiol molecules show very sharp peaks that indicates thiol molecules are very crystalline in nature. After complex formation many peaks were disappeared and their intensity was decreased. The comparison of spectra indicates that crystalline form of thiol molecules changed into amorphous form. Thermal stability was determined by TGA, DTA and DSC. All complexes show thermal decomposition after 2000C, and pattern of thermal decomposition is different from thiol molecules. The effective magnetic moment of copper (II) thiol complexes was determined at 315K and was found in the range of 1.14 to 1.78 BM. These indicate that copper (II) ion has one unpaired electron in the 3d shell; therefore, complexes have magnetic moments which are very close to the value of 1.73 BM, which is only copper (II). DNA cleavage studies were carried out with human and pUC18 DNA with all synthesized copper (II) thiol complexes. Lysis was observed by subjecting the samples to gel electrophoresis against the standards. The results indicate that [Cu(DTT)2], [Cu(LCS)2], [Cu(MSH)2] and [Cu(PEN)2] cleaved both pUC18 and human DNA, it shows that these complexes has an ability to bind with DNA molecule. [Cu(MSH)2] and CUAC (Copper acetate monohydrate) did not show any effect on both pUC18 and human DNA. [Cu(NAC)2] has no effect on pUC18 DNA but it has an ability to cleave human DNA. On the basis of these results in-vivo studies are recommended for targeted delivery of complexes against cancerous cells.
اے کیمرن پچھلے دنوں بنگال چیمبرس آف کومرس کے صدر مسٹراے ۔کیمرن کلکتہ کے قریب ایک مقام پراپنے مسلمان ملازم کی جان بچاتے ہوئے اُس کے ساتھ بڑی بے دردی سے ماردیے گئے۔ اگرچہ مشرقی اور مغربی بنگال میں جو کچھ ہوا ہے اس کے پیش نظریہ واقعہ نہ کچھ زیادہ حیرت انگیز ہے اور نہ مقابلۃً کچھ زیادہ افسوسناک، لیکن اگرہم میں انسانیت کی حس بالکل ہی مر نہیں گئی ہے تو اس واقعہ کا ایک پہلو ہمارے لیے کس قدر عبرت انگیز وسبق آموز ہے۔ مسٹر کیمرن کون تھے؟ کس ملک کے رہنے والے تھے ؟ اور جس شخص کی جان بچانے میں انھوں نے خودجان دے دی اس سے ان کا کیارشتہ تھا؟ظاہر ہے وہ یورپین تھے ہندوستان کے شہری نہیں بلکہ اجنبی ۔اُس قوم سے تعلق رکھتے تھے جس سے ہندوستانیوں نے ایک عرصہ کی جدوجہد کے بعد آزادی حاصل کی ہے اور جس کوانھوں نے سعی آزادی کے دور میں ہر تقریر اورہر تحریر میں کیا کچھ بُرا بھلا نہیں کہا۔پھراُس ملک کے رہنے والے تھے جو ہمارے نزدیک خداناشناسی، مادہ پرستی، فحاشی اورعیاشی کامرکز ہے۔رہا اس شخص سے تعلق ! تو معلوم ہے کہ سوائے انسانیت کے ان کے اوران کے نوکر کے درمیان کوئی اور مجانست نہیں تھی۔یہ انتہائی امیر اوروہ انتہائی غریب، یہ گورا وہ کالا، یہ مغربی وہ مشرقی، ان کی زبان اوراس کی بولی اور، یہ یہاں کے اجنبی وہ یہاں کاشہری، یہ عیسائی وہ مسلمان، لیکن ان سب اختلافات کے باوجود انسانیت کااحترام اس شخص کے دل میں اس درجہ ہے کہ وہ ایک حقیر اورادنیٰ سی جان کوبچانے کے لیے اپنی زندگی بے دریغ قربان کردیتا ہے۔ظاہر ہے اگر وہ دخل نہ دیتے تواپنی جان بچاسکتے تھے۔ اس کے مقابلہ میں دیکھیے ہم مشرقی بنگال ومغربی بنگال کے ہندومسلمان ہیں جوایک ہی ملک...
The study was conducted to examine some of the important questions raised by both the religious scholars and the proponents of the Enlightenment movement. The purpose of the study was to interpret enlightenment in Western and Islamic context and to examine the impact of western enlightenment on contemporary Pakistani society in the light of Islamic teachings. The study was quantitative in nature. Survey was conducted to probe into the perceptions of the Pakistani people regarding impact of western enlightenment on various aspects of contemporary Pakistani society. The sample of the study was 1000 people from four provincial headquarters of Pakistan including male and female from urban and rural areas of the provincial capitals. Two research instruments were developed by the researcher based on review of the related literature. First was a questionnaire named WEBI, Western Enlightenment Beliefs Inventory; second was a checklist named WEKAPC, Western Enlightenment Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Checklist. Results showed that most of the respondents were of the view that western enlightenment exerted significant influences on their thinking, lifestyles, and education, culture, media and social practices. Majority of the respondents thought that western enlightenment emphasized on tolerance, cultural harmony, equality, social justice and independent thinking. Gender-wise comparisons indicated that male respondents were more positive towards western enlightenment than the female respondents. It was recommended that Pakistani society needs to be made aware of the philosophy of western enlightenment and Islamic values which are characteristics of western enlightenment movement. There is need to initiate interfaith dialogue to understand socio-cultural dynamics of a Muslim society and a western society.
Alginate is an exopolysaccharide composed of varying ratios of β-D mannuronic acid and its C5 epimer α-L-guluronic acid linked together by β-1,4 - glycosidic bond. It has wide range of industrial applications particularly in food sector as a viscosifier, stabilizer, thickener, emulsifier, gelling and water binding agent. Commercial alginate is extracted from brown algae but due to variation in composition of biopolymer isolated from species of different locations, there is growing interest in bacterial alginate. At present two strains of bacteria are reported to produce alginate, Pseudomonas and Azotobacter. Hence present study was designed to produce alginate by Azotobacter vinelandii utilizing cheap substrates to save the foreign exchange. To achieve the goal, different physiochemical parameters were optimized to have hyper-production of alginate through submerged fermentation. Different agricultural wastes like wheat bran, rice polishing and molasses were utilized as substrates through fermentation with Azotobacter vinelandii.On fermentation of 7.5% (w/v) wheat bran by A.vinelandii, maximum alginate production (5.21 g/L) was observed at 48 hours of incubation time with 6% (v/v) inoculum size, pH 7.0, 300C and agitation speed of 200 rpm. Addition of different optimum levels of ionic salts i.e. 1.5% CaCl2 and 2% MgSO4. 7H2O in the growth medium gave significantly (P< 0.05) higher quantity of alginate (6.08 g/L) where as addition of KH2PO4 and NaCl reduced the yield of alginate. Among different nitrogen sources tested, 2% corn steep liquor resulted significantly (P<0.05) higher yield of alginate (7.46 g/L). The bacterial strain was improved by exposure to physical (UV irradiation) and chemical mutagens (Nitrous acid and ethidium bromide) to obtain more than 90% killing. The survivors were screened for hyper-production of alginate against the wild strain of A.vinelandii using pre- optimized conditions. The highest alginate production (13.8 g/L) was obtained by the ethidium bromide treated strain (EtBr-02). The mutant strain was used for optimization of fermentation parameters. The maximum concentration of alginate (15.61 g/L) was obtained by utilizing 10% (w/v) wheat bran, 8% (v/v) inoculum at 48 hours of incubation, pH 7.0, 300C and an agitation speed of 200 rpm. Inclusion of 2.5% cornsteep liquor raised the alginate concentration to 15.8 g/L. Batch fermenter studies were carried out in 2 L fermenter with working volume of 1.5 L using the mutant strain A.vinelandii, EtBr-02. Optimization of process parameters like agitation, aeration and pH in the fermenter showed that maximum alginate (16.8 g/L) was achieved at 300 rpm, 2.5 vvm aeration and controlled pH condition at 32 hours of incubation time. The alginate produced was identified by FTIR spectrum after precipitation. The purity of alginate was estimated by HPLC against the standard alginic acid from Sigma-Aldrich and was found to be 98% pure. The alginate produced was used at 3% concentration for immobilization of yeast cells. Immobilized and free cells were compared for ethanol production using 10% sucrose as the carbon source in fermentation medium. The maximum amount of ethanol obtained was from free cells i.e. 38 g/L whereas immobilized cells produced 32.5 g/L ethanol. The advantage of immobilization is that beads can be reused in eight sequential fermentation cycles of 10 h each. Thus a cheap and practical bioprocess of alginate production was developed, that can be exploited commercially to save foreign exchange.