Absract Archive   April 2008 Research Article Pathological studies of Salmonella Enteritidis on Vero, MDCK and BHK-21 cell lines with special reference to Environmental contamination Abstract Salmonella is one of the leading causes of food-borne illnesses worldwide. It is the etiological agent of diseases collectively referred to as salmonellosis. Found throughout the world, these organisms can infect a very wide variety of hosts (including wild animals, domestic animals, and humans), in some instances resulting in relatively asymptomatic intestinal carriage and in other instances producing clinical disease. Here in this study, cell lines such as Vero cells, Madin Darby Canine kidney (MDCK) cells and BHK-21 cells were subjected to infect upon Salmonella Enteritidis infection. The rate of infection on the above cell lines in terms of cytopathological changes at various time intervals was recorded. It was observed that due to S. enteritidis infection on the above cell lines, the cells became rounded that further lead to cell disruption. It was observed that the cell disruption was not severe after 30 minutes of incubation with both the toxin and the organism, but the severity progressed when incubation time was increased, except Vero cell lines. Further, the entire three cell lines became swollen, highly retractile assuming an oval shape when compared to the untreated control cells (sickle shaped in Vero, irregular shaped in MDCK and BHK-21 cells). It has been observed that cytopathological changes were observed and found to be prominent only after 12 hours of incubation. Finally cell lysis was observed due to pathogen invasion. Key words: Salmonella Enteritidis, Vero, BHK-21, MDCK, cell line, cytotoxin. Authors:A.Maripandi, G.Gurusubramanian, P.Ponmurugan. Review Bird Flu Virus : Is there any pandemic danger? Abstract Bird flu or avian influenza is a contagious disease of animals, which is mainly caused by poultry influenza virus. H5N1 influenza A virus is extremely virulent strain in poultry including chickens and is responsible for killing millions of birds. Transmission of influenza virus to humans in many countries led to death (Table 1) and millions of birds were culled to prevent the spreading this virus to humans. One genotype of H5N1 designated 'Z' has became a dominant strain in Asia. This virus was first detected in Hongkong during 2002. Till April 2006 infection of avian influenza has been reported in nine Asian countries. Key words: Bird flu, Influenza a virus, transmission of diseases, vaccines, drugs. Introduction Viruses are strange and dangerous creature of god. Being smallest of all living organisms, they are capable of making any living organism as home for their reproduction. They invariably infect bacteria, yeast, fungi, plants and animals. Viruses are species specific i.e., they are very specific in selecting their host. Plant viruses do not infect animals and vice versa. They have either RNA or DNA as their genetic material. Viral gene is quickly altered or mutated than genes of other organisms. This review discuss in brief about bird flu virus in general and H5N1 strain of avian flu virus in particular. The term influenza derived from Latin word “influential” disease caused by bad influence from heaven. Avian flu or bird flu is caused due to a large group of influenza viruses that typically infect birds. It is common among birds and considered to be species specific and infects human beings and is less common in pigs. The severity of the infection varies according to the virulence of the viral subtype. This avian influenza virus occurs in two main forms: One is low pathogenic, and the other is highly pathogenic. They belong to the influenza virus type “A”. Normally these viruses reside and multiply in the aquatic birds without causing any severe illness to the infected birds, so that these migratory birds maintain benign reservoirs of mild strain (low pathogenic form) of avian virus. Bird flu virus resides in the intestinal lining of the ducks and waterfowls. It is well adapted to the aquatic bird system and do not harm their carrier. Large titer of the flu virus is excreted into the pond water. When the virus enters into the body of other animals, it encounters immunological defense of the host. To escape from the immune systems attack the viral surface proteins are altered which result in the evolution of high pathogenic form. In 1918 Spanish influenza caused app. 50 million death worldwide. Influenza A virus is pandemic and occurs every 10 to 11 years. During history many pandemics of bird flu has been reported throughout the world.3, 4 Authors:Saraswathy,N, Ramalingam, M.Kabilan, P.Rajasekaran. Short Communications Isolation and Characterization of an Extacellular Lipase Producing Bacillus sp. SS-1 from Slaughterhouse Soil Abstract A bacterial member, Bacillus sp. isolated from slaughterhouse soil was found to be capable of producing extacellular lipase. Several factors affecting the activity of lipase were investigated. The maximum lipase activity was achieved at 40o C, pH 8.0 in 72 hour's incubation. The enzyme activity was enhanced by the addition of 15% of olive oil that was found to be the optimum substrate concentration in the growth medium. Key words: Lipase, Olive oil, Bacillus sp. Introduction Lipases are synthesized by microorganisms, which grow on fats or oils. The production of lipase by microorganisms depends largely on the species, strains and culture conditions that are responsible for the hydrolysis of lipids. (Linefield et al., 1984) Lipase is a potential enzyme employed in industries for decades to hydrolyze fats and for the production of desirable esters (Langrand et al., 1990). Conventionally, leather industries use kerosene, petrol and other solvents to degrease skins and hides. However, the above said procedure pose many industrial pollution threat as well as hazards associated with the use of solvents and detergents. Therefore, enzymatic degreasing of skin and hides is suggested as a viable alternative in view of environmental safety (Puvanakrishnan and Dhar, 1988) Studies use on processing of skin and hides have been extensively attempted in recent years. In the present study, a potent lipase production bacterium was isolated and identified from slaughterhouse soil and factors influencing the production of extacellular lipase were also analyzed. Authors:R.Senthilkumar,G.Selvakumar. Tutorial Patent Literacy A Techno-legal Right for Scientific community Properties are of two types such as tangible and intangible e.g. House, Land, Cash etc are some examples of tangible property that can be touched but other type of property which can not be touched and also more precious than other types of properties. These kinds of properties are known as intellectual property (IP) or Industrial property. IP plays a key role in the transfer of technology and industrial growth (Fig 1). Now a day's piracy of IP has become international in character. And like other property IP is needed to protect by strong legislation at worldwide. Intellectual property includes right relating to as below a-New invention in the field of mankind b-Scientific discoveries c-Literary, artistic work and scientific work d-Industrial design e-Trademarks and service marks Form of Protection of IP There are different forms though which we can save our precious Intellectual property such as a-Patent b-Trademarks c-Design d-Know how e-Copy right Authors :Sudhir Sharma, Deepa Garg. Tools & Techniques From Ideogram to Spectrogram Application of FISH Technique in clinical diagnosis The most recent developments in cytogenetics have led to the "Molecular Era". Advances in the use of DNA probes have allowed cytogeneticists to hybridize these probes to chromosomes and determine if a specific DNA sequence is present on the target chromosome. This has been useful in detecting anomalies beyond the resolution level of conventional banded chromosomes and also in determining the location of specific genes on chromosomes. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) as mentioned is used as an additional staining method for metaphase as well as interphase chromosome analysis. During the past 5 years, FISH has begun to demonstrate its considerable diagnostic potential in cancer, prenatal and micro-deletion syndromes. 1. FISH and cancer cytogenetics The study of acquired chromosomal anomalies in cancer continues to expand. Cancer cells are often difficult to grow in culture and FISH techniques can augment standard cytogenetic testing. Numeric changes such as trisomy 8 in myeloid disorders can be detected. Structural chromosomal aberrations - translocations, such as the bcr/abl rearrangement in chronic myelogenous leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia can also be easily identified. FISH studies are being used to look for early relapse and residual disease in nondividing cells. In allogeneic bone marrow transplant patients receiving opposite sex donor cells, the success of engraftment can be monitored by FISH chimerism studies. Differentially labeled X- and Y-specific probes can be used to detect the proportions of XX to XY cells in bone marrow or peripheral blood nuclei in a dual color FISH procedure. By combining immunocytochemical detection of cancer cells and FISH, chromosomal abnormalities and cell types can be simultaneously studied. Gene amplification like Neu and Her-2 also can be detected in solid tumour sections as well as cultured cells. Authors:Solomon F.D. Paul, Vijayalakshmi J, Koshy T., Kaur H., Venketswaran N. Venkatachalam P.