New Anticancer Substance found from a Fungus

A new anticancer substance has been identified from a western Himalayan plant-inhabiting fungus that is as efficient as potent anticancer drugs, claim scientists at the Thapar University, Patiala in their recent study.

Read More

Taxol is called a million dollar anticancer drug because it is used for treating a variety of tumors including breast, ovarian, lung, bladder, prostate, melanoma, esophageal, and recently for Kaposi's sarcoma. It is derived from the plant Taxas baccata that is a slow growing western Himalayan conifer. It is also home to many endophytic fungi that share a mutual relationship with the Taxus tree, in return for shelter, the fungi provide compounds called secondary metabolites that protect the tree from biotic and abiotic stresses. Endophytic fungi are hence, hunted for and used to derive natural substances with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties.

Recently, researchers at the Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab isolated and identified a fungus called Fusarium tricinctum from the bark of Taxus baccata tree and tested its anticancer and antioxidant properties. The crude fungal extract at a concentration of 350ug ml^-1 inhibited the growth of two cancer cell lines namely breast and cervical, as efficiently as paclitaxel that is a known potent anticancer drug. It also inhibited the production of an inflammatory cytokine- TNF-α by blood cells, a phenomenon that is known to increase during cancer. In addition to its anticancer properties, it also scavenged free radicals as efficiently as ascorbic acid when used at concentration of 1mg ml^-1 in culture conditions. Free radical scavenging is important in diseases such as Alzheimers, Diabetes and cancer, where free radicals accelerate the pace of damage. The scientists claim, “… (Their) study results suggest that F. tricinctum has the potential to be used for therapeutic purposes because of its antiproliferative and antioxidant potential”.

Natural compounds for treating cancer are sought after because they are less harmful and toxic than chemically synthesized drugs that cause adverse effects during chemotherapy. More such compounds need to be deciphered and clinically tested to manage and cure cancer.

Reference: Indian J of Microbiology 56 (4): 433-438.

Demonetization Will Force Indians to Go Online

You could now go shopping without credit card or cash and pay by scanning your thumb impression onto a machine, and approving the transaction on your phone. This is the future of demonetization, said Pamela Kumar, Vice President, Cloud Computing Innovation Council of India, Bangalore, in her speech at the Indian Science Congress in Tirupati, held in the first week of January this year.

Digital India initiative of the Government of India aims to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. The vision, however, faces many challenges. The mindset of the common man is not open to accepting new technologies that are both rapid and disruptive to the existing market. Most technologies are last mile solutions that are not designed according to the Indian needs or infrastructure. The problem is exaggerated by the fact that the public, decision makers, and government offices have limited technological knowhow.

“We need a Mangalyaan version of data centers in India, not the NASA version”, said Pamela Kumar, Vice President, CCIC urging the industry and decision makers to set up cost efficient data centers that are suited to Indian needs and are crucial for national digital development.

It will be wonderful to walk out of our homes without a wallet, and a worry that it would be stolen or lost, and that’s impressive! 

National Knowledge Network to Connect Indian Universities and Institutes

“Students can now access lectures from leading Indian universities including IITs from their universities located even in remote locations and small cities. All thanks to the National Knowledge Network”, said Dr. S. Gopinath, Principal Scientist, NIC, Chennai in his speech at the Indian Science Congress held earlier this year in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. 

National Knowledge Network is an initiative of the Government of India envisioned by R. Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor to the Government of India. The program was implemented in the year 2011 and connects more than 1600 Indian universities to date. It enables universities all across India to share infrastructure, scientific facilities, education, and data. This will help in national growth and development. The program runs in seven core cities including Delhi, Chennai, and Hyderabad that are further connected to institutes in several smaller cities.

In addition to Indian universities, national knowledge network also includes international universities from some European countries and Singapore. It is expected to expand to several other countries of the world in the future.

National Knowledge Network would help many students across India. An international knowledge network, if developed, would connect universities across the world, and hence, is expected to benefit millions of students worldwide.

Building the “three zero” society

Talk by a Nobel Laureate- Professor Muhammad Yunus

Nobel prize for Peace 2006

For the social and economic development of the poor in Bangladesh

In his enthralling and heart warming talk at the Indian science congress 2017 held in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, earlier this year, the Nobel Prize winner for peace 2006, talked of his personal journey that turned into a revolution. Back in 1972, Professor Yunus joined a university in Chittagong as a professor of economics, soon after Bangladesh became an independent country. After a brief span of time, he witnessed a famine that left millions of people dying and suffering. “What are you good for if humans die because they have nothing to eat?” he says, with a heavy voice that invigorates that his heart cries for the poor.

He wanted nothing but to help. Education is relevant, only if it benefits the society. “Can I make my education useful to people?” he asked himself. This marked the beginning of years of hard work and perseverance that translated into the concept of Grameen bank.

It started with lending his own money to poor people, who would have otherwise approached loan sharks (those who lend money on unacceptable terms) and subjected themselves to slavery and more suffering. Despite searching hard for a permanent solution, he found no bank or organization that could meet the financial needs of the poor on easy terms. Even the banks give loans to people who are credit worthy, and that’s an irony. “I don’t accept this ideology, you give money to people who already have money. You should give it to those who need it”, he said.

It was then that he decided to make his own bank. A bank that is for poor and needy. In 1983, he started the Grameen bank that provided microcredit, that is, loans to poor people on easy terms. This bank was different from a conventional bank. It required no collateral, and it gave loans without any guarantee and paperwork. There was no punishment clause. They gave loans to women, who invested this money in doing some business that earned a livelihood for the whole family.

“Our repayment rate is close to 100% and we never lost that number. We have an excess of money and we never fell short of it. Last year, our deposit has been more than 2 billion dollars”, Prof. Yunus says. Unlike conventional banks that are owned by rich people, Grameen bank is owned by the poor.

When the families became financially independent, the bank urged their kids to go to school and encouraged them by providing fellowships, awards, and loans. They also lend money to unemployed youngsters with business ideas.

India too tried to adopt the same concept in Andhra Pradesh but failed because it was misinterpreted and wrongly implemented. Today, Professor Yunus advocates and helps countries in setting up microcredit institutions to eradicate poverty and misery, empower women, and generate employment.

“A new society of ‘three zeroes’ could help us rebuild the world or a new civilization by 2050, which will be free of greed and full of human health”, he says.  The ‘three zero’ society is his dream and vision.

‘Zero poverty’ is the primary goal of an ideal society that Yunus envisages. “Three decades from now, we should be building poverty museums, where our future generations would go to know what poverty looked like, because for them, it won’t exist,” he said while addressing the science congress. ‘Zero Unemployment’ is the second goal. “99% of the total world wealth resides in the hands of its 1% population, and that is unfair”, he said. The world where there is no wealth concentration, and humans become job creators instead of job seekers, would be the world for all. ‘Zero net carbon emissions’ is the third goal. This is to save our planet, Earth, from the damage that we, humans have caused.

We often think of charity as giving some money to the needy and then forgetting about it. This isn’t charity. It is an equivalent to spending money, where in return you get some soul satisfaction. One learns from Professor Yunus that to help someone, we must solve his problem, not his symptom. Change someone’s life to add meaning to your own.

Smoking Bidi Linked to Respiratory and Cardiovascular Complications

Smoking Bidi has been linked to an increased prevalence and risk of cardiovascular and respiratory complications in men, according to a recent study published in the international medical journal, The Lancet Global Health.

Bidis are hand-rolled tobacco products that are generally manufactured in cottage industries, hence, they are inexpensive and their sale is minimally regulated by local and international tobacco regulations. As a result, they are packaged with poorly visible health warnings. Also, they appeal to young adults as “natural and safe” tobacco alternatives to cigarettes because they come in herbal and flavored varieties.

In India and Bangladesh alone, there were estimated 53 million users of bidis in the years 2003 to 2009. Presently, South Asia is the second largest consumer of tobacco in the world, with more than 130 million tobacco smokers, the majority of which are among the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of the population. Although the harmful effects of smoking tobacco as cigarette have been well established, the effects of smoking tobacco in the form of Bidis is less known.

A research aimed to study the effects of smoking bidi was carried out in seven centers in three South Asian countries, namely India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The Indian Council of Medical Research coordinated the study in India. It recruited approximately 15 thousand men of 158 communities; aged 35–70 years, who were non-smokers, light smokers (≤10 pack-years), or heavy smokers of bidis (>10 pack-years). The men were followed up for an average 5·6 years to study cardiovascular outcomes like myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure, sudden death, cardiovascular-related death, cardiovascular-related hospital admission, and respiratory complications such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

The study found that smoking bidi was associated with a higher prevalence and risk for cardiorespiratory symptoms. This calls for stricter controls and regulation of bidis to reduce the tobacco-related disease burden in south Asia.

Reference: The Lancet Global Health 5 (2): e168 - e176.