Publications by authors named "Lokender Kumar"

Biofilm formation is a complex process in which bacteria adhere to surfaces and create a protective matrix. Biofilms shield bacteria, such as , from antibiotics and the host immune system, greatly facilitating their pathogenesis by enabling immune evasion and antimicrobial resistance. This review examines the stages of biofilm formation and their role in infections across various body sites, including the central nervous system, eyes, ears, teeth, respiratory tract, cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, and medical device-related infections.

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Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are biofilm-forming pathogens that contribute to persistent infections and exhibit high resistance to conventional antibiotics. In the present study, copper nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) were synthesized using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as polymeric stabilizing agents to evaluate their potential in biofilm inhibition. The synthesized Cu-NPs were characterized by Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier-Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), zeta potential, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD).

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Background: Clofazimine, an antimycobacterial agent, has demonstrated efficacy in reducing the treatment duration for MDR TB.

Objectives: To determine whether a 16 week clofazimine-based regimen is non-inferior to the standard 24 week regimen for drug-susceptible pulmonary TB.

Methods: CORTAIL was a multicentric, investigator-initiated, randomized controlled trial designed to assess the non-inferiority of a 16 week clofazimine-based regimen compared with the standard 24 week regimen for drug-susceptible pulmonary TB (Clinical Trials Registry of India no.

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Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a versatile pathogen that poses significant challenges in healthcare and food industries due to its ability to form biofilms. The present study investigated the anti-biofilm properties of a natural compound, veratraldehyde (VD) against P. aeruginosa biofilms.

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Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) technologies have attracted substantial interest due to their advantages over traditional biological nitrogen removal processes, including high efficiency and low energy demand. Currently, multiple side-stream applications of the anammox coupling process have been developed, including one-stage, two-stage, and three-stage systems such as completely autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite, denitrifying ammonium oxidation, simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal, partial denitrification-anammox, and partial nitrification and integrated fermentation denitritation. The one-stage system includes completely autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite, oxygen-limited autotrophic nitrification/denitrification, aerobic de-ammonification, single-stage nitrogen removal using anammox, and partial nitritation.

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The literature review suggested that the audio signal-modified shuttle walk test (SWTSR) was equally reliable and valid when compared to the conventional shuttle walk test. A comparison of SWTSR with the six-minute walk test (6MWT), which is considered the gold standard in walk tests, allowed us to evaluate the SWTSR and determine its validity and reliability as an alternative or supplement to the 6MWT. The objective of this study was to determine the correlation between the distances walked during a SWTSR and the 6MWT in healthy, normal adults.

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Flavoring compounds are natural or synthetic substances that enhance the food flavor. Research studies have demonstrated that flavoring compounds may have biological activities. In food industry, dominates spoilage and contamination of food products.

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Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks are a fundamental resource for modeling cellular and molecular function, and a large and sophisticated toolbox has been developed to leverage their structure and topological organization to predict the functional roles of under-studied genes, proteins, and pathways. However, the overwhelming majority of experimentally-determined interactions from which such networks are constructed come from a small number of well-studied model organisms. Indeed, most species lack even a single experimentally-determined interaction in these databases, much less a network to enable the analysis of cellular function, and methods for computational PPI prediction are too noisy to apply directly.

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The emergence of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents poses a serious threat to the effectiveness of treating bacterial illnesses. A major factor contributing to antimicrobial resistance is biofilm formation, driven by quorum sensing (QS). QS suppression inhibits the QS signaling pathway, obstructing cell-to-cell communication.

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Background: A variety of factors influence adherence to the lengthy duration of anti-tuberculosis treatment, making it a complicated and dynamic problem. The objective of this study was to investigate the treatment interruption patterns using pre-defined criteria among a cohort of pulmonary tuberculosis patients and to elicit the associated factors.

Methods: This prospective, observational study was conducted between October 2016 to May 2018.

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A unique approach is imperative for the development of drugs aimed at inhibiting various stages of infection, rather than solely focusing on bacterial viability. Among the array of unconventional targets explored for formulating novel antimicrobial medications, blocking the quorum-sensing (QS) system emerges as a highly effective and promising strategy against a variety of pathogenic microbes. In this investigation, we have successfully assessed nine α-aminoamides for their anti-QS activity using Agrobacterium tumefaciensNT1 as a biosensor strain.

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Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBLC) with flexible bronchoscope represents an encouraging modality to obtain a larger-sized specimen without crush artifact and a higher diagnostic yield in patients with diffuse parenchymal lung lesions/diseases as compared to conventional transbronchial lung biopsy, and fewer complications as opposed to surgical lung biopsy. An artificial airway is preferred as it provides better airway protection in cases of severe bleeding. Although various researchers have published data on different modalities, the data is not sufficient to standardize a single technique.

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Antibiotics have remained the cornerstone for the treatment of bacterial infections ever since their discovery in the twentieth century. The uproar over antibiotic resistance among bacteria arising from genome plasticity and biofilm development has rendered current antibiotic therapies ineffective, urging the development of innovative therapeutic approaches. The development of antibiotic resistance among bacteria has further heightened the clinical failure of antibiotic therapy, which is often linked to its low bioavailability, side effects, and poor penetration and accumulation at the site of infection.

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Bacteriophages infect and replicate within bacteria and play a key role in the environment, particularly in microbial ecosystems and bacterial population dynamics. The increasing recognition of their significance stems from their wide array of environmental and biotechnological uses, which encompass the mounting issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Beyond their therapeutic potential in combating antibiotic-resistant infections, bacteriophages also find vast applications such as water quality monitoring, bioremediation, and nutrient cycling within environmental sciences.

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Once thought to be a unique capability of the Langerhans islets in the pancreas of mammals, insulin (INS) signaling is now recognized as an evolutionarily ancient function going back to prokaryotes. INS is ubiquitously present not only in humans but also in unicellular eukaryotes, fungi, worms, and . Remote homologue identification also supports the presence of INS and INS receptor in corals where the availability of glucose is largely dependent on the photosynthetic activity of the symbiotic algae.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Ferroptosis is a unique cell death process that could help treat certain cancers by targeting the way tumors manage lipid oxidation.
  • - A study has found that 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC), which was thought to be harmful to neurons, actually helps cancer cells survive by protecting their membranes from oxidative damage.
  • - In experiments with neuroblastoma and Burkitt's lymphoma, high levels of 7-DHC were linked to a shift in tumors that makes them more aggressive and resistant to ferroptosis, suggesting a potential cancer survival strategy.
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The development of bacterial resistance to chemical therapy poses a severe danger to efficacy of treating bacterial infections. One of the key factors for resistance to antimicrobial medications is growth of bacteria in biofilm. Quorum sensing (QS) inhibition was created as an alternative treatment by developing novel anti-biofilm medicines.

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Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi is a significant cause of typhoid fever and a major public health problem. The ability of S. Typhi to form biofilms on living and non-living surfaces results in antibiotic resistance and poses a major challenge in health care.

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Cancer is a significant challenge for effective treatment due to its complex mechanism, different progressing stages, and lack of adequate procedures for screening and identification. Pancreatic cancer is typically identified in its advanced progression phase with a low survival of ~5 years. Among cancers, pancreatic cancer is also considered a high mortality-causing casualty over other accidental or disease-based mortality, and it is ranked seventh among all mortality-associated cancers globally.

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Biofilm-associated infections have emerged as a significant public health challenge due to their persistent nature and increased resistance to conventional treatment methods. The indiscriminate usage of antibiotics has made us susceptible to a range of multidrug-resistant pathogens. These pathogens show reduced susceptibility to antibiotics and increased intracellular survival.

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Article Synopsis
  • Asthma and COPD are linked to chronic airway inflammation, and incorrect inhalation techniques can lead to poor disease management, prompting a study to evaluate the effectiveness of training patients in proper inhalation methods.
  • The study involved 132 participants, who underwent inhalation technique training at the start, and again at 1 and 6 months, with evaluations showing significant improvements in scores for metered-dose inhalers (MDIs) and dry powdered inhalers (DPIs) post-training.
  • Results indicated that while MDI users showed marked improvement in inhalation technique scores over time, DPI users experienced initial improvement but no significant change after 6 months, highlighting the positive impact of education and reinforcement on inhalation practices.
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Sepsis is a life-threatening condition characterized by an uncontrolled inflammatory response to an infectious agent and its antigens. Immune cell activation against the antigens causes severe distress that mediates a strong inflammatory response in vital organs. Sepsis is responsible for a high rate of morbidity and mortality in immunosuppressed patients.

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Environment stress is a major threat to the existence of coral reefs and has generated a lot of interest in the coral research community. Under the environmental stress, corals can experience tissue loss and/or the breakdown of symbiosis between the cnidarian host and its symbiotic algae causing the coral tissue to appear white as the skeleton can be seen by transparency. Image analysis is a common method used to assess tissue response under the environmental stress.

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The effectiveness of treating bacterial infections is seriously threatened by the emergence of bacterial resistance to chemical treatment. Growth of microbes in biofilm is one of the main causes of resistance to antimicrobial drugs. Quorum sensing (QS) inhibition, which targets the QS signalling system by obstructing cell-cell communication, was developed as an alternative treatment by creating innovative anti-biofilm drugs.

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