📰 Modi to fly to China soon to ‘reset’ bilateral ties
Ajit Doval’s unannounced visit to Shanghai this week seen as crucial preparation; Prime Minister may go to another city
•In an effort to repair India-China relations and take the engagement to the next level, officials are working on a bilateral visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China within the next few weeks, official sources from Delhi and Beijing have confirmed to The Hindu .
•Officials will not confirm the venue for the visit, which will come ahead of the Prime Minister’s trip to Qingdao for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in June. Wuhan and Kunming are possible options, as they are closer than Beijing from Delhi.
Setting the stage
•While reports of a bilateral visit by the Prime Minister to “reset” ties between the two countries have been circulating for some weeks, speculation grew about its timing after National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval made an unannounced visit to Shanghai on Thursday and Friday and met Politburo member and Special Representative Yang Jiechi.
•The NSA’s sudden visit appeared to take the External Affairs Ministry off-guard as well. During a briefing on Thursday, after the NSA had left for China, the Ministry’s spokesperson said, “At this point of time, frankly, I have no information about the visit ... If a visit is taking place, we will let you know.”
•A Ministry press release issued on Friday, however, said the NSA’s visit was “part of regular, high-level engagements between India and China” in which Mr. Doval and Mr. Yang discussed matters of “mutual interest”.
•“The two sides agreed to maintain the pace of high-level exchanges to fully realise the potential of a closer development partnership between India and China,” the statement said.
•An official, however, said Mr. Modi’s “visit is being worked on, and there maybe some announcement in the next week itself”.
High-level visits
•Diplomatic sources told The Hindu that an “unofficial” or unscheduled bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping was first proposed at an informal meeting between Indian and Chinese officials on the sidelines of the Davos summit in January.
•The NSA meeting comes ahead of visits by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to China on April 22 and 24, which is expected to be followed closely by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit from April 24. Ms. Swaraj and Ms. Sitharaman, who will be in Beijing to attend ministerial meetings for the SCO, are the first senior Ministers to visit China since Mr. Modi’s previous visit for the BRICS summit in Xiamen.
•Ties between India and China hit a low over the 73-day Doklam stand-off, India’s opposition to the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s opposition to India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and other issues including the UN Security Council’s terror designation for Masood Azhar, and wrangling over the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh.
•Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s visit to Beijing two months ago was seen to signal a possible reset in ties, especially after a letter dated February 22, on the eve of his visit — leaked from the government — quoted him as asking officials not to attend public rallies in Delhi organised by the Tibetan leadership. In the letter, Mr. Gokhale cited a “sensitive time in the context of India’s relations with China” — words that fuelled reports of a major summit-level meeting in the offing.
•When The Hindu contacted the Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Delhi for a comment on the proposed visit, neither officially denied nor confirmed the Prime Minister’s plans to visit China.
📰 China to get a helping of soya
India makes the offer as Beijing may not be able to source the produce from U.S.
•India on Saturday walked with China in its trade row with Washington, and offered to export soya beans, which Beijing may no longer be able to source from the U.S.
•In his opening remarks at the fifth China-India Strategic Economic Dialogue, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said India was ready to step in and supply soya beans to China, which may no longer be available from the mid-western states of the U.S. “I was noticing that there were some tariffs that were issued on farmers from Iowa and Ohio, etc. Maybe India can substitute for something like soya beans and sugar if we could have access to those exports with all the due quality considerations that you might have,” Mr. Kumar said.
‘Protectionist noises’
•Earlier this month, China had announced fresh tariffs on soya bean imports from the U.S, as part of an unresolved trade spat between Beijing and Washington, on items worth over $100 billion.
•In an obvious reference to the Trump administration in the U.S., the NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman slammed the “unseemly protectionist noises” emerging from the “Atlantic Basin” that were impeding global recovery. He said the “cyclical and synchronised recovery in the world economy” had been “marred and disrupted by some unseemly protectionist noises that are coming out of the Atlantic basin in North America and Europe”.
•Referring to major geoeconomic shifts which China and India could sharpen, Mr. Kumar said Asia and the emerging economies could become the new drivers of global growth.
•He highlighted that “the emerging economies of Asia seem to have ignored the protectionist noises and we have continued to grow at very high rates of speed with China growing at 6.8% and India growing at 7-7.2%”. India was expected to gallop with growth between 8.5% and 9% in the next five years, riding on major “structural measures” that had already been enforced.
•Mr. Kumar acknowledged that India-China economic partnership was still a work in progress, but made it plain that New Delhi was committed “to work with China as an important anchor and driver of global growth”.
•“I say this to emphasise that this is really the wonderful context with which India and China, the two great civilisations should intensify and improve their bilateral economic and commercial cooperation…,” he said.
📰 Group of SC judges tried to codify duties of CJI
5 judges held hectic parleys; proposals remain pending
•A group of five Supreme Court judges had attempted to codify the broad duties of the Chief Justice of India, particularly in allocating cases in his capacity as “Master of the Roster”.
•This attempt to “institutionalise” the functions of the CJI was made following the January 12 press conference, when four senior Supreme Court judges had raised questions about the manner in which cases were being allocated in the Supreme Court.
•They said recent CJIs have been selectively allocating sensitive and nationally important cases to preferred Benches. They also averred that Chief Justice Misra, despite repeated entreaties from them, had failed to act.
•But the talks stopped and the draft proposals remain pending. Instead, the Chief Justice of India published a subject-wise roster.
Strengthen conventions
•The objective of trying to codify the manner in which cases are allocated was to mend fences within the Supreme Court. The body of mediators comprised Justices S.A. Bobde, N.V. Ramana, U.U. Lalit and D.Y. Chandrachud (all of whom are potential Chief Justices) and Justice A.K. Sikri.
•The group saw this attempt as aimed at trying to “institutionalise and strengthen the practices and conventions in diverse areas under the administration of justice in the Supreme Court of India”.
Hectic parleys
•The five mediator judges held hectic parleys with the Chief Justice and the four senior-most judges. They proposed a committee to be formed.
•This panel of judges would undertake the work of institutionalising the number of conventions and practices of the Supreme Court.
📰 SC/ST Act ruling: Kerala seeks review
LDF government urges apex court to recall the judgment; says it has become a source of insecurity among SC/ST people
•Kerala on Saturday became the first among States to file a separate review petition against the March 20 judgment of the Supreme Court banning immediate arrest of persons accused of committing atrocities against Dalits.
•The LDF government urged the apex court to recall the judgment, and said it had become a source of insecurity among the SC/ST people.
•The 19-page petition echoes the arguments of the Union government’s review petition.
•Written submissions filed recently by the Centre to augment its plea for review of the judgment said the verdict is causing disharmony and “great damage” to the country.
•Kerala said the judgment was contradicting the Supreme Court’s past decisions that the provisions of the Scheduled Castes Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 deserve “strict implementation.”
•Kerala agrees with the Centre that contrary to the Supreme Court’s assertion of any misuse of the 1989 Act, facts and the data have demonstrated a weak implementation of the law meant to protect Dalits.
•When the law is clear that anticipatory bail is barred to accused, the Supreme Court cannot lay down guidelines allowing accused anticipatory bail.
•“Looking at the historical background relating to the practice of untouchability and the social attitude which lead to the commission of such offences against SCs/STs, there is justification for an apprehension that if benefit of anticipatory bail is made available to persons who are alleged to have committed such offences, there is every likelihood of their misusing their liberty while on
•anticipatory bail to terrorise their victims and to prevent a proper investigation,” Kerala argued in identical lines as the Centre.
Heinous offences
•It said heinous offences are committed against SC/ST members to humiliate and subjugate them and to keep them in a state of servitude.
•It said refusal of anticipatory bail to persons who commit atrocities against the dignity and life of members of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe is not a violation of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
•The Supreme Court cannot dilute the provisions of an Act passed by Parliament to protect the weak, Kerala argued.
📰 Medical PG quota case goes to Constitution Bench
Notice to States, Centre, Medical Council of India
•The Supreme Court has referred to a Constitution Bench to urgently consider whether reservation in favour of in-service candidates in respect of 50% of the seats granted to the States under the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations of 2000, as framed by the Medical Council of India, is unconstitutional.
•A three-judge Bench, led by Justice Kurian Joseph, asked the petitioner, Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association, to mention the case before the Chief Justice of India on April 16. It further issued notice to States concerned, Union of India and Medical Council of India.
•Under scanner of the apex court are two provisions of the 2000 Regulations.
•Regulation 9(4) provides that while “determining the merit of the candidates who are in service of government/public authority, weightage in the marks may be given as an incentive up to 10% of the marks obtained for each year of service in remote and/or difficult areas or rural areas up to maximum of 30% of the marks obtained in National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test.”
•The Regulations said remote, difficult areas or rural areas would be notified by the State government from time to time.
•Regulation 9(8) mandates that 50% of the seats in postgraduate diploma courses shall be reserved for Medical Officers in the government service, who have served for at least three years in remote, difficult areas or rural areas.
•The petitioners have contended that though the power of “the coordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education” is within the exclusive domain of the Union, the fact that “medical education” comes under the Concurrent List implies that the State is not denuded of powers to legislate on the manner and method for admissions to postgraduate medical courses.
•The Centre and the Medical Council of India countered that the issue is under its “exclusive domain of the Union” and the State cannot legislate on the subject.
📰 The lowdown on poor loan recovery
What is it?How did it come about?Why does it matter?What lies ahead?
•The Centre earlier this month told Parliament that non-performing assets (NPAs) worth Rs. 2.41 lakh crore have been written off from the books of public sector banks between April 2014 and September 2017. Since the banks were able to recover only 11% of the distressed loans worth Rs. 2.7 lakh crore within the stipulated time, the rest had to be written off as per regulations. The government, however, clarified that the defaulters will have to pay back the loans, though they were written off. So, a write-off is technically different from a loan waiver in which the borrower is exempted from repayment. This, of course, does not mean banks will manage to collect the dues from defaulting borrowers.
•For long, India has lacked a proper legal framework to help creditors recover their money from borrowers. According to the World Bank, the country ranks 103rd in the world in bankruptcy resolution, with the average time taken to resolve a case of bankruptcy extending well over four years. Banks in India, in fact, are able to recover on an average only about 25% of their money from defaulters as against 80% in the U.S. Public sector banks have also been lenient in collecting their dues from defaulting borrowers because of pressure from powerful interest groups. Instead of classifying sour loans as troubled assets and taking action to recover them, banks have often chosen to hide such assets using unethical accounting techniques. Since 2014, however, the Reserve Bank of India has been stepping up efforts to force both private and public sector banks to truthfully recognise the size of bad loans on their books. This caused the reported size of stressed assets to increase manifold in the last few years.
•The news about the huge loan write-off comes amid the Union government’s efforts over the last few years to expedite the process of bankruptcy and improve recoveries. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), which came into force last year, was the most notable among them. Many large corporations, as well as smaller enterprises, have been admitted to undergo liquidation under the IBC so that the proceeds can be used to pay back banks. The poor loan recovery reported by the government reflects poorly on the ability of the new bankruptcy law to help banks recover loans and mounts more pressure on bank balance sheets. It is notable that the Centre recently vowed to inject Rs. 2.11 lakh crore into public sector banks to cushion their balance sheets from the impact of bad loans. The poor recovery may increase the size of funds the Centre will have to allocate for the purpose.
•It seems unlikely that banks will be able to drastically improve their rate of recoveries since the new bankruptcy code is far from perfect. Its critics say the IBC is focussed more on the time-bound resolution of proceedings than on maximising the amount of money banks can recover from stressed loans. In particular, since there are strict time-limits imposed on the resolution process, there is the imminent danger that it may lead to the fire-sale of valuable assets at cheap prices. This can affect investment incentives. But, for now, the quick resolution of bad loans will free resources from struggling firms and hand them to the more efficient ones.
📰 U.S. wants patent form recall
Submission on interpretation of a domestic patent law raises eyebrows
•The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has demanded the elimination of ‘Form 27’— a statutory requirement unique to India’s patent law that mandates patent holders to declare how a monopoly is being exercised in the country.
•The submission by the U.S. government on the interpretation of a domestic law has raised eyebrows.
•“This is a public consultation, meant for domestic actors, including multinational companies and lobby groups that operate in India. It is highly inappropriate for the U.S. government to make a submission that it [Form 27] be eliminated. This is interference by a foreign government in our domestic affairs,” said Gopakumar, legal expert and member of the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN).
•India’s Office of the Controller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM), which falls under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Union Commerce and Industry Ministry, had invited comments from all stakeholders on Form 27 concerning the working of patents on March 1, 2018.
•In 2015, a public interest litigation (PIL) petition was filed by Shamnad Basheer, Visiting Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the National Law School University of India (NLSUI), Bengaluru, in the Delhi High Court, demanding better enforcement of the Form 27 disclosure.
Collecting details
•Form 27, under Section 146 of India’s Patents Act, 1970, mandates that all patent holders, such as pharmaceutical companies, declare how the “patent is being worked” in India — including the quantum and value of the patented product, whether it is manufactured in India or imported, and whether public requirement has been met to the fullest extent. Under the Act, any patented invention that is not commercially worked by way of local manufacturing may trigger revocation and the grant of a compulsory licence.
•On March 16, Komal Kalha, senior counsel for the US PTO, submitted before the Office of the Controller-General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, headed by O.P. Gupta, that “if the Government of India is soliciting these views with the intention of reforming the Form 27 system, the U.S. urges India to take the opportunity to significantly improve the ease of doing business, enhance predictability and certainty for innovative industries, align with international best practices, and help achieve National IP Policy, Start-up India, and other national initiatives by eliminating the requirement for patentees to regularly file Form 27 statements. At the same time, India should refrain from applying such onerous penalties to violations of this type.”
•A copy of the submission has been seen by The Hindu .
•Patent law experts are questioning the USPTO submission.
•Brook Baker, Professor of Law at Northeastern University, Boston, said, “The ease of doing business argument is largely without merit. The USPTO has long been an agent of pressure by direct interference in India’s intellectual property policy as evidenced by its submission concerning the Form 27 dispute.”
📰 In the hope of a cure
A key trial, based in the U.S., looks to test if stem cells can help treat autism
•Two months after his son, Apartim Dey Singha, turned two, Apurba Dey Singha, a chartered accountant based in Kolkata, felt that the boy seemed to be manifesting “developmental challenges”. These included a marked reluctance to maintain eye contact, diminished communication skills and “hyper-aggressiveness”. After visits to child psychologists — a couple of them in New Delhi — he and his wife learnt, in 2016, that young Apartim was “moderately autistic”.
•They began a regimen of behavioural therapy and diet control (“gluten-sugar-caffeine free”) and though there appeared to be improvement, Mr. Singha felt it wasn’t enough.
•“We were quite anxious and I researched quite a bit about autism until I came upon links to stem cell treatments,” he said in a phone conversation.
Turning to cord blood
•Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impairs a person’s social ability to interact. It manifests itself through speech disability and other social behavioural issues. It shows up early and can be diagnosed by the age of three. By virtue of it being related to neuronal development, one strain of hypothesis holds that autism results from impaired connectivity among neurons. Therefore, their proponents say, using cord blood (blood from the umbilical cord and known to be a rich source of stem cells) can potentially help in the birth of new neurons or repair damaged connections and help at least some children. A 2017 estimate suggests that 23 out of every 10,000 children born in India have autism.
•Mr. Singha, as part of his research on finding treatments for his son, found that a group of scientists at Duke University, North Carolina, U.S., had begun a five-year clinical trial in 2014 to test this theory.
•“Luckily, we had saved Apartim’s cord blood cells through ‘Life Cell’,” he said, in a reference to the Chennai-based company which claims to be one of India’s largest stem cell bankers.
•Early results from the Duke University trial, and published last year in the peer-reviewed Stem Cells Translational Medicine , seemed to suggest that infusing children with their stem cells was “safe”. While a few of the 25 children involved reported allergic reactions, the researchers said these were unlikely to be related to the infusion. On the bright side, several of the parents of the children enrolled in the trial reported “significant improvements”, the authors note in their study. However, this could very well have been due to a powerful placebo effect, where optimism about a therapy clouds caregivers’ objective assessment of its effects.
•Discounting the placebo effect in the autism trial would only be known in a double-blind controlled study, which means only some of the children enrolled in the trial would actually be given the stem cells and others a fake, harmless injection and nobody, even the doctors themselves, would not know who had got what.
•Duke University researchers commenced such a trial last year in which Apartim too was enrolled. “The way I saw it, there was no harm,” said Mr. Singha, who subsequently travelled to the U.S. and had his son participate in the trial last June. While it’s indeterminable if the four-year-old actually got an infusion of stem cells, Mr. Singha said that he has seen “some improvement” in his son. When he was formally diagnosed with autism in 2016, he had scored 30 on a scale of 100-point autism-assessment scale and a recent test showed a “score of 9”, said Singha.
•While the design of the trial requires participants to take infusions after six, nine and 12 months, Singha said he hasn’t “yet decided” if he will enrol Apartim in future sessions.
•Private cord blood banks are enthused. “It’s heartwarming to see clinical improvement and development milestones in Apartim Dey Singha. There are many ongoing clinical trials and this certainly gives hope to parents who have preserved their baby’s stem cells at birth,” Mayur Abhaya, CEO and MD, LifeCell, said in a statement.
Scepticism abounds
•However independent researchers are far from convinced. For one, autism is known to have a significant hereditary component, that is, it is passed on via the genes. So harnessing the body’s own stem cells, which could itself carry aberrant genetic mutations, would be counterproductive, said Sheffali Gulati, Professor of Paediatric Neurology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. “It’s a shot in the dark because the cell biology in autism at this time is a mystery. Second, how are stem cells going to cross into the brain?” she queried. The so-called blood-brain barrier (BBB) seals off circulating blood and attendant cells, molecules from the fluids in the brain.
•Joanne Kurtzberg, who leads the Duke trial, has argued that stem cells can cross the BBB by transforming into specialised cells called microglia, that send specific anti-inflammatory signals. These chemical reactions work to fix the weakened neuronal connections, which characterise autism. Internationally too, neurologists such as Dr. Gulati are sceptical of this hypothesis but say that the Duke trial is a well-designed investigation involving a large number of children and so is likely to yield important answers.
📰 An unequal fight
TB treatment may leave some patients contagious
•The World Health Organisation’s dosage guidelines for two leading tuberculosis medications may be far too low for patients with HIV., allowing them to remain contagious for longer than necessary, a new study has found.
•TB, now the leading infectious killer worldwide, takes over 1.5 million lives per year. Treatment lasts at least six months and can cause serious side effects, making it difficult for patients to stick to it.
•Doctors have been prescribing two TB drugs, rifampicin and isoniazid, for almost half of a century. But the new research, published in March in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases , adds to growing evidence that higher doses may kill the deadly mycobacteria faster, curbing transmission.
•“I’m not surprised,” says Dr. Melvin K. Spigelman, president of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development. “The recommended doses were really based on the cost of the drug, not on good science that showed it was the right dose. People, understandably, tried to get away with the least amount that seemed like it worked.”
•The study, led by Swiss and Ugandan researchers, focussed on about 270 TB patients also infected with HIV. The condition can reduce the amounts of medications absorbed or retained in a patient’s bloodstream.
•Patients received standard drug doses to treat TB, but concentrations in the blood were found to be jarringly low: 84% of the participants had substandard levels of isoniazid, and 78% fell below targets for rifampicin.
•Patients with lower blood concentration levels also bore the infectious bacteria in their sputum for longer periods of time — potentially spreading it by coughing, says Dr. Jan S. Fehr, one of the study’s lead authors.
•Such persistent infection could threaten the WHO’s goal of eliminating almost all TB deaths by 2035, he says.
WHO review
•The WHO already has begun reviewing its decades-old treatment regimen. “This study provides one piece of a larger puzzle, and it’s necessary that we have another look,” says Dr. Karin Weyer, a TB expert at the WHO. The study’s findings are a sign that TB research has been chronically underfunded, says Dr. Neil Schluger, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University.
•For decades, few economic incentives have prompted drug companies to update TB treatments, which are primarily needed in poor regions — compared to lucrative therapies for diseases like cancer, he says.
•“My real question is, why are we just doing this now?” says Dr. Schluger. “These are fundamental questions that should have been answered a long time ago.”
📰 IGIB shows how fat cells protect TB bacteria from oxidative stress
The team studied fat cells and their precursors which have relatively less fat content
•Dormant and actively dividing TB bacteria form distinct groups with very different susceptibility to anti-TB drugs. Now, researchers from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), Delhi, have found that even among the actively dividing bacteria, the essentiality of TB genes varies depending on whether the bacteria reside in fat-rich environment or not. The team led by Dr. Sheetal Gandotra also found inherent synergy between fat and iron in host cells providing the bacteria resilience to oxidative stress.
•Tuberculosis bacteria are known to also reside in lipid-rich environments, both within and outside the cells, where they end up once they multiply within and bring about cell death. To better understand the physiology of the bacteria in such an environment, the researchers studied fat cells (adipocytes) and their precursors (preadipocytes) which have relatively less fat content.
•Besides thriving and multiplying inside both cell types and killing them, the bacteria also thrives on dead cellular environment. “This is similar to the extracellular environment that supports bacterial growth in TB lesions,” says Dr. Gandotra who is the corresponding author of a paper published in the journal Infection and Immunity.
•Since the fat content in both the cell types (adipocytes and preadipocytes) are very different, the researchers questioned whether pathways that bacteria employ to survive in these cell types are also different. They undertook gene-expression studies to answer this question. Their analysis showed that genes responsible for iron intake were less expressed in bacteria found in adipocytes than in preadipocytes, suggesting higher iron concentration in fat cells.
High fat and iron
•A series of investigations showed that indeed the high fat content is associated with higher iron also. “But as high iron also induces oxidative stress, we hypothesised that bacteria in the adipocyte environment might be making the bacteria resilient to oxidative stress,” says Dr. Gandotra.
•The researchers experimentally tested their hypothesis by using TB mutant bacteria which are sensitive to iron-mediated oxidative stress. “We found the mutants growing unhindered in adipocytes though they are rich in iron but unable to grow in preadipocytes which are not iron-rich. This proved that the adipocyte environment was providing protection to TB bacteria from iron-mediated oxidative stress,” says Ananya Nandy from IGIB and first author of the paper.
•The researchers do not yet know the complete mechanism by which TB bacteria mitigates oxidative stress. “But fat from the adipocytes may be involved in providing resistance to oxidative stress,” says Dr. Gandotra.
•When there is excess cell necrosis (death of cells) there is accumulation of lipids within the granuloma. The researchers carried out mouse infection studies to test the link between lipid accumulation and iron storage in the granuloma. “The mouse infection studies showed that when there is excess fat there is excess accumulation of iron-storage protein in the granuloma. This provided a clue to the link between lipid accumulation and iron storage,” says Nandy.
Nutrients
•“Our work sheds light on the link between macro (fat) and micro (iron) nutrients in a tissue. And different regions of a tissue will have different levels of availability of these nutrients. Tuberculosis bacteria have the ability to adapt to each condition,” says Dr. Gandotra. “This probably is the reason why it is difficult to treat tuberculosis because the genes essential for survival of the bacteria in one environment will not be essential in another region of the granuloma.”
•Also, anti-tuberculosis drug isoniazid, which kills TB bacteria by inducing oxidative stress, is not effective against bacteria that grow in fat cells (adipocyte). So inhibiting the pathways essential for reducing oxidative stress in fat-rich environment can possibly make isoniazid drug more efficacious.
📰 IASST researchers use smart bandage for faster wound healing
•A smart bandage material that can heal wounds better and faster and has antimicrobial properties has been fabricated by a team of researchers from the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati. The bandage is made of cotton patch coated with chitosan-based hydogel that is loaded with curcumin and graphene oxide. The researchers used curcumin as a model drug and the same can be replaced with other antimicrobials.
•“Cotton tends to stick to wounds and being fibrous it is difficult to remove it. By coating the cotton with chitosan and compressing the bandage we get a material with similar properties (porosity and ability to absorb water) as cotton but one that does not stick to the wound,” says Dr. Devasish Chowdhury from the Physical Sciences Division at IASST and corresponding author of a paper published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
Antimicrobials
•More importantly, the absorption capacity of the cotton patch can be utilised for loading nanomaterials and antimicrobials to impart wound-healing properties. The researchers used graphene oxide nanomaterial, since its antimicrobial properties and biocompatibility are already well documented. The nanosize of graphene oxide allows large amount of drug to be loaded on to the patch. Graphene oxide also increases the strength of the patch especially when it gets wet.
•“We used curcumin as a model drug. Different drugs can be loaded on the patch depending on the nature of the wound,” says Achyut Konwar from the Physical Sciences Division at IASST and first author of the paper.
Testing
•The antimicrobial property of four cotton patches was tested in vitro usingStaphyllococcus aureus and E. coli bacteria. While no antimicrobial property was seen in the case of cotton coated with chitosan, patches that had either graphene oxide or curcumin exhibited antimicrobial activity.
•“Patches that had both graphene oxide and curcumin had only minimal or no growth of bacterial colonies. The superior antibacterial activity comes from combined action of the antimicrobials,” Dr. Chowdhury says.
•The wound-healing property was also tested on rat models for a period of 21 days. The wounds were infected with S. aureus one day after wounds were created and treated with one of the four cotton patches three days after infection. Cotton patch with graphene oxide or curcumin showed almost similar wound-healing capacity at the end of 21 days. But wounds treated with the patch containing both graphene oxide and curcumin showed faster and satisfactory healing along with hair growth in the wounded area by the end of three weeks.
•“The cotton patch containing graphene oxide and curcumin served as a smart dressing material for wounds infected with bacteria,” says Konwar. “The high absorption capacity of the patch takes care of the pus and porous nature provides good oxygen supply for faster healing. The absorption capacity was tested using blood plasma and was found to be good.”
•“Currently, there is no control over drug release. We are trying to address this by using different nanomaterials. We should first functionalise the nanomaterial so that when the drug is loaded it attaches to the nanomaterial and gets released in a sustained manner,” Dr. Chowdhury says. “We must make sure that like graphene oxide, the chosen nanomaterial is biocompatible and does not get released into the wound.”
📰 How gut bacteria affect immunity
Composition of the gut colony differed in TB patients
•The abundance and type of bacteria in the intestine gets altered when infected with tuberculosis, a study by Indian researchers shows.
•The team studied the gut bacteria of six patients diagnosed with TB and compared them with one healthy relative from each household. Despite the food consumed by the patients and healthy individuals remaining the same, there were significant differences in the type and abundance of gut bacteria.
•The faecal samples of the two groups were examined at three different time points — immediately after TB diagnosis, one week after treatment and one month after treatment.
•They found that Prevotella and Bifidobacterium were abundant in the healthy individuals. “These bacteria are important for normal digestion and metabolism of the body. You can find them in abundance in the Indian gut due to the carbohydrate-rich diet,” explains Dr. Richa Misra from Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi, one of the first authors of a paper published in Environmental Microbiology .
•In TB patients, bacteria like Faecalibacterium, Roseburia, Eubacterium andPhascolarctobacterium were significantly higher.
•“These bacteria are known to produce short-chain fatty acids like butyrate and propionate, which are important for our gut, but their increased abundance can also lead to anti-inflammatory response, altering the immunity of our body,” says Prof. Vineet K. Sharma at the Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal and one of the co-authors of the paper. “The high number of these bacteria can also alter the normal metabolism of our body and can even reduce the appetite.”
•Tuberculosis is usually associated with low BMI and low cholesterol levels. As butyrate and propionate regulate appetite-regulatory gut hormones and cholesterol bio-synthesis, a balance of these microbes is critical. “This makes more studies on gut microbiome extremely crucial since upsurge in butyrate and propionate-producing bacteria may prove detrimental for host response in infectious disease such as TB,” adds Dr. Misra.
•One month after treatment, the gut microbes did not return to their original abundance highlighting the requirement of the six-month-long TB regimen.
•`Nonetheless, recovery in microbial pathways involved in amino acid and vitamin metabolism were observed by one month as indicated by the functional gene pool.
•“We have planned to further carry out cause–effect study as we are still unsure if the TB infection is causing the change in gut bacteria or if it is the other way round,” adds Dr. Misra.
•This novel study may help further in understanding how drugs alter the gut microbiome and if probiotics/prebiotics and nutritional supplements should be given along with certain prescribed drugs.
📰 NCBS researcher has a go at the paradox of the plankton
In their model, the waste secreted by one species becomes food for another
•Microbe groups found in the soil, the gut, the tongue and many other places show many behavioural properties that are not clearly understood such as the reason for their diversity and stability. All microbial populations are not exactly alike, there are ‘core’ species which are always present in different samples and some ‘peripheral’ species which are seen only in some samples. A study published recently in the journal Physical Review Letters attempts to explain these features using a simple mathematical model.
•There are many puzzles about the behaviour of microbes such as bacteria and archaea (which don’t have a membrane-bound nucleus). For instance, a naturally occurring microbial ecosystem seen in soils, wastewater or even the human gut consists of hundreds or even thousands of species coexisting stably within a small, microscopic area. Given that the food sources are relatively few, and that the microbes tend to grow in number exponentially, how is it that they do not destroy each other in their competition for survival? How does the ecosystem maintain its diversity of microbiota? This is known as the paradox of the plankton. This and the related questions are addressed in this model. Here, apart from existing sources of nutrition, secretions given off by one species of bacteria form the nutrition for other species of bacteria.
•Akshit Goyal, a PhD student at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, is the first author of the paper. He refers to the fact that there are a small number of species that are ‘core’ and many that were ‘peripheral’. While there are large numbers of bacteria of the peripheral and core species, there were few showing an intermediate degree of prevalence. “Hardly any species falls in between,” he adds. When the prevalence of species is plotted as a graph, it therefore gives rise to a U-shaped distribution. “Many microbial ecosystems show the same [U-shaped] pattern,” he says.
Food supply model
•When microbes use resource molecules as food, they usually cannot convert them completely to energy — there’s always some waste which form the by-products. “These by-products can sometimes be used as a food source by another species,” says Goyal. Thus the waste given out by a core species becomes the food for a peripheral species. This can lead to increase in diversity. Goyal has done this work in collaboration with Sergei Maslow of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in the U.S.
•The key finding of the study is regarding the existence of core and peripheral species and that such a simple model of the underlying process can explain this. Further the authors talk about the displacement of one species by another under conditions and when they share the propensity to consume the same resource, such a displacement is termed extinction.
•Mukund Thattai, cell biologist from NCBS who was not involved in this research says, “A nice feature of this idea is that things which can be measured in a snapshot, for example, human tongue microbiome diversity, could potentially be explained by an ongoing evolutionary process.” Referring to other work on this problem, he adds, “Of course, this is only one of several theories that have been put forward to address the diversity question... The key to discriminating between these ideas would be to not rely on a snapshot, but to actually watch the diversity of a microbiome change over time,” says Prof. Thattai.
•For example, the authors of this paper predict a certain rate at which large numbers of species would go extinct. “Such things are, given current technologies, measurable in principle and would go a long way to clarifying how diversity really arises in nature [in this context],” he adds.
