Rajinder Sandhu

Purification and characterization of a tuber lectin from Alocasia indica

Abstract A lectin from the tubers of Alocasia indica Schott has been purified by affinity chromatography on asialofetuin-linked amino activated silica beads. The bound lectin was eluted with 0.1 M glycine-HC1 buffer, pH 2.5. The purified lectin yielded a single band on SDS-PAGE, pH 8.3, corresponding to M 1 of 13 000. In polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, pH 4.5, and gel exclusion chromatography, it also gave a single band and a single peak, respectively, with M 1 of 55 000. However, in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at pH 8.3, it revealed three bands. Three peaks were obtained when the affinity purified lectin was applied on a DEAE-5PW HPLC analytical column. As a haemagglutinin, this lectin was effective against animal but not human erythrocytes. The haemagglutination activity is inhibited by asialofetuin only. The purified lectin is a glycoprotein with 1.47% carbohydrate content and has no metal ion requirement for its haemagglutinating activity. Alocasia indica was found to be mi togenic for human peripheral blood lymphocytes.

A cybersecurity framework to identify malicious edge device in fog computing and cloud-of-things environments

Device security is one of the major challenges for successful implementation of Internet of Things and fog computing environment in current IT space. Researchers and Information Technology (IT) organizations have explored many solutions to protect systems from unauthenticated device attacks (known as outside device attacks). Fog computing uses network devices (e.g. router, switch and hub) for latency-aware processing of collected data using IoT. Then, identification of malicious edge device is one of the critical activities in data security of fog computing environment. Preventing attacks from malicious edge devices in fog computing environment is more difficult because they have certain granted privileges to use and process the data. In this paper, proposed cybersecurity framework uses three technologies which are Markov model, Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and Virtual Honeypot Device (VHD) to identify malicious edge device in fog computing environment. A two-stage hidden Markov model is used to effectively categorize edge devices in four different levels. VHD is designed to store and maintain log repository of all identified malicious devices which assists the system to defend itself from any unknown attacks in the future. Proposed cybersecurity framework is tested with real attacks in virtual environment created using OpenStack and Microsoft Azure. Results indicated that proposed cybersecurity framework is successful in identifying the malicious device as well as reducing the false IDS alarm rate.

Matrix based proactive resource provisioning in mobile cloud environment

Abstract Mobile cloud computing is a dynamic, virtually scalable and network based computing environment where mobile device acts as a thin client and applications run on remote cloud servers. Mobile cloud computing resources required by different users depend on their respective personalized applications. Therefore, efficient resource provisioning in mobile clouds is an important aspect that needs special attention in order to make the mobile cloud computing a highly optimized entity. This paper proposes an adaptive model for efficient resource provisioning in mobile clouds by predicting and storing resource usages in a two dimensional matrix termed as resource provisioning matrix. These resource provisioning matrices are further used by an independent authority to predict future required resources using artificial neural network. Independent authority also checks and verifies resource usage bill computed by cloud service provider using resource provisioning matrices. It provides cost computation reliability for mobile customers in mobile cloud environment. Proposed model is implemented on Hadoop using three different applications. Results indicate that proposed model provides better mobile cloud resources utilization as well as maintains quality of service for mobile customer. Proposed model increases battery life of mobile device and decreases data usage cost for mobile customer.

A new high molecular weight agglutinin from garlic (Allium sativum)

Erythrocyte agglutination by lectins from Allium sativum was inhibited only by mannose of the sugars tested. However, asialofetuin was more effective inhibitor of agglutination as compared to mannose. This led to the use of an asialofetuin-silica affinity column to isolate agglutinins of 110 and 25 kDa (ASA110 and ASA25). While ASA25 is a dimeric protein comprising of subunits of 12.5 and 13.0 kDa, ASA110 is a glycoprotein of two identical subunits of 47 kDa. ASA110 revealed to have a high content of aspartic acid, glycine, leucine and serine but low content of cysteine and methionine. It contains 14 residues of neutral sugars in addition to 43 residues of hexosamines per mole of lectin and requires metal ions for its functional conformation. Serological cross-reactions with other species showed some common epitopes of ASA110 and ASA25 present in A. porrum, A. ascalonicum, Narcissus alba, PHA and Con A but not in A. cepa. ASA110 with CHO cells indicated it to be weakly cytotoxic with LD50 of 160 µg/ml. (Mol Cell Biochem 166: 1-9, 1997)

Smart monitoring and controlling of Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) using Social Network Analysis and cloud computing

Abstract H1N1 is an infectious virus which, when spread affects a large volume of the population. It is an airborne disease that spreads easily and has a high death rate. Development of healthcare support systems using cloud computing is emerging as an effective solution with the benefits of better quality of service, reduced costs and flexibility. In this paper, an effective cloud computing architecture is proposed which predicts H1N1 infected patients and provides preventions to control infection rate. It consists of four processing components along with secure cloud storage medical database. The random decision tree is used to initially assess the infection in any patient depending on his/her symptoms. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is used to present the state of the outbreak. The proposed architecture is tested on synthetic data generated for two million users. The system provided 94% accuracy for the classification and around 81% of the resource utilization on Amazon EC2 cloud. The key point of the paper is the use of SNA graphs to calculate role of an infected user in spreading the outbreak known as Outbreak Role Index (ORI). It will help government agencies and healthcare departments to present, analyze and prevent outbreak effectively.

New Lymphocyte Stimulating Monocot Lectins from Family Araceae. II

Two lectins purified from the tubers of Arisaema consanguineum Schott (ACA) and A. curvatum Kunth (ACmA) belonging to the monocot family Araceae were mitogenic for human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in the [3H]-thymidine uptake assay. ACA and ACmA had an optimum stimulatory concentration of 10-25 micrograms/ml and 50-100 micrograms/ml, respectively, as observed in PBMC from five different individuals. The mitogenic response of PBMC was inhibitable in a dose-dependent manner by asialofetuin. The lectins were T-cell specific, and stimulation kinetic studies using ACA and ACmA showed that they induce maximum thymidine uptake in PBMC at day 4 and 3, respectively.

Effect of garlic agglutinin and garlic extracts on the rat jejunum

Abstract In an earlier study it was reported that intragastric intubation of a mannan specific lectin, ASA 110 from edible garlic ( Allium sativum ) was bound to the brush border membranes and epithelial cells of the intestine and arrested the growth of swiss albino rats. The aims of present study were to determine the systemic effects of ASA 110 on jejunal enzymes and nucleic acids and to assess the morphological changes in jejunum. Swiss male albino rats were fed either purified ASA 110 or native/heat denatured crude garlic extracts by intragastric intubation for 7 days. Although, ASA 110 and heat treated garlic extracts had no significant effect on nucleic acids, crude extracts in native form showed increased levels of nucleic acids in jejunum. While activities of disaccharidases and acid phosphatase (ACP) were higher, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and adenosine triphosphatase (total and ouabain sensitive ATPase) were lower in the jejunum of ASA 110 fed rats. On the other hand, native and heat treated garlic extracts significantly enhanced disaccharidases along with LDH, ACP and ALP, whereas the loss of ouabain sensitive ATPase was not significantly different from that of ASA 110 treated rats. However, a significant rise in the protein content was seen in all the rats irrespective of treatment. Histological examination of jejunum of treated rats revealed alterations of brush border membrane, thinning and sloughing off of villus structure and vacuolisation. It is concluded that garlic lectin (ASA 110 ) influences biological functions by altering NaK ATPase in rat intestine. However, differential effects of ASA 110 and garlic extracts on nucleic acids and ALP after gastric intubation indicated that other components of garlic besides ASA 110 need to be examined for the assessment of biological activity of brush border membrane of intestinal tract.

An intelligent system for predicting and preventing MERS-CoV infection outbreak

MERS-CoV is an airborne disease which spreads easily and has high death rate. To predict and prevent MERS-CoV, real-time analysis of user’s health data and his/her geographic location are fundamental. Development of healthcare systems using cloud computing is emerging as an effective solution having benefits of better quality of service, reduced cost, scalability, and flexibility. In this paper, an effective cloud computing system is proposed which predicts MERS-CoV-infected patients using Bayesian belief network and provides geographic-based risk assessment to control its outbreak. The proposed system is tested on synthetic data generated for 0.2 million users. System provided high accuracy for classification and appropriate geographic-based risk assessment. The key point of this paper is the use of geographic positioning system to represent each MERS-CoV users on Google maps so that possibly infected users can be quarantined as early as possible. It will help uninfected citizens to avoid regional exposure and the government agencies to manage the problem more effectively.

Affinity purification and characterization of lectins from two Amaranthus species

Abstract Two Amaranthus lectins, namely A. caudatus (ACL) and A. spinosus (ASL), were purified by affinity chromatography on asialofetuin-linked amino-activated silica. The lectins were eluted non-specifically by using 0.1 M glycine-HCl buffer, pH 2.5. Both the lectins showed similarities in biological and physico-chemical properties. These are dimeric proteins composed of subunits having Mr of 35 800 and 37 000 Da, respectively, which are not held together by disulphide linkages. Among the various hapten inhibitors, the lectins showed affinity for N- acetyl- d -galactosamine , fetuin and asialofetuin. The Amaranthus lectins were found to be non-specific and reacted with human and various animal erythrocytes. These are glycoproteins having no metal ion requirement for their activity.

In vivo binding of mannose specific lectin from garlic to intestinal epithelium

Abstract The present study was undertaken to determine the effect of high molecular weight (110 kDa) garlic ( Allium sativum ) lectin (ASA 110 ) on body weight changes and its fate in the intestine of rats. Purified lectin or native/heat treated crude garlic extracts were administered to male swiss albino rats by intragastric intubation route for 7 days. The biological effects included arrest of gain in body weight, which was associated with decreased food intake. Results show that as lectin passed through the gut, it specifically bound to various cellular components of the intestinal mucosa. Although, jejunum showed the presence of mannose receptors located in the core of the lamina propria, duodenum showed lectin binding in the basal region and brush border membrane. Similar binding pattern between ASA 110 and normal intestinal mucosa was confirmed in vitro on tissue sections using fluorescent technique. Lectin activity was detected in the fecal extract of treated rats and was antigenically similar to the native lectin preparation. It suggests that the garlic lectin could withstand all enzymatic reactions while passing through the gut. However, its binding to the mucosal epithelium of gastrointestinal tract was indicative of deleterious effects.