Bengaluru Nov 18 PTI Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science IISc along with collaborators have identified potential blood-based biomarkers to predict disease progression and survival times in those with late-stage brain tumours The team included researchers from the Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering BSSE at IISc the Mazumdar Shaw Centre for Translational Research and Mazumdar Shaw Medical Foundation the Bengaluru-based IISc said in a statement on Thursday They analysed tumour and blood samples from individuals with gliomas tumours that occur in the brain to identify surface proteins on immune cells in the blood whose levels were closely linked to tumour progression This study was published in journal OncoImmunology Late-stage gliomas such as grade three and grade four gliomas are associated with a poor prognosis the tumour is harder to treat and the patient is likely to have a low chance of survival Our pilot study suggests that we can potentially use two blood-based biomarkers present on immune cells to identify patients who might not perform well with particular treatment strategies said Siddharth Jhunjhunwala Assistant Professor in BSSE and senior author of the study Such a blood-based testing methodology could help clinicians better understand disease progression and choose a more effective treatment regimen Conventional cancer treatments like chemotherapy are often ineffective in treating these tumours according to the statementThis has prompted a shift to newer techniques like immunotherapy which involves provoking our own immune system to attack the tumour cells However attempts to use some of the standard immunotherapies to treat gliomas have met with limited success explained Jhunjhunwala This led to a specific scientific gap that we were trying to address which is to understand the immune profile in the tumour microenvironment he said The team collected blood and tumour samples from patients with grade three and grade four gliomas and compared the numbers of specific immune cells called monocytes and neutrophils in these samples Because these are biosamples they need to be preserved and processed very well without loss of cell viability said Jayashree V Raghavan PhD student at BSSE and first author of the study We had to split up methodology between two institutes here and at the lab at the Mazumdar Shaw Foundation They would do all the processing and fixation to retain the viability of the cells and then we would do the characterisation and immunostaining here The team also looked for differences in the composition of surface proteins on these cells across the two grades of tumours They found that a certain type of monocytes the M2 monocytes were present in larger numbers in the samples from grade four tumours Previous studies have shown that high numbers of M2 monocytes are associated with a suppression of immune responses and this finding could therefore help develop new treatment strategies Future studies could focus on developing therapies that reduce the numbers of M2 monocytes in the tumour microenvironment or alter their functionality said Jhunjhunwala The researchers also found that levels of two surface proteins on neutrophils and monocytes CD86 and CD63 were closely related in both the blood and tumour samples The presence of high levels of these proteins on immune cells in other tumours has previously been associated with poor prognosis or low chances of survival Jhunjhunwala points out What our study showed is that you do not need to look at these markers only in the tumours you might be able to look at these just from the blood and the clinician can make an assessment Jhunjhunwala cautioned however that further testing and validation on a larger scale is necessary before this can be taken from the lab to the clinic We would like to expand our cohort and test for only these two markers now in individuals with stage three and stage four brain tumours and follow their survival times PTI RS SS SS

Bengaluru Oct 29 PTI Well-known Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar died here on Friday following a heart attack hospital sources said The 46-year old Sandalwood star was rushed to the hospital after he complained of chest pain A statement from the hospital earlier said that Puneeth Rajkumar was brought to the emergency department Vikram Hospital with history of chest pain at 1140 am he was non-responsive and was in Cardiac Asystole and Advanced cardiac resuscitation has been initiated The son of matinee idol the late Rajkumar and Parvathamma he was fondly called Appu by his fans A popular television presenter the power star who began his career as a child artist was also among the highest paid actors in the Kannada film industry PTI RS SS SS

Bengaluru Oct 29 PTI Well-known Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar was on Friday admitted to a private hospital here after he complained of chest pain The condition of the 46-year-old son of matinee idol the late Rajkumar and Parvathamma and fondly called Appu by his fans is serious sources in the hospital said A popular television presenter Puneet who began his career as a child artiste is also among the highest paid actors in the Kannada film industry PTI RS SS SS

Bengaluru Sep 26 PTI Indias Mars Orbiter spacecraft has completed seven years in its orbit well beyond its designed mission life of six months Indeed a satisfying feeling K Radhakrishnan who as the then Chairman of Indian Space Research Oranisation ISRO led the Mars Orbiter Mission Mangalyaan team told PTI on the milestone MOM is the maiden interplanetary mission of ISRO Launched on November 5 2013 the probe was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on September 24 2014 in its first attempt MOM is primarily a technology demonstration venture and all the mission objectives were successfully met according to officials of Bengaluru-headquartered Indias national space agency The main lessons learnt were in the field of design and realisation of systems and subsystems launch for interplanetary mission insertion into other planets orbit operation of the spacecraft and scientific instruments around Mars orbit they said The lessons learnt have raised the confidence of ISRO scientists for taking up future interplanetary missions ISRO has been continuously monitoring the spacecraft and its five scientific instruments and officials said scientific analysis of the data being received from MOM spacecraft is in progress On the health of the spacecraft M Annadurai who was the Programme Director of MOM said the spacecrafts moving elements are facing some issues and some of the redundancies we have to switch over The spacecrafts health is reasonably good considering that we are in the seventh year Annadurai told PTI He expects the spacecraft to have a mission life of probably another one year On the reasons for the long mission life Annadurai said ISRO had done corrections after learning lessons from the Chandrayaan-1 venture in terms of reconfiguring the spacecraft and optimisation of fuel management among others Noting that Earth remote-sensing satellites typically have a mission life of seven to nine years he said it was a very satisfying moment that India could establish that around Mars also a spacecraft can be in operation for such a long period On some criticism in some quarters that scientific output of the MOM was low Annadurai said it was more of a technology-demonstration mission He pointed out that the spacecraft was launched by PSLV as GSLV was not in operational condition then ISRO could apportion only about 15 kg for scientific instruments and the time available for scientists to develop them was only 18-19 months I dont think we could have done better than what we have done Annadurai said ISRO officials said the spacecraft has already covered three Martian years one Martian year is about two earth years We have seen how changes happen on the Mars from one season to another one Martian year to another Martian year they said Annadurai said We have good inputs on seasonal affects on Mars atmospheresurface The mission has provided meaningful data also PTI RS SS SS