Central University of Punjab

The research article examines the development of folk theatre, with a special emphasis on the path taken by the folk-drama nautanki from its inception to the present. At first, nautanki captivated audiences with its performances, drawing sizable crowds both day and night. But as other kinds of entertainment surfaced, nautanki’s plot, length, staging, and structure changed, though its music never stopped being a highlight. The core of this folk-drama is its focus on acting, dancing, and music, which captivates audiences in both rural and urban North India. At first, nautanki told stories that were deeply ingrained in the minds of the audience historical, mythical, and modern. But in an attempt to draw in viewers, commercial pressures forced the inclusion of profanity, which destroyed the original charm. The purpose of this article is to examine two aspects of nautanki: its original splendour, which highlights its classical singing, musical instruments, and storyline, and its current form, which considers the effects of market forces, changes in the genre, and popularity.

Penile entrapment was first reported in 1755. Since then, sporadic reports have been published in the literature, describing various foreign bodies applied to the penis, all of which share the common characteristic of circularity. This can result in varying degrees of vascular obstruction. The most common motive associated with the application of foreign bodies on the penis is sexual or erotic in nature. It has been associated with complications like urethrocutaneous fistula, gangrene, and, to the extent that deaths have been reported due to sepsis. However, the exact duration of such complications varied in the literature. Each case demands an individualized approach due to the variability in presentation and injury severity. Even though many such cases are presented in the literature, no consensus guidelines are still present. We hereby present a similar case of penile trauma that presented almost 12 hours after and was managed without any long-term complications.

Alzheimer's disease is a complex neurological disorder and is becoming a global health concern as the population ages. Considering the complex aetiology of the disease and ineptness of single-targeted drugs, the development of multi-targeted drugs emerges as the most effective strategy for the treatment of the disease. Cholinesterases and monoamine oxidases are amongst the most widely explored targets in Alzheimer’s disease, and their dual inhibition offers a promising approach for achieving multipotent therapeutic effects. Herein, we designed and synthesized a series of N/O-propargylated diaryl pyrimidines and evaluated their inhibitory activity against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and monoamine oxidase (MAO) enzymes. Most of the compounds were found to be active against AChE, MAO-A and MAO-B. Amongst the synthesised derivatives of the series, compounds, compounds NV-1 and NV-9 exhibited a balanced multipotent activity profile against both the targets i.e. acetylcholinesterase and monoamine oxidase. Compounds NV-1 and NV-9 displayed IC50 values of 1.30 µM and 0.88 µM against AChE, 0.232 µM and 9.31 µM against MAO-A and 0.949 µM and 9.23 µM against MAO-B, respectively. In the reversibility inhibition studies, both the compounds were found to be reversible in nature. In kinetic inhibition studies, both NV-1 and NV-9 showed non-competitive inhibition for AChE. Additionally, NV-1 and NV-9 were found to be moderately neuroprotective in nature and exhibit no cytotoxicity at lower compound concentrations. In the partition coefficient studies (octanol/water), the compound NV-9 was found to be lipophilic in nature. Molecular docking studies illustrate their stability within the active cavity of both enzymes. Simulation studies confirmed the thermodynamic stability of these compounds within the cavity for up to 100 ns. Thus, the N/O-propargylated diarylpyrimidines have the potential to be developed as multipotent drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Dear Editor, Docetaxel belongs to the taxane class of cytotoxic agents. It is one of the most commonly used chemotherapeutic agents, especially in gynaecological cancers.[1] The main side effects of the drug are neutropenia, fluid retention, asthenia, neurotoxicity, hypersensitivity, and cutaneous reactions.[2] We present here a case of photo-lichenoid eruption secondary to docetaxel. A 55-year-old female presented with red coloured, itchy lesions on her hands and face for one month. The patient was under treatment for breast carcinoma with docetaxel (100 mg/m2) and had undergone four cycles of it every three weeks for three months. On clinical examination, there were well-defined to ill-defined erythematous to hyperpigmented plaques with violaceous hue present over the dorsum of bilateral hands and forearms [Figure 1a]. A similar plaque of size 2 × 2 cm2 was present above the centre of the right eyebrow, along with blanchable erythema over the bilateral malar area. The patient mentioned an increase in itching on exposure to the sun. Skin biopsy was sent from the lesion on hand with the differential diagnosis of palmoplantar dysesthesia and lichenoid skin reaction secondary to docetaxel and showed focal hypergranulosis and mild acanthosis in the epidermis. Moderate chronic lymphocytic inflammatory infiltrate, oedema, and few congested blood vessels were present in the dermis [Figure 1b]. The histopathologic findings were suggestive of lichenoid dermatitis. The patient was advised on photoprotection and prescribed topical potent corticosteroid for the lesions to which the patient responded well. Unfortunately, the patient did not follow up after two months.Figure 1: (a) Well to ill-defined hyperpigmented plaques with violaceous hue present over the dorsum of the hands and forearms. (b) Focal hypergranulosis and mild acanthosis in epidermis. Moderate chronic lymphocytic inflammatory infiltrate, oedema, and few congested blood vessels in the dermis. (Hematoxylin and eosin stain, 40×)Docetaxel is a semisynthetic analogue derived from the needles of the European yew tree (Taxus baccata). It causes polymerization of tubulin into highly stable intracellular microtubules and hence disrupts mitosis and normal cell division. Therefore, it acts as an antimicrotubule agent and causes cell death.[1] The major dose-limiting side effect of docetaxel is neutropenia. Other major systemic side effects include hypersensitivity reactions, myalgia, arthralgia, nausea, and symmetrical peripheral sensory neuropathy.[3] Cutaneous adverse events have also been mentioned in the literature, and the incidence varies between 6% and 81%.[3] These include maculo-papular eruptions, drug-induced lupus erythematosus, UV or radiation recall dermatitis, acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis, palmoplantar erythrodysesthesia, PATEO syndrome (Periarticular Thenar Erythema and Onycholysis), scleroderma-like skin changes, supravenous hyperpigmentation, flagellate, and reticular pigmentation. Chemotherapy-induced acute reversible or persistent alopecia, oral mucositis, and various nail abnormalities have also been reported.[1] The cutaneous side effects are usually mild to moderate in severity and self-limiting. The more severe adverse effects may have a toxic and non-immunoallergic mechanism. In view of these side effects being dose-dependent, dose interruption, reduction, or complete stoppage may be required.[4] While cutaneous side effects of CTCAE grade ≥3 warrant discontinuation of the drug, those of grade 1 or 2 can be managed without discontinuation and simultaneously initiating dermatological treatment.[1] In our case, the lichenoid lesions were present on the face besides hands and forearms, which was a clue that photosensitive lichenoid eruption could be a differential besides palmoplantar dysesthesia. Photosensitive lichenoid eruption secondary to docetaxel has been reported just once to the best of our knowledge.[5] Hence, the physician must be aware of this cutaneous adverse effect while prescribing docetaxel, and appropriate caution should be given to patients as well. Adequate photoprotection will prevent the appearance of these lesions and hence obviate the need of reducing the dose of a drug or stopping the treatment. Declaration of patient consent The authors certify that they have obtained all appropriate patient consent forms. In the form the patient(s) has/have given his/her/their consent for his/her/their images and other clinical information to be reported in the journal. The patients understand that their names and initials will not be published and due efforts will be made to conceal their identity, but anonymity cannot be guaranteed. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflict of interest There are no conflicts of interest.

Sugar transporters are membrane proteins that play a significant role in sugar translocation between adjacent cells in plants, facilitating their growth and development. These are mainly composed of sucrose-proton symporter SUT family members and SWEET family members, each with a different sugar transport mechanism. Their gene expression typically targets the leaf, stem, and grain, which represent the source, transport, and sink organs where carbohydrates are synthesized, distributed, and stored. Photosynthates such as sucrose and starch are essential for plant energy metabolism, whereas specialized metabolites, such as alkaloids, flavonoids, and terpenoids, are involved in plant defense and signaling. At present, the substrate specificity, regulatory mechanisms of these sugar transporters in response to environmental cues and developmental stages are largely unclear. Also, the evolutionary trajectories suggesting selection pressure driving transporter specialization and diversification remain unclear for many families. Therefore, the review examines the structure and function of sugar transporters, as well as the transporters involved in photosynthate mobilization. SWEET proteins facilitate sugar efflux involved in defense and plant-pathogen interaction. MATE and ABC transporters are responsible for metabolite secretion, which also plays a role in defense mechanisms. Additionally, other transporters, such as hexose and starch transporters, are also discussed. In parallel, their responses to exposure to specific environmental cues (biotic and abiotic stress) have also been discussed. The divergence of transporter families among plant lineages and adaptations to environmental stressors are highlighted by evolutionary perspectives. The study also explores how transporter engineering can enhance resilience, crop productivity, and the development of beneficial, specialized metabolites for medicines and nutraceuticals. Finally, it addresses current challenges in transporter research, emphasizing the role of emerging technologies such as omics and CRISPR in advancing our understanding of transporter functionality. This review has discussed the expressional profiles of various sugar transporter genes for sustainability. The review concludes with a roadmap for future research.

Accurate and noninvasive breast cancer grading and therapy monitoring remain critical challenges in oncology. Traditional methods often rely on invasive histopathological assessments or imaging-only techniques, which may not fully capture the molecular and morphological intricacies of tumor response. This article presents a novel, noninvasive framework for breast cancer analysis and therapy monitoring that combines two parallel mechanisms: (1) a dual-stream convolutional neural network (CNN) processing high-intensity ultrasound images, and (2) a biomarker-aware CNN stream utilizing patient-specific breast cancer biomarkers, including carbohydrate antigen 15-3, carcinoembryonic antigen, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 levels. The imaging stream extracts spatial and morphological features, while the biomarker stream encodes quantitative molecular indicators, enabling a multimodal understanding of tumor characteristics. The outputs from both streams are fused to predict the cancer grade (G1-G3) with high reliability. Experimental evaluation on a cohort of pre- and postchemotherapy patients demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach, achieving an overall grading accuracy of 97.8%, with an area under the curve of 0.981 for malignancy classification. The model also enables quantitative post-therapy analysis, revealing an average tumor response improvement of 41.3% across the test set, as measured by predicted regression in grade and changes in biomarker-imaging correlation. This dual-parallel artificial intelligence strategy offers a promising noninvasive alternative to traditional histopathological and imaging-alone methods, supporting real-time cancer monitoring and personalized treatment evaluation. The integration of high-resolution imaging with biomolecular data significantly enhances diagnostic depth, paving the way for intelligent, patient-specific breast cancer management.