Microbial Contamination of Locally Produced Cheese and Determination of their Antimicrobial Potential in Nigeria

The high consumptionrate of soft cheese and manner of cheese production in Nigeria prompted the need to determine the microbial quality and  antimicrobial properties of locally produced cheese in Nigeria. A total of 20 cheese samples were obtained from different points in 4 cities in southern Nigeria, 5 cheeses per city. They were investigated for some physico-chemical properties, isolation and microbial counts and determination of antimicrobial potential. There was no significant variation in the  composition of physic-chemical properties of cheese samples from various cities except for the acidity of cheese sample obtained from Ilorin. All the 20 samples (100%) yielded low level of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) with counts ~ 103. Escherichia coli or Klebsiella species were constantly isolated in all the cheese samples. Similarly, yeast and Aspergillus species were isolated either alone or in a mixed culture. The result showed increase in total bacteria count from the point of production to the hawkers.  Antimicrobial potential was not found in cheese against the  microorganisms used in the study. The study identified local cheese (‘wara’) as a high risk food in Nigeria due to the high rate of contamination since they are ready-to-eat food item and no antimicrobial property detected in the soft cheese.Key Words: Cheese; Bacteria; Fungi; Nigeria, Susceptibility Le taux de fromage à pâte molle et les modalités de production de  fromage au Nigeria à forte consommation a incité la nécessité de déterminer la qualité microbienne et propriétés antimicrobiennes de  fromage produit localement au Nigeria. Un total de 20 échantillons de fromage ont été obtenues à partir de différents points dans 4 villes au sud du Nigeria, 5 fromages par ville. Ils ont été étudiés pour certaines  propriétés physico-chimiques, l'isolement et les numérations microbiennes et détermination du potentiel antimicrobien. Il n'y avait aucune variation significative dans la composition des propriétés physico- chimiques des échantillons de fromage à partir de différentes villes à l'exception de l'acidité de l'échantillon obtenu à partir de fromage de la ville d’Ilorin. Tous les 20 échantillons (100%) ont donné un faible niveau de bactéries lactiques (LAB) avec environs 103 espèces. Escherichia coli ou Klebsiellaont été constamment isolés dans tous les échantillons de fromage. De même, des espèces de levures et d'Aspergillus ont été isolés soit seuls, soit dans une culture mixte. Le résultat a montré l’augmentation des bactéries totales compté du point de production aux colporteurs. Potentiel antimicrobien n'a pas été trouvé dans le fromage contre les micro-organismes utilisés dans l'étude. L'étude a identifié fromage local (' wara ‘) comme un aliment à haut risque au Nigeria en raison du taux élevé de contamination, car ils sont prêts à consommer l'aliment et aucune  propriété antimicrobienne détecté dans le fromage à pâte molle.Mots clés: Fromage; bactéries; champignons; Nigeria, sensibilit

Evaluation of Usefulness of Polymerase Chain Reaction in the Diagnosis of Malaria in Nigeria

Microscopy has been the most common technique for the diagnosis of malaria in south western Nigeria. This study was undertaken to determine the efficiency of PCR for malaria diagnosis in south western Nigeria. A total of 450 samples submitted for malaria diagnosis at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), Ile-Ife between the months of January and December, 2009 were used. Methods used included Giemsa staining procedure for estimation of parasite densities and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect the presence of malaria parasite in the whole blood. Using microscopy as reference gold standard, patients comprising 120 males and 330 females with age ranging between less than 1 and 60 samples were used. In all, about 255 (56.7 %) of the samples were positive for microscopy, while 75 (16.7 %) with high parasitaemia on microscopy were positive for PCR analysis. The study concluded that PCR for diagnosis of malaria has sensitivity of 29.4% and specificity of 100% using crude method of DNA extraction while the use of DNA extraction kit has sensitivity of 90.2% and specificity of 100%, hence effort should be geared towards increasing the sensitivity and reduce the cost of doing the test in low resource country like Nigeria

Seroprevalence of HTLV -I/II amongst Blood Donors in Osogbo, Nigeria.

Background: HTLV type I/II is a blood borne infection that can be transmitted via blood transfusion.Objective: To determine the seroprevalence of human T – lymphotropic virus among blood donors in Osogbo, Nigeria.Methods: Diagnosis of Human T. Lymphotropic virus antigen was carried out on 372 serum samples among blood donors who visited the blood bank/transfusion unit of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology  Teaching Hospital and Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Hospital, Osogbo between January and July 2008 using Enzyme linked immunosorbent  assay techniques (ELISA) as described by the manufacturer. Western  blotting was used to confirm the serum reactive samples from ELISA.Results: Out of 372 samples analyzed, 14 (3.6%) samples were found to be positive for HTLV-I/II (7 HTLV-I and 7 HTLV-II) while 358 (96.4%) samples were negative after confirmation with Western blotting. The seroprevalence of HTLV-I/II among the blood donors in Osogbo, Nigeriawas found to be 3.6%. This has major implication for the blood transfusion service in Nigeria.Conclusion: The study concluded that there is need for screening of blood donor for HTLV-I/II in order to rule out this transfusion related infection.Keywords: human T-lymphotropic virus, T-cell leukaemia,  myelopathy/tropical spasticparaparesis

Cirsium species show disparity in patterns of genetic variation at their range-edge, despite similar patterns of reproduction and isolation

Genetic variation was assessed across the UK geographical range of Cirsium acaule and Cirsium heterophyllum. A decline in genetic diversity and increase in population divergence approaching the range edge of these species was predicted based on parallel declines in population density and seed production reported seperately. Patterns were compared with UK populations of the widespread Cirsium arvense.Populations were sampled along a latitudinal transect in the UK and genetic variation assessed using microsatellite markers. Cirsium acaule shows strong isolation by distance, a significant decline in diversity and an increase in divergence among range-edge populations. Geographical structure is also evident in C. arvense, whereas no such patterns are seen in C.heterophyllum. There is a major disparity between patterns of genetic variation in C. acaule and C. heterophyllum despite very similar patterns in seed production and population isolation in these species. This suggests it may be misleading to make assumptions about the geographical structure of genetic variation within species based solely on the present-day reproduction and distribution of populations

A study of general practitioners' perspectives on electronic medical records systems in NHS Scotland

<b>Background</b> Primary care doctors in NHSScotland have been using electronic medical records within their practices routinely for many years. The Scottish Health Executive eHealth strategy (2008-2011) has recently brought radical changes to the primary care computing landscape in Scotland: an information system (GPASS) which was provided free-of-charge by NHSScotland to a majority of GP practices has now been replaced by systems provided by two approved commercial providers. The transition to new electronic medical records had to be completed nationally across all health-boards by March 2012. <p></p><b> Methods</b> We carried out 25 in-depth semi-structured interviews with primary care doctors to elucidate GPs' perspectives on their practice information systems and collect more general information on management processes in the patient surgical pathway in NHSScotland. We undertook a thematic analysis of interviewees' responses, using Normalisation Process Theory as the underpinning conceptual framework. <p></p> <b>Results</b> The majority of GPs' interviewed considered that electronic medical records are an integral and essential element of their work during the consultation, playing a key role in facilitating integrated and continuity of care for patients and making clinical information more accessible. However, GPs expressed a number of reservations about various system functionalities - for example: in relation to usability, system navigation and information visualisation. <b>Conclusion </b>Our study highlights that while electronic information systems are perceived as having important benefits, there remains substantial scope to improve GPs' interaction and overall satisfaction with these systems. Iterative user-centred improvements combined with additional training in the use of technology would promote an increased understanding, familiarity and command of the range of functionalities of electronic medical records among primary care doctors

Time for T? Immunoinformatics addresses the challenges of vaccine design for neglected tropical and emerging infectious diseases

Vaccines have been invaluable for global health, saving lives and reducing healthcare costs, while also raising the quality of human life. However, newly emerging infectious diseases (EID) and more well-established tropical disease pathogens present complex challenges to vaccine developers; in particular, neglected tropical diseases, which are most prevalent among the world’s poorest, include many pathogens with large sizes, multistage life cycles and a variety of nonhuman vectors. EID such as MERS-CoV and H7N9 are highly pathogenic for humans. For many of these pathogens, while their genomes are available, immune correlates of protection are currently unknown. These complexities make developing vaccines for EID and neglected tropical diseases all the more difficult. In this review, we describe the implementation of an immunoinformatics-driven approach to systematically search for key determinants of immunity in newly available genome sequence data and design vaccines. This approach holds promise for the development of 21st century vaccines, improving human health everywhere

Beyond humanization and de-immunization: tolerization as a method for reducing the immunogenicity of biologics

Immune responses to some monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and biologic proteins interfere with their efficacy due to the development of anti-drug antibodies (ADA). In the case of mAbs, most ADA target ‘foreign’ sequences present in the complementarity determining regions (CDRs). Humanization of the mAb sequence is one approach that has been used to render biologics less foreign to the human immune system. However, fully human mAbs can also drive immunogenicity. De-immunization (removing epitopes) has been used to reduce biologic protein immunogenicity. Here, we discuss a third approach to reducing the immunogenicity of biologics: introduction of Treg epitopes that stimulate Treg function and induce tolerance to the biologic protein. Supplementing humanization (replacing xenosequences with human) and de-immunization (reducing T effector epitopes) with tolerization (introducing Treg epitopes) where feasible, as a means of improving biologics ‘quality by design’, may lead to the development of ever more clinically effective, but less immunogenic, biologics

Development and Validation of an Epitope Prediction Tool for Swine (PigMatrix) Based on the Pocket Profile Method

Background: T cell epitope prediction tools and associated vaccine design algorithms have accelerated the development of vaccines for humans. Predictive tools for swine and other food animals are not as well developed, primarily because the data required to develop the tools are lacking. Here, we overcome a lack of T cell epitope data to construct swine epitope predictors by systematically leveraging available human information. Applying the “pocket profile method”, we use sequence and structural similarities in the binding pockets of human and swine major histocompatibility complex proteins to infer Swine Leukocyte Antigen (SLA) peptide binding preferences. We developed epitope-prediction matrices (PigMatrices), for three SLA class I alleles (SLA-1*0401, 2*0401 and 3*0401) and one class II allele (SLA-DRB1*0201), based on the binding preferences of the best-matched Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) pocket for each SLA pocket. The contact residues involved in the binding pockets were defined for class I based on crystal structures of either SLA (SLA-specific contacts, Ssc) or HLA supertype alleles (HLA contacts, Hc); for class II, only Hc was possible. Different substitution matrices were evaluated (PAM and BLOSUM) for scoring pocket similarity and identifying the best human match. The accuracy of the PigMatrices was compared to available online swine epitope prediction tools such as PickPocket and NetMHCpan. Results: PigMatrices that used Ssc to define the pocket sequences and PAM30 to score pocket similarity demonstrated the best predictive performance and were able to accurately separate binders from random peptides. For SLA-1*0401 and 2*0401, PigMatrix achieved area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) of 0.78 and 0.73, respectively, which were equivalent or better than PickPocket (0.76 and 0.54) and NetMHCpan version 2.4 (0.41 and 0.51) and version 2.8 (0.72 and 0.71). In addition, we developed the first predictive SLA class II matrix, obtaining an AUC of 0.73 for existing SLA-DRB1*0201 epitopes. Notably, PigMatrix achieved this level of predictive power without training on SLA binding data. Conclusions: Overall, the pocket profile method combined with binding preferences from HLA binding data shows significant promise for developing T cell epitope prediction tools for pigs. When combined with existing vaccine design algorithms, PigMatrix will be useful for developing genome-derived vaccines for a range of pig pathogens for which no effective vaccines currently exist (e.g. porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, influenza and porcine epidemic diarrhea)

Cotrimoxazole reduces systemic inflammation in HIV infection by altering the gut microbiome and immune activation

Wellcome TrustCanadian Institutes of Health ResearchMedical Research CouncilDepartment for International Development under MRC/DFID Concordat agreement and EDCTP2 programme supported by the European UnionMRC Clinical Trials Unit at UC

WNT signalling in prostate cancer

Genome sequencing and gene expression analyses of prostate tumours have highlighted the potential importance of genetic and epigenetic changes observed in WNT signalling pathway components in prostate tumours-particularly in the development of castration-resistant prostate cancer. WNT signalling is also important in the prostate tumour microenvironment, in which WNT proteins secreted by the tumour stroma promote resistance to therapy, and in prostate cancer stem or progenitor cells, in which WNT-β-catenin signals promote self-renewal or expansion. Preclinical studies have demonstrated the potential of inhibitors that target WNT receptor complexes at the cell membrane or that block the interaction of β-catenin with lymphoid enhancer-binding factor 1 and the androgen receptor, in preventing prostate cancer progression. Some WNT signalling inhibitors are in phase I trials, but they have yet to be tested in patients with prostate cancer