CO-INFECTION OF BRUCELLA AND DENGUE VIRUS

Objective: Brucellosis is an important zoonotic infection having a worldwide distribution. In South East Asian developing countries like India, brucellosis is yet well-known but often neglected disease. Although dengue fever has a global distribution, South East Asian region together with the Western Pacific region represents 75% of the current global disease burden. Frequent dengue fever outbreaks have been encountered in different parts of India. Both brucellosis and dengue fever may present with many nonspecific symptoms. This study was designed to identify the trend of their co-infection.Methods: The study was carried out from February 2015 to July 2016 in Eastern India. Blood samples collected from clinically suspected dengue fever cases were confirmed serologically by dengue specific NS1, IgM, and IgG capture ELISA methods. The confirmed dengue samples were further subjected to Brucella specific serological and molecular investigations.Results: Out of 37 serologically confirmed dengue cases, 8 (21.6%) showed co-infection of brucellosis and dengue fever. Female predominance was observed among the co-infection cases. Most of these cases belonged to the age group 21-40 years and resided in and around Kolkata.Conclusion: This study portrays the simultaneous acquisition of these two pathogens in a few patients. Co-infection of these two pathogens, while feasible, has not been accounted previously in this part of India. Thus, this report highlights the significance of studying the possibility of occurrence of dual infection of these two diseases and its outcome in patients with febrile illness thereby providing future scope of preventing case fatalitiesKeywords: Brucellosis, Dengue, Co-infection, ELISA, Polymerase chain reaction

COMPARISON OF SEROLOGICAL TESTS AND PCR FOR DIAGNOSIS OF HUMAN BRUCELLOSIS SUFFERING FROM FEVER

Objective: Brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease throughout the globe and other developing countries. The present study was aimed to compare results of different serological tests and PCR for diagnosis of brucellosis in patients sufferings from fever in Kolkata and in adjoining districts.Methods: A total of 2088 serum samples were collected from the patients suffering from fever from January, 2013 to September, 2015. The samples were tested by serological tests STAT, RBPT, ELISA(IgM,IgG) and Brucella genus specific PCR. Results: The study revealed decreasing positive results by STAT (18.43%, N=385), RBPT (12.59%, N=263), IgM ELISA (7.71%, N=161), PCR (4.21%, N=88) and IgG ELISA (1.43%, N=30). When serological tests were compared with PCR, it was found that both STAT and PCR were positive in 84 samples( 4.02%), both RBPT and PCR were positive in 65 samples(3.11%), both IgM and PCR were positive in 51 samples(2.44%) and both IgG and PCR were positive in 9 samples(0.43%). Conclusion: In this cross sectional study in a zonal population of India it was found that STAT was the most sensitive test for diagnosis of brucellosis followed by RBPT when compared to PCR test results. Four STAT negative samples showed positive results in PCR, which were positive by RBPT test. This indicates that if we combine STAT and RBPT for diagnosis of brucellosis then both sensitivity and specificity of the combined test will increase.Â

A potent betulinic acid analogue ascertains an antagonistic mechanism between autophagy and proteasomal degradation pathway in HT-29 cells

Betulinic acid (BA), a member of pentacyclic triterpenes has shown important biological activities like anti-bacterial, anti-malarial, anti-inflammatory and most interestingly anticancer property. To overcome its poor aqueous solubility and low bioavailability, structural modifications of its functional groups are made to generate novel lead(s) having better efficacy and less toxicity than the parent compound. BA analogue, 2c was found most potent inhibitor of colon cancer cell line, HT-29 cells with IC50 value 14.9 μM which is significantly lower than standard drug 5-fluorouracil as well as parent compound, Betulinic acid. We have studied another mode of PCD, autophagy which is one of the important constituent of cellular catabolic system as well as we also studied proteasomal degradation pathway to investigate whole catabolic pathway after exploration of 2c on HT-29 cells. Mechanism of autophagic cell death was studied using fluorescent dye like acridine orange (AO) and monodansylcadaverin (MDC) staining by using fluorescence microscopy. Various autophagic protein expression levels were determined by Western Blotting, qRT-PCR and Immunostaining. Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) was used to study the colocalization of various autophagic proteins. These were accompanied by formation of autophagic vacuoles as revealed by FACS and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Proteasomal degradation pathway was studied by proteasome-Glo™ assay systems using luminometer.The formation of autophagic vacuoles in HT-29 cells after 2c treatment was determined by fluorescence staining – confirming the occurrence of autophagy. In addition, 2c was found to alter expression levels of different autophagic proteins like Beclin-1, Atg 5, Atg 7, Atg 5-Atg 12, LC3B and autophagic adapter protein, p62. Furthermore we found the formation of autophagolysosome by colocalization of LAMP-1 with LC3B, LC3B with Lysosome, p62 with lysosome. Finally, as proteasomal degradation pathway downregulated after 2c treatment colocalization of ubiquitin with lysosome and LC3B with p62 was studied to confirm that protein degradation in autophagy induced HT-29 cells follows autolysosomal pathway. In summary, betulinic acid analogue, 2c was able to induce autophagy in HT-29 cells and as proteasomal degradation pathway downregulated after 2c treatment so protein degradation in autophagy induced HT-29 cell

Generalized Relative Type and Generalized Weak Type of Entire Functions

We study some relative growth properties of entire functions with respect to another entire function on the basis of generalized relative type and generalized relative weak type

On the Growth of Wronskians Using their Relative Orders, Relative Types and Relative Weak Types

In this paper the comparative growth properties of composition of entire and meromorphic functions on the basis of their relative orders (relative lower orders), relative types and relative weak types of Wronskians generated by entire and meromorphic functions have been investigated

Bicomplex Version of Some Well Known Results in Complex Analysis

In this paper, we explore for the bicomplex version of the wellknown Hadamard’s three circles theorem in complex analysis and also deduceits convex form. Also, the relation between zeros and poles of abicomplex valued function is established. Moreover the Jenson’s Inequalityas well as some results on univalent functions are proved here in thebicomplex context

Peripartum cardiomyopathy coexistent with human immunodeficiency virus: A substantial obstetric jeopardy

Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a rare cause of pregnancy-related heart failure, which affects a woman during the last months of pregnancy or first months of parturition. Its etiopathogenesis is still unclear. Coexistence of PPCM with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been scarcely analyzed. A low CD4 count is proposed to be one of the predictors of dilated cardiomyopathy in HIV. Here, a pregnant woman with HIV presented with signs of congestive heart failure for the first time during her last trimester. Echocardiography revealed a dilated cardiomyopathy with ejection fraction of 34% which proved the diagnosis of PPCM. She underwent cesarean section for impending previous scar rupture. Her status deteriorated subsequently in spite of all efforts and she succumbed due to ventricular tachycardia. This case necessitates an awareness regarding coexistence of HIV with PPCM and dreaded clinical sequences. Patients suffering from HIV should be treated well and their CD4 count should be improved before conception to avoid such complications in pregnancy