A study on serological detection of Hepatitis A virus with associated risk factors in young kids

Background: Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a major concerning issue for human health that causes acute viral hepatitis. Hepatitis A virus is non enveloped RNA virus which is a member of the family Picornaviridae and genus Hepatovirus. HAV is more prevalent in developing countries like Pakistan with poor sanitation and economic status. The virus is present in young kids of age 1 to 15 years old associated with many risk factors.Methods: A total of 100 blood samples (1-2 ml) were collected from the hospitals of Lahore. After serum collection, indirect ELISA was performed on a commercially available kit. The Optical density (OD) was taken from the ELISA reader. Positive and negative samples were also run along with the samples and samples OD was compared with the OD of positive and negative controls. Cut off value was calculated by multiplying negative control (NC) with 2.1. The absorbance value of specimen/cutoff <1: samples having a value less than cut-off value were considered negative and samples having a value greater than or equal to cut-off value were considered positive. The apparent prevalence of Hepatitis A virus was measured by dividing the number of children positive to the total number of children included in the study.Results: Of the 100 samples tested, 37% were positive for IgM and 100% were positive for IgG. Statistical Analysis SPSS 21.0 version was applied to analyze the data and a correlation test was applied to see the association of risk factors with disease status.Conclusion: This study was done to appraise the overall status of HAV prevalence in young kids in association with potential risk factors.Keywords: Hepatitis A; ELISA; Risk assessment; Prevalence; Hygiene

Association between Interleukin-10 promoter polymorphism with type 2 Diabetes mellitus

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a multifactorial illness triggered by a complicated interplay of various genetic variants with various environmental variables. The quantity of replicated common genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus has increased rapidly with the recent genome-wide association (GWA) research. Major health issue in the public are type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is common throughout the world. Diabetes mellitus incidence is growing and is anticipated to affect 300 million individuals by 2025. Diabetes has been suggested to alter patterns of cytokine expression as an immune-dependent illness. Insulin resistance (IR) is a disease that results in less than anticipated biological impact of a specified insulin concentration. Insulin resistance and insulin secretion decreased are both defined pathophysiology of T2DM. One of the most alarming health issues of the 21st century is the spread of diabetes around the globe. Our goal in this study was to identify the role of IL-10 polymorphism in T2DM patients. The average age of 60 median patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (31 males and 29 females) ±SD (45.91667 ±16.08799), fasting blood sugar (FBS) is ±SD (184.25 ±57.76387), hypertension (35 positive/25 negative) and 60 non-diabetic controls (32 males and 28 females) is ± SD (47.31667 ±15.13722). The group (T2DM patients and their control) had not a substantial distinction (P=0.33) and in each group (CC, TT, CT) there was a comparison between IL-10 gene polymorphism. T2DM patients and healthy individuals are not associated with the polymorphism of the gene IL-10 (SNP rs 3021097 (C/T)

Fungal Load, Coliform and Aflatoxins in Wheat Flour of Lahore Metropolitan City

In Pakistan, wheat flour is mostly utilized for making flat breads locally called chapattis. Other uses of wheat flour are in bakery products manufacturing. It is an important constituent of daily diet of people. Shelf life of wheat flour is one of the most important factors for its quality determination. Wheat flour is often tainted with pathogenic fungal species and their toxic secondary metabolites called Mycotoxins. The present study was designed to make a comparative analysis of Microbiological quality (fungal load and total coliform count) and detection of aflatoxins in raw and branded whole wheat flour samples of Lahore Metropolitan city. Total 100 samples were collected for determination of fungal load, coliform and aflatoxins. The Standardized methods were applied to count the colony forming units of fungal species and total coliform bacteria respectively. The results indicated both branded and raw whole wheat flour groups were of good quality for human consumption. However, the microbiological quality of branded whole flour was better than raw whole wheat flour. There was a significant difference (P&lt;0.05) in fungal load of raw and branded whole wheat flour. Similarly, coliform bacteria were only cultured form the samples of raw flour. In the last stage of study, aflatoxins level was analysed by using a commercially available kit. All the samples of both raw and branded whole wheat flours were negative for aflatoxins detection. The overall quality of raw and branded whole wheat flours in Lahore city is satisfactory for consumers