Protection of staff and families during COVID-19 pandemic: experience from a research institute in Bangladesh

Summary: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), which contains the world's largest diarrheal disease hospital, established a service centre, including testing facilities, isolation unit, out-patient department, in-patient ward, and intensive care unit during COVID-19 pandemic. When the management of COVID-19 was challenging nationwide, icddr,b established this facility with the goal to provide COVID-related services to the staff and their relatives amidst the pandemic. Data related to this analysis were collected from April 2020 to December 2021. 1399 patients received treatment under this facility. Among them, 351 patients were treated at the out-patient facility, 98 at the isolation, and 197 at the in-patient ward. Among the admitted patients, survival was 86.29% (n = 170/197). Among the suspected patients, 17% (n = 103/606) were COVID-positive. Setting up an immediate COVID-19 management facility during the pandemic was challenging. It can be an example of how an organisation can adapt to any emergency and act accordingly

IRB approved protocol #PR-21046.

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SPIRIT schedule.

SPIRIT schedule.</p

Eligibility criteria.

Eligibility criteria.</p

Workflow for study participants.

Workflow for study participants.</p

Laboratory investigations to be performed in the study.

Laboratory investigations to be performed in the study.</p

Study timeline.

Study timeline.</p

Native <i>Trichoderma</i> Induced the Defense-Related Enzymes and Genes in Rice against <i>Xanthomonas oryzae</i> pv. <i>oryzae</i> (<i>Xoo</i>)

The application of Trichoderma is a form of biological control that has been effective in combating Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, the causative agent of the devastating disease known as bacterial blight of rice. In this present study, four strains of Trichoderma, viz., T. paraviridescens (BDISOF67), T. erinaceum (BDISOF91), T. asperellum (BDISOF08), and T. asperellum (BDISOF09), were collected from the rice rhizosphere and used to test their potentiality in reducing bacterial blight. The expression patterns of several core defense-related enzymes and genes related to SA and JA pathways were studied to explore the mechanism of induced resistance by those Trichoderma strains. The results primarily indicated that all Trichoderma were significantly efficient in reducing the lesion length of the leaf over rice check variety (IR24) through enhancing the expression of core defense-related enzymes, such as PAL, PPO, CAT, and POD activities by 4.27, 1.77, 3.53, and 1.57-fold, respectively, over control. Moreover, the results of qRT-PCR exhibited an upregulation of genes OsPR1, OsPR10, OsWRKY45, OsWRKY62, OsWRKY71, OsHI-LOX, and OsACS2 after 24 h of inoculation with all tested Trichoderma strains. However, in the case of RT-PCR, no major changes in OsPR1 and OsPR10 expression were observed in plants treated with different Trichoderma strains during different courses of time. Collectively, Trichoderma induced resistance in rice against X. oryzae pv. oryzae by triggering these core defense-related enzymes and genes associated with SA and JA pathways

Exploratory Analysis of Selected Components of the mTOR Pathway Reveals Potentially Crucial Associations with Childhood Malnutrition

Dysregulations in the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway are associated with several human anomalies. We aimed to elucidate possible implications for potential aberrations in the mTOR pathway with childhood malnutrition. We analyzed the activity of phospho-mTORC1 and the expressions of several mTOR pathway genes, namely: MTOR, TSC1, LAMTOR2, RPS6K1 and RICTOR from peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from venous blood of children suffering from different forms of malnutrition and compared them with those from healthy children. Significant reduction in the phosphorylation of mTORC1 was noted, as well as a decrease in expression of LAMTOR2 gene and increase in TSC1 gene expression were observed between malnourished children in comparison to the healthy children. The deregulation in the activity of the TSC1 and LAMTOR2 gene was significantly associated with all forms of childhood malnutrition. Our findings provide key insights into possible down-modulation in the overall activity of the mTOR pathway in childhood malnutrition. Further studies focusing on the analysis of a multitude of components involved in the mTOR pathway both at the gene and protein expression levels are required for conclusive evidence for the aforementioned proposition.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Effects of probiotic and synbiotic supplementation on ponderal and linear growth in severely malnourished young infants in a randomized clinical trial

Abstract Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is a major global public health problem. We aimed to assess the effects of probiotic and synbiotic supplementation on rate of weight gain and change in length in young SAM infants. This study was substudy of a single-blind randomized clinical trial (NCT0366657). During nutritional rehabilitation, 67 <6 months old SAM infants were enrolled and randomized to receive either probiotic (Bifidobacterium. infantis EVC001) or synbiotic (B. infantis EVC001 + Lacto-N-neotetraose [LNnT]) or placebo (Lactose) for four weeks and were followed for four more weeks after supplementation. In multivariable linear regression model, the mean rate of weight gain in the probiotic arm compared to placebo was higher by 2.03 unit (P < 0.001), and 1.13 unit (P = 0.030) in the synbiotic arm. In linear mixed-effects model, mean WAZ was higher by 0.57 unit (P = 0.018) in probiotic arm compared to placebo. Although not statistically significant, delta length for age z score (LAZ) trended to be higher among children in probiotc (β = 0.25) and synbiotic (β = 0.26) arms compared to placebo in multivariable linear regression model. Our study describes that young SAM infants had a higher rate of weight gain when supplemented with probiotic alone, compared to their counterparts with either synbiotic or placebo