Plasmodium falciparum enolase: stage-specific expression and sub-cellular localization

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In an earlier study, it was observed that the vaccination with <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>enolase can confer partial protection against malaria in mice. Evidence has also build up to indicate that enolases may perform several non-glycolytic functions in pathogens. Investigating the stage-specific expression and sub-cellular localization of a protein may provide insights into its moonlighting functions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Sub-cellular localization of <it>P. falciparum </it>enolase was examined using immunofluorescence assay, immuno-gold electron microscopy and western blotting.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Enolase protein was detected at every stage in parasite life cycle examined. In asexual stages, enolase was predominantly (≥85–90%) present in soluble fraction, while in sexual stages it was mostly associated with particulate fraction. Apart from cytosol, enolase was found to be associated with nucleus, food vacuole, cytoskeleton and plasma membrane.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Diverse localization of enolase suggests that apart from catalyzing the conversion of 2-phosphoglycericacid into phosphoenolpyruvate in glycolysis, enolase may be involved in a host of other biological functions. For instance, enolase localized on the merozoite surface may be involved in red blood cell invasion; vacuolar enolase may be involved in food vacuole formation and/or development; nuclear enolase may play a role in transcription.</p

Predisposing Factors in Post Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography Pancreatitis

Objective: To ascertain the prevalence of risk factors in pancreatitis after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography at Isra University Hospital in Hyderabad. Methodology: This descriptive case series study was done at the gastroenterology department of Isra University Hospital, Hyderabad, from September 2018 to March 2020. Patients aged 18 to 50 years, both genders, and diagnosed with post-ERCP pancreatitis were included. All the patients were undergoing an ERCP procedure. The procedure was done under conscious sedation or propofol where needed. The serum amylase level was assessed in all patients at 4 hours. Patients had been considered to have post-ERCP pancreatitis if they developed new or worsening pain of abdomen and had a threefold increase in serum amylase. All the cases were assessed regarding risk factors in pancreatitis after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. All the data was recorded in the proforma. Results: The mean age of the patients was 42.7 years. The majority of the patients (65.47%) were females and 32.90% were males. The mean duration of pancreatitis was 3.1 days. Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction was found in 17.1% of cases. Precut papillotomy was done in 18(23.7%) cases. Repeated pancreatic duct injury was seen in 10(13.2%) cases. No significant difference was found in the effect of modifiers on predisposing factors in post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis, p-values were almost insignificant. Conclusion: Cannulation attempts, Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction, precut papillotomy, repeated pancreatic duct injection, and female gender were observed to be the predisposing factors in post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis

Incidence of Colorectal Carcinoma in the Remote Area of Sindh, Pakistan

Background: Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is the third most common cancer in the world that show malignant growth in the colon, rectum, and or appendix. CRC is the second most common malignancy in females and third in males. This study aimed to ascertain the incidence of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) in a population in a remote area of Sindh, Pakistan, and also compared and correlated the sociodemographic characteristics and different parameters such as diagnosis, grade, and histopathology of the CRC cases.Methods: The study was conducted from February 2012 to 2019 at Pakistan Atomic Energy Cancer Hospital (NORIN) Nawabshah Sindh, Pakistan. All cases were evaluated through a detailed history, clinical examination, radiological examination, and histopathology-proven cases. The sociodemographic parameters, diagnosis grades, and histopathology of the CRC were statistically compared and correlated by SPSS version 21.Results: Out of a total of 10,848 reported patients, 424 (3.9%) were of CRC. The CRC was further comprised of 63.9% males and 36.1% females. We classified our patients into two age groups, ≤ 40 years (Group-A), and > 40 years (Group B). Group-A comprised 41% of patients, and their mean age was 28±6.98 years, while Group B comprised 59% of patients with a mean age of 43±8.3 years. Histological specimens divulged that most of the common specimens were of adenocarcinoma. Early diagnosis was very strenuous due to no signs and symptoms. Thus, the majority of the patients, approximately 39%, were found to be of grade 2 carcinoma.Conclusion: Our study unveils an increased number of patients with CDC at an age of <40 belonging to rural areas. Further studies are needed to elucidate the cause of this high incidence with a particular focus on genetic and molecular risk factors.Keywords: Active lifestyle, Colorectal Carcinoma; Age group; Colorectal Adenocarcinoma

EWGWS insert in Plasmodium falciparum ookinete surface enolase is involved in binding of PWWP containing peptides: Implications to mosquito midgut invasion by the parasite

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.There are multiple stages in the life cycle of Plasmodium that invade host cells. Molecular machinery involved is such host-pathogen interactions constitute excellent drug targets and/or vaccine candidates. A screen using a phage display library has previously demonstrated presence of enolase on the surface of the Plasmodium ookinete. Phage-displayed peptides that bound to the ookinete contained a conserved motif (PWWP) in their sequence. Here, direct binding of these peptides with recombinant Plasmodium falciparum enolase (rPfeno) was investigated. These peptides showed specific binding to rPfeno, but failed to bind to other enolases. Plasmodium spp enolases are distinct in having an insert of five amino acids ((104)EWGWS(108)) that is not found in host enolases. The possibility of this insert being the recognition motif for the PWWP containing peptides was examined, (i) by comparing the binding of the peptides with rPfeno and a deletion variant Δ-rPfeno lacking (104)EWGWS(108), (ii) by measuring the changes in proton chemical shifts of PWWP peptides on binding to different enolases and (iii) by inter-molecular docking experiment to locate the peptide binding site. Results from these studies showed that the pentapeptide insert of Pfeno indeed constitutes the binding site for the PWWP domain containing peptide ligands. Search for sequences homologous to phage displayed peptides among peritrophic matrix proteins resulted in identification of perlecan, laminin, peritrophin and spacran. The possibility of these PWWP domain-containing proteins in the peritrophic matrix of insect gut to interact with ookinete cell surface enolase and facilitate the invasion of mosquito midgut epithelium is discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Hygienic practices among consultant anesthetists in teaching hospitals of Sindh Pakistan: A cross-sectional survey

Background: Infection susceptibility during anesthesia administration and surgical procedures continues to be a primary cause of morbidity and mortality, despite the advent of prophylactic antibiotics and advanced technology. During surgery, nosocomial infections frequently result in sepsis, highlighting the importance of Operation Theatre (OT) sanitation. Objectives: To evaluate the hygienic practices of anesthesiologists operating in teaching hospitals in Sindh, Pakistan. Methods: Using cross-sectional design, six-month survey of consultant anesthetists in Sindh's numerous educational institutions was conducted. A thorough, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on aspects of sanitation practices including knowledge of infection control, existing practices, perceived obstacles, and adherence to guidelines. Utilizing a sequential sampling procedure, participants meeting specific eligibility criteria were selected to represent a wide range of demographics, socioeconomic statuses, and healthcare delivery contexts. Results: The study contributed to closing the disparity between global standards and actual practices, thereby aligning with the global initiative to improve anesthesia hygiene practices. A total of 83 consultants were approached, but 18 declined, culminating in the analysis of data from 65 participants. Their mean age was 49.27+11.17 years. Participants were predominantly employed in private institutions (n=43) and had an average of 13.97 (SD=10.24) years of experience (p&gt; 0.05).&nbsp

Addressing Binary Classification over Class Imbalanced Clinical Datasets Using Computationally Intelligent Techniques

Nowadays, healthcare is the prime need of every human being in the world, and clinical datasets play an important role in developing an intelligent healthcare system for monitoring the health of people. Mostly, the real-world datasets are inherently class imbalanced, clinical datasets also suffer from this imbalance problem, and the imbalanced class distributions pose several issues in the training of classifiers. Consequently, classifiers suffer from low accuracy, precision, recall, and a high degree of misclassification, etc. We performed a brief literature review on the class imbalanced learning scenario. This study carries the empirical performance evaluation of six classifiers, namely Decision Tree, k-Nearest Neighbor, Logistic regression, Artificial Neural Network, Support Vector Machine, and Gaussian Na&iuml;ve Bayes, over five imbalanced clinical datasets, Breast Cancer Disease, Coronary Heart Disease, Indian Liver Patient, Pima Indians Diabetes Database, and Coronary Kidney Disease, with respect to seven different class balancing techniques, namely Undersampling, Random oversampling, SMOTE, ADASYN, SVM-SMOTE, SMOTEEN, and SMOTETOMEK. In addition to this, the appropriate explanations for the superiority of the classifiers as well as data-balancing techniques are also explored. Furthermore, we discuss the possible recommendations on how to tackle the class imbalanced datasets while training the different supervised machine learning methods. Result analysis demonstrates that SMOTEEN balancing method often performed better over all the other six data-balancing techniques with all six classifiers and for all five clinical datasets. Except for SMOTEEN, all other six balancing techniques almost had equal performance but moderately lesser performance than SMOTEEN