The Intercontinental ‘Omics’ mining of Antibiotic Resistant Genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Background: By the year 2030, it will be seven more times difficult and seven times more of 14,600 pills to treat one person with drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) if we fail in the use of ‘Omics therapy’. A curated database of the National Centre for Biotechnology Institute (NCBI): Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) provides high-through-put referenced information on antibiotics resistance.Methods:This study employed a less expensive but high accuracy software-based approach; Comprehensive Antibiotics Resistance Database to identify the resistance genes within the genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis across the five continents. Thirty complete genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were retrieved and their respective accession numbers and locations were categorized into Perfect and Strict genes. Results: The least number of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complete genome sequences were retrieved from the America followed by Antarctica and Africa with 10%, 10%, 25% prevalence respectively. The continents with the highest number of sequences were Asia and Europe which account for 25% and 33.3% respectively. The prevalence of genes categorized under the strict category from CARD database with mdsB, mdsA, AAC(6')-Iaa, sdiA, golS TEM-1, tetW , ANT(4')-Ib, had 100% prevalence each (present in all the 30 complete genome sequences retrieved), arlR, arlS, mepR, mgrA had the prevalence rates of 25%, each, mepA, Lmrs, FosB had the prevalence rates of 33.3% each

Microbial contamination of some ready-to-eat vended fruits in Sango open-market, Saki, Oyo State, Nigeria

Background: Fruits are widely exposed to microbial contamination through contact with soil, dust, water and handling at harvest, during or postharvest processing. It has been recognized that, they can be a source of food borne illnesses that can majorly result to poor hygiene practices and unsanitary conditions at fruit vending points. The main objective of the study was to assess the hygiene status as well as microbial contamination in fruit-vending-businesses in Saki; a Nigerian City. Methods: The microbial contamination of ready-to-eat vended fruits in Sango market was examined using standard microbiological methods. A total of eight (8) fruits samples comprising two from each of fresh apples (Malus domestica), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), orange (Citrus sinensis) and carrot (Daucus carota) of vended fruits were screened for total bacterial count. Identifications was made through their colony appearance, microscopic examination on nutrient Agar, selective and differential Agar (EMB, MacConkey, SSA, MRS, Biochemical tests (catalase, sugar,) and Gram staining of the samples. Results: Four (4) bacterial species were identified as: Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp < /em> and Shigella spp < /em> from the vended fruit samples. The total aerobic plate count ranged from 0.8×104- 0.4×104 CFU ml-1 in apple with the highest count among carrot samples and the lowest among orange samples. Coclusion: The isolated organisms from the vended fruits showed that contamination mainly occurred due to poor hygiene and environmental factors

Prevalence, awareness and reporting of symptoms of obstructive sleep apnoea among hospitalized adult patients in Nigeria: A multicenter study

Background: Obstructive sleep apnoea is the most common form of sleep- disordered breathing in adults and children. It is associated with many adverse  health consequences. The objectives this study were to determine the prevalence, awareness and reporting of symptoms of obstructive sleep apnoea among  hospitalized adult patients in Nigeria.Methods: This was a multicenter cross-sectional study involving 1420 adult patients admitted to general medical and surgical wards of selected hospitals from March to April 2013. A questionnaire embedded with Berlin questionnaire, Epworth sleepiness scale and questions on level of awareness and reporting of symptoms of sleep apnoea was used for data collection.Results: One-third of the patients (33.4%) reported snoring, 16.3% had excessive daytime sleepiness, 10.0% experienced daytime fatigue, and 8.0% experienced  drowsy driving. Approximately 5% reported witnessed apnoea and 18.0% had high risks for obstructive sleep apnoea. The frequency of high risk for sleep apnoea  increased with age and declined after 65 years and also increased with the body  mass index. Snoring, excessive daytime sleepiness and high risk for obstructive  sleep apnoea were more common in patients with chronic medical conditions and  who were admitted to the urban hospitals. The majority were not aware that snoring (77.3%) and excessive daytime sleepiness (65.8%) constitute a medical problem, and only 4.5% reported these symptoms to their doctors.Conclusions: The level of awareness and under-reporting of sleep apnoea symptoms are poor. The high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea symptoms from this study should form the basis for screening hospitalized patients with chronic medical condition across the country.Keywords: Obstructive sleep apnoea, Nigeria, Snoring, Prevalence, Awareness, Under-reportin

A novel design of multi-epitope based vaccine against Escherichia coli

Background: Multi-valent based vaccines have advantage over conventional vaccines because of its multi-faceted action targeted at antigen; thereby raising hope of a more sustained actions against allergens. Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a bacterium that is commonly found in the gut of humans and warm-blooded animals. An increasing number of outbreaks are associated with the consumption of fruits and vegetables (including sprouts, spinach, lettuce, coleslaw, and salad) thereby contamination may be due to contact with faeces from domestic or wild animals at some stages during cultivation or handling. Due to the reported increase in resistance to antibiotics used for Escherichia coli control; an effective vaccine is a would-be alternative of proven interest. Hence, a need for a rational, strategic, and efficient vaccine candidate against E.coli is of paramount necessity by the use of the most current bioinformatics tools to achieve this task. Method: In this study, immunoinformatics tools mined from diverse molecular databases were used  for a novel putative epitope based oral vaccine against E.coli. The prospective vaccine proteins were carefully screened and validated to achieve a high thorough-put three-dimensional protein structure. The eventual propsective vaccine candidate proteins was evaluated for its non-allergenicity, antigenicity, solubility, appropriate molecular weight testing and isoelectric point evaluation. Conclusion: The resultant vaccine candidate could serve as a promising anti-E.coli vaccine candidate. Immunoinformatics is a new field over pharmaco-therapeutics; this newest technology should continue to be a rescue from age-long traditional approach in vaccine developments