Raised levels of IFN-gamma and IL-13 are associated with pre-diabetes amongst newly diagnosed patients with tuberculosis

Objective: To investigate pre-diabetes and diabetes in newly-diagnosed tuberculosis patients and to assess the association of serum cytokine levels with diabetes status. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted at Indus Hospital and The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi from May to November 2015, and included patients of either gender aged 18 years or more with a confirmed diagnosis of tuberculosis who were either newly diagnosed or had received up to 1 month of anti-tuberculosis therapy were included. Patients were enrolled from among those presenting to the clinics at Indus Hospital, Karachi, and the Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Karachi. The patients were tested for glycosylated haemoglobin and random blood glucose. Diabetes was defined as HbA1c \u3e6.5%; pre-diabetes as HbA1c=5.7-6.4%; and normoglycaemic as HbA1c \u3c5.7%. Serum cytokines were investigated using the Bio-plex 27, Bio-Rad assay. SPSS version 19.0 was used for data analysis. Results: Of the 211 subjects, 110(52%) were females and 101(48%) were males. The overall median age of the sample was 26 years, and 100(47.3%) subjects were underweight. Of the total, 24(11.4%) had diabetes and 45(21.3%) had pre-diabetes. Of the diabetics, only 7(29%) knew their status prior to screening. Interferon-gamma and interleukin-13 were significantly different among tuberculosis patients with diabetes, pre-diabetes and normoglycaemia (p\u3c0.05). Glycosylated haemoglobin levels showed a significant correlation with interferon-gamma levels. Conclusions: Raised interleukin-13 and interferon-gamma levels in newly-diagnosed tuberculosis patients with pre-diabetes

Expression of M. tuberculosis-induced suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) 1, SOCS3, FoxP3 and secretion of IL-6 associates with differing clinical severity of tuberculosis

Background Appropriate immune activation of T cells and macrophages is central for the control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections. IFN-γ stimulated responses are lowered in tuberculosis (TB), while expression of Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling (SOCS) molecules – 1 and 3 and CD4+CD25+FoxP3+T regulatory cells is increased. Here we investigated the association of these molecules in regard to clinical severity of TB. Methods Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from patients with pulmonary TB (PTB, n = 33), extra-pulmonary TB (ETB, n = 33) and healthy endemic controls (EC, n = 15). Cases were classified as moderately advanced or far advanced PTB, and less severe or severe disseminated ETB. M. tuberculosis -stimulated IFN-γ, SOCS1, SOCS3 and FoxP3 gene expression and secretion of Th1 and Th2 cytokines was measured. Statistical analysis was performed using Mann–Whitney U, Wilcoxon Rank and Kruskal Wallis non-parametric tests. Results In un-stimulated PBMCs, IL-6 (p = 0.018) and IL-10 (p = 0.013) secretion levels were increased in PTB while IL-10 was also increased in ETB (p = 0.003), all in comparison with EC. M. tuberculosis-stimulated IL-6 (p = 0.003) was lowered in ETB as compared with EC. SOCS1 mRNA expression in M. tuberculosis stimulated PBMCs levels in moderately advanced PTB (p = 0.022), far advanced (p = 0.014) PTB, and severe ETB (p = 0.009) were raised as compared with EC. On the other hand, SOCS1 mRNA titers were reduced in less severe ETB, in comparison with severe ETB (p = 0.027) and far advanced PTB (p = 0.016). SOCS3 mRNA accumulation was reduced in far advanced PTB (p = 0.007) and FoxP3 mRNA expression was increased in less severe ETB as compared with EC (p = 0.017). Conclusions The lowered SOCS1 mRNA levels in patients with less severe extra-pulmonary TB as compared to those with more severe ETB and PTB may lead to elevated IFN-γ pathway gene expression in the latter group. As localized ETB has shown to be associated with more effective Th1 immunity and adaptive responses, this suggests a role for SOCS1 in determining disease outcome in extra-pulmonary TB

Adsorption of Lead from wastewater on Pakistani bentonites

ABSTRACT Lead and lead compounds are generally noxious pollutants. Lead contamination from a variety of industrial sources pose a significant environmental threat to receiving waters and its presence causes contagion of plants and then through nutritional chain it affects the health of humans and animals. The present study undertakes the efficiency of natural bentonites taken from various areas of Pakistan for removal of lead from wastewater. The batch adsorption study was applied to remove this toxic metal. The quantities of lead metal before and after the treatment of standard solutions with different samples of bentonite were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopic method. The studies were carried out at room temperature, pH 7 and -200 mesh particle size using 50ml of metal solutions. The time taken to maintain equilibrium was one hour. Then percentage adsorption was calculated for different bentonite samples

Lead Removal from Water by Low Cost Adsorbents:A Review

Lead is known to be toxic for human’s body systems i.e. nervous, digestive and skeleton system even if it is present in low levels. The rapidly increasing population is appending many problems concerning water pollution. The presence of lead metal in drinking water is of special concern because of its persistence and toxicity. In this review paper lead toxicity, its contamination in water and the effects of various factors on adsorption of lead, reaction kinetics, nature of link between lead and surface of media are described. The general prominence has been given on the utilization of different agricultural, industrial wastes and low cost synthetic oxides as adsorbents for the removal of poisonous lead from water

Role of Different Salts in Dyeing Process and their Replacement

The present paper was aimed at studying possibility of using different organic salts as substitute of nondegradable inorganic salt in dyeing process as these inorganic electrolytes cause environment problems. Using cationic hydrolyzed starch derived from 2-hydroxypropyltrimethylammonium chloride resulted in enhanced rate of dye fixation with increased DS value for counteracting static repulsion between fibers and reactive dye. Exhaustion and fixation efficiency reported was 30g/L for reactive dyes when sodium edate was used as inorganic salt alternative while sodium citrate gave higher exhaustion and fixation efficiency of 25g/L for same dyes when compared. Use of PEO45 di-block copolymer derived from [2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl]trimethylammonium chloride(MeDMA) has proved to provide strong attraction to anionic reactive dye increasing dye uptake to 5g/L which is optimum concentration for neutralizing fabrics. While polycarboxylic acid salts has shown same effects regarding exhaustion and fixation as that of sodium sulphate and sodium chloride evaluated by comparing K/S values.

Biological and Physiochemical Techniques for the Removal of Zinc from Drinking Water: A Review

Presence of Zinc (II) in drinking water beyond permissible limits is considered unsafe for human health. Many different anthropogenic activities including mining, burning of petroleum, industrialization, and urbanization cause a release of considerably higher amounts of zinc into the waterbodies. A permissible limit of 5 mg/L is set by various environmental and pollution control authorities beyond which water may cause respiratory, liver, gonads, and brain disorders. Due to these health hazards, it is important to remove exceeding amounts of zinc from drinking water. Zinc enters drinking water from various sources such as corrosive pipelines, release of industrial effluents, and metal leaching. Different biological and physiochemical techniques are used to remove zinc involving chemical precipitation, ion exchange, adsorption, biosorbents, distillation, ozonation, and membrane filtration technology. Among these technologies, physical process of adsorption using low cost adsorbents is not only economical but abundant, efficient, and easily available. In present review different physiochemical and biological techniques are discussed for the removal of Zinc from drinking water

LEADERSHIP STYLE OF MIDDLE LEVEL MANAGERS IN PAKISTAN: A STUDY OF GENDER ROLE

In this study the Transformational, Transactional and laissez faire leadership styles within the organizations are discussed. The purpose of this research was to measure the leadership style of middle level managers both males and females within organizations in Pakistan. Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire developed by Avolio and Bass in 1994 is used for this purpose. Leadership on seven factors i.e. Idealized influence, Inspirational motivation, Intellectual stimulation, Individualized Consideration, Contingent reward, Management by expectation and Laissez-faire Leadership is also measured in this research. It was concluded that overall Transactional leadership style is dominant in middle level managers of Pakistan as compare to transformational leadership style and also females are more transactional than males. Transformational leadership style is dominant in females as compared to males. Also females exhibit more Laissez Faire in contrast to males

Recent Developments in Plasmonic Nanostructures for Metal Enhanced Fluorescence-Based Biosensing

Metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) is a unique phenomenon of surface plasmons, where light interacts with the metallic nanostructures and produces electromagnetic fields to enhance the sensitivity of fluorescence-based detection. In particular, this enhancement in sensing capacity is of importance to many research areas, including medical diagnostics, forensic science, and biotechnology. The article covers the basic mechanism of MEF and recent developments in plasmonic nanostructures fabrication for efficient fluorescence signal enhancement that are critically reviewed. The implications of current fluorescence-based technologies for biosensors are summarized, which are in practice to detect different analytes relevant to food control, medical diagnostics, and forensic science. Furthermore, characteristics of existing fabrication methods have been compared on the basis of their resolution, design flexibility, and throughput. The future projections emphasize exploring the potential of non-conventional materials and hybrid fabrication techniques to further enhance the sensitivity of MEF-based biosensors