PREVALENCE OF MULTI-DRUG RESISTANT BACTERIAL GASTROENTERITIS IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN

Multidrug resistant Escherichia coli (E. coli) associated diarrheal diseases are the most prevalent health problems in Karachi, Pakistan. The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the clinical experiences of individuals suffered from gastroenteritis and also to determine the prevailing sensitivity / resistance pattern of E. coli among the population of Karachi. A cross-sectional retrospective survey was conducted by distributing questionnaires to a total of 150 individuals in December, 2014. The data collected from the questionnaire was statistically analyzed. Majority of the surveyed population was found to be infected by gastroenteritis lately or sometime in their life. On asking the questions about the possible reasons for being infected, it was revealed that the use of untreated water was the major source for the occurrence of the infection. Diagnostic tests were not carried out in most of the cases. Evaluation of questionnaire also indicated that physicians prescribed 2nd line of drug therapy due to the failure of treatment by cephalosporins, quinolones and fosfomycin. The susceptibility pattern of E. coli against selective antimicrobials agents was determined by using disc diffusion method. A total of 50 non-duplicate isolates of bacteria were collected from clinical laboratory of tertiary care hospital. The results were evaluated according to the guidelines of Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). The findings of sensitivity determination supported the retrospective data indicating that cefexime and ceftriaxone failed to inhibit the growth of 80% of the bacterial sample while ciprofloxacin was also found to be less effective since 65% of the isolates showed resistance to it. A 50% resistance pattern was observed against cefoperazone and sulbactam. The most effective antibiotic against E. coli was found to be colistin (100% sensitive) followed by amikacin (90%), merepenem (90%) and gentamicin (70%). Hence, the in-time monitoring of infection through diagnostic procedures is suggested to avoid treatment failure

Effects of Shrimp Peptide Hydrolysate on Intestinal Microbiota Restoration and Immune Modulation in Cyclophosphamide-Treated Mice

The gut microbiota is important in regulating host metabolism, maintaining physiology, and protecting immune homeostasis. Gut microbiota dysbiosis affects the development of the gut microenvironment, as well as the onset of various external systemic diseases and metabolic syndromes. Cyclophosphamide (CTX) is a commonly used chemotherapeutic drug that suppresses the host immune system, intestinal mucosa inflammation, and dysbiosis of the intestinal flora. Immunomodulators are necessary to enhance the immune system and prevent homeostasis disbalance and cytotoxicity caused by CTX. In this study, shrimp peptide hydrolysate (SPH) was evaluated for immunomodulation, intestinal integration, and microbiota in CTX-induced immunosuppressed mice. It was observed that SPH would significantly restore goblet cells and intestinal mucosa integrity, modulate the immune system, and increase relative expression of mRNA and tight-junction associated proteins (Occludin, Zo-1, Claudin-1, and Mucin-2). It also improved gut flora and restored the intestinal microbiota ecological balance by removing harmful microbes of various taxonomic groups. This would also increase the immune organs index, serum levels of cytokines (IFN-ϒ, IL1β, TNF-α, IL-6), and immunoglobin levels (IgA, IgM). The Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes proportion was decreased in CTX-induced mice. Finally, SPH would be recommended as a functional food source with a modulatory effect not only on intestinal microbiota, but also as a potential health-promoting immune function regulator

The composition of the blood microbiota and its relationship to osteoporosis-related clinical parameters

Osteoporosis, a systemic bone disease, is characterized by decreased bone mass, deterioration of skeletal structure, and increased bone susceptibility. Age, environment, hormone levels, nutrition, and immunity are all factors that influence bone mass. Currently, intestinal flora has been recently recognized as a key regulator of bone mass. The blood's microbiome role in bone health and in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis remains unknown. In this study, the abundance of various blood's microbial taxa in osteoporosis patients were analyzed. We investigated the associations between prominent bacterial taxa and other clinical indicators (i.e. biochemical, blood cell counts and CT scan). DNA was extracted from the whole blood samples of patients with degenerative bone diseases with or without osteoporosis (i.e. n = 8; ST and n = 12, T group) and healthy controls (n = 4, N group). The 16S rRNA gene sequencing technique was utilized to characterize the blood microbiome taxaThe Shannon–Winner and dilution curves revealed that all the characterized species in the sample and the sequencing data were reliable. The number of bacterial taxa in blood and annotated operational taxonomic units were positively correlated with neutrophils. This support that bacteria exist within or adhere to the neutrophil's membrane. The abundance of Yersinia ruckeri, Rhodanobacter_uncultured bacterium, Enterobacter spp., and Raoultella spp increased in the ST group as compared with the N group. Hence, indicate their potential role in the onset and progression of osteoporosis. These findings provide new insights into the association between blood microbiota and bone health. This study could open a new horizon in exploring the clinical application of blood microbiome to improve bone health

Artificial jellyfish search algorithm-based selective harmonic elimination in a cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter

This paper used an artificial jellyfish search (AJFS) optimizer suitable for selective harmonic elimination-based modulation for multilevel inverter (MLI) voltage control application. The main objective was to remove the undesired lower-order harmonics in the output voltage waveform of an MLI. This algorithm was motivated by the behavior of jellyfish in the ocean. Jellyfish have the ability to find the global best position where a large quantity of nutritious food is available. The paper applied AJFS algorithm on five, seven, and nine levels of CHB-MLI. The optimum switching angle was calculated for the entire modulation range for the desired lower-order harmonics elimi-nation. The problem formulated to achieve the objective was solved in a MATLAB environment. The total harmonic distortion (THD) values of five-, seven-, and nine-level inverters for various modulation indexes were computed using AJFS and compared with the powerful differential evolution (DE) algorithm. The comparison of THD results clearly demonstrated superior THD in the output of CHB-MLI of the AJFS algorithm over DE and GA algorithm for low and medium values of modulation index. The experimental results further validated the better performance of the AJFS algorithm.</p

Additional file 1 of Effect of crude polysaccharide from seaweed, Dictyopteris divaricata (CDDP) on gut microbiota restoration and anti-diabetic activity in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced T1DM mice

Additional file 1: Figure S1. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of crude polysaccharide (CDDP) from seaweed, Dictyopteris divaricata.; Figure S2. Box-plot of Shannon index (0.0231), Simpson index (0.0154) and Chao1 (0.0456) was plotted to observe the changes in species richness and evenness; Figure S3. Heatmap of different taxa at genus level. Data represents the degree of similarity among the groups in the form of cluster and dissimilarity arranged individually. Data is a representative of twenty-four samples; Table S1. The body weight of the mice in the experimental study. Table S2. List of qPCR primers; Table S3. The relative abundance (%) of all the phyla at phylum level; Table S4. The differences (%) between the proportion of bacteria at family level; Table S5. Representation of bacterial microbial community (%) at genus level

Biotransformation of a potent anabolic steroid, mibolerone, with <i>Cunninghamella blakesleeana</i>, <i>C</i>. <i>echinulata</i>, and <i>Macrophomina phaseolina</i>, and biological activity evaluation of its metabolites

<div><p>Seven metabolites were obtained from the microbial transformation of anabolic-androgenic steroid mibolerone (<b>1</b>) with <i>Cunninghamella blakesleeana</i>, <i>C</i>. <i>echinulata</i>, and <i>Macrophomina phaseolina</i>. Their structures were determined as 10<i>β</i>,17<i>β</i>-dihydroxy-7<i>α</i>,17<i>α</i>-dimethylestr-4-en-3-one (<b>2</b>), 6<i>β</i>,17<i>β</i>-dihydroxy-7<i>α</i>,17<i>α</i>-dimethylestr-4-en-3-one (<b>3</b>), 6<i>β</i>,10<i>β</i>,17<i>β</i>-trihydroxy-7<i>α</i>,17<i>α</i>-dimethylestr-4-en-3-one (<b>4</b>), 11<i>β</i>,17<i>β</i>-dihydroxy-(20-hydroxymethyl)-7<i>α</i>,17<i>α</i>-dimethylestr-4-en-3-one (<b>5</b>), 1<i>α</i>,17<i>β</i>-dihydroxy-7<i>α</i>,17<i>α</i>-dimethylestr-4-en-3-one (<b>6</b>), 1<i>α</i>,11<i>β</i>,17<i>β</i>-trihydroxy-7<i>α</i>,17<i>α</i>-dimethylestr-4-en-3-one (<b>7</b>), and 11<i>β</i>,17<i>β</i>-dihydroxy-7<i>α</i>,17<i>α</i>-dimethylestr-4-en-3-one (<b>8</b>), on the basis of spectroscopic studies. All metabolites, except <b>8</b>, were identified as new compounds. This study indicates that <i>C</i>. <i>blakesleeana</i>, and <i>C</i>. <i>echinulata</i> are able to catalyze hydroxylation at allylic positions, while <i>M</i>. <i>phaseolina</i> can catalyze hydroxylation of CH₂ and CH₃ groups of substrate <b>1</b>. Mibolerone (<b>1</b>) was found to be a moderate inhibitor of <i>β</i>-glucuronidase enzyme (IC₅₀ = 42.98 ± 1.24 μM) during random biological screening, while its metabolites <b>2</b>–<b>4</b>, and <b>8</b> were found to be inactive. Mibolerone (<b>1</b>) was also found to be significantly active against <i>Leishmania major</i> promastigotes (IC₅₀ = 29.64 ± 0.88 μM). Its transformed products <b>3</b> (IC₅₀ = 79.09 ± 0.06 μM), and <b>8</b> (IC₅₀ = 70.09 ± 0.05 μM) showed a weak leishmanicidal activity, while <b>2</b> and <b>4</b> were found to be inactive. In addition, substrate <b>1</b> (IC₅₀ = 35.7 ± 4.46 μM), and its metabolite <b>8</b> (IC₅₀ = 34.16 ± 5.3 μM) exhibited potent cytotoxicity against HeLa cancer cell line (human cervical carcinoma). Metabolite <b>2</b> (IC₅₀ = 46.5 ± 5.4 μM) also showed a significant cytotoxicity, while <b>3</b> (IC₅₀ = 107.8 ± 4.0 μM) and <b>4</b> (IC₅₀ = 152.5 ± 2.15 μM) showed weak cytotoxicity against HeLa cancer cell line. Compound <b>1</b> (IC₅₀ = 46.3 ± 11.7 μM), and its transformed products <b>2</b> (IC₅₀ = 43.3 ± 7.7 μM), <b>3</b> (IC₅₀ = 65.6 ± 2.5 μM), and <b>4</b> (IC₅₀ = 89.4 ± 2.7 μM) were also found to be moderately toxic to 3T3 cell line (mouse fibroblast). Interestingly, metabolite <b>8</b> showed no cytotoxicity against 3T3 cell line. Compounds <b>1</b>–<b>4</b>, and <b>8</b> were also evaluated for inhibition of tyrosinase, carbonic anhydrase, and <i>α</i>-glucosidase enzymes, and all were found to be inactive.</p></div

<i>β</i>-Glucuronidase activity of compounds were shown in graphical representation.

<p><i>β</i>-Glucuronidase activity of compounds were shown in graphical representation.</p

Leishmanicidal activity of compounds were shown in graphical representation.

<p>Leishmanicidal activity of compounds were shown in graphical representation.</p

Compounds 5–8 obtained by the biotransformation of mibolerone (1) with <i>Macrophomina phaseolina</i>.

<p>Compounds 5–8 obtained by the biotransformation of mibolerone (1) with <i>Macrophomina phaseolina</i>.</p