Prevalence and risk factors of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in livestock and companion animal in high-risk areas in Malaysia

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is vector-borne zoonotic disease which causes encephalitis in humans and horses. Clinical signs for Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection are not clearly evident in the majority of affected animals. In Malaysia, information on the prevalence of JEV infection has not been established. Thus, a cross-sectional study was conducted during two periods, December 2015 to January 2016 and March to August in 2016, to determine the prevalence and risk factors in JEV infections among animals and birds in Peninsular Malaysia. Serum samples were harvested from the 416 samples which were collected from the dogs, cats, water birds, village chicken, jungle fowls, long-tailed macaques, domestic pigs, and cattle in the states of Selangor, Perak, Perlis, Kelantan, and Pahang. The serum samples were screened for JEV antibodies by commercial IgG ELISA kits. A questionnaire was also distributed to obtain information on the animals, birds, and the environmental factors of sampling areas. The results showed that dogs had the highest seropositive rate of 80% (95% CI: ± 11.69) followed by pigs at 44.4% (95% CI: ± 1.715), cattle at 32.2% (95% CI: ± 1.058), birds at 28.9% (95% CI: ± 5.757), cats at 15.6% (95% CI: ± 7.38), and monkeys at 14.3% (95% CI: ± 1.882). The study also showed that JEV seropositivity was high in young animals and in areas where mosquito vectors and migrating birds were prevalent

Prevalence and risk factors of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in livestock and companion animal in high-risk areas in Malaysia

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is vector-borne zoonotic disease which causes encephalitis in humans and horses. Clinical signs for Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection are not clearly evident in the majority of affected animals. In Malaysia, information on the prevalence of JEV infection has not been established. Thus, a cross-sectional study was conducted during two periods, December 2015 to January 2016 and March to August in 2016, to determine the prevalence and risk factors in JEV infections among animals and birds in Peninsular Malaysia. Serum samples were harvested from the 416 samples which were collected from the dogs, cats, water birds, village chicken, jungle fowls, long-tailed macaques, domestic pigs, and cattle in the states of Selangor, Perak, Perlis, Kelantan, and Pahang. The serum samples were screened for JEV antibodies by commercial IgG ELISA kits. A questionnaire was also distributed to obtain information on the animals, birds, and the environmental factors of sampling areas. The results showed that dogs had the highest seropositive rate of 80% (95% CI: ± 11.69) followed by pigs at 44.4% (95% CI: ± 1.715), cattle at 32.2% (95% CI: ± 1.058), birds at 28.9% (95% CI: ± 5.757), cats at 15.6% (95% CI: ± 7.38), and monkeys at 14.3% (95% CI: ± 1.882). The study also showed that JEV seropositivity was high in young animals and in areas where mosquito vectors and migrating birds were prevalent

Detection of Japanese Encephalitis virus in free roamer cats in Malaysia

lntroduction: Japanese Encephalitis virus (JEV) is transmitted by mosquitoes of lhe Culex species and responsible of viral encephalitis in Asia and it is endemic in Malaysia since 1998. Cats and dogs are reported to be susceptible to JEV infection but high positivity was reported in the latter species. The study is conducted to determine if local cats are susceptible to infection by circulating JEV. Methods: The free roaming cats in Klang Valley were chosen since they are possibly exposed to the mosquitoes throughout their life span as compared to indoor cats. About 3ml blood were withdrawn from L2 Domestic Short Hair cats through jugular venipuncture (IACUC No. UPM/IACUC/AUP-R008/2015). Blood plasma was subjected to two steps RT-PCR assay by using non-structural protein NS3 region, and sequenced. Result: Of 12 blood samples, five were positive for JEV with PCR product of approximately 600 bps. Phylogenetic analyses of three amplicons revealed that the local strains are clade together with 97% bootstrap value with JEV strain Nakayama (HE861351); iEV isolated from Rousettus leschenaulti (JF7052S5 and FJ185036) and from Murino ouroto (FJL85037) in which both are reported in China. Conclusion: Free roamer cats are susceptible to JEV infection. More cats should be screened for iEV to determine their seropositivity. Serosurvey of companion animals may accurately reflect risk of humans since these animals are normally owned by household and cats may be one of the sentinel animals for surveillance

GestaltMatcher Database - A global reference for facial phenotypic variability in rare human diseases

The most important factor that complicates the work of dysmorphologists is the significant phenotypic variability of the human face. Next-Generation Phenotyping (NGP) tools that assist clinicians with recognizing characteristic syndromic patterns are particularly challenged when confronted with patients from populations different from their training data. To that end, we systematically analyzed the impact of genetic ancestry on facial dysmorphism. For that purpose, we established the GestaltMatcher Database (GMDB) as a reference dataset for medical images of patients with rare genetic disorders from around the world. We collected 10,980 frontal facial images - more than a quarter previously unpublished - from 8,346 patients, representing 581 rare disorders. Although the predominant ancestry is still European (67%), data from underrepresented populations have been increased considerably via global collaborations (19% Asian and 7% African). This includes previously unpublished reports for more than 40% of the African patients. The NGP analysis on this diverse dataset revealed characteristic performance differences depending on the composition of training and test sets corresponding to genetic relatedness. For clinical use of NGP, incorporating non-European patients resulted in a profound enhancement of GestaltMatcher performance. The top-5 accuracy rate increased by +11.29%. Importantly, this improvement in delineating the correct disorder from a facial portrait was achieved without decreasing the performance on European patients. By design, GMDB complies with the FAIR principles by rendering the curated medical data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. This means GMDB can also serve as data for training and benchmarking. In summary, our study on facial dysmorphism on a global sample revealed a considerable cross ancestral phenotypic variability confounding NGP that should be counteracted by international efforts for increasing data diversity. GMDB will serve as a vital reference database for clinicians and a transparent training set for advancing NGP technology.</p

Diversity of gasteromycetes and taxonomic studies of lycoperdaceae and geastraceae in Peninsular Malaysia / Amira Peli

Gasteromycetes is a group of fungi that produce the spore inside its basidiocarps. Despite the unique morphology and great diversity among the gasteromycetes, this group of fungi has extensive benefits both to mankind as well as its implication towards ecology. There are a few diversity study conducted on specific group such as gasteromycetes were reported for Malaysia. Currently, there are 27 documented records of gasteromycetes collected in Malaysia comprising of five gasteroid group namely Sclerodermataceae, Nidulariaceae, Phallaceae, Lycoperdaceae and Geastraceae. Despite having a few study on the fungal diversity in Malaysia, there are still insufficient information regarding the records of gateromyetes in Malaysia. In this study, 43 specimens from five families; Lycoperdaceae, Nidulariaceae, Sclerodermataceae, Phallaceae and Geastraceae with 20 different species of gasteromycetes from nine different generaand were successfully recorded in this study. The majority of the specimen was collected in the state of Selangor (19 specimens) followed by Negeri Sembilan (eight specimens), Johor (six specimens), Pahang (five specimens), Perak (three specimens) and Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur with two specimens only. The most common gasteromycetes collected in this study are Cyathus striatus (Huds.) Willdenow ex Pers. and Scleroderma sinnamariense Mont. Eleven species were newly recorded for Peninsular Malaysia viz. Vascellum curtisii (Berkeley) Kreisel, Calvatia holothuriodes Rebriev, Lycoperdon asperum (Lév.) de Toni, Morganella purpurascens (Berkeley & Curtis) Kreisel & Dring, Morganella fuliginea (Berkeley & M.A Curtis) Kreisel & Dring, Scleroderma mexicana (Guzmán et Tapia) Guzmán, Scleroderma areolatum Ehrenb., Scleroderma suthepense Kumla, Suwannarach & Lumyong, Scleroderma bovista Fries,Geastrum hariotii Lloyd and G. mirabile Montagne. Among these species, two genera of Lycoperdaceae viz. Vascellum and Morganella are recorded for the first time from Malaysia. The phylogenetic studies of both Malaysian Lycoperdaceae and Geastrum Pers. were analysed. The molecular analysis of ITS region shows Lycoperdaceae is monophyletic with Mycenastrum corium (Guers.) Desv. as sister clade and Geastrum is monophyletic. However, both of the analysis showed a weak support of monophyly within member of Lycoperdaceae and Geastrum. Further study on molecular study on Lycoperdaceae and Geastrum can be extended into other DNA region such as nuclear ribosomal large subunit (LSU) region, mitochondrial ATPase subunit 6 gene (atp6) and translation elongation factor subunit 1 alpha (Tef-1α). This would provide assistance in phylogenetic study of Lycoperdaceae and Geastrum. As this study only covered a few of National Parks and forest reserves in Peninsular Malaysia, there are still a possibility of more new records and new species that yet to be discovered in Malaysia. An extensive documentation of gasteromycetes in Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak also can be carried out for further study to enhance the knowledge of diversity of gasteromycetes in Malaysia

Metabolic utilization of human osteoblast cell line hFOB 1.19 under normoxic and hypoxic conditions: a phenotypic microarray analysis

Osteoblasts play an important role in bone regeneration and repair. The hypoxia condition in bone occurs when bone undergoes fracture, and this will trigger a series of biochemical and mechanical changes to enable bone repair. Hence, it is interesting to observe the metabolites and metabolism changes when osteoblasts are exposed to hypoxic condition. This study has looked into the response of human osteoblast hFOB 1.19 under normoxic and hypoxic conditions by observing the cell growth and utilization of metabolites via Phenotype MicroArrays™ under these two different oxygen concentrations. The cell growth of hFOB 1.19 under hypoxic condition showed better growth compared to hFOB 1.19 under normal condition. In this study, osteoblast used glycolysis as the main pathway to produce energy as hFOB 1.19 in both hypoxic and normoxic conditions showed cell growth in well containing dextrin, glycogen, maltotriose, D-maltose, D-glucose-6-phospate, D-glucose, D-mannose, D-Turanose, D-fructose-6-phosphate, D-galactose, uridine, adenosine, inosine and α-keto-glutaric acid. In hypoxia, the cells have utilized additional metabolites such as α-D-glucose-1-phosphate and D-fructose, indicating possible activation of glycogen synthesis and glycogenolysis to metabolize α-D-glucose-1-phosphate. Meanwhile, during normoxia, D-L-α-glycerol phosphate was used, and this implies that the osteoblast may use glycerol-3-phosphate shuttle and oxidative phosphorylation to metabolize glycerol-3-phosphate