Tuberculosis vaccine: pipeline approaches and future prospective

Tuberculosis (TB), despite anti-mycobacterial therapies and vaccine, is a deadly infectious disease with about 12 million incident cases worldwide. Existing Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is unquestionably inexpensive, safe and effective against severe forms of childhood TB but appears to be limited in effectiveness against adult pulmonary disease in endemic areas. Genetic variation in the population is the major obstruction inhibiting validation of biomarkers for protective human immunity against TB. Since current TB cases are presenting new challenges with threats of HIV co-infection therefore various attempts at a global platform are being made to develop a new modified vaccine against it. Consequently, Modified Vaccinia Ankara virus (MVA) vectored MPT64 & Ag85A delivery and polyvalent DNA vaccine, expressing an ESAT6–Ag85B fusion protein etc. are preclinically tested for boosted immune effects. However, better vaccine approaches still need to be developed against M. tuberculosis which can be unbeaten in most infected areas

IIMA in HealthCare Management: Abstract of Publications (2000-2010)

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), was established in 1961 as an autonomous institution by the Government of India in collaboration with the Government of Gujarat and Indian industry. IIMA’s involvement in the health sector started with the establishment of the Public Systems Group in 1975. In the initial period, our research focused on the management of primary healthcare services and family planning. We expanded our research activities to include the management of secondary healthcare services in the 80s and to tertiary healthcare services in the 90s. Currently our research interests focus on the governance and management issues in the areas on Rural Health, Urban Health, Public Health and Hospital Management. In June 2004, IIMA Board approved the setting up of a Centre for Management Health Services (CMHS) in recognition of IIMA’s contributions to the health sector in the past and the felt need to strengthen the management of health sector in the context of socio-economic developments of our country. The overall objectives of CMHS are to address the managerial challenges in the delivery of health services to respond to the needs of different segments of our population efficiently and effectively, build institutions of excellence in the health sector, and influence health policies and wider environments. All our research projects are externally funded and we have developed research collaborations with 15-20 international universities in USA, UK, Europe, and Asia. CMHS has also established strong linkages with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at the national and state government levels, particularly in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, and Bihar. This working paper is a compilation of the abstracts of all our publications in the last 10 years, which include 40 referred journal articles, 54 Working Papers, 19 Chapters in Books and 18 Case Studies.

Histogenesis of developing human fetal stomach

Background: Human stomach is a highly specialised organ with distinct types of glands and microscopic features for its physiological activity. This study aimed to assess the chronological order in the development of different layers and the cyto-differentiation of various glandular cells in 50 fetuses from 12 weeks of gestation till term.Methods: Tissue was taken from cardiac, body and pylorus to investigate with light and confocal microscopy.Results: The gastric gland formation began as an indentation of the surface epithelium, gastric pit and simultaneous development of glandular buds in the mucosa. The pyloric glands preceded the development of cardiac and gastric glands showing retro cranial sequence of development. In contrast, the muscularis externa showed the classical craniocaudal model of development with oblique layer in the cardiac region by 14 weeks and body region by 16 weeks of gestation. The parietal cells were well developed by 12 weeks and the chief cells by 16 weeks with prominent secretory granules. In addition, the pyloric sphincter was a clearly defined anatomical sphincter developed by whorling of the inner circular layer at the pyloric end of the stomach evident from 12 weeks of gestation.Conclusions: The results showed that the significant cellular morphogenesis occurred between 12-20 weeks of gestation. This aggregated data will serve as a catalyst in the understanding intricacy of embryogenesis, pathogenesis tracing of congenital anomalies and invention of new drugs

Molecular characterization of the Indian Andigena potato core collection using microsatellite markers

Twenty-four (24) microsatellite (SSR) markers of a new PGI kit were used to validate the genetic diversity of the 77 Indian Andigena potato core collections. In SSR analysis, polymorphic information content (PIC), allelic richness per locus of microsatellite loci and cluster analysis showed the high diversity of core collection. In total, 214 SSR alleles were detected in the core collection, out of which 208 alleles were polymorphic with absolute frequencies between 2 to 58. The PIC values of SSR loci ranged from 0.61 to 0.90. SSR-based dendrogram revealed eight main groups (Clusters I to VIII) including 26 single accessions at Dice similarity coefficient value of 0.37. None of the accession showed full similarity with any other accession, except that the maximum similarity (0.83) was observed between the accessions JEX/A-316 and JEX/A-317. PCA revealed 47.31% variation in the first three components. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) analysis which resulted into maximum variation was due to within country origins and yield types. The genetic diversity of the core collection based on the microsatellite data appeared to have quite distinct genotypes that were formed by the morph-agronomic traits. These findings not only demonstrate the diverse core collection but are also useful for selecting genetically distinct potato materials to widen the genetic background of the potato gene pool.Keywords: Core collection, genetic diversity, potato, Solanum tuberosum subsp. andigena, SSRAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(10), pp. 1025-1033, 6 March, 201

ANATOMICAL STUDIES OF LAURENCIA OBTUSA (HUDSON) LAMOUROUX (CERAMIALES) OF RHODOPHYCEAE

Thallus of Laurencia  obtusa  of Rhodophyceae was studied and detailed micromorphological  evaluation was done. Morphology of  the thallus  has been studied to aid pharmacognostic and phytochemical evidences to aid in taxonomic species identification. Parameters presented in this paper may be proposed to establish the authenticity of this red alga and can possibly help to differentiate this  alga from its other species. Since the collections were made in the month of March, Laurencia was with few gametophytic thalli . The study revealed several interesting anatomical characters and its cellular details

Hypergeometric Inequalities for Certain Unified Classes of Multivalent Harmonic Functions

In this paper, we consider unified classes PH (m, A,B) H and QH (m, A,B) H of multivalent harmonic functions F = H +G∈H(m) . Some hypergeometric inequalities for the functions of the class H(m) defined by generalized hypergeometric functions to be in these unified classes and its sub classes TPH (m, A,B) H and TQH (m, A,B) H , respectively, are obtained. Results, involving some integral operators are also given. Further, some special cases of the results are mentioned

On 2-Repeated Burst Codes

There are several kinds of burst errors for which error detecting and error correcting codes have been constructed. In this paper, we consider a new kind of burst error which will be termed as ‘2-repeated burst error of length b(fixed)’. Linear codes capable of detecting such errors have been studied. Further, codes capable of detecting and simultaneously correcting such errors have also been dealt with. The paper obtains lower and upper bounds on the number of parity-check digits required for such codes. An example of such a code has also been provided