Clinical profile of Cholera cases in Yavatmal District, Maharashtra

Introduction- Outbreak of Cholera still remains major public health problem in most of the developing countries including India. Clinical profile of cholera was studied in Patients attending tertiary care hospital situated in tribal area of Central India, Yavatmal. Methods: Type of study- Descriptive cross-sectional. Study Duration - 2 months (June - July 2012). Study setting- Inpatient Department of S. V. N. Govt. Medical College, Yavatmal (Maharashtra). Study subjects- All cholera patients attending S. V. N. Govt. Medical College Yavatmal (Maharashtra) with the complaints of acute watery diarrhoea. Study variables- Detailed clinical profile of these cases was noted along with other relevant environmental history. Results-Out of a total 377 cases of acute watery diarrhoea, 13 isolates were positive for cholera. All the isolates were V. cholera 01 biotype El Tor serotype Ogawa.  46.2%   of cases were below 5 years of age, the two youngest children being 1.5 years old. Both the sexes were equally affected. 61.5% cases had duration of diarrhoea more than 24 hours. Overall living and hygienic conditions of all the patients were poor. However all patients responded to intravenous fluids, oral rehydration and antibiotics (Doxycycline) within 24-48 hours without any mortality. Interpretation & conclusions: This study reflects the cases infected with 01 El Tor Ogawa  with severe and critical clinical features in Yavatmal district causing high morbidity in the form of severe dehydration and peripheral circulatory collapse which requires early, correct diagnosis and prompt treatment

Rhinovirus-induced basic fibroblast growth factor release mediates airway remodeling features

BACKGROUND: Human rhinoviruses, major precipitants of asthma exacerbations, induce lower airway inflammation and mediate angiogenesis. The purpose of this study was to assess the possibility that rhinoviruses may also contribute to the fibrotic component of airway remodeling. METHODS: Levels of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) mRNA and protein were measured following rhinovirus infection of bronchial epithelial cells. The profibrotic effect of epithelial products was assessed by DNA synthesis and matrix metalloproteinase activity assays. Moreover, epithelial cells were exposed to supernatants from cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells, obtained from healthy donors or atopic asthmatic subjects and subsequently infected by rhinovirus and bFGF release was estimated. bFGF was also measured in respiratory secretions from atopic asthmatic patients before and during rhinovirus-induced asthma exacerbations. RESULTS: Rhinovirus epithelial infection stimulated mRNA expression and release of bFGF, the latter being positively correlated with cell death under conditions promoting rhinovirus-induced cytotoxicity. Supernatants from infected cultures induced lung fibroblast proliferation, which was inhibited by anti-bFGF antibody, and demonstrated increased matrix metalloproteinase activity. Rhinovirus-mediated bFGF release was significantly higher in an in vitro simulation of atopic asthmatic environment and, importantly, during rhinovirus-associated asthma exacerbations. CONCLUSIONS: Rhinovirus infection induces bFGF release by airway epithelium, and stimulates stroma cell proliferation contributing to airway remodeling in asthma. Repeated rhinovirus infections may promote asthma persistence, particularly in the context of atopy; prevention of such infections may influence the natural history of asthma

Impact of pulmonary exposure to gold core silver nanoparticles of different size and capping agents on cardiovascular injury

Background:The uses of engineered nanomaterials have expanded in biomedical technology and consumer manufacturing. Furthermore, pulmonary exposure to various engineered nanomaterials has, likewise, demonstrated the ability to exacerbate cardiac ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury. However, the influence of particle size or capping agent remains unclear. In an effort to address these influences we explored response to 2 different size gold core nanosilver particles (AgNP) with two different capping agents at 2 different time points. We hypothesized that a pulmonary exposure to AgNP induces cardiovascular toxicity influenced by inflammation and vascular dysfunction resulting in expansion of cardiac I/R Injury that is sensitive to particle size and the capping agent. Methods: Male Sprague–Dawley rats were exposed to 200 μg of 20 or 110 nm polyvinylprryolidone (PVP) or citrate capped AgNP. One and 7 days following intratracheal instillation serum was analyzed for concentrations of selected cytokines; cardiac I/R injury and isolated coronary artery and aorta segment were assessed for constrictor responses and endothelial dependent relaxation and endothelial independent nitric oxide dependent relaxation. Results: AgNP instillation resulted in modest increase in selected serum cytokines with elevations in IL-2, IL-18, and IL-6. Instillation resulted in a derangement of vascular responses to constrictors serotonin or phenylephrine, as well as endothelial dependent relaxations with acetylcholine or endothelial independent relaxations by sodium nitroprusside in a capping and size dependent manner. Exposure to both 20 and 110 nm AgNP resulted in exacerbation cardiac I/R injury 1 day following IT instillation independent of capping agent with 20 nm AgNP inducing marginally greater injury. Seven days following IT instillation the expansion of I/R injury persisted but the greatest injury was associated with exposure to 110 nm PVP capped AgNP resulted in nearly a two-fold larger infarct size compared to naïve. Conclusions: Exposure to AgNP may result in vascular dysfunction, a potentially maladaptive sensitization of the immune system to respond to a secondary insult (e.g., cardiac I/R) which may drive expansion of I/R injury at 1 and 7 days following IT instillation where the extent of injury could be correlated with capping agents and AgNP size.This work was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences U19ES019525, U01ES020127, U19ES019544 and East Carolina Universit

Natural radionuclide of Po210 in the edible seafood affected by coal-fired power plant industry in Kapar coastal area of Malaysia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Po²¹⁰can be accumulated in various environmental materials, including marine organisms, and contributes to the dose of natural radiation in seafood. The concentration of this radionuclide in the marine environment can be influenced by the operation of a coal burning power plant but existing studies regarding this issue are not well documented. Therefore, the aim of this study was to estimate the Po²¹⁰concentration level in marine organisms from the coastal area of Kapar, Malaysia which is very near to a coal burning power plant station and to assess its impact on seafood consumers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Concentration of Po²¹⁰was determined in the edible muscle of seafood and water from the coastal area of Kapar, Malaysia using radiochemical separation and the Alpha Spectrometry technique.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The activities of Po²¹⁰in the dissolved phase of water samples ranged between 0.51 ± 0.21 and 0.71 ± 0.24 mBql^-1whereas the particulate phase registered a range of 50.34 ± 11.40 to 72.07 ± 21.20 Bqkg^-1. The ranges of Po²¹⁰activities in the organism samples were 4.4 ± 0.12 to 6.4 ± 0.95 Bqkg^-1dry wt in fish (<it>Arius maculatus</it>), 45.7 ± 0.86 to 54.4 ± 1.58 Bqkg^-1dry wt in shrimp (<it>Penaeus merguiensis</it>) and 104.3 ± 3.44 to 293.8 ± 10.04 Bqkg^-1dry wt in cockle (<it>Anadara granosa</it>). The variation of Po²¹⁰in organisms is dependent on the mode of their life style, ambient water concentration and seasonal changes. The concentration factors calculated for fish and molluscs were higher than the recommended values by the IAEA. An assessment of daily intake and received dose due to the consumption of seafood was also carried out and found to be 2083.85 mBqday^-1person^-1and 249.30 μSvyr^-1respectively. These values are comparatively higher than reported values in other countries. Moreover, the transformation of Po²¹⁰in the human body was calculated and revealed that a considerable amount of Po²¹⁰can be absorbed in the internal organs. The calculated values of life time mortality and morbidity cancer risks were 24.8 × 10^-4and 34 × 10^-4respectively which also exceeded the recommended limits set by the ICRP.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings of this present study can be used to evaluate the safety dose uptake level of seafood as well as to monitor environmental health. However, as the calculated dose and cancer risks were found to cross the limit of safety, finding a realistic way to moderate the risk is imperative.</p

Genotype-Specific Differences between Mouse CNS Stem Cell Lines Expressing Frontotemporal Dementia Mutant or Wild Type Human Tau

Stem cell (SC) lines that capture the genetics of disease susceptibility provide new research tools. To assess the utility of mouse central nervous system (CNS) SC-containing neurosphere cultures for studying heritable neurodegenerative disease, we compared neurosphere cultures from transgenic mice that express human tau with the P301L familial frontotemporal dementia (FTD) mutation, rTg(tauP301L)4510, with those expressing comparable levels of wild type human tau, rTg(tauwt)21221. rTg(tauP301L)4510 mice express the human tauP301L variant in their forebrains and display cellular, histological, biochemical and behavioral abnormalities similar to those in human FTD, including age-dependent differences in tau phosphorylation that distinguish them from rTg(tauwt)21221 mice. We compared FTD-hallmark tau phosphorylation in neurospheres from rTg(tauP301L)4510 mice and from rTg(tauwt)21221 mice. The tau genotype-specific phosphorylation patterns in neurospheres mimicked those seen in mice, validating use of neurosphere cultures as models for studying tau phosphorylation. Genotype-specific tau phosphorylation was observed in 35 independent cell lines from individual fetuses; tau in rTg(tauP301L)4510 cultures was hypophosphorylated in comparison with rTg(tauwt)21221 as was seen in young adult mice. In addition, there were fewer human tau-expressing cells in rTg(tauP301L)4510 than in rTg(tauwt)21221 cultures. Following differentiation, neuronal filopodia-spine density was slightly greater in rTg(tauP301L)4510 than rTg(tauwt)21221 and control cultures. Together with the recapitulation of genotype-specific phosphorylation patterns, the observation that neurosphere lines maintained their cell line-specific-differences and retained SC characteristics over several passages supports the utility of SC cultures as surrogates for analysis of cellular disease mechanisms

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Evaluation of Leprosy Case Detection Campaign (LCDC) in Jharkhand: The Way Forward for Elimination of Leprosy

The first phase of Leprosy Case Detection Campaign was conducted in selected 7 states of India during March-April 2016. The current cross sectional observational study was conducted in four districts as a part of the monitoring LCDC activities in Jharkhand. The evaluation of this campaign was conducted in five components IEC, Training, house-to-house survey activity, supervision and reporting. 53.46% persons were screened, 4660 suspects were examined for presence of leprosy and 513 leprosy cases were confirmed. Among these 40.55% were MB, 8.58 % were child cases and 0.97% were cases of Grade II disability. Cases detected during 14 days activity were more than the annual case detection in Godda District, two third of the annual case detection in E. Singhbhum and Dumka Districts. Overall the activity was noted to be satisfactory and comparable with the previous active case detection drives. The need of improvement in supervision was felt

Spray printing of organic semiconducting single crystals

Single-crystal semiconductors have been at the forefront of scientific interest for more than 70 years, serving as the backbone of electronic devices. Inorganic single crystals are typically grown from a melt using time-consuming and energy-intensive processes. Organic semiconductor single crystals, however, can be grown using solution-based methods at room temperature in air, opening up the possibility of large-scale production of inexpensive electronics targeting applications ranging from field-effect transistors and light-emitting diodes to medical X-ray detectors. Here we demonstrate a low-cost, scalable spray-printing process to fabricate high-quality organic single crystals, based on various semiconducting small molecules on virtually any substrate by combining the advantages of antisolvent crystallization and solution shearing. The crystals’ size, shape and orientation are controlled by the sheer force generated by the spray droplets’ impact onto the antisolvent’s surface. This method demonstrates the feasibility of a spray-on single-crystal organic electronics