Therapeutic Management of Primary Immunodeficiency in Older Patients

Primary immunodeficiency disease (PID) has traditionally been viewed as a group of illnesses seen in the paediatric age group. New advances in diagnosis and treatment have led to an increase in the number of elderly PID patients. However, there is lack of research evidence on which to base clinical management in this group of patients. Management decisions often have to be based therefore on extrapolations from other patient cohorts or from younger patients. Data from the European Society for Immunodeficiencies demonstrates that the vast majority of elderly patients suffer from predominantly antibody deficiency syndromes. We review the management of PID disease in the elderly, with a focus on antibody deficiency disease

First detection of Varicella Zoster Virus clade 9 cases in India during mpox surveillance

AbstractBackground The multi-country mpox outbreak across the globe has led to the systematic surveillance of mpox cases in India. During the surveillance of mpox, we encountered cases of Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV) in suspected mpox cases amongst children & adults. This study focused on the genomic characterization of VZV in India.Methods A total of 331 mpox suspected cases were tested for VZV through real-time PCR, and the positive samples were subjected to next-generation sequencing to retrieve the whole genome of VZV using CLC genomics software. Phylogenetic analysis has been done in MEGA 11.0 software to identify circulating clades.Result Of the 331 suspected cases, 28 cases with vesicular rashes were found to be positive for VZV. The maximum genome could be retrieved from the clinical specimens of 16 cases with coverage greater than 98% when mapped with reference strain Dumas (NC 001348). The phylogenetic analyses of these sequences determined the circulation of clades 1, 5, and 9 in India. Further, the sequence analysis demonstrated non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) among specific ORF of VZV including ORF 14, ORF 22, ORF 36, ORF 37 and ORF 51. Although clade 1 and 5 has been reported earlier, the circulation of clade 9 of VZV has been determined for the first time in India.Conclusion Although the circulation of different clades of VZV was reported from India, the presence of clade 9 was detected for the first time during the mpox surveillance

Factors Associated with Risky Sexual Practices among Female Sex Workers in Karnataka, India

INTRODUCTION: The objectives of this study are to develop a summary measure of risky sexual practice and examine the factors associated with this among female sex workers (FSWs) in Karnataka, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were drawn from special behavioral surveys (SBS) conducted in 2007 among 577 FSWs in two districts of Karnataka, India: Belgaum and Bangalore. FSWs were recruited using the two-stage probability sampling design. FSWs' sexual practice was considered risky if they reported inconsistent condom use with any sexual partner and reported experience of one of the following vulnerabilities to HIV risk: anal sex, alcohol consumption prior to sex and concurrent sexual relationships. RESULTS: About 51% of FSWs had engaged in risky sexual practice. The odds of engaging in risky sex were higher among FSWs who were older (35+ years) than younger (18–25 years) (58% vs. 45%, Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 2.0, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2–3.4), who were currently married than never married (61% vs. 51%, AOR: 4.8, 95% CI: 2.5–9.3), who were in sex work for 10+ years than those who were in sex work for less than five years (66% vs. 39%, AOR: 2.6, 95% CI: 1.6–4.2), and who had sex with 3+ clients/day than those who had sex with fewer clients (67% vs. 38%, AOR: 3.7, 95% CI:2.5–5.5). CONCLUSION: FSWs who are older, currently married, practicing sex work for longer duration and with higher clientele were more likely to engage in risky sexual practices. HIV prevention programs should develop strategies to reach these most-at risk group of FSWs to optimize the effectiveness of such programs

An Epidemiological Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Sequences from Different Regions of India

The number of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) cases is increasing in India. This study looks upon the geographic distribution of the virus clades and variants circulating in different parts of India between January and August 2020. The NPS/OPS from representative positive cases from different states and union territories in India were collected every month through the VRDLs in the country and analyzed using next-generation sequencing. Epidemiological analysis of the 689 SARS-CoV-2 clinical samples revealed GH and GR to be the predominant clades circulating in different states in India. The northern part of India largely reported the ‘GH’ clade, whereas the southern part reported the ‘GR’, with a few exceptions. These sequences also revealed the presence of single independent mutations—E484Q and N440K—from Maharashtra (first observed in March 2020) and Southern Indian States (first observed in May 2020), respectively. Furthermore, this study indicates that the SARS-CoV-2 variant (VOC, VUI, variant of high consequence and double mutant) was not observed during the early phase of virus transmission (January–August). This increased number of variations observed within a short timeframe across the globe suggests virus evolution, which can be a step towards enhanced host adaptation

Desain pembelajaran fiqih melalui pendekatan Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) dalam meningkatkan kemampuian berpikir kritis siswa di MTS Sunan Kalijaga larangan Pamekasan

Pendidikan merupakan usaha sadar dan terencana untuk mengembangkan potensi peserta didik agar sesuai dengan fitrah yang dimilikinya, hal ini selaras dengan Undang-Undang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional No 20 tahun 2003 tentang fungsi pendidikan nasional yaitu mengembangkan kemampuan dan membentuk watak serta peradaban bangsa yang bermartabat dalam rangka mencerdaskan kehidupan bangsa. Tujuan pendidikan nasional yaitu untuk mengembangkan potensi peserta didik agar menjadi manusia yang beriman dan bertaqwa pada Tuhan yang Maha Esa, berakhlak mulia, sehat, berilmu, cakap, kreatif, mandiri dan menjadi warga negara yang demokratis serta bertanggungjawab. Agar peserta didik mampu untuk memecahkan problematika kehidupan yang dihadapinya, maka Pendidikan tersebut harus menyentuh potensi peserta didik baik potensi psikologis maupun potensi keterampilannya. Konsep pendidikan yang seperti ini menjadi penting bagi peserta didik yang akan memasuki kehidupan di masyarakat dan dunia kerja. Rumusan masalah penelitian ini terdiri dari: 1). Bagaimana konsep Contekstual Teaching And Learning (CTL) dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar di Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs) Sunan Kalijaga Larangan Pamekasan? dan 2). Bagaimana desain pembelajaran Fiqih melalui pendekatan Contekstual Teaching And Learning (CTL) dalam Meningkatkan kemampuan berpikir kritis siswa di Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs) Sunan Kalijaga Larangan Pamekasan?. Riset ini mengamil tempat di Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs) Sunan Kalijaga Pamekasan, Desa Larangan Luar Kecamatan Larangan kabupaten Pamekasan Jawa Timur. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif, dan instrumen yang digunakan dalam pengumpulan data yang didapat oleh peneliti melalui observasi, wawancara dan dokumentasi. Informan atau subjek dari penelitian ini adalah kepala sekolah, guru mata pelajaran fiqih dan siswa MTs Sunan Kalijaga Larangan Pamekasan. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa: pertama, konsep Contekstual Teaching And Learning (CTL) dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar di Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs) Sunan Kalijaga Larangan Pamekasan dengan melibatkan tujuh komponen, yaitu: Konstruktivistik, inkuiri, bertanya, masyarakat belajar, pemodelan, refleksi dan penilaian sebenarnya melalui kurikulum 2013 untuk mata pelajaran agama kelas VII dan VIII serta KTSP untuk kelas IX. Kedua, desain pembelajaran Fiqih melalui pendekatan Contekstual Teaching And Learning (CTL) dalam Meningkatkan kemampuan berpikir kritis siswa di Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs) Sunan Kalijaga Larangan Pamekasan yaitu dengan mengacu kepada silabus dan Rencana pelaksanaan pembelajaran (RPP)

From Social Network to Biological Network.

<p>The C2D annotation approach for manual annotation and curation of Mtb interactome followed by network analysis to predict potential drug targets reported at various sequence and structural level filters. (A) Illustrates the overall approach of crowd sourcing through social network implemented in C2D exercise (B)(a) Mtb Genome (b) Manual collation and sequence/structure based curation for gene annotation (c) Collation of re-annotated genome into comprehensive data structure (d) Construction of protein-protein interaction network based on the annotated data (e) Target identification using network analysis; Sequence level comparison of selected proteins with that of human homologs, human gut flora and human oral flora; systems, sequence and structure level analysis of shortlisted proteins and experimentally validated drug targets.</p

Figure 3

<p>Network parameters (a) Characteristic path length of IPW-Only network and IPWSI network. In both the graphs the x-axis represents the path length whereas the y-axis represents the frequency. 3(b) Log-Log plot of degree distribution of IPW network, the solid line was obtained by fitting the power law for γ  = 1.99 and Log-Log plot of degree distribution of IPWSI network, the solid line represents the power law fit with γ  = 2.01.</p

Illustrates the comprehensive analyses of central proteins as potential drug targets.

<p>The various filters include comparison with validated drug targets, sequence and structural level comparison with Human proteome, gut and oral flora (a) The list of 73 central ORFs wherein Rv Ids in bold represent IPW central ORFs, Rv IDs in regular font represents IPWSI central ORFs and the italicized-bold represent common Rv Ids to both IPW and IPWSI. (b & b’) Five of the 17 IPW and six of 64 central ORFs with experimental validation as drug targets. (c) Sequence homology comparison with human proteome and human microbiome results in 62 ORFs with no significant similarity (d) Octamer analyses against human proteome and human microbiome results in one ORF with no hits (e) Comparative binding site analysis with human proteome results in 26 ORFs with no significant similarity (lists b, b’, c, d and e available in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0039808#pone.0039808.s002" target="_blank">Table S2</a>).</p