Simplest identification, O-specific polysaccharide purification and antigenic evaluation of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi Vi negative isolate

Relationship Between the Consumption of Milk-Based Oils Including Butter and Kermanshah Ghee with Metabolic Syndrome: Ravansar Non-Communicable Disease Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in recent years has been growing in different societies, which may be due to lifestyle changes including changes in diet, in particular the consumption pattern of edible oils. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the consumption of animal oils including butter and Kermanshah ghee with MetS and its components in the adult population of Ravansar Non-Communicable Disease (RaNCD) cohort study.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was carried out on 5550 adults aged 35-65 years using baseline data of Ravansar's prospective study center in Iran. MetS was defined according to the criteria of modified NCEP ATP III for Iranian adults. Relationship between the consumption of butter and Kermanshah ghee and MetS was analyzed by logistic regression model using STATA software.

RESULTS

In our study, the frequency of MetS was 31.40%. The mean body mass index and mean age were 27.1±4.6 kg/m² and 47.6±8.2 years. The mean values of consumed butter and Kermanshah ghee were 3.3±1.8 and 5.1±2.3 g/day, respectively. After adjusting the confounding variables, the highest to the lowest quintile of butter and Kermanshah ghee consumption showed a reverse correlation with the MetS (OR = 0.7, 95% CI = 0.5-0.9) and (OR= 0.7, 95% CI=0.6-0.9), respectively.

CONCLUSION

This study revealed a reverse relationship between milk and Kermanshah ghee consumption with MetS and its components. Therefore, consumption of milk-based oils may be associated with lower cardiovascular risk factors.

Isolation, Purification, Characterization and Direct Conjugation of the Lipid A-Free Lipopolysaccharide of Vibrio cholerae O139

The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Vibrio cholerae O139, strain CIRS245, was isolated conventionally, and the lipid A was removed by mild acid hydrolysis (0.1 m NaOAc buffer containing 1 % SDS, pH 4.2, 95 °C, 8 h). The crude product was a complex mixture consisting mainly of constituent fragments of the O-specific polysaccharide-core (OSPc). The OSPc was only a minor component in the mixture. Two-stage purification of the crude OSPc by HPLC gave pure OSPc fragment of the LPS, as shown by NMR spectroscopy, analytical HPLC and ESI-MS. This material is the purest OSPc fragment of the LPS from Vibrio cholerae O139 reported to date. The purified OSPc was readily converted to the corresponding methyl squarate derivative and the latter was conjugated to BSA. The conjugate, when examined by ELISA, showed immunoreactivity with sera from patients in Bangladesh recovering from cholera caused by V. cholerae O139, but not O1.

Dengue Outbreaks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan in 2017: An Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response System (IDSRS)-Based Report

The current study is a retrospective epidemic report regarding dengue fever (DF) virus infection cases (2017) from fifteen districts of KPK, Pakistan. Medical records of 120 948 patients were reviewed retrospectively for demographic, clinical and laboratory data. The presence of dengue infection was confirmed by NS1-ELISA and RT-PCR, respectively. The total positive cases (of suspected DF samples) were 24 938 (20.6%), whereas seventy cases (0.28%) had a fatal outcome. Mean age ± SD of the dengue patients was 26 ± 19.8 years, while; the most affected age group was from 16 to 30 years (Chi-square: 12 820.125, p: 0.00). The infected males were 65.3%, and that of the female was 34.7%. All the dengue-infected patients were observed with symptoms of severe fever (100%), body aches (95%), gums and nose bleeding (5%), skin rashes (30%), vomiting (70%). The highest infection rate was found in district Peshawar and that of the lowest was in Bannu, Hungu and Luki Marwat. A high rate of dengue infection was found in post-monsoon months i.e. October (41%) and September (32%) of the year. The results proved that if the dengue outbreaks reveal further in KPK, it could alarmingly increase the mortality rate. Therefore, the Department of Public Health in KPK, Pakistan may take proper measures to avoid and control dengue epidemics in the future.

Purification and antigenic detection of O-specific polysaccharides of Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A isolate from Pakistan: an emerging threat

BACKGROUND

Paratyphoid fever caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A is becoming a serious health problem in Asian countries particularly Pakistan, China and India and situation is aggravated by current unavailability of a licensed vaccine. This study was designed to purify the O-specific polysaccharides (OSP) produced by an isolate of Salmonella Paratyphi A from Pakistan and detect antigenicity of extracted lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and purified OSP pioneerly in South Asian region as candidate for conjugate vaccine preparation.

RESULTS

S. Paratyphi A isolates were identified through PCR using primers of fliC-a gene (329 bp) and confirmed via nested PCR using fliC-nested primers (289 bp). Yield of the LPS of S. Paratyphi A isolate was 40 mg/L of the bacterial culture using hot phenol method. The purified LPS revealed the characteristic ladder like pattern of S. Paratyphi A LPS on SDS-PAGE with silver staining. Purified OSP obtained by acid hydrolysis yielded 23 mg/L of culture broth and was not detected by silver staining. Antigenic interaction of the purified LPS and OSP with hyper immune mice sera was confirmed by single precipitin line evaluated through immunodiffusion assay. The antigenicity was found well intact.

CONCLUSIONS

The purified antigenic OSP from S. Paratyphi A may have the potential to be coupled with a carrier protein to develop low cost conjugate vaccine candidates against S. Paratyphi A in paratyphoid endemic regions.