Cysteine String Protein Controls Two Routes of Export for Misfolded Huntingtin

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are secreted vesicles of diverse size and cargo that are implicated in the cell-to-cell transmission of disease-causing-proteins in several neurodegenerative diseases. Mutant huntingtin, the disease-causing entity in Huntington’s disease, has an expanded polyglutamine track at the N terminus that causes the protein to misfold and form toxic intracellular aggregates. In Huntington’s disease, mutant huntingtin aggregates are transferred between cells by several routes. We have previously identified a cellular pathway that is responsible for the export of mutant huntingtin via extracellular vesicles. Identifying the EV sub-populations that carry misfolded huntingtin cargo is critical to understanding disease progression. In this work we expressed a form of polyglutamine expanded huntingtin (GFP-tagged 72Qhuntingtinexon1) in cells to assess the EVs involved in cellular export. We demonstrate that the molecular chaperone, cysteine string protein (CSPα; DnaJC5), facilitates export of disease-causing-polyglutamine-expanded huntingtin cargo in 180–240 nm vesicles as well as larger 10–30 μm vesicles.

Epidemiology and Vaccine Efficacy of Delta Variant

Several variants of concern (VOCs) of SARS-CoV-2 have emerged after its first outbreak in 2020. These VOCs possess mutations in the spike protein that confers enhanced rate of infection and transmission of these VOCs. Among these VOCs, the delta/B.1.617.2 variant was identified in late 2020 in India and soon spread to several countries around the globe. Currently, it is the most widely sequenced variant among new infected individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection. This variant is also found to be associated with COVID-19 infection in vaccinated individuals, but the severity of disease and rate of hospitalization are low among these individuals as compared to unvaccinated individuals. With the emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 due to continuous mutations, it is suggested that vaccination plays a significant role in preventing the transmission of disease and disease severity.

Knowledge and Behavior of Dentists, and Practice Modifications in Response to the Outbreak of Novel COVID-19 in Dentists of Pakistan

OBJECTIVES: The current study is conducted to assess the knowledge and behavior of dentists in Pakistan and various practice modifications adopted in response to current outbreak of COVID-19. METHODOLOGY: Well-constructed online questionnaires were distributed among 300 subjects including dental students (3rd year and 4th year), house surgeons, and dental surgeons of two public hospitals of Punjab, Pakistan. RESULTS: 90% of dentists are afraid of getting the infection and reluctant to continue their dental practice. Most of the dentists 95% are aware of the mode of transmission of disease and follow WHO guidelines but still a large number of dentists are in fear and anxious to perform only emergency dental procedures. CONCLUSION: Most dentists resume their dental practice by following WHO new guidelines related to practice in COVID -19 outbreak but still a significant number of dentists close their dental practice for an indefinite period due to anxiety and fear of being ill or got infected by COVID-19. KEYWORD: anxiety and fear, practice modifications, outbreak, COVID-19, knowledge and behavior

Combination of Genomic and Transcriptomic Approaches Highlights Vascular and Circadian Clock Components in Multiple Sclerosis

Aiming at exploring vascular components in multiple sclerosis (MS) with brain outflow disturbance, we combined transcriptome analysis in MS internal jugular vein (IJV) wall with WES in MS families with vertical transmission of disease. Main results were the differential expression in IJV wall of 16 MS-GWAS genes and of seven genes (GRIN2A, GRIN2B, IL20RB, IL26, PER3, PITX2, and PPARGC1A) not previously indicated by GWAS but encoding for proteins functionally interacting with MS candidate gene products. Strikingly, 22/23 genes have been previously associated with vascular or neuronal traits/diseases, nine encoded for transcriptional factors/regulators and six (CAMK2G, GRIN2A, GRIN2B, N1RD1, PER3, PPARGC1A) for circadian entrainment/rhythm components. Among the WES low-frequency (MAF ≤ 0.04) SNPs (n = 7) filtered in the 16 genes, the NR1D1 rs17616365 showed significantly different MAF in the Network for Italian Genomes affected cohort than in the 1000 Genome Project Tuscany samples. This pattern was also detected in five nonintronic variants (GRIN2B rs1805482, PER3 rs2640909, PPARGC1A rs2970847, rs8192678, and rs3755863) in genes coding for functional partners. Overall, the study proposes specific markers and low-frequency variants that might help (i) to understand perturbed biological processes in vascular tissues contributing to MS disease, and (ii) to characterize MS susceptibility genes for functional association with disease-pathways.

Epidemiological investigation for brucellosis in dogs of Thrissur

India is endemic to bovine brucellosis, and there is a high potential for transmission of disease from ruminants to dogs. A total of 18 bitches belonging to five different breeds at different stage of abortion (30 days to 65 days of gestation) were selected for this study. Majority of them were showing abortion (88.89 per cent) at 45 to 65 days of the gestation. Microscopic examination of Stamp stained smear obtained from the aborted foetal stomach contents revealed red coccobacillary organisms suggestive of Brucella spp.in three cases. RBPT on paired sera samples on day of presentation and three weeks after abortion showed agglutination within four minutes in five out of 18 female dogs. DNA extracted from the aborted tissues of a RBPT positive Labrador dog yielded amplicons of 193 base pair specific for Brucella spp. on PCR. The results obtained from this study stress the need for screening dogs for canine brucellosis in the current brucellosis surveillance and control programmes.

Assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice regarding Injection safety among staff nurses

Injection is invasive procedure and done frequently in each nurses duty time; therefore, good knowledge and safe practice play important role in avoiding transmission of disease or injuries.1 The present study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice on injection safety among staff nurses in MGM Hospital at Aurangabad. A descriptive research design used to conduct the study. In this study non probability purposive sampling technique has been adopted to select the sample. 100 staff nurses were selected from MGM Hospital Aurangabad. Results of the study show that, among all staff nurses (64%) were having average knowledge, (84%) were having positive attitude, and (69%) were having average practice. The study concludes that the staff nurses working in the clinical area having average knowledge, positive attitude and average practice regarding injection safety.

Pengelolaan Limbah Alat Pelindung Diri (APD) di Daerah Jakarta Barat Berbasis Smart Infectious Waste Bank (SIWAB)

Pandemi COVID-19 yang melanda dunia mengharuskan masyarakat untuk melindungi diri dari penularan penyakit melalui penggunaan alat pelindung diri (APD). APD dari COVID-19 seperti masker bedah (surgery mask), sarung tangan, pakaian dekontaminasi (hazardous material suit), dan pelindung wajah (face shield) sebagian besar terbuat dari plastik dan kebutuhannya meningkat tajam. Namun, limbah APD tidak dipahami masyarakat sebagai limbah B3 infeksius sehingga sering dicampur pembuangannya bersama dengan limbah domestik. Kondisi tersebut dapat ditemukan pada seluruh lokasi di Indonesia, terutama Daerah Khusus Ibukota (DKI) Jakarta. Berdasarkan laporan Dinas Lingkungan Hidup DKI Jakarta, penghasil limbah APD domestik tertinggi berada di daerah Jakarta Barat. Melalui penelitian dilakukan pengelolaan limbah APD di daerah Jakarta Barat berbasis Smart Infectious Waste Bank (SIWAB). Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memperoleh timbulan limbah APD yang berasal dari rumah tangga dan merancang bank sampah yang didukung oleh teknologi digital (aplikasi) sebagai sarana pengelolaan limbah APD. Penelitian diawali dengan studi pendahuluan timbulan limbah APD beserta karakteristiknya dan dilanjutkan dengan perancangan SIWAB. Hasil penelitian berupa aplikasi SIWAB yang terintegrasi dengan smartphone. Penelitian ini akan memberikan kontribusi besar kepada pemerintah Jakarta Barat dalam pengelolaan limbah B3 infeksius khususnya dan Indonesia umumnya.ABSTRACTThe COVID-19 pandemic that surge the world, requires people to protect themselves from the transmission of disease by using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The COVID-19 PPE, such as surgery masks, gloves, hazardous material suits, and face shields, are mostly made of plastic and the need for procurement is increasing. However, the community does not understand the PPE waste as infectious hazardous waste, so often it mixed with domestic waste. This condition can be found in all regions of Indonesia, especially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta. Based on a report from the Jakarta Environment Agency, the highest producer of domestic PPE waste is in the West Jakarta. Through this research, PPE waste management was carried out in the West Jakarta area based on the smart infectious waste bank (SIWAB). This study aims to obtain PPE waste generation from household and to design a waste bank that is supported by digital technology (application) as a means of PPE waste management. The research begins with a preliminary study of the generation of PPE waste and its characteristics and next designing an SIWAB application. The research result is a SIWAB application that is integrated with smartphone. This research will make a major contribution to the West Jakarta government in managing Toxic and Hazardous Materials (THM) infectious waste and Indonesia in general.

Socio-demographic and Clinical Profile of Covid-19 in Children

Introduction: The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic disease. Infection by COVID-19 in children is not so common but gradually the numbers of children affected with COVID-19 are increasing day by day. The epidemiological importance and clinical pattern in children with COVID-19 is now a challenge to be described by the clinicians. Objectives: To describe socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 infected children. Material and Methods: This cross sectional observational study was conducted among 58 COVID-19 children who were admitted in COVID-19 dedicated Kurmitola General Hospital (KGH), Dhaka from March 2020 to July 2020. Their signs, symptoms, sex, age distribution, laboratory results and familial contact were analyzed. Results: Among 58 most of the children (63.8%) were in school going age (5-15years). The number of female (39) was more than male (19) and female-male ratio was 1:0.48. Most of the children (75.9%) came from urban lower middle socioeconomic group. About 84.4% children were affected from family member. Among all, (8.6%) patients had no symptoms. Main symptoms of the children were cough (36.2%), only fever (22.4%), fever with cough (8.62%) and diarrhoea (5.2%). About 12.06% of the children had additional symptoms including sore throat, nasal congestion, fatigue, headache, body ache, vomiting, abdominal pain, convulsion and rash, 6.9% had respiratory distress and one child came with convulsion. About 12.1% patients showed lymphopenia, 18.9% showed leucopenia, 13.8% patient had neutrophillia. C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and serum ferritin were high in only 12.1% and 8.6% cases respectively. There were 29.3% patients who had normal Chest X-Ray and 58.6% had mild lesion, 8.6% had bilateral consolidation and 3.4% had patchy opacities. Conclusions: COVID-19 is not so common in children and usually presents with mild form or no sign symptoms clinically and by laboratory analysis. But it is noteworthy that they may play role in transmission of disease. JAFMC Bangladesh. Vol 16, No 2 (December) 2020: 72-75

Mitigating the externality of diseases of poverty through health aid

Externality exists in healthcare when an individual benefits from others being healthy as it reduces the probability of getting sick from illness. Healthy workers are considered to be the more productive labourers leading to a country’s positive economic growth over time. Several research studies have modelled disease transmission and its economic impact on a single country in isolation. We developed a two-country disease-economy model that explores disease transmission and cross-border infection of disease for its impacts. The model includes aspects of a worsening and rapid transmission of disease juxtaposed by positive impacts to the economy from tourism. We found that high friction affects the gross domestic product (GDP) of the lower-income country more than the higher-income country. Health aid from one country to another can substantially help grow the GDP of both countries due to the positive externality of disease reduction. Disease has less impact to both economies if the relative cost of treatment over an alternative (e.g. vaccination) is lower than the baseline value. Providing medical supplies to another country, adopting moderate friction between the countries, and finding treatments with lower costs result in the best scenario to preserve the GDP of both countries.

A REVIEW ON EPIDEMIOLOGY, PATHOGENESIS AND TREATMENT OF LEPTOSPIROSIS

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease, it arises worldwide but it is most frequent in tropical and subtropical zone. It is one of the notifiable and treatable disease. Leptospirosis is a plague caused by species of bacteria called Leptospira the bacteria shed into the nature via urine of infected animals. Rats are the most recurrent source of human sepsis. Rivers are the assumption to be a predominant risk factor for transmission of disease to humans. It possesses an extensive variation of mechanisms that allow them to avoid the host immune system and cause infection. The infection is extremely vast ranging from subclinical to multi organ infection with elevated mortality. It is frequently mild but can be terminal, it is likely to be serious and the serious alignment form known as Weils disease and can easily steer to death. The mingling of renal failure, hemorrhage and jaundice is known as Weils disease. It is the most affection pattern associated with critical leptospirosis. It is accumulating as a serious problem worldwide and superficially existing as co-infections with various unrelated diseases, including malaria and dengue. Laboratory diagnostic tests are not always accessible and usually diagnosis is executed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) serology and microscopic agglutination test, rapid test are also feasible. The MAT (microscopic agglutination test) is known as Gold standard. Serological tests are most frequently used for the diagnosis of leptospirois. The carcinogenesis of human disease and mechanism of cell membrane injuries which take place mainly due to the occupancy of leptospirosis along with their antigen in host tissues many molecules hand out to the ability of leptospira to invade, colonize and to adhere. In most of the cases antibiotics are preferred to reduce the symptoms of leptospirosis.