Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2022"

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Profile of pediatric TB patients registered under Faridabad District TB centre of Haryana
(Tuberculosis Association of India, 2022) Bhushan Kamble; Sumit Malhotra
Background: Against the backdrop of Tuberculosis (TB) elimination strategy within India, all ages have assumed importance including the burden of pediatric TB. The current study was carried out to study the profile of pediatric TB patients and factors associated with treatment outcome of these patients registered in Faridabad district of Haryana, India. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Record reviews of 1589 pediatric tuberculosis patients (≤14 years) registered under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme of Faridabad district was carried out using TB registers present at tuberculosis units. Socio-demographic data, clinical characteristics, treatment outcome and factors associated with treatment outcome were studied. Results and conclusions: Among 1589 pediatric TB patients with records available, 62% were females, majority (68%) belonged to age group 10–14 years, 93% were new cases, and 65% had extra-pulmonary TB. Among 554 pulmonary TB cases, 41% were sputum smear-positive. Majority (97%) patients reported successful treatment outcome (cured or treatment completed). In bivariable analysis, sex, category of TB treatment, sputum result, type of TB and past history of TB treatment were significantly associated with successful treatment outcome. On multivariable analysis, patients who were female, had higher bacillary load and previously treated, had significantly lesser odds for achieving successful treatment outcomes at the end of treatment. © 2021 Tuberculosis Association of India
Design, synthesis and in-silico & in vitro enzymatic inhibition assays of pyrazole-chalcone derivatives as dual inhibitors of α-amylase & DPP-4 enzyme
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2022) Manisha Nidhar; Priyanka Sonker; Vishal Prasad Sharma; Sanjay Kumar; Ashish Kumar Tewari
A series of pyrazole-chalcone derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro α-amylase & DPP-4 inhibitory activity. The structure of the compounds thus prepared was confirmed by analytical, and spectral techniques, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and Mass spectroscopy. To preliminarily investigate the molecular targets and to confirm the experimental activity testing for these anti-diabetic compounds, the molecular docking studies were determined, using different target receptors i.e., DPP-4 (PDB: 2OLE), PPARγ (PDB: 5Y2O) & α-amylase enzyme (PDB: 5E0F). The docking study results revealed that pyrazole-chalcone derivatives exhibited better binding interaction to α-amylase enzyme over the DPP-4 enzyme & PPARγ. Depending on in silico experiments the designed compounds were selectively prioritized for synthesis. The synthesized compounds were subjected to enzyme-based in vitro α-amylase, DPP-4 inhibitory, and antioxidant activity. ADMET parameters like HBD, HBA, PSA, cLogP, molecular weight, bioavailability, and drug-likeness further confirmed that the compounds are potential lead compounds for future study. Compounds 4d and 6a exhibited highest activity toward α-amylase enzyme and DPP-4 enzyme. © 2021, Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Correction to: Spatio-temporal variability and trend analysis of rainfall in Wainganga river basin, Central India, and forecasting using state-space models (Theoretical and Applied Climatology, (2022), 150, 1-2, (469-488), 10.1007/s00704-022-04168-4)
(Springer, 2022) Nanabhau S. Kudnar; Pranaya Diwate; Varun Narayan Mishra; Prashant K. Srivastava; Akshay Kumar; Manish Pandey
The affiliation of one of the authors (Pranaya Diwate) has been wrongly mentioned in the paper. The author Pranaya Diwate is affiliated to only one organization the details for which is provided below. The original article has been corrected. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2022.
Ligand conjugated lipid-based nanocarriers for cancer theranostics
(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2022) Rahul Kumar; Daphika S. Dkhar; Rohini Kumari; Divya; Supratim Mahapatra; Ananya Srivastava; Vikash Kumar Dubey; Pranjal Chandra
Cancer is one of the major health-related issues affecting the population worldwide and subsequently accounts for the second-largest death. Genetic and epigenetic modifications in oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes affect the regulatory systems that lead to the initiation and progression of cancer. Conventional methods, including chemotherapy/radiotherapy/appropriate combinational therapy and surgery, are being widely used for theranostics of cancer patients. Surgery is useful in treating localized tumors, but it is ineffective in treating metastatic tumors, which spread to other organs and result in a high recurrence rate and death. Also, the therapeutic application of free drugs is related to substantial issues such as poor absorption, solubility, bioavailability, high degradation rate, short shelf-life, and low therapeutic index. Therefore, these issues can be sorted out using nano lipid-based carriers (NLBCs) as promising drug delivery carriers. Still, at most, they fail to achieve site-targeted drug delivery and detection. This can be achieved by selecting a specific ligand/antibody for its cognate receptor molecule expressed on the surface of the cancer cells. In this review, we have mainly discussed the various types of ligands used to decorate NLBCs. A list of the ligands used to design nanocarriers to target malignant cells has been extensively undertaken. The approved ligand-decorated lipid-based nanomedicines with their clinical status have been explained in tabulated form to provide a wider scope to the readers regarding ligand-coupled NLBCs. © 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC.
Improving Chickpea Genetic Gain Under Rising Drought and Heat Stress Using Breeding Approaches and Modern Technologies
(Springer Nature, 2022) Uday C. Jha; Harsh Nayyar; Rintu Jha; Prasant Kumar Singh; Girish Prasad Dixit; Yogesh Kumar; Biswajit Mondal; Avinash Kumar Srivastava; Eric J. B. von Wettberg; Pronob J. Paul; Ajaz A. Lone; Srinivasan Samineni; Sailesh K. Tripathi; Kadambot H. M. Siddique
Increasing grain legume production, particularly for chickpea, will provide essential “plant-based dietary protein” and other micronutrients under the changing global climate. Drought and terminal heat stress limit plant growth and negatively affect various phenological events, causing severe yield losses. Among various strategies for improving stress tolerance, the judicious utilization of available genetic variation in the chickpea gene pool could minimize the adverse effects of drought and heat stress, sustaining chickpea yields. In addition, advancements in chickpea genomic resources, from molecular markers, namely, SSR, SNP, and INDELs and tools for association genetics, RNA-seq, to the availability of chickpea genome sequences and efforts of global chickpea germplasm resequencing allow us to identify loci and haplotypes contributing to drought and heat tolerance across the whole genome. Thus, molecular markers have enabled the successful transfer of drought-tolerant traits to elite chickpea cultivars using marker-assisted and haplotype-based breeding approaches. Likewise, the role of drought- and heat-responsive proteins and metabolites could significantly improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of drought and heat tolerance in chickpea via proteomics and metabolomics. Moreover, emerging novel breeding technologies (e.g., genomic selection, speed breeding, and genome editing) could enhance the necessary genetic gain to feed the increasing global population under an abruptly changing global climate. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
Multifunctional role of natural products for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease: At a glance
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2022) Md. Mominur Rahman; Xiaoyan Wang; Md. Rezaul Islam; Shopnil Akash; Fatema Akter Supti; Mohona Islam Mitu; Md. Harun-Or-Rashid; Most. Nazmin Aktar; Most. Sumaiya Khatun Kali; Farhana Israt Jahan; Rajeev K. Singla; Bairong Shen; Abdur Rauf; Rohit Sharma
Natural substances originating from plants have long been used to treat neurodegenerative disorders (NDs). Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a ND. The deterioration and subsequent cognitive impairments of the midbrain nigral dopaminergic neurons distinguish by this characteristic. Various pathogenic mechanisms and critical components have been reported, despite the fact that the origin is unknown, such as protein aggregation, iron buildup, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation and oxidative stress. Anti-Parkinson drugs like dopamine (DA) agonists, levodopa, carbidopa, monoamine oxidase type B inhibitors and anticholinergics are used to replace DA in the current treatment model. Surgery is advised in cases where drug therapy is ineffective. Unfortunately, the current conventional treatments for PD have a number of harmful side effects and are expensive. As a result, new therapeutic strategies that control the mechanisms that contribute to neuronal death and dysfunction must be addressed. Natural resources have long been a useful source of possible treatments. PD can be treated with a variety of natural therapies made from medicinal herbs, fruits, and vegetables. In addition to their well-known anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory capabilities, these natural products also play inhibitory roles in iron buildup, protein misfolding, the maintenance of proteasomal breakdown, mitochondrial homeostasis, and other neuroprotective processes. The goal of this research is to systematically characterize the currently available medications for Parkinson’s and their therapeutic effects, which target diverse pathways. Overall, this analysis looks at the kinds of natural things that could be used in the future to treat PD in new ways or as supplements to existing treatments. We looked at the medicinal plants that can be used to treat PD. The use of natural remedies, especially those derived from plants, to treat PD has been on the rise. This article examines the fundamental characteristics of medicinal plants and the bioactive substances found in them that may be utilized to treat PD. Copyright © 2022 Rahman, Wang, Islam, Akash, Supti, Mitu, Harun-Or-Rashid, Aktar, Khatun Kali, Jahan, Singla, Shen, Rauf and Sharma.; (Figure presented.) Copyright © 2022 Rahman, Wang, Islam, Akash, Supti, Mitu, Harun-Or-Rashid, Aktar, Khatun Kali, Jahan, Singla, Shen, Rauf and Sharma.
A retrospective analysis of sexually transmitted infections among males presenting to a tertiary care hospital of India
(Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications, 2022) Sunil Sethi; Nandita Sharma; Charu Singh; Hemant Chaudhry; Rajneesh Dadwal; Sakshi Malhotra; Vanita Gupta
Context: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are one of the most neglected diseases, leading to a high percentage of morbidity and mortality in India. The World Health Organization estimated that 20% of persons living with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome are in their 20s and one out of twenty adolescents contract an STI each year. Aims: The present study was conducted to study the characteristics of the pattern of STI in adult males and study the prevalence of various STIs among them. Settings and Design: This retrospective study was conducted by retrieving records of males presenting to STI laboratory of our tertiary care hospital between (April 2018 and December 2019). Subjects and Methods: The patients comprised high-risk group males, approached through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and slum population visiting the dispensary attached to our institute. The age group of the patient included was between 0 and 85 years. Results: A total of 1023 males presented to our STI laboratory out of which 124 (12.12%) were symptomatic. The most common complaint was urethral irritation seen in 22.5%, followed by discharge in 9.6%. The most common sexually transmitted disease among symptomatic (34/124) as well as asymptomatic (172/899) men was syphilis showing a combined prevalence of 20% (206/1023). Out of 124 symptomatic patients, 29 (23.38%) complained of urethritis due to gonococcal infection. The association between the two was found to be significant (i.e., P < 0.05). Conclusion: STIs are a serious health problem in our country. Approximately 6% of the adult population have one or the other STI amounting to 30-35 million cases per year. An intensive study is the need of the hour which could help clinicians as well as microbiologists to control the spread of these infections. © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.
Compressive Sensing Node Localization Method Using Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Network
(Springer, 2022) Madhumitha Kulandaivel; Arulanand Natarajan; Sathiyamoorthi Velayutham; Ashutosh Srivastava; Sachin Kumar Gupta; P. Suresh; Nitin Goyal
Autonomous underwater vehicle networks is a significant resource for aquatic life maintenance and monitoring underwater pollution. It is necessary to study the underwater localization algorithms which self-localize themselves. The proposed work concentrates only on the range-free localization model with a goal is to use only very few sensing nodes in the network with low cost and high battery power to self-localize themselves. Few beacon nodes have been used to localize the sensor nodes in the definite position of the network. Compressive sensing theory based on hop count information for localizing the sensor nodes has also been used for localization. This research aims to collect the connectivity information of all the nodes in the network with compressive sensing theory and improve the localization accuracy. The analysis presents that the proposed method works well with location accuracy. Compressive Sensing Node Localization reduces cost and enhances sensors' energy efficiency compared to other underwater localization algorithms. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Preface
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2022) Isaac Woungang; Sanjay Kumar Dhurandher; Kiran Kumar Pattanaik; Anshul Verma; Pradeepika Verma
[No abstract available]
Biorthogonal Wavelet Packets in Hs(K)
(Springer, 2022) Guru P. Singh; Ashish Pathak
The concepts of multiresolution analysis(MRA), wavelets, and biorthogonal wavelets in Sobolev space over local fields of positive characteristic (Hs(K)) are developed by Pathak and Singh [8, 9]. In this paper, we constructed biorthogonal wavelet packets in Sobolev space Hs(K) and derived their biorthogonality at each level by means of Fourier transform. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature India Private Limited.
Investigation of the Role of Sr and Development of Superior Sr-Doped Hexagonal BaCoO3-δPerovskite Bifunctional OER/ORR Catalysts in Alkaline Media
(American Chemical Society, 2022) Rakesh Mondal; Himanshu Ratnawat; Soham Mukherjee; Asha Gupta; Preetam Singh
Superior electrocatalytic activity of catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) enhances the reversible energy storage efficiency of metal-air batteries and electrochemical water splitting performances to produce hydrogen. Sr incorporation in the BaCoO3-δlattice in the form of 2H-type Ba1-xSrxCoO3-δ(0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) perovskites enhances both ORR and OER activities. A relatively low overpotential of 395 mV at 10 mA/cm2, lower Tafel slope of 64.95 mV dec-1, and good stability up to 500 cycles (10% reduction of current density and overpotential shift to a 0.04 V higher value) in a 0.1 M KOH electrolyte were obtained for the Ba0.5Sr0.5CoO3-δelectrode. Incorporation of Sr in the BaCoO3-δlattice decreases the Co-O-Co bond angle that results in a superior orbital overlap between Co(3d) and O(2p) orbitals and a decrease in lattice parameters that generates lower surface oxygen separation pathways and a large number of active sites on the (011) planes, making Ba0.5Sr0.5CoO3-δa superior catalyst with increased OER/ORR activity. The formation of oxygen-vacant CoO5octahedra containing surface oxygen vacancies, the presence of Co3+/4+valence states, and the superior overlap between O(2p)-Co(3d) bands (covalency increases) result in a higher electronic conductivity, a lower flat band potential, and improved OER and ORR activities. The key highlight of this work is the matching of the onset potential with the calculated flat band (Efb) potential from the Mott-Schottky plot. The Mott-Schottky plot was utilized to calculate the flat band potential (Efb) that indicates the basic information about the electrochemical interface potential between the electrode and the electrolyte, and in the case of Ba0.5Sr0.5CoO3-δ, it matches very well with the onset potential for the OER activity of the catalyst. © 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
Nanocarriers: An Advanced and Highly Effective Approach for Targeting Chronic Lung Diseases
(Springer Nature, 2022) Anand Maurya; Anurag Kumar Singh; Bhuwanendra Singh; Nidhi Singh; Sachin Kumar Agrahari; Arati Rai; Gopal Kumar Rai
With aging communities, respiratory disorders are creating an alarming situation due to the scarcity of facilities and socio-medical insurances. Among these, the CLDs are expected to be among the top four causes of death across the globe. The conventional management for these diseases includes strategies manipulating miRNA, siRNA, shRNA and drugs used in the treatment. As these require longer, sometimes lifelong treatment, there is an urgent need to formulate strategies to reduce toxicity arising from such strategies. With the advancement of knowledge and technologies, it is now known that small-sized particles result in better distribution and surface area to volume ratio. This has dawned on an era of nanotechnological research and development and their applications in the field of therapeutics. As a finer approach, nanoscale transports, of different types like liposomes, dendrimers, quantum dots, for targeted drug delivery have stabilized themselves quite effectively in the pharmaceutical therapy as discussed in detail in this chapter. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
Tomato Flu in India: A confluence of resurgence and mutation?
(Elsevier Ltd, 2022) Ryan Varghese; Dileep Kumar; Rohit Sharma
[No abstract available]
Vaccine human clinical trial
(Elsevier, 2022) Bhawana Singh; Shyamali; Dharmendra Kumar Maurya; Rajiv Kumar; Shashi Bhushan Chauhan; Shyam Lal Mudavath; Ram Niwas Meena; Shyam Sundar; Om Prakash Singh
Globally incidence of infectious diseases has declined over the past decades, but still, they continue to have major public health and economic costs. Treatment of infectious diseases is complicated by patients’ late presentation at an advanced stage of their illness. Other challenges include high cost of treatment (drug and hospitalization) and increasing drug resistance. Because of this lack of effective, affordable, minimally toxic drug therapies, an effective vaccine to control infectious diseases is needed. The development of a prophylactic vaccine would prove to be the most effective strategy of disease control and one of the most cost-effective investments in the health sector. However, each newly developed vaccine needs to be evaluated for safety, immunogenicity, and prophylactic efficacy in humans before it is licensed for public use. In this book chapter, we discuss the key elements that should be considered to conduct the vaccine clinical trials against infectious diseases including COVID-19. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Efficacy of Transfer Learning Over Semantic Segmentation
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2022) Adamya Shyam; Suresh Selvam
Semantic Segmentation is amongst the most difficult and important tasks in the field of computer vision. Used in the field of medical imaging, automated vehicles, geo-sensing, etc., the main idea of semantic segmentation is to link each pixel to a class label. Like other computer vision tasks, it too requires highly powerful and computational resources to produce good results. Also, most of the machine learning algorithms assume that the training, as well as the future data, will be in the same feature space, but, in real-world applications, the assumption does not hold. To resolve this problem, in this paper we have implemented the idea of transfer learning over semantic segmentation to study its efficacy. The paper also proposes some encoder-decoder framework-based models developed using transfer learning that perform at least as good as a fully supervised model. The paper concludes that transfer learning serves as a readily effective solution to enhance supervised learning models when properly carried out. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
New insights on thioredoxins (Trxs) and glutaredoxins (Grxs) by in silico amino acid sequence, phylogenetic and comparative structural analyses in organisms of three domains of life
(Elsevier Ltd, 2022) Soumila Mondal; Shailendra P. Singh
Thioredoxins (Trxs) and Glutaredoxins (Grxs) regulate several cellular processes by controlling the redox state of their target proteins. Trxs and Grxs belong to thioredoxin superfamily and possess characteristic Trx/Grx fold. Several phylogenetic, biochemical and structural studies have contributed to our overall understanding of Trxs and Grxs. However, comparative study of closely related Trxs and Grxs in organisms of all domains of life was missing. Here, we conducted in silico comparative structural analysis combined with amino acid sequence and phylogenetic analyses of 65 Trxs and 88 Grxs from 12 organisms of three domains of life to get insights into evolutionary and structural relationship of two proteins. Outcomes suggested that despite diversity in their amino acids composition in distantly related organisms, both Trxs and Grxs strictly conserved functionally and structurally important residues. Also, position of these residues was highly conserved in all studied Trxs and Grxs. Notably, if any substitution occurred during evolution, preference was given to amino acids having similar chemical properties. Trxs and Grxs were found more different in eukaryotes than prokaryotes due to altered helical conformation. The surface of Trxs was negatively charged, while Grxs surface was positively charged, however, the active site was constituted by uncharged amino acids in both proteins. Also, phylogenetic analysis of Trxs and Grxs in three domains of life supported endosymbiotic origins of chloroplast and mitochondria, and suggested their usefulness in molecular systematics. We also report previously unknown catalytic motifs of two proteins, and discuss in detail about effect of abovementioned parameters on overall structural and functional diversity of Trxs and Grxs. © 2022 The Author(s)
Gender-specific association of oxidative stress and immune response in septic shock mortality using NMR-based metabolomics
(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2022) Swarnima Pandey; Mohd. Adnan Siddiqui; Surendra Kumar Trigun; Afzal Azim; Neeraj Sinha
Background: Sepsis and septic shock are still associated with a high mortality rate. The early-stage prediction of septic shock outcomes would be helpful to clinicians for designing their treatment protocol. In addition, it would aid clinicians in patient management by understanding gender disparity in terms of clinical outcomes of septic shock by identifying whether there are sex-based differences in sepsis-associated mortality. Objective: This study aimed to test the hypothesis that gender-based metabolic heterogeneity is associated with sepsis survival and identify the biomarkers of mortality for septic shock in an Indian cohort. Method: The study was performed in an Indian population cohort diagnosed with sepsis/septic shock within 24 hours of admission. The study group was 50 patients admitted to intensive care, comprising 23 females and 27 males. Univariate and multivariate analysis were performed to identify the biomarkers for septic shock mortality and the gender-specific metabolic fingerprint in septic shock-associated mortality. Results: The energy-related metabolites, ketone bodies, choline, and NAG were found to be primarily responsible for differentiating survivors and non-survivors. The gender-based mortality stratification identified a female-specific association of the anti-inflammatory response, innate immune response, and β oxidation, and a male-specific association of the pro-inflammatory response to septic shock. Conclusion: The identified mortality biomarkers may help clinicians estimate the severity of a case, as well as predict the outcome and treatment efficacy. The study underlines that gender is one of the most significant biological factors influencing septic shock metabolomic profiles. This understanding can be utilized to identify novel gender-specific biomarkers and innovative targets relevant for gender medicine. © The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Structural confirmation and spectroscopic signature of N-Allyl-2‑hydroxy-5-methyl-3-oxo-2, 3-dihydrobenzofuran-2-carboxamide and its monohydrate cluster
(Elsevier B.V., 2022) T. Yadav; A.K. Vishwkarma; G. Brahmachari; I. Karmakar; P. Yadav; S. Kumar; C. Mahapatra; J. Chowdhury; R. Kumar; G.N. Pandey; P.K. Tripathi; A. Pathak
We performed optimization of a bio-relevant molecule N-Allyl-2‑hydroxy-5-methyl-3-oxo-2, 3-dihydrobenzofuran-2-carboxamide and its monohydrate cluster in the isolated form. Potential energy scanning for the target molecule was carried out. Consequently, three stable conformers were obtained. The effect of interfusion of a water molecule on energy and vibrational modes of the target molecule was also investigated in the most stable conformer. The electronic structures and vibrational spectra of all the three conformers were computed. The FTIR spectrum of the target molecule was recorded at the spectral width of 4000–400cm−1 which was compared with the theoretically computed spectrum of the most stable conformer. We have computed Raman spectra of all the conformers. All theoretical calculations performed in this investigation were done at DFT/B3LYP level of theory. The standard normal coordinate analysis (NCA) method was used to calculate the potential energy distributions of normal modes of the target molecule and its monohydrate cluster. Moreover, the NBO calculations for the target molecule and its monohydrate cluster were done to determine electronic structures, bond energies, occupancies, HOMO-LUMO and hyper-conjugative interaction energies of donor-acceptor interactions. The enthalpy of formation showed that the formation of the monohydrated cluster is of an exothermic nature. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.
Characterization of somatic and metabolic antigens of Cysticercus cellulosae and determination of immunodominant proteins
(University of Zagreb, Facultty of Veterinary Medicine, 2022) Kaushik Satyaprakash; Wiqar Ahmed Khan; Nandkishor Namdeorao Zade; Sandeep Prabhakarrao Chaudhari; Shilpshri Vasant Shinde
The present study shows the characterization of four somatic antigens (Whole Cyst Antigen (WCA), Cystic Fluid Antigen (CFA), Scolex Antigen (SA) and Membrane-Body Antigen (MBA)) and one metabolic antigen (Excretory-Secretory Antigen (ESA)) prepared from Cysticercus cellulosae originated from a naturally infected pig. Immunodominat proteins were determined using hyper immune rabbit sera. The Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) profile of the antigens revealed different numbers and patterns of protein bands in the range of 11.80 to 176.74 kDa. The electrophoretic pattern of ESA also revealed a number of closely placed indistinct bands in the range of 20-34 kDa.. The proteins in the lower molecular weight range (< 30 kDa) in the case of WCA, CFA, ESA, and the medium molecular weight range (30-60 kDa) in the case of SA and MBA were observed to be immunodominant in the Enzyme-Linked Immunoelectrotransfer Blot (EITB) assay. These immunodominant proteins could be further investigated as potential diagnostic antigens in the serodiagnosis of cysticercosis in pigs, and neurocysticercosis in human patients. © 2022, University of Zagreb, Facultty of Veterinary Medicine. All rights reserved.
An Insight Into Systemic Immune Response in Leishmania donovani Mediated Atypical Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in the New Endemic State of Himachal Pradesh, India
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2022) Lovlesh Thakur; Priyanka Madaan; Aklank Jain; Vinay Shankar; Ajeet Negi; Shashi Bhushan Chauhan; Shyam Sundar; Om Prakash Singh; Manju Jain
Leishmaniasis continues to afflict known and newer endemic sites despite global efforts towards its control and elimination. In this regard, the emergence of newer endemic sites with unusual disease formats is recognized wherein Leishmania donovani complex classically known to cause visceral disease is demonstrated to cause cutaneous manifestation. In this context, atypical cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) cases caused by L. donovani genetic variants from the newer endemic state of Himachal Pradesh (HP) in India are beginning to be understood in terms of parasite determinants. The atypical CL manifestation further needs to be explored to define host immune correlates with a possible role in driving the unusual disease progression. In the given study, we performed comprehensive systemic-immune profiling of the atypical CL patients from the study area in HP, India, in comparison with the classical visceral leishmaniasis (VL) patients from the northeast region of India. The systemic immune response was studied using ELISA-based assessment of Th1, Th2, Th17, Treg, and Th22 specific plasma cytokine expression pattern and parasite-specific total serum IgG/IgG subclasses. The specified immune correlates are known to exhibit heterogeneous association with the different infecting parasite species, infection load, and co-lateral host immunopathology in classical CL and VL. In the atypical CL patient group, altered expression of IL-10 emerged as the key finding that could potentially fine-tune the Th1/Th17/Th22 effector cytokine axis towards a localized cutaneous manifestation. A reduced expression of IL-10 along with a high IFN-γ/IL-10 ratio as a readout of effective parasite killing defined atypical cutaneous outcome. In contrast, high circulatory IL-10 levels and a depressed IFN-γ/IL-10 ratio were seen in classical VL patients in line with an ineffective parasite-killing cytokine response. Overall, the study highlights new knowledge on host immune correlates in terms of cytokine expression pattern and IgG subclasses that underline atypical disease manifestation such that L. donovani, a generally visceralizing parasite species cause skin localized cutaneous lesions. Copyright © 2022 Thakur, Madaan, Jain, Shankar, Negi, Chauhan, Sundar, Singh and Jain.