Advancements in Life Sciences (E-Journal, University of the Punjab)
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Biological movement of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae in Pakistan; A pioneer project of CEMB, Punjab, Pakistan
Get PDFBackground: In Asia, germ plasm exchange in different ecosystems, has been observed. This exchange causes movement of different pathogens. In present study, we worked on movement of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) causing bacterial blight of rice. In 1976, this disease was first recorded from Punjab (Pakistan) but the cultivars of that time showed resistance against bacterial blight. Then in 1984, the disease was seen on IRRI9. Tremendous increase of this pathogen has become prevalent due to increase in demand of Basmati 385 (cultivar), and now it is one of the most important rice diseases in Pakistan. Hypothesis of present study is “there is genetic diversity of Xoo in different rice growing areas of Punjab, Pakistan.”Methods: By fingerprinting; the movement pattern of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae were searched out in present study. The IS1112; a repetitive element of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae was used to fingerprint twenty-one bacterial strains.Results: We compared local strains with that of provided by IRRI Philippine (International Rice Research Institute, Philippine). The obtained clusters were correlated with regional differentiation.Conclusion: Present reported work is the pioneer study (1998-2000) which clued the occurrence of regional movement of pathogen via germ plasm exchange. This study may also provide help to forensics to watch the bioterrorism.Keywords: Bacterial blight; Xanthomonas oryzae; Germ plasm; Genetic diversity; SAARC
Computational Prediction of Cassia angustifolia Compounds as a potential Drug Agents against Main Protease of SARS-nCov2
Get PDFBackground: In November-December 2019, a plethora of pneumonia like cases were reported in Wuhan, China. After some time, the causative agent of this ailment was identified and named as a novel coronavirus 2. This novel virus spread over the world with no time and declared as pandemic by WHO. To develop antiviral drugs, different clinically used drugs were used as a trial but went in vain. In the current study, we choose an herb with already known therapeutic effects to check its antiviral properties against this virus too.Methods: Cassia angustifolia is a well-known herb for pharmaceutical industries as its different compounds are already used in different medicines. Here we performed molecular docking of main compounds of Cassia angustifolia against the main protease of SARS-nCoV2 and were compared with different drugs that are already being used on commercial bases to obtain the lowest energy complex. Auto-Dock vina and its packages were used for molecular docking of SARS-nCov2.Results: Molecular docking of Cassia angustifolia compounds represent very promising binding energies complexes, e.g., Sennoside B gives -9.05kcal/mol and Aloe-Emodin give -4 Kcal/mol of energy against the main protease of coronavirus. In contrast, a couple of commercially used antiviral drugs were also evaluated against the selected protein of coronavirus e.g., Hydroxychloroquine and Ribavirin complexes appeared with -5.2 Kcal/mol and -6.3 Kcal/mol of energy respectively.Conclusion: Many compounds of Cassia angustifolia showed the promising energy complexes even better than the commercially used antiviral drugs e.g., Sennoside B which has the best energies against main protease of coronavirus. Further, in-vivo and in-vitro studies are needed to validate this hypothesis with advanced MD simulations and wet-lab experimentations.Keywords: Molecular docking; 6LU7; Auto-Dock Vina; SARS-nCov2
A study on the Impacts of COVID-19 on health, Economy, Employment and Social Life of People in Indonesia
Get PDFBackground: The aftershocks of COVID-19 pandemic are still emanating in different regions of the world in term of increasing number of cases and deaths due to mutation in the virulence and pathogenicity of the virus. The pandemic affected almost every part of our lives including health, economy, employment, and social interactions. This study surveyed the Indonesian public to better understand their health, employment, and economic deterioration during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak.Methods: An online cross-sectional survey of 200 participants was conducted from eight different regions (Jawa Timur, DKI Jakarta, Kalimantan Tengah, Yogyakarta, Bali, Sulawesi Selatan, Jawa Tengah) of Indonesia who speak Bahasa. A standardized questionnaire was used to obtain information about COVID-19 impacts on health, employment, the economy, and social life from the respondents. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were conducted to analyze the data.Results: According to the findings, out of 200 participants, 40% stated that the impact of COVID-19 did not affect their salary. People under the age of 20 with an intermediate education who worked in government sectors were more likely to lose their jobs (p-value 0.05), which would result in a loss in salary that would have an impact on the education of their children. Only the "use of hand sanitizers" indicated a statistically significant difference between the practices of male and female respondents (p-value = 0.038), which is one of the activities that helps to prevent fever and respiratory difficulties during the present pandemic.Conclusion: The finding of the study depicted that COVID-19 has no immediate collateral effects on the economy of the study participants. However, the pandemic has a negative impact on the employment, health, and social life of the people. To mitigate the negative effects of this pandemic on health, employment, economy, and social life, a complete evaluation of COVID-19 impacts, as well as public health interventions, should be conducted
Investigation on Possibility of Rodents to Transmit Human Ascaris lumbricoides eggs from Contaminated Soil
Get PDFBackground: Ascaris lumbricoides is commonly found in soils among communities living with poor sanitation facilities. Commonly human helminths do not survive in animals’ guts and vice versa. However, the high burden of Ascariasis among indigenous communities could be transmitted by rodents as a vector. Hence, this study was carried out to address this hypothesis. Methods: The eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides were isolated from soil samples from an indigenous village in Malaysia, the eggs were isolated using the floatation technique and cultured in vitro using 0.1% of sulphuric acid dish and embryonation of the parasite eggs was observed daily under a light microscope till day 28. For the in vivo method, the embryonated eggs around 400 epg and 800 epg were feed to the rats for four weeks. Finally, stool samples were collected for Ascaris egg shedding.Results: The loamy eggs collected near toiled areas using the floatation technique were found to contain Ascaris lumbricoides eggs. The cultured eggs in sulphuric acid developed from the first-cell stage until the fourth stage of development. Discharge of Ascaris eggs were found in stool samples among rats fed with 200epg of Ascaris eggs.Conclusion: It was found that 0.1% sulphuric acid was ideal for developing Ascaris lumbricoides eggs for cultivating in vitro condition, and there was the possibility of rats carrying the Ascaris eggs throughout the village. In future, these findings can be used to propagate the eggs for testing anthelminthic drugs inhibiting the developmental stages.Keywords: Animal model; Ascaris lumbricoides; Sulphuric acid; In vivo; In vitro culture; Rat
Enhancing Health Benefits of Tomato by Increasing its Antioxidant Contents through Different Techniques: A Review
Get PDFTomato is known to be a great dietary source of antioxidant lycopene which is found to be linked with reduced risk of life-threatening diseases like heart attack and cancers. Antioxidants delay the aging process by mopping up reactive free radicals from cells, those if present may damage our DNA and other vital cellular organelles. Antioxidant metabolites are a group of vitamins, carotenoids, phenolic compounds, and phenolic acids that can provide effective protection against Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) by neutralizing free radicals, which are unstable molecules linked to the development of many degenerative diseases and medical conditions. There are pre and postharvest techniques available in the literature and these when adopted by the researchers showed significant progress in enhancing antioxidant contents of tomato fruit. In addition, there are various biochemical and genetic modification approaches to improve the expression of several antioxidant enhancing phytonutrients, enzymes and genes in tomato fruit. Trichoderma enriched bio-fertilizer application in tomato enhanced ascorbic acid under the treatment of 100% bio-fertilizer and beta-carotene was increased under 75% Bio-Fertilizer+25% N whereas elevated lycopene contents were observed in case of recommended dose of NPK. Various omics approaches like genomics, transcriptomics, miRNAomics, proteomics, and metabolomics have emerged as extremely helpful tools for the plant scientists in improving the beta-carotene, lycopene and antioxidant levels resulting in highly desirable new tomato cultivars. Thus, in light of immense advantages of these techniques, the present study was undertaken to collect all the necessary information about different techniques employed by numerous researchers to increase the antioxidant contents in tomato and to document here the optimized experimental conditions that can be beneficial for future studies in this field. However, still in-depth genome wide studies are needed for better understanding and further enhancement of traits like flavor, quality and antioxidant contents in context to rapidly changing and uncertain climate.Keywords: Antioxidants; tomato; lycopene; β-carotene; reactive oxygen species (ROS)
A comparison of human blood preservation methods in DNA extraction protocol
Get PDFBackground: Blood preservation method plays an important role in DNA extraction. The current study was conducted at the laboratories of the applied medical sciences college/ University of Karbala during the period from March to May 2021.Materials: Ten Fresh venous blood samples were collected from healthy males (20-45 years old) by venepuncture and stored at 2–8oC until used. Each particular sample was subjected to five blood collection options as follows: the blood was freshly aliquoted without any treatments, the blood was collected in EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid) tubes, the blood was collected with the addition of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) in a ratio of 1:2, the blood was added to PBS 1:2 and Triton X 100, and the blood was centrifuged and then PBS 1:2 and Triton X 100 were added. The quantity and integrity of the extracted DNA were evaluated by agarose gel electrophoresis. The quantity and purity of the DNA were measured using a NanoDrop Spectrophotometer.Results: The current study indicated statistically significant difference (p ≤0.05) among the treated groups when the concentration of the extracted DNA was taken into consideration. There was a statistically significant difference among the five groups when their absorbance ratio was measured at 260 nm/ 230 nm (p ≤0.05). However, no statistically significant difference (p ≤0.05) was obtained among the groups when the absorbance ratio of 260 nm/280 nm was considered.Conclusion: The pretreatment of blood samples with buffers (PBS containing 5% Triton X100) prior to DNA extraction can lead to an altered DNA yield and purity.Keywords: Blood preservation; DNA; Extraction; PBS; Triton X
Mutational analysis of exons 5-9 of TP53 gene in breast cancer patients of Punjabi ethnicity
Get PDFBackground: Breast cancer is a multifactorial disease that is influenced by many genes-environment and gene-gene interactions. It emerges due to the perturbations in the tumor suppressor genes. One of these genes is TP53. The TP53 gene plays a crucial role in regulating normal cell proliferation. However, this gene is commonly mutated in different human cancers.Methods: In the current study, we determined the role of TP53 mutation in breast cancer in the Punjabi ethnic group/patients of Pakistan. This study was undertaken to determine mutation in the hotspot region of TP53 in breast cancer patients. A total of 30 modified radical mastectomies (MRM) tissue biopsies were collected from different hospitals located in Lahore city of Pakistan. Histopathological analysis was performed to determine the cancer type, stage and grade followed by DNA extraction and sequencing to evaluate mutation in the hotspot region of TP53 gene. Sequencing data was visualized with Bio-edit 7.2.5 and chromas.Results: According to the Nottingham scoring system 70% patients have grade 3 tumors, followed by grade 2 (23%), grade 4 (6%) and grade-1 (3%). Sanger sequencing analysis of exon 5-9 of TP53 show no mutation. However, many noise mutations were there, which are discussed in detail. This study also shed light that how a genetic analyzer’s results can be correctly analyzed and to avoid false reporting of any mutation which could be a disaster for mis diagnosis of disease. Besides this, a new recipe with very low volume for sequencing PCR ingredients was introduced which could reduce the cost of sequencing.Conclusion: The present study suggests that there might be no correlation between TP53 exon 5-9 mutation and breast cancer in the Punjabi ethnic group of Pakistan. However, more studies are required to investigate mutation in the other exons of TP53 gene in large patients’ cohort.Keywords: Breast cancer; TP53 mutation; Punjabi ethnicity
Antimicrobial Resistant Pattern of Isolates from Intensive Care Unit of Tertiary Care Hospital
Get PDFBackground: Patients in intensive care units are more vulnerable and have a higher risk of Hospital acquire infection in comparison to non-critical patient’s wards. We determine the Microbial spectrum and their antimicrobial resistant pattern of isolates from intensive care units of tertiary care hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out for a period of 6 months and a total of 65 patients from the surgical intensive care unit and medical intensive care unit of tertiary care hospital were sampled for the possible pathogen. Non-probability convenient sampling techniques were used to enrolled patients and samples were transported to the pathology department for culture and anti-microbial resistant pattern. Data were analyzed on SPPS version 19 using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Chi-square test were used for possible association and p value of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.Results: Both gram-positive and gram-negative isolates additional to fungi were prevalent in the intensive care unit with the most frequent isolates being Acinetobacter species followed by Enterobacteriaceae and P. Aeruginosa respectively. Amikacin, Doxycycline, Linezolid, Tigecycline, and Vancomycin have a low resistant pattern for both Staph aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) while Cephalosporin including cefepime (58%), and minocycline (35%) along with polymyxin B shows the lower resistance pattern for Acinetobacter and other gram-negative isolates. Conclusion: Tigecycline, vancomycin, cefepime, and polymyxin B were used as empiric therapy agents in severe conditions however a larger scale study is required for calculating optimized therapeutic regime for each agent. The physician and hospital guidelines should adhere to the monitoring of antimicrobials to limit the upsurge of resistance patterns among different pathogenic organisms.Keywords: Anti-Microbial; Resistant; Intensive care unit; Hospital acquire Infection Editorial Expression of Concern20 June 2025: Following publication of this paper, the internal audit (consequent to concerns on quality raised by Web of Science) notified Advancements in Life Sciences about an inappropriate category of article type. By this Editorial Expression of Concern, we alert the scientific community of this incidence as do the required corrections.Editorial Note24 June 2025: You are viewing the latest version of this article having changes in the category section. Expression of concern is hereby revoked
Epidemiology of Obesity in Asia: Challenges and Prevention
Get PDFObesity is a complex, multifactorial and largely preventable disease affecting over a third of the world’s population today. In this review, prevalence of childhood and adult obesity, its causes, risk factors, interventions and management in different Asian countries was explored. It has been observed that obesity has grown up as an epidemic and it will intensify in the coming years if appropriate preventive measures are not adopted. Proper policies are needed to be implemented. Additionally, massive nation-wide public awareness programs with better structural infrastructure will be answer to this giant problematic challenge.Keywords: Asia, body mass index; Obesity; Physical Activity; Prevalence; World Health Organization
Wavelet-based Statistical and Mathematical Analysis of Spread of COVID-19
Get PDFThe outbreak of coronavirus-19 (NCoV-19) has developed a universal crisis due to high rate of infection and mortality. Therefore, the researchers are using various available methods to study the pattern of spread of COVID-19 which will help in planning to control the disease and to manage the health care resources. This study compares Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) (statistical), Logistic, Gompertz (mathematical) and their hybrid using Wavelet-based Forecast (WBF) models to model and predict the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19. The study area includes the countries: Iran, Italy, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, USA, UK and Canada. Moreover, root mean squares error (RMSE) is used to compare the performance of studied models. Empirical analysis shows that confirmed cases could be adequately modelled using ARIMA and ARIMA-WBF for all the countries under consideration. However, for future prediction significance of the models varies region to region.Keywords: COVID-19; ARIMA; Logistic; Gompertz; Wavelet-based-forecast