HPV INFECTION: DOES EDUCATION PACKAGE IMPROVE THE PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS HPV VACCINE AMONG SCHOOLTEACHERS?

INTRODUCTION: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a non-enveloped virus that causes infections like 'warts' in the genital region & throat which later develops into cancer in the cervix, vulva, vagina, penis/anus and Oropharyngeal cancer. Virus infections contribute as a cause of 15-20% of all human cancers. As per WHO vaccination schedule, it is essential to vaccinate secondary school students between the age group of 11-18 years/above with 2 doses. Aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of educational package on HPV infection and Vaccine with regard to Pre and Post assessment among schoolteachers and to determine the level of awareness on Human Papilloma virus infection and to assess the attitude towards administering the HPV vaccine among School teachers. METHODS: A cross sectional study was carried out among 177 schoolteachers in Chennai district. The setting was chosen based on feasibility and availability of adequate samples (C0VID restrictions). The target population for the present study was schoolteachers, Chennai. Systematic random sampling technique was used for selecting the samples. A self-administered questionnaire was administered to assess the level of awareness among schoolteachers. Questions formulated under various domains. The data collection was done over a period of 6 months duration. RESULTS: 20.4% of teachers had fair attitude with less awareness towards HPV vaccination, 4.1% of teachers had good attitude with less awareness towards HPV vaccination.79.6% of teachers had fair attitude with good awareness score regarding HPV infection, 95.9% of teachers had good attitude with good awareness regarding the HPV infection. Statistical analysis using Chi-square test represents the post attitude and post awareness score were good and hence the education package was effective. The study shows the signi?cant difference between pre and post knowledge scores.

Postoperative endophthalmitis due to Pseudomonas luteola: First reported case of acute and virulent presentation from a tertiary eye care center in South India

A 60-year-old male presented with pain and decreased vision 3 weeks following uneventful intracapsular cataract extraction with anterior vitrectomy for subluxated cataract. A diagnosis of acute endophthalmitis was made based on clinical and ultrasound features. Patient improved only after undergoing pars plana vitrectomies twice and repeated intravitreal antibiotic-steroid injections. Vitreous aspirate revealed Gram-negative bacillus identified as Pseudomonas luteola on culture. Patient returned with a retinal detachment at first follow-up which was treated with vitrectomy, endolaser, and silicone oil tamponade. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of P. luteola causing acute onset, virulent endophthalmitis reported in literature.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Sabouraud Dextrose Agar and Dermatophytes Test Medium for Isolation of Dermatophytes.

Background: Dermatophytes affects more than 30% of the population, usually as superficial mycosis but also present as deeper subcutaneous tissue infection in rare occasions. Because of ambiguous clinical presentations of dermatophytosis need to diagnose accurately to avoid mismanagement. The present study was selected to know the significance of KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) in diagnosis of dermatophytosis and to compare Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA) with Dermatophytes Test Medium (DTM) in isolation of dermatophytes. Methods: A total of 124 patients were included in this study who was diagnosed as clinically suspected dermatophytosis at Department of DVL. Samples were collected and inoculated in to Sabouraud Dextrose Agar with Chloramphenicol and Cycloheximide, Dermatophytes Test Medium and also KOH mount was done. Results: Out of 124 clinically suspected dermatophytosis studied population, 78 (62.9%) were culture positive. Tinea corporis (29.4%) was affected predominantly followed by Tinea cruris (21.7%) and Tinea capitis (17.9%). On correlation of culture positivity with KOH microscopy, 15 patients (12.09%) were culture positive and KOH negative. 12 (9.6%) patients out of 124 were KOH positive and culture negative. The isolation rate in this study from SDA was 93.5% and that of DTM was 100%. On comparing of dermatophytes isolation from clinical samples among DTM and SDA, shown statistically insignificant (P>0.05). Conclusion: KOH gives rapid probable diagnosis to start empirical therapy, lesser sensitive than culture media. Both SDA and DTM gives good isolation results, where as DTM is superior than SDA in isolation and aid in easy interpretation.

Clinico-Mycological study of dermatophytosis in and around Kakinada.

Background: Dermatophytosis is a clinical condition caused by a fungal infection of the skin in humans and domesticated animals. Currently up to 20% of the population may be infected by one of the dermatophytes. Objective: To isolate and identify the fungal agents from clinical samples of dermatophytosis patients in and around kakinada. Materials and Methods: Clinical samples from 150 patients were subjected to potassium hydroxide (KOH) examination and culture. Causative organisms are identified macroscopically and microscopically. Statistical analysis was done by chi square test. Results: Out of 150 samples, 120 shown KOH positive and 66/120 (55%) samples were culture positive. Of these isolation rate of dermatophytes was 70/120 (58.3%) among these, 66 were Trichophyton species, 3 were Microsporum species, 1 was Epidermophyton floccosum. T.rubrum was the major isolate about 35(29.1%) strains. The male to female ratio of the positive cases was recorded as 11:3. The most effected age group was 21-30years (40%) followed by 31-40 years (28.6%). Conclusion: It may concluded from the present study that Tinea corporis is more frequently encountered condition followed by Tinea cruris. T.rubrum was implicated as major predominating species followed by T.mentagrophytes. Unhygienic conditions among low socioeconomic group, frequent migration of laborers, workers, hot and humid climatic conditions may be some of the contributing epidemiological factors. The study signifies the importance of mycological examination of dermatophytoses samples for effective management and also for epidemiological studies.

Protective role of Ficus benghalensis against isoniazid-rifampicin induced oxidative liver injury in rat

The present study was made to investigate the protective effect of methanolic extract of Ficus benghalensis L., Moraceae, on isoniazid-rifampicin-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Rats were divided into six different groups; group 1 served as a control, group 2 received isoniazid and rifampicin (100 mg/kg, i.p.), in sterile water, groups 3, 4 and 5 received 100, 200 & 300 mg/kg bw, p.o. methanolic extract of F. benghalensis and group 6 received Liv 52. All the treatment protocols followed 21 days and after rats were sacrificed blood and liver were used for biochemical and histological studies, respectively. Administration of isoniazid and rifampicin caused a significant elevation in the levels of liver marker enzymes (p<0.05 and p<0.01) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (p<0.001) in experimental rats. Administration of methanolic extracts of F. benghalensis significantly prevented isoniazid-rifampicin-induced elevation in the levels of serum diagnostic liver marker enzymes and TBARS level in experimental groups of rats. Morever, total protein and reduced glutathione levels were significantly (p<0.001) increased in treatment group. The effect of extract was compared with a standard drug, Liv 52. The changes in biochemical parameters were supported by histological profile. It is to be concluded that the methanolic extract of F. benghalensis protects against isoniazid and rifampicin-induced oxidative liver injury in rats.

Influence of sowing date and crop variety on phenology, growth and yield of rainfed groundnut (arachis hypogaea l.) in Southern Zone of Andhra Pradesh, India.

An experiment was conducted with four dates of sowing (Second fortnight of May, First fortnight of June, Second fortnight of June and First fortnight of July) and four Varieties (TMV-2, JL-24, Narayani and Abhaya). There was wide variation in the weather conditions that prevailed over the cropping periods between the two years of experimentation. During the first year (2006) a continuous dryspell of 51 days prevailed which coincided with different growth stages of groundnut under different dates of sowing. This dry spell has not favoured the growth and development of crop, instead, it has increased the crop duration of different varieties of groundnut studied under the present investigation. The crop duration was 139-146 days in early sown crop to 110-125 days in normal sown crop compared to normal duration of 105 to 120 days. However, the second year (2007) is normal with better temporal distribution of rains and the crop duration ranged from 104-120 days in early sown crop to 108-121 days under normal sown crop. The length of growth period in 2006 is due to receipt of continuous rains after dry spell of 51 days from seed development phase to physiological maturity. In 2007,the crop which received heavy rains (22 June sown crop ) from 90 DAS to harvest was adversely affected resulting poor filling and low yields. The results revealed that Sowing during July first fortnight was found to be optimum time for groundnut during drought year, while during normal year advancing the sowing date by one month may also favour good crop provided there were good rains. The performance of Abhaya cultivar was better than the Narayani, TMV-2 and JL-24 under different kinds of environments like extreme moisture stress, stress free or even under moderate stress conditions. However, in normal year TMV-2 and JL-24 performance was also good compared to drought year.

MiRPI: Portable Software to Identify Conserved miRNAs, Targets and to Calculate Precursor Statistics

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are recently discovered small RNA molecules usually resulting in translational repression and gene silencing. Despite the fact that specific cloning of small RNA's is a method in practice, computational identification of miRNA's has been a major focus recent days, since is a rapid process following AB initio and sequence alignment methods. Here we developed new software called MiRPI that aims to identify the highly conserved miRNAs without any mismatches from given fasta formatted gene sequences by using non-repeated miRNA dataset of the user's interest. The new window embedded with the software is used to identify the targets for inputted mature miRNAs in the mRNA sequences. Also MiRPI is designed to measure the precursor miRNA statistics, majorly focusing the Adjusted Minimum Folding free Energy (AMFE) and Minimum Folding free Energy Index (MFEI), the most important parameters in miRNA confirmation. MiRPI is developed by PERL (Practical Extraction and Report Language) and Tk (Tool kit widgets) scripting languages. It is user friendly, portable offline software that works in all windows OS, sized to 3 MB.

Improved protocol for isolation of genomic DNA from leaf tissues of phyllanthus emblica gaertn

Modified Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide [CTAB] protocol for DNA isolation was developed from leaf tissues of Phyllanthus emblica for obtaining high quality genomic DNA. Fresh leaves of three different maturity were analyzed for yield and quality of DNA. Acidity was determined in three different maturity of leaves viz. tender, intermediate and mature and their influence on DNA quality was determined. Drastic reduction of pH was the primary cause for poor quality of DNA. However, high quality DNA isolation was achieved by stabilizing the pH by addition of NaOH during different stages of DNA isolation process. The present protocol yielding high quality intact DNA for genetic fingerprinting as well as for amplification of chloroplast genes for molecular analysis

Exploring the binding affinities of p300 enzyme activators CTPB and CTB using docking method.

CREB binding protein (CBP) and E1A binding protein p300, also known as p300 are functionally related transcriptional co-activators (CoAs) and histone acetyltransferases (HATs). Some small molecules, which target HATs can activate or inhibit the p300 enzyme potently. Here, we report the binding affinities of two small molecules CTPB [N-(4-chloro- 3-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-2-ethoxy-6-pentadecyl-benzamide] and CTB [N-(4-chloro-3-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-2-ethoxy-benzamide] with p300 using docking method to obtain the insight of their interaction with p300. These small molecules bind to the enzyme, subsequently causing a structural change in the enzyme, which is responsible for the HAT activation. CTB exhibits higher binding affinity than CTPB, and their lowest docked energies are -7.72, -1.18 kcal/mol, respectively. In CTPB molecule, phenolic hydroxyl of Tyr1397 interacts with the non-polar atoms C(5E) and C(5F), and forms polar-non polar interactions. Similar interactions have also been observed in CTB. The residues Tyr1446 and Cys1438 interact with the non-pentadecyl atoms. Further, the docking study predicts a N-HO hydrogen bonding interaction between CTB and Leu1398, in which the HO contact distance is 2.06 Å. The long pentadecyl chain of CTPB reduces the formation of hydrogen bond with the p300. The H-bond interaction could be the key factor for the better activation of CTB.

Antioxidant status in polycystic end-staged renal diseased patients and antihemolytic effect of Boerhaavia diffusa.

Chronic renal failure (CRF) induces anaemia by shortening the life-span of erythrocytes, due to an increase in oxidative stress, which is considered to be one of the major risk factors in CRF patients undergoing hemodialysis. In the present study, the antioxidant status of the end-staged renal disease (ESRD) patients was investigated. The antihemolytic activity of Boerhaavia diffusa on the erythrocytes of the patients was also studied. Protein, lipid peroxides (LPO), reduced glutathione (GSH) levels and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activities were measured in the hemolysate from 55 polycystic ESRD patients (Group II) and compared with normal subjects (Group I). The antioxidant status was found to be significantly reduced in the patients as compared to normal healthy volunteers, due to increased oxidative stress. Also, aqueous extract of B. diffusa showed a significant antihemolytic activity on the erythrocytes of the polycystic ESRD patients.  

Effect of ursodeoxycholic acid on hydrogen peroxide induced lipid peroxidation in sheep liver mitochondria.

The effect of various concentrations of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), a potent hepatoprotective agent on hydrogen peroxide-induced mitochondrial swelling was evaluated in vitro to find out the mechanism of action of the drug. Aliquots of sheep liver mitochondria were pre-incubated with various concentrations of UDCA [0-600 micrograms] and swelling was induced by hydrogen peroxide [1 mM]. Swelling was assessed at various time intervals and lipid peroxide, reduced glutathione status were also evaluated simultaneously. UDCA minimized hydrogen peroxide-induced swelling in a dose-dependent manner. Time-dependent elevation in the level of lipid peroxides was noted in mitochondria treated with hydrogen peroxide and this elevation was minimized in UDCA pre-treatment. UDCA also maintains the reduced glutathione level in mitochondria. UDCA acts against the oxidative stress imposed in liver mitochondria. It reduces lipid peroxidation-induced abnormalities such as swelling and thiol group depletion and the anti lipid peroxidative efficacy of the drug may be related to its hydrophilic nature which might protect the hydrophobic regions of the mitochondrial membranes which are prone for free radical-mediated reactions.