ABSTRACT
Background & objectives: A successful blood meal acquisition process by an adult female mosquito is accomplished through salivary glands, which releases a cocktail of proteins to counteract the vertebrate host’s immune homeostasis. Here, we characterize a salivary-specific Heme peroxidase family member HPX12, originally identified from Plasmodium vivax infected salivary RNAseq data of the mosquito Anopheles stephensi. Methods: To demonstrate we utilized a comprehensive in silico and functional genomics approach. Results: Our dsRNA-mediated silencing experiments demonstrate that salivary AsHPX12 may regulate pre-blood meal-associated behavioral properties such as probing time, probing propensity, and host attraction. Altered expression of the salivary secretory and antennal proteins expression may have accounted for salivary homeostasis disruption resulting in the unusual fast release of salivary cocktail proteins and delayed acquisition of blood meal in the AsHPX12 knockdown mosquitoes. We also observed a significant parallel transcriptional modulation in response to blood feeding and P. vivax infection. Interpretation & conclusion: With this work, we establish a possible functional correlation of AsHPX12 role in the maintenance of salivary physiological-homeostasis, and Plasmodium sporozoites survival/ transmission, though the mechanism is yet to unravel.
ABSTRACT
Background: Mothers are the creators and sustainers of progeny. The health and wellbeing of children is intimately linked with the health, nutrition, education and well-being of their mothers because she is both the seed as well as the soil where in the baby is nurtured for 9 months. Hence the present study was conducted to determine the association between first trimester body mass index (BMI) of antenatal mothers with the mode of delivery, birth weight and APGAR scores of new born babies at birth in a tertiary care hospital.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted amongst 115 antenatal mothers who reported to the Labor room in a tertiary care hospital of Pune during the period of Nov. 2017 to Feb. 2018, to determine the association between first trimester body mass index (BMI) of antenatal mothers with the mode of delivery, birth weight and APGAR scores of new born babies.Results: The findings were suggestive of increased odds of APGAR of <7 at 1 min of birth among new born babies born to the study participants of low BMI group as compared to the new born babies born to the high BMI group; Increased odds of birth weight of >3.5 kg and gestational weight gain of >14 kg and greater odds of complications among new born babies born to the study participants of high BMI group than the new born babies born to the low BMI group.Conclusions: The study concluded that birth weight of the new born babies shows a clinically significant increasing trend in association with the increasing first trimester BMI of their mothers.
ABSTRACT
The third head of Gastrocnemius has gained significance in recent years due to the advent of sports and high stakes involved in this area. More cases of young athletes with popliteal artery entrapment are seen. Early diagnosis is of great importance in order to avoid vascular complications, and aid in athletes' early rehabilitation. Increased awareness of popliteal artery entrapment syndrome combined with improvements in investigative modalities has resulted in a more frequent diagnosis of this eminently treatable condition. Therefore, we report a case of caput tertium arising from medial head of Gastrocnemius muscle, observed during routine dissection of a 55-year old male cadaver and elaborate its embryologic and clinical aspects.