ABSTRACT
Background : Coronavirus is a highly infectious novel virus we are in urge to know more about their clinical characteristics and laboratory findings for the characterization and selection of treatment protocol. Methods : Prospective, single centre study. Two months data was collected, clinical characteristics data from patient case sheet and the laboratoryvalues from the Hospital Information System (HIS) for the month of July and August 2020. Results : Of 462 patients, 55 (11.9%) are falls under asymptomatic category, 194 (42%) are in mild category, 167 (36.1%) are in moderate category and 46 (10%) in severe category. Fever 230 (49.8%) and cough 211 (45.7%) was most common clinical symptom with p value < 0.01. Non-severe vs severe, 340 (73.6%) and 201 (43.5%) showed decreased in eosinophil count and absolute eosinophil count, 125 (27.1%) and 80 (17.3%) patient showed decrease in lymphocyte count and absolute lymphocyte count, 200 (43.3%) showed increase in neutrophil count with a significance of p value >0.05. 186 (40.3%) patients had one or more co-morbidities. Laboratory findings between Asymptomatic VS symptomatic, showed significance changes in neutrophil, lymphocyte, Aspartate aminotransferase, Alkaline phosphatase, globulin values (p value <0.05). Conclusion : Clinical severity categorization at the time of admission was very helpful for the treating doctors in proper understanding of disease progression and appropriate treatment of the patient. Presence of co-morbidity, abnormal laboratory values, old age group patients, higher Computed Tomography score, higher mortality rate are seen more in patients who were in clinical severity grade severe category than in non-severe category patients.
ABSTRACT
Mosquitoes are one of the most dangerous vectors among the group of arthropods. Infections due to mosquitoes are a major worldwide health problem, with high endemicity in developing countries. In the present study, we determined the larvicidal activity of Methanol, Acetone, Hexane, Chloroform and Aqueous extracts of a mangrove plant Excoecaria agallocha against (4th instar larvae) Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus. Mosquito larvicidal assays were conducted and their mortality rate was identified after 24hours to evaluate the larvicidal activity of the crude extract of Excoecaria agallocha.
ABSTRACT
Various organic and aqueous extracts of Skeletonema costatum were screened for their antibacterial activities. The extracts were tested against different species of human pathogenic bacteria by the agar-solid diffusion method. Water extract of Skeletonema costatum showed maximum antimicrobial activity of 19.0 mm against Klebsiella pneumoniae and a minimum activity of 9 mm against Proteus vulgaris. All the tested microorganisms were resistant to methanol, ethanol and propanol extracts except Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus which exhibited a least inhibition zone of 6.0 and 7.0 mm respectively in propanol. Acetone extract of Skeletonema costatum also showed the highest biological activity of 19.0 mm against Klebsiella pneumoniae, moderate activity of 12.0 mm against Salmonella typhi, and 11.0 mm against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Sequential extract of Spirulina exhibited maximum antimicrobial activity. Inhibition zone of 23.2 mm was observed for Klebsiella pneumoniae and 14.0 mm for Proteus vulgaris.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: India has an extensive area of forest enriched with plant diversity. Several of these plants have been used as folklore medicines. However, the medicinal plants have rarely been investigated for anti-human immunodeficiency virus activity. Hence, some Indian medicinal plants were screened in vitro against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). METHODS: The inhibitory effect of plant extracts on HIV replication was monitored in terms of inhibition of virus induced cytopathogenicity in MT-4 cells. The MT-4 cells were infected with HIV. The HIV infected or mock infected MT-4 cells were incubated at 37 degrees C in a CO2 incubator in the presence of the plant extracts. After five days, cell viability was measured by tetrazolium based colorimetric assay. RESULTS & INTERPRETATION: Of the 69 plant species screened, 16 were effective against HIV-1 and 4 were against both HIV-1 and HIV-2. The most effective extracts against HIV-1 and HIV-2 are respectively Cinnamomum cassia (bark) and Cardiospermum helicacabum (shoot + fruit). The findings provide a rationale for further studies on isolation of active principles and pharmacological evaluation.