Phylogenetic Analysis and Emerging Drug Resistance against Different Nucleoside Analogues in Hepatitis B Virus Positive Patients.

Several nucleotide analogues have been approved for use in treating hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Long-term exposure to therapy leads to the emergence of mutations within the HBV DNA polymerase gene, resulting in drug resistance, a major factor contributing to therapy failure. Chronic HBV patients from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, who had completed 6 months of therapy participated in this study. Samples were collected from 60 patients. In this study, the entire reverse transcriptase domain of the HBV polymerase gene was amplified using nested polymerase chain reaction and sequenced. Drug-resistant mutations were detected in nine (22.5%) patients. All of these patients had lamivudine-resistant mutations (rtM204V + L180M), while seven individuals (17.5%) had both lamivudine- plus entecavir-resistant mutations (L180M + M204V + S202G). N236T, a mutation that gives rise to tenofovir and adefovir resistance, was observed in two (5%) patients. T184A, a partial drug-resistant mutation to entecavir, was found in five (12.5%) patients. Furthermore, other genotypic variants (100%) and vaccine escape mutations (5%) were additionally observed. Moreover, pN459Y (35%), pN131D (20%), pL231S (20%), pP130Q (17.5%), pS189Q (12.5%), pP161S (5%), pH160P (2.5%), pT322S (2.5%), and pA223S (2.5%) mutations in the polymerase gene, as well as sA166V (17.5%), sQ181K (12.5%), sV184R (7.5%), sA17E (5%), sP153S/K (5%), sW156C (5%), sC76Y (2.5%), and S132F (2.5%) mutations in the small surface gene, were identified for the first time in this study. Phylogenetic analysis showed that genotype D was predominant amongst the HBV carriers. Subtype D1 was found in most patients, while two patients were subtype D9. These novel findings may contribute to the body of knowledge and have clinical significance for treating and curing HBV infections in Pakistan.

Fabrication and Materials Integration of Flexible Humidity Sensors for Emerging Applications.

In the past decade, humidity measurements have ubiquitously gained consideration in the wide range of application paradigms such as industrial predictive maintenance, instrumentation, automation, agriculture, climate monitoring, healthcare, and semiconductor industries. Accurate humidity measurements and cost-effective fabrication processes for large-volume and high-performance sensors with flexible form factors are essential to meet the stringent performance requirements of the emerging application areas. To address this need, recent efforts focus on development of innovative sensing modalities, process technologies, and exploration and integration of new materials to enable low-cost, robust, and flexible humidity sensors with ultrahigh sensitivity and linearity, large dynamic range, low hysteresis, and fast response time. In this review paper, we present an overview of flexible humidity sensors based on distinct sensing mechanisms, employed processing techniques, and various functional sensing layers and substrate materials for specific applications. Furthermore, we present the critical device design parameters considered to be indicative of sensor performance such as relative humidity range, along with a discussion on some of the specific applications and use cases.

Hepatitis-C Virus and Cirrhosis: An Overview from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) leads to liver cirrhosis and carcinoma worldwide. The data of HCV cirrhotic patients were collected from hospitals of Peshawar in the period from 2015 to 2018. A total sample of 267 patients, in the age limit (>19 and <87 years) were found to be cirrhotic and HCV positive. The samples were analyzed through different tests, that is, raised alkaline phosphatase (410 IU/L), aspartate aminotransferase (209 U/L), and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) viral load (>5,000,000 IU/mL). The mean and standard deviation (SD) of alanine transaminase and alpha fetoprotein were noted, (121.46 ± 29.23) and (43.09 ± 28.08), respectively. Samples of HCV cirrhotic patients (59.6% males and 40.4% females) were included and their mean age and SD of the patients was 49.62 ± 12.65 years. The Child-Turcotte-Pugh Score system was assessed on the base of liver disease. High blood pressure was observed in 26.2%, low in 40.8%, and normal in 33% of patients. The ascites was recorded high in 59% patients (male 38.6%, female 20.6%) and the level of albumin was abnormal in 64.5% patients. Furthermore, multiplex PCR was run to determine HCV genotypes. The frequency of HCV genotype 3a was 47.9%, 2a and 3b was 11%, 1a was 6%, and 1b was 1%; 4.1% were mixed genotypes and 18.7% were untypable genotypes in these patients. The HCV genotype 3a was found a major prevalent genotype in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa patients and it was observed that the HCV cirrhosis issue was significantly increased in the province.