BioScientific Review (BSR)

Current Status of Therapeutics and Diagnosis of HCV

Saba Altaf, Aisha Tarar, Nabiha Naeem — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes a very common blood borne infection. According to a recent estimate, 3% of world population is infected with HCV. Acute infection develops into chronic infection that causes severe liver diseases. Major improvements in diagnosis and antiviral therapy play a crucial role in the management of chronic hepatitis infection. Better understanding of HCV life cycle introduced the development of direct acting antiviral drugs (DAA drugs). Currently, sovaldi or NS5B inhibitor is a major drug used for chronic HCV infection. New therapies are based on the combination of antiviral drugs and/or interferon free regimens. Many new DAA drugs, that are inhibitors of HCV genes, are under investigation. Serological and molecular techniques play a major role in the diagnosis and assessment of the treatment. Anti HCV detection by ELISA is an initial screening test, while nucleic acid tests (NATs) are confirmatory. Quantitative NATs have replaced the qualitative NATs. Developments in the field of diagnosis and treatment have replaced interferon based regimens with interferon free regimens.

Context Focused Therapy for Children: Theory, Principle and Protocol

Amira Mohamed El Tohamy, Shaymaa Rushdy, Marwa Gamal, Alaa Noureldeen Kora — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Context focused therapy is a new interventional approach that is used for the rehabilitation of children. This novel treatment approach concentrates on altering the factors in the child’s tasks and surroundings instead of treating the impairment of the child. This approach works using the primary therapist model that cooperates with the caregivers to identify the tasks that the child has to learn. The therapist then starts to modify the tasks and the environment, accordingly. The modifications applied on the tasks and/or the surroundings allow the child to do activities that they were incapable of doing earlier. The aim of this review is to discuss the concept of context focused therapy, its theoretical background, its principles and treatment protocol, and to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of this new approach.

Development and Optimization of Micro-Propagation, In Vitro Methodology for Gladiolus

Rana Muhammad Mateen — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Gladiolus is a non-native, costly but an important flowering plant in South Asia. Considering its lower production rate and economic importance, micro-propagation technology was optimized in this study to establish a protocol for
pathogen free clonal genotypes. Taken the results together, the best response was observed at 27°C as growing temperature, table sugar (sucrose) as a carbon source, apical meristem of 3mm for shoot formation as an explant. The best plant regeneration was observed for shoot apical meristem (within 7.8 days after inoculation) by using Murashige and Skoog MS basal medium with supplementing 1.0 mg/L BAP and 0.5 mg/L of Kinetin. The best shoot
multiplication was 98% in 18.2 days of inoculation using MS media with 1.0 mg/L BAP only. For root induction, MS media which was supplemented with 1.0 mg/L NAA and 2.0 mg/L IBA gave the best results (100% in 6.8 days). The best supporting agent was found to be cotton swab while the best media for hardening and acclimatization of well-developed plants was a combination of sand, soil, and peat in an equal ratio (1:1:1), leading to 80% survival rate of plants. The results obtained in this study may better help grow Gladiolus plants on an industrial scale with a lower cost of production.

Evaluation of Tinda Gourd (Praecitrullus fistulosus) Germplams’s Yield

Wed, 05 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Tinda Gourd is the most important summer vegetable widely grown in Pakistan. It contains a high amount of iron and other vitamins and minerals. Hence, its medicinal value is also high due to its ingredient profile. This field experiment was conducted in the vegetable area, Institute of Horticultural Sciences in the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad in order to recognize the morphological characteristics of Tinda gourd, fruit growth pattern, and the yield of Tinda (Praecitrullus fistulosus) gourd germplasm lines. Sixteen germplasm lines, in which one line was used as control, were sown and grown on flat beds in the field. The field experiment was arranged as Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Data related to the maturity time of fruit, fruit per vine, fruit weight in grams, fruit diameter and total yield obtained were recorded. The fruit texture was marked as phenotypic parameter. All parameters were collected and then analyzed statistically. All lines and replications showed different results from each other according to the chosen parameter. The variety L1 took 56 days to mature, closely followed by line L4 (56.66 days) and line L8 (56.33 days). There was not much difference in fruit per plant among Tinda gourd lines. Among them, 198 g fruits were found in line L0, followed by line L1 (224 g) and line L15
(225.00 g). Line L9 showed fruit diameter of 7 cm closely followed by line L1 (7.23 cm) and line L2 (7.23 cm). The maximum yield was observed in line L0 (599.33 grams) as compared to other lines. There was a significant difference in the yield of lines. Among them, line L4 showed 421 grams of yield closely.

Some Biological Aspects of Black Fly Aleurolobus marlatti (Hemiptera: Aleurodidae) on Christ –Thorn in Baghdad

Fayhaa Abbood Mahdi Al-Nadawi — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0200

This study aimed to reveal some biological effects of black fly Aleurolobus marlatti (Hemiptera: Aleurodidae) on Christthorn. The research work was conducted in Baghdad during the period extending from June 2015 to March 2016. The purpose was to count the number of black fly A. marlatti’s generations, the appearance period, the overwintering insect and the appearance date. The results showed that the adult appearance began in the last week of March in the field. The generations were marked by insect population that fluctuated between highs and lows. Generations were analyzed both on an annual and monthly basis depending on fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity. The number of insects were noticed in the form of eight peaks representing eight generations per year in central Iraq.

Isolation and Characterization of Chlorpyrifos Degrading Bacteria from Contaminated Agricultural Lands

Minhaj Fatima, Nayab Tallat, Gur Charn Singh — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Previous literature has confirmed that pesticides are posing serious threats to the lives of human beings and animals alike because of their use in agricultural crops. Pesticides have also increased pollution in aquatic and terrestrial environment. In this study, chlorpyriphos degrading bacterial strains were isolated from pesticide contaminated agricultural soils by the selective enrichment method. Bacterial isolates were biochemically characterized for the strain identification. The effect of different environmental factors on optimum growth was also checked. These factors included pH, temperature, and concentration of pesticide. Isolated strains were also ribotyped for identification. Metal resistance profiling was performed for different heavy metals, that is, ZnSO4.7H2O (Zinc sulphate), CdCl2.H2O (Cadmium chloride), CuSO4 (Copper sulphate), and K2CrO4 (Potassium chromate). It was found that strains NW3O and NW3T were sensitive to cadmium except NR2 and NR4, which were resistant at the concentration of 100 and 200 µg ml-1. NR4, NW4 and NW3G were resistant to chromium upto the concentration of 100 µg
ml-1, while NR2, NW3O and NW3T tolerated 200 µgml-1 of the metal. All the strains were resistant to zinc at different concentrations. NR2 showed maximum resistance to copper by showing growth on all concentrations of the metal. Thin layer chromatography was performed for the detection of different intermediates formed during the degradation of chlorpyrifos. Minimum inhibitory concentration of pesticide was estimated in M9 medium containing chlorpyriphos. The current study resulted in the isolation of efficient chlorpyrifos degrading strains with a wide range of pH and temperature tolerance that can utilize chlorpyrifos upto 700mg/L during lab scale degradation tests (growth on chlorpyrifos supplemented minimal agar and broth).