South Asian Journal of Research in Microbiology

Tuberculosis is among the deadliest diseases occurring worldwide killing almost 2 million of people every year and the number increases every year. The drugs and medications used for treatment become ineffective due to the development of resistance in the causative pathogen, M. tuberculosis towards the drugs. This has led to the development of new approaches to study the diseases from different views. Chalcone Synthase is an enzyme involved in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway occurring in plants and in certain bacterial species including M. tuberculosis. The enzyme is responsible for lipid biosynthesis in bacterial cell wall of M. tuberculosis. This study describes the kinetic behaviour of reaction; Chalcone Synthase catalyzes the first reaction in flavonoid biosynthesis and needs a certain threshold concentration of substrates for reaction to proceed. In this study, the steady state concentration of substrates is predicted by simulation experiment using Gepasi tool. Initial concentrations of substrates in M. tuberculosis are 4.78*10-2 mMol for p-coumaroyl-CoA and 2.23*10-7 mMol for malonyl-CoA, are taken as input which are essential for synthesis of Naringenin chalcone and release of CoA. This concentration was used to simulate the reaction. Simulation results show that after 5.00 seconds, at equilibrium constant J(R1) 0.000000e mM*ml/s, initial and final concentrations of all the five components become 1.000000 mM, at 0.000 mM reaction rate. Low and stable concentrations of products were obtained during steady state analysis which is 1.157721 mM for both Naringenin chalcone and Coenzyme. The work brings a relevant approach about the possibility of the inactivation of mycobacterial growth by reducing mycolic acid synthesis in the cell wall of mycobacterium and provides basis for new strategy to design vaccine or drug against the pathogen.

Aim: To assess the microbial quality and safety or otherwise of ‘nono’ sold to the public for consumption.

Study Design: A cross sectional study design was employed for the study.

Place and Duration of Study: Mangu Local Government Area, Plateau State is the study area. The study lasted between May 2017 and June 2018.

Methodology: Questionnaire was administered to 300 ‘nono’ sellers and subsequently, 300 ‘nono’ samples were randomly collected (30 samples collected at intervals) from 10 markets and the samples were transported to central diagnostic laboratory of the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) Vom, Plateau State for laboratory analyses of the samples using serial dilution and spread-plate technique.

Results: Results showed that majority (86.0%) of the respondents depends on selling ‘nono’ as the only source of income, and 75.7 % of them had no formal education. An overall mean total bacterial count (TBC) of 6.09 Log₁₀cfuml^-l was recorded from all the samples. Majority of the ‘nono’ samples collected from the different markets had significantly higher bacterial count than the recommended level of 5.0 Log₁₀cfuml^-1 set by the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) for a minimum acceptable level of bacterial count in milk and milk products. Bacteria isolated were Coliforms, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus with overall prevalence of 52.7%, 43.0%, 10.0%, 8.3%, 5.0%, and 16.3% which recorded overall mean counts of 4.37, 3.56, 0.83, 0.69, 0.41 and 1.30 Log₁₀cfuml^-1, respectively. Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, Penicillium spp., Mucor spp., Rhizopus spp. and Candida spp. isolated from the products had an overall prevalence of 25.7 % and overall mean fungal count of 2.13 Log₁₀cfuml^-1. A statistically significant (P<0.05) difference was established among the means of the microbial groups.

Conclusion: Microbiological safety of ‘nono’ sold in Mangu is not guaranteed as at time of study possibly as a result of unhygienic practices during ‘nono’ production and product contamination from the vendors.

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common infectious diseases in community practice and a significant public health problem regarding morbidity and financial cost worldwide.

Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) among UTI patients of District Quetta Pakistan and to observe the antibiogram profile of the bacterial isolates.

Materials and Methods: One hundred urine samples were collected from both male and female UTI patients. These mid-stream urine samples were taken early in the morning in sterile, wide mouth containers from the pathological section of a tertiary care hospital (Bolan Medical College Hospital BMCH), District Quetta. Samples were further processed at the Microbiology laboratory of Centre for Advance Studies in Vaccinology and Biotechnology (CASVAB), University of Balochistan from August to December 2011.

Results: Only five samples were found positive for S. aureus on methyl red, Voges-Proskauer, catalase and coagulase, while negative on indole, citrate and motility. Positive samples showed cream and yellow coloured colonies on Staphylococcus medium 110 and mannitol salt agar, respectively. Infection was more common in female (60%) as compared to males (40%); while the overall infection rate was highest in the age group of 26-45 years (80%). During antibiotic sensitivity test, gentamycin showed 100% susceptibility against S. aureus.

Conclusion: It was concluded that only 5% of patients of UTI were caused by S. aureus that can be eliminated by treating the patients with antibiotic gentamycin. In the local scenario, routine urine culture tests and surveillance program is encouraged to be implemented.

Malaria is a life-threatening disease and emergence of malaria parasite resistance to antimalarial drugs, has necessitated the need for discovery and development of an alternative to malaria medicine. This study assessed the ethanolic leaf extract of Eucalyptus citriodora for the presence of bioactive components qualitatively and efficacy of the extract against the malaria parasite. Standard methods were used to determine the bioactive components of the leaf extract. Twenty (20) albino mice of body weight between 18-25 g were randomised into 5 groups of four mice each for acute toxicity test, while twenty-four (24) mice were randomised into six groups of four mice each (group 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) for antiplasmodial activity. All the groups were infected with P. berghei, except group 3 (normal control). Group 4, 5 and 6 were treated with 0.2 mL of 200, 400 and 800 mg/kg body weight of extract respectively. Group 2 (positive control) were treated with 0.2 mL of 5 mg/kg body weight of chloroquine. Group 1 (negative control) were administered with 0.2 mL of normal saline, while group 3 (normal control) were administered with 0.2 mL of normal saline for four consecutive days. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, tannins, anthraquinone, flavonoids and cardiac glycosides and the extract was found safe and nontoxic. The antiplasmodial investigation revealed a decrease in percentage parasitaemia level in mice of group 4, 5 and 6 (extract treated group) compared with mice of group 1 (infected and not treated). The parasitaemia reduction was higher in group 6 (800 mg/kg). This significant decrease (P<0.05) in percentage parasitaemia level in the study was dose and time-dependent. The study revealed the potency of E. citriodora leaf extract as a future herbal candidate for the treatment of human malaria infection.

Dermatophytosis is a superficial infection of the keratinized layers of the skin and its appendages (hair, feathers, horns) and is caused by keratinophilic and keratinolytic genera such as Microsporum, Trichophyton and Epidermophyton. In dogs, nearly 70% of cases are caused by Microsporum canis, 20% by M. gypseum, and 10% by Trichophyton mentagrophytes. The Wood’s lamp test is of diagnostic importance for the establishment of a tentative diagnosis of dermatophytosis in dogs. This overview will forecast more light on different aspects of this disease.