Journal of Microbiology and Pathology

Background: Ex vivo expansion of umbilical cord blood (UCB) hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) could reduce transplant related mortality by enabling faster donor cell engraftment. Our previous study showed that addition of insulin-like growth factor binding protein 2 (IGFBP2) to mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) co-culture could expand non-selected UCB grafts that gave decreased incidence of graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) in mice. In this study we carried out a pilot clinical trial to assess safety and feasibility of this UCB expansion protoc
Methods: Eligible patients with at least two UCB units matching on 4 out of 6 human leukocyte antigen loci were recruited for this study. Larger UCB unit that provided at least 2.5 × 107 total nucleated cells (TNCs) per kilogram of bodyweight was infused without any manipulation. The smaller unit which gave at least 1.5 × 107 TNCs/kg was expanded without CD34 selection and supported by MSC co-culture in presence of a cytokine cocktail consisting of 100 ng/mL stem cell factor and thrombopoietin, 50 ng/mL Flt-3L, and 20 ng/mL IGFBP2.
Results: Three patients were recruited and expansion resulted in increase of 3.5 ± 2.5 fold of TNCs, 17.9 ± 23.2 fold of overall CD34+ progenitors, 168.1 ± 114.0 fold of colony-forming unit granulocyte-macrophage and 556.7 ± 949.9 fold of primitive progenitors (CD34+CD38-CD90+cells). Sufficient HSPC expansion was attenuated by excessive cell loss of approximately 60.5% during harvesting and washing which unexpectedly gave suboptimal expanded graft dosage. Co-infusion of both units gave median of 6.5 × 105 CD34+ cells/kg. One patient maintained 100% engraftment from expanded unit at follow-up on 33 months with minimal GVHD or disease relapse. Multiorgan failure resulted in the demise of the other two patients at day 38 and day 57 post-transplant. The average time to neutrophil recovery was 38 days (range, 34-44 days). Variable number tandem repeat showed that two out of three patients achieved engraftment from the manipulated unit. The trial was terminated because of excessive mortality, primarily as a consequence of the toxicity of multiple conditioning regimens along with other comorbidities.
Conclusion: IGFBP-2 supplementation and MSC co-culture supported modest but long-term engraftment of donor cells with minimal GVHD symptoms.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of associated consortium fungal species on the natural fermentation of the mesocarp of Pyrus communis (Pear). The combined role played by the fungi (moulds and yeasts) involve in the natural fermentation of the Pear mesocarp were also investigated.
Fresh and ripe pears were washed and surface sterilized with ethanol. The mesocarp was then scraped into a bowl and covered with a net to allow the action of aerobic fermentation for 50 days. Fungi were isolated from the samples at interval of 5 days. The morphological, microscopic and biochemical characteristics as well as the fungal count were also carried out according to standard methods. The physicochemical parameters of the pear’s mesocarp such as pH, total titrable acidity (TTA), moisture contents and total reducing sugar were also determined at every 5 days according to standard methods.
The results showed that there were eight strains of mould namely: Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus oryzae, Aspergillus fumigatus, Mucor mucedo, Penicillum frequentas, Penicillum chrysogemun and Fusarium solani; and three strains of yeasts namely Saccharomyces cerivisae, Schizoaccharomyces pombe and Saccharomyces ludwigii were identified to be involved in the fermentation process for the fifty days. The physico-chemical parameters results indicated progressive increase in pH from 3.73-6.73 with all values within the acidic range permitting the growth of microbial species; the TTA exhibited a rise and fall trend with range from 1.3-2.75 cm, the moisture content was found to be highest at 73.4% while the total reducing sugar exhibited a rise and fall in its values. The results of the microbial counts showed that the growth of mould species had prevalence as fermentation increases. The frequency of occurrence of mould present showed Aspergillus flavus to have the highest occurrence at 63.63% and for the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe at 72.27%.
The study concluded that a consortium of fungal species which are naturally associated with pear mesocarp can be effectively used in its fermentation.

Common microbial contamination inside hospital air occurs due to the presence of different kinds of microorganisms like fungi, bacteria, virus. Those pathogenic microbial organisms needs to be identified and screened properly, can be isolated from the air of different hospitals areas by following proper procedure of isolation and characterization. By proper identification of those pathogenic microbes and routine infection control can lead to the protection of the patients, hospital staff as well as surrounding areas and people associated with hospital are protected. This effort will strengthen the hospital and healthcare facility.

Background: Delta virus or hepatitis D virus (HDV) is a small RNA-containing virus requiring the concomitant presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) for its survival and pathogenicity. Within a few years of its discovery, it was linked to cases of progressive chronic hepatitis B. Approximately, 5% of the patients with chronic hepatitis B infection worldwide are infected with HDV. Development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a serious problem worldwide. CKD is characterized by a slow and progressive decline in the kidney function. Some of the manifestations of CKD include atherosclerosis, increased hemolysis, platelet dysfunction, and neuropathy. Carriers of HBV are at increased risk of developing cirrhosis, hepatic decompensation, and hepatocellular carcinoma. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of HDV among HBV on hemodialysis and correlating its relationship with age, gender.
Materials and methods: This was an active surveillance cross sectional study conducted to detect the prevalence of HDV among HBV on hemodialysis. Ninety (90) HBV on hemodialysis patients were recruited in this study. It conducted at AL-shaheda Salma center for hemodialysis and hemodialysis center of Unmada hospital in Khartoum, Sudan from April to June 2017. All statistical analyses were performed by SPSS software version (20). Continuous variables were expressed as mean and standard deviation. Comparison between groups was performed with Pearson correlation. P-value<0.05 was considered significant.
Results: In this study, increase prevalence of HDV among hepatitis B patients on hemodialysis was the most important findings. 13.3% of cases showed positive HDV, 61% of participants were males with mean age 44.8 ± 8. HDV had positive correlation with age when (R=0.249, P=0.018).
Conclusion: This study ensures that; increase possibility of HDV infection among hepatitis B patients on hemodialysis.

This study investigates the level of alpha fetoprotein (AFP) in female blood Serum living in Islamabad and Rawalpindi areas. Retrospective study will be taken as well as see how the diagnosis test will be taken. Data was collected from national institute of health Islamabad NIH. After collection data was arranged in tabulated form and will be subjected to appropriate statistical analysis. Level of AFP in female used as fetal growth marker and as tumor marker. Serum was tested by using Elecsys2010, (Roche diagnostics) that is an automatic diagnostic machine. This study will help in learning diagnosis of cancer and fetal growth with help of tumor marker AFP. It was concluded that AFP is an intermediate marker for abdominal and pelvic tumor detection. The study also suggested a relation between the fetal development and maternal serum AFP level.

Bacterial diseases like columnaris caused by Flavobacterium columnare, has huge economic impact on aquaculture industry. Proven the low efficacy of vaccines and tight regulations with antibiotic usage, there is a need for alternative therapeutics. We have previously found that methanolic extracts (50 mg/ml) from eleven herbs and spices had bactericidal effects against Flavobacterium columnare (3 × 108 CFU/ml). In the present study we determined the minimum inhibitory concentrations of all the eleven extracts and found that clove had the best significant growth inhibitory effect at the lowest concentration tested. Our results suggest that clove, cinnamon, thyme and cumin could serve as potential alternative therapeutics to deal with columnaris in fish.

Bacterial diseases like columnaris caused by Flavobacterium columnare, result in huge economic loss to aquaculture farmers. Although there are commercially available vaccines and antibiotics to control bacterial diseases, they are proven to be inefficient. Moreover, antibiotics lead to acquired resistance in bacteria, and the drug residual in fish, resulting in tight regulations for their usage. This calls for new alternative solutions that can be safe and cost-effective to prevent and treat fish diseases. Plant extracts are well known for their anti-microbial properties and they could be potential alternative candidates. Usage of plant extracts as therapeutics is largely used for human pathologies but there is limited knowledge for the same to treat piscine disease. We have evaluated the anti-microbial properties of extracts from eleven herbs and spices and compared their antimicrobial effect with commercially available antibiotic Oxytetracycline (Terramycin® 200), that is used to treat columnaris. We found that all the extracts (50 mg/ml) we have tested, had bactericidal effects against Flavobacterium columnare (3 × 10⁸ CFU/ml). Interestingly, Syzygium aromaticum, Cuminum cyminum and Thymus vulgaris showed highest antimicrobial activity against Flavobacterium columnare with an average inhibition of 20 mm and Cinnamomum verum showed 18 mm, which is similar to Oxytetracycline (30 μg). We speculate that the extracts we have identified could serve as potential alternative therapeutics to treat columnaris in fish that would have fewer or no regulations and be cost-effective.