Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease

1-5

Authors: Hamid Iqbal, Muhammad Ishfaq, Abdul Wahab, Muhammad Naseer Abbas, Ijaz Ahmad, Ali Rehman, Muhammad Zakir

Leishmaniasis is an emerging dermal disorder that causes high morbidity and mortality levels with a wide spectrum of clinical complications. Current situation of chemotherapeutic options with some attempts at immunotherapy has remained a dilemma for the treatment of leishmaniasis. Primary precautionary measure which relies on the managed control of the host and sandfly bite prevention is difficult to establish, as the transmission of the disease is manifested by various Leishmania species. Secondary and tertiary prevention is dependent on the medical assistance using clinical guidelines and adequate therapy. However, long course of duration and resistant nature of drugs with pronounced side effects often lead to reduction or cessation of treatment. The aim of this article is to view the current status of chemotherapeutic agents used against leishmaniasis; a review of natural plant extracts exhibiting antileishmanial activities in vitro or in vivo alone or in combination with recommended drugs seeming to validate their use in folk medicine, topical applications of ointments currently used to develop new compounds under trial, substantial efforts in vaccine development and insights about immunoregulation along with the recommendations and guidelines for future perspectives.

10-14

Authors: Kavita Negi, Preeti Chaturvedi

Objective: To study the antimicrobial effect of organic extracts with a standard dose of Rhynchostegium vagans (R. vagans) on pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Methods: R. vagans was extracted in solvents (ethanol and acetone) and the extracts were evaluated for antimicrobial activity by using disc diffusion assay. Minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal/fungicidal concentration was observed by employing micro broth dilution method. Mode of inhibition of ethanolic extract against Aspergillus flavus var. columnaris (A. flavus var. columnaris) was assessed by scanning electron microscopy. Results: It was found that the ethanolic extract of R. vagans was the most potent with lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (3.91 to 61.25 μg/mL) and minimum bactericidal/fungicidal concentration (3.91 to 500 μg/mL), respectively. Significant morphological and ultrastructural alterations were seen in A. flavus var. columnaris. Among microorganisms, Gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Erwinia chrysanthemi and Salmonella enterica) and fungi (A. flavus var. columnaris and Aspergillus parasiticus var. globosus) were found more sensitive. Ethanolic extract was found superior over the antibiotics (chloramphenicol and fluconazole). Conclusions: R. vagans exhibited effective antimicrobial activity against all the microorganisms. The moss can be used as a broad spectrum herbal antimicrobial agent in pharmaceutics.

21-26

Authors: Gamal Mohamedin Hassan, Zaki Ahmed El-Feky, Eissa Ahmed Eissa, Ayaat Ahmed Teleb

Objective: To characterize intra-isolates variation between clinical isolates of Pasteurella multocida (P. multocida) isolated from sheep, cattle and buffalo at molecular level to check the distribution of pneumonia and hemorrhagic septicemia in some regions of Fayoum, Egypt. Methods: These isolates were obtained from various locations in the Fayoum Governorate, Egypt and they were identified by amplifying 16S rDNA and KMT1 genes using their DNA as a template in PCR reaction. Results: The results demonstrated that the five selective isolates of P. multocida had similar size of PCR products that generated one band of 16S rDNA having 1 471 bp and KMT1 gene having 460 bp. The phylogenetic tree and similarity of the five selective isolates of P. multocida which were collected from GenBank database were calculated and analyzed for the nucleotide sequence of 16S rDNA and KMT1 genes. The sequencing result of 16S rRNA gene product (1 471 bp) for the five selective isolates of P. multocida showed that the isolates of sheep (FUP2) shared 94.08%, 88.10% homology with the buffalo isolate (FUP8) and cattle isolate (FUP9) respectively, whereas, the buffalo isolate (FUP5) shared 98.18% and 94.40% homology with the cattle isolates (FUP12 and FUP9). Conclusions: The results indicated the relationships of P. multocida isolated from buffalo and cattle rather than the close relationships between P. multocida isolated from cattle and sheep. Diagnosis of P. multocida by 16S rDNA and KMT1 gene sequences was important to determine the antigen that is responsible for protective cover within the same group of animals and to help for the production of new vaccines for the control of microbial infection for domestic animals.

32-39

Authors: Sandip Jadhav, Nitin Sawant

Objective: To analyze the comparative efficacy of piperacillin-tazobactam (PIP-TAZ) and ceftriaxone-sulbactam with adjuvant (CSA) in the treatment of intra-abdominal infections (IAIs) and to assess the costs associated with respective therapies. Methods: The present study analyzed the data collected from 94 IAI patients treated at a tertiary-care hospital. Patient characteristics, infection types, surgical procedures, antibiotic therapies, treatment durations were recorded and overall cost involved in the infections management was estimated in Indian rupee. Results: In total, 46 patients received PIP-TAZ and 48 patients received CSA. The clinical cure was seen in 39.13% patients of PIP-TAZ group and 62.50% patients of CSA group. The patients diagnosed with mixed culture (Gram-positive and negative) infections, needed additional cover of clindamycin to achieve clinical success. The failure patients from PIP-TAZ group were shifted to meropenem therapy. For the patients where meropenem and CSA therapy failed, colistin was given as an additional cover. Comparative cost expenditure analysis of the two drug treatment groups revealed that, the overall treatment cost for patients cured with empirical PIP-TAZ group was 51.79% more than that of CSA therapy. The strongest predictor of the increase in treatment costs was clinical failure. Similar trends were maintained for the patients cured with clindamycin additional therapy and change of therapy, with PIP-TAZ group accounting 36.11% and 39.99% more expenditure than CSA group. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that CSA has comparatively higher efficacy as compared to PIP-TAZ when used along with metronidazole in patients with different types of IAIs. Pharmacoeconomic analysis clearly shows that starting appropriate empirical antibiotic therapy has a large impact on the cost of treatment in management of IAIs and selection of CSA, can significantly reduce the cost involved in the treatment.

46-48

Authors: Supiana Dian Nurtjahyani, Fitria Hadra

Objective: To report the effectiveness of various concentrations of garlic juice on inhibition zone of Gram-positive bacteria isolated from tiger shrimps. Methods: Four concentrations of garlic juice used in this research were: 0%, 12.5%, 25% and 50%. Two different bacteria were successfully isolated from tiger shrimps categorized as Gram-positive. The bacterial inhibition zone revealed that garlic juice could inhibit the growth of these bacteria in the form of clear zone on media. Results: The average diameters of inhibition zone from those two bacteria were significantly increased in garlic juice receiving group compared with the control (untreated) group (P < 0.05). For bacteria B, this increase was dose dependent manner. Conclusions: These findings demonstrated the potential of garlic as a natural alternative to currently used antibacterial agent for Gram-positive infection in the tiger shrimp.

54-62

Authors: Manab Mandal, Saikat Paul, Md. Raihan Uddin, Mohabul Alam Mondal, Sukhendu Mandal, Vivekananda Mandal

Objective: To explore the in vitro antimicrobial potential of Hydrocotyle javanica (H. javanica) Thunb. against human pathogenic bacteria and to standardize purification protocol to harvest the active principle in large scale. Methods: In the present study, methanol and aqueous extracts of H. javanica were examined for in vitro antimicrobial potency against food poisoning, human pathogenic gastrointestinal and topical bacteria. Results: The methanol and aqueous extracts yielded bioactive crude extracts that have antibacterial potentiality against the human pathogenic bacteria tested. The chemical constituents of the crude extracts showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, tannins, leucoanthocyanidins and cardiac glycosides in the methanol extract, and alkaloids, saponins and triterpenoids in the water extract. Further solvent fractionation and purification of the crude extracts showed that the active antibacterial compounds were alkaloid in dichloromethane fraction and phenols in methanol fraction with a very strong bactericidal activity as evidenced by SEM and lactate dehydrogenase study. Conclusions: Based on the findings it could be inferred that H. javanica would be a potential source for developing biotherapeutics against the human pathogenic bacteria. Further research work is going on in our laboratory to elucidate the structure of the active molecules.

70-74

Authors: Neelam Arya, Om Prakash, Sundip Kumar, Vivekanand, Anil Kumar Pant

Objective: To investigate the genetic diversity and variation in active compound of turmeric rhizomes collected from different niches of Uttarakhand. Methods: Genetic diversity and relationship of Curcuma longa accessions was evaluated by random amplification polymorphism DNA analysis and curcumin profiling was evaluated by high performance liquid chromatography method. Results: The curcumin contents in 20 accessions of turmeric rhizomes were found to be in the range of 0.90% to 3.26%. All accessions were separated into six groups (92% genetic similarity) by using 10 decamer oligonucleotide primers for the amplification of genomic DNA. Conclusions: The results indicated the possibility of selecting high quality clones for large scale production.

82-83

Authors: Behnam Farhoudi, SeyedAhmad SeyedAlinaghi, Minoo Mohraz, Mostafa Hosseini, Marzieh Farnia

We conducted a study to evaluate tuberculosis (TB), hepatitis C and hepatitis B co-infections in male patients with HIV in the Great Tehran Prison from October 2013 to May 2014. Among 85 HIV positive patients, five persons (5.9%) had TB. Also, 56 new HIV-infected patients were checked for hepatitis B surface antigen and hepatitis C virus antibody. There were three hepatitis B surface antigen (5.4%) and 50 hepatitis C virus antibody (89.3%) results. This study suggests that it is necessary to investigate TB, hepatitis C and hepatitis B in HIV positive prisoners in Iran.