Occurrence of Bondar's Nesting Whitefly,Paraleyrodes bondari (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), on cassava in Uganda

Cassava is a valued calorific source to millions of Africans who eat it daily and a vital staple for their food security. One of the key constraints to this crop is whiteflies which are both a vector of viral diseases and a direct pest. Although the African cassava whitefly is known to cause physical damage on cassava with considerable tuberous yield loss, a recent whitefly outbreak caused unusually severe damage, which prompted the current reported investigation. Molecular identification of whitefly adults sampled from the affected cassava field revealed the presence of a new whitefly species, Paraleyrodes bondari. This communication is the first report of the occurrence of P. bondari on cassava in Uganda.     

In silico analysis for development of epitopes-based peptide vaccine against Alkhurma hemorrhagic fever virus

Abstract

Alkhurma hemorrhagic fever virus (ALKV) causes a fatal clinical disease in human beings of different tropical and sub-tropical regions. Recently, the ALKV epidemics have raised a great public health concern with the room for improvement in the essential therapeutic interventions. Despite increased realistic clinical cases of ALKV infection, the efficient vaccine or immunotherapy is not yet available to-date. Therefore, the current study aimed to analyze the envelope glycoprotein of ALKV for the development of B-cells and T-cells epitope-based peptide vaccine using the computational in silico method. Utilizing various immunoinformatics approaches, a total of 5 B-cells and 25 T-cells (MHC-I?=?17, MHC-II?=?8) epitope-based peptides were predicted in the current study. All predicted peptides had highest antigenicity and immunogenicity scores along with high binding affinity to human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles. Among 25T-cell epitopes, three peptides were found alike to have affinity to bind both MHC-I and MHC-II alleles. These outcomes suggested that these predicted epitopes could potentially be used in the development of an efficient vaccine against ALKV, which may enable to elicit both humoral and cell-mediated immunity. Although, these predicted peptides could be useful in designing a candidate vaccine for the prevention of ALKV; however, it’s in vitro and in vivo assessments are prerequisite.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma     

Length-weight relationships of seven cyprinid fish species from the Kaptai Lake,Bangladesh

Length-weight relationships (LWRs) were estimated for seven small indigenous cyprinid fish species including Securicula gora, Osteobrama cotio, Esomus lineatus, Pethia gelius, Megarasbora elonga, Gonialosa manmina and Glossogobius aureus occurring in the Kaptai Lake, Bangladesh. Fish were collected monthly basis between March and October, 2018 from fishermen catches landed in the fish landing center, Rangamati. Fishermen operated lift net (mesh size < 0.5 cm), punti net (mesh size < 0.5 cm) and cast net (mesh size < 0.5 cm) for capturing these species. The value of exponent b ranged between 2.769 and 3.212 and regression parameter r² was between 0.926 and 0.992. New maximum total lengths were recorded for E. lineatus and G. manmina in this study.     

Transcellular mechanisms of amino acid uptake by distal rat ileum in situ

A 10 cm distal ileal intestinal perfusion technique was employed in Sprague-Dawley rats in situ. The perfused segment was removed, weighed, its surface area measured, homogenized, digested in HNO3 and assayed for L(1-14C)alanine and L-phenyl (1-14C)alanine. Steady state for L-alanine and L-phenylalanine absorption by the intact intestinal segment was observed at 10 and 15 min respectively. Exposure of the intestinal mucosa to 1 mM ouabain showed no effect on amino acid absorption. Preloading the intestinal epithelium with ouabain resulted in approximately 66% and 48% reduction in L-alanine and L-phenylalanine absorption respectively. Removal of Na from the buffer with and without exposure of the mucosa to 1 mM ouabain decreased absorption of L-alanine and L-phenylalanine by approximately 77% and 52% respectively. Removal of Na from the buffer and preloading the intestinal epithelium with ouabain resulted in approximately 85% and 81% reduction in L-alanine and L-phenylalanine absorption respectively. A 5, 10 and 25 fold increase in luminal L-alanine and L-phenylalanine concentration in Na-free choline Krebs Ringer after preloading with ouabain resulted in increase of amino acid absorption of approximately the same order of magnitude. Both an amino acid-carrier mediated transport process and a ouabain resistant Na-dependent-amino acid pump exist at the mucosal side. Both an ouabain sensitive Na-dependent-amino acid pump and an ouabain resistant Na-independent amino acid pump exist at the serosal side. Approximately 15-20% of absorbed amino acids are passively translocated.     

Feasibility of cord blood bank in high altitude Abha: preclinical impacts

We explored the possibility of the cryo-storage of cord blood hematopoietic stem cells (CBHPSC) with respect to the quantity, quality and biologic efficacy of high altitude (HA) region Abha against sea level (SL) region. The results of the post-processed total nucleated cell count was 8.03 ± 0.31 × 10⁷ and 8.44 ± 0.23 × 10⁷ cells in the HA and SL regions respectively. The mean post processing viability of the nucleated cells was about 87.03 ± 1.39 (HA) and 88.33 ± 1.55% (SL) while post thaw cells were 85.61 ± 1.44 (HA) and 86.58 ± 1.61% (SL) after transient cryo-storage. The proliferation of CBHSCs after thawing were comparable between the HA and SL regions. The results of the colony forming unit (CFU) assays of CFU-E, CFU-GEMM, CFU-GM and BFU-E were comparable between HA and SL in both fresh and post thaw, while a declining trend with viability was significant. The differentiation capability of post thaw samples into adipocytes and osteocytes were comparable between HA and SL regions. Overall from the results, it can be evidenced that HA cord blood collection, processing or storage does not hinder the quality or biological efficacy of the CBHPSC.