Medical Microbiology & Diagnosis

Background: Although considerable brainstorm has been known into Epstein-Barr virus EBV as an important etiologic factor in various tumors, virtually little is known about the relationship between EBV genes and leukemia. The actual cause of Leukemia, which is a serious cancer in Sudan, is still under scrutiny. Controversial hypotheses were proposed suggesting the role of physical as well as chemical and even biological factors as being responsible for Leukemia incidents. We hypothesized that EBV could be involved in the etiology of leukemia. We describe here the results of our attempt to find a possible link between leukemia and EBV.
Methods: Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction assay (q-PCR) has recently been used widely for detection of Cell-free EBVDNA in the plasma of patients with leukemia. To determine the possible correlation between plasma cell-free EBV DNA levels and the leukemia, we studied the plasma EBV DNA levels in patients with leukemia that were presented at Radiation and Isotope Centre Khartoum (RICK), Sudan during therapy. The concentrations of plasma cell-free EBV DNA of 128 leukemic patients, 17 patients with EBV-associated lymphoid malignancies during the course of therapy Burkitt's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) as control positive and 15 healthy controls were determined by using the (q-PCR) assay with the PrimerDesign™ genesig quantification kit.
Results: The results revealed that EBV DNA was detectable in a wide range of leukemia patients. Plasma EBV DNA was detected in 33/88 Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients 28/40 Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML),15/17 patients with EBV-associated lymphoid malignancies, but not in any of 15 healthy control subjects. The median concentration of EBV DNA in leukemia and healthy control groups was 6561.00 and 0.00 copies/ml, respectively.
Conclusion: Our findings provided evidence of the involvement of EBV in patients with leukemia. The results suggested that EBV DNA genome encoding the non-glycosylated membrane protein BNRF1 pl43 was observed in a significant proportion of patients with ALL. However, we could not exclude a correlation between these viral infections and later leukemogenesis in childhood ALL in Sudan.

The leptospirosis is a re-emerging anthropozoonos is worldwide distribution. The immunopathogenesis of the disease is extremely complex. Which one the role of inflammatory mediatorys, cytokines, outer membrane proteins, apoptosis and others factors related with the virulence of the pathogen during the infection.

Antibiotic resistance among enteric bacterial pathogens complicates the heavy diarrhoea disease burden. Antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter spp. to fluoroquinolones, which are generally used for the treatment of bacterial gastroenteritis, has increased during the past two decades, mainly as a result of the approval of this group of antimicrobials for use in food- producing animals. Twenty five Campylobacter isolates gotten from humans were subjected to antibiotics testing using Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method as well as standard E-test method. The plasmid profile of the isolates was determined using the Alkaline phosphatise procedure. The antimicrobial susceptibility testing of these isolates showed that all were sensitive to Erythromycin and Ciprofloxacin while none was sensitive to co-trimoxazole. The standard organisms were sensitive to co-trimoxazole (80%) and ciprofloxacin (65%) but were resistant to erythromycin (70%). No plasmid was found in streptomycin and ampicillin resistant strains, with the exception of four isolates which were co-trimoxazole-resistant and which contained around 24.4kb plasmids.

Among the pediatric cancer in developed countries, acute leukemia ¬constitutes the major part with affecting 30-45 per 1,000,000 children each year. The effect of treatment varies with differences in patients clinical, immunologic and genetic characteristics. Therefore, the search for efficient drugs to solve this problem is being continued worldwide. Although several kinds of treatments are available, enzyme therapy is equally effective. Enzymes have been used as drugs; likewise L-asparaginase and L-glutaminase had received much attention in recent years due to their anticarcinogenic potential. These enzymes constitute one of the most biotechnologically and biomedically important group of therapeutic enzymes accounting for about 40% of the total worldwide enzyme sales. Various sources are found to be good producers of the enzymes: bacteria, fungi along with some of the plant and animal species. Food and Drug Administration and World Health Organization have approved L-asparaginase for the effective treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphsarcoma. L-asparaginase and L-glutaminase break down L-asparagine or L-glutamine into L-aspartic acid or L-glutamic acid, respectively, and ammonia. L-asparagine depletion results in nutritional deprivation, inhibition of protein synthesis, and subsequent apoptotic cell death in lymphoblasts. On the other hand, the ability of L-asparaginase to selectively hydrolyzes L-asparagine into L-aspartateis a potential way to reduce the amount of free L-asparagine in the starting materials of food production, thus reducing the imminent risk of generating a potential carcinogenic and neurotoxic acrylamide that formed from L-asparagine and reducing sugars in carbohydrate-containing foods (such as snacks and biscuits) when they are heated above 120oC. Therefore, the present review is an attempt to compile information on the sources, antino plastic action and industrial application of microbial amidases enzymes.

More than hundreds pathogens of mycobacterium have been identified till now but a minority of these bugs cause diseases in humans. M. simiae, an emerging bacterium that has been discovered recently, commonly recovered from human sputum especially in patients with underlying lung diseases. Most commonly this bacterium is a bystander rather than a true culprit. Such differentiation is critical to avoid unnecessary long term treatment not free of side effects.

Six invariant oligopeptide sequences of length 12 amino acids, or greater, were identified in GP1,2 of ZEBOV Zaire and SEBOV Sudan Ebola viruses. Five of these invariant peptides had positive scores for predicted B-cell epitope scores. In contrast, the amino acid positions of the remaining invariant peptide all displayed negative predicted epitope scores. Invariant regions of Ebola GP1,2 oligopeptides may reflect structural, functional and immunological constraints on the virus, and thus, may be useful as immunological and pharmacological targets.

Background: Young children are major reservoir for community acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) and accelerate transmission of CA-MRSA.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the nasal carriage and antimicrobial resistance patterns of MRSA isolates among school children in Bahir Dar town, Ethiopia.

Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the nasal carriage rate and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of MRSA isolates among school children. A total of 300 nasal swabs were collected from March 1 to June 30, 2013. MRSA was detected using both Cefoxitin (30 μg) and Oxacillin (1 μg) discs in combination and risk factors were assessed using self-administered structured questionnaires. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS V-20.

Result: Of 123 S. aureus isolates 17(13.8%) were MRSA isolates. The main risk factors for nasal carriage of MRSA in the study area were, having recurrent acute otitis media and use of an antibiotic in the previous year. The Susceptibility profiles of MRSA isolates were (94.1%) to Chloramphenicol, Ciprofloxacin and Clindamycin, (88.2%) to Ceftriaxone, Erythromycin and Trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole and (58.8%) to Doxycycline. All the isolates were resistant to Penicillin G and sensitive to Gentamycin.

Conclusion: This study showed a rising rate of nasal carriage of MRSA among school children. Previous use of antibiotics by the children was statistically associated with MRSA carriage. Therefore developing decolonization protocols and proper utilization of drugs are needed in order to reduce the transmission and the burden of MRSA.