Hand hygiene is the topmost crucial procedure to prevent hospital-acquired infections. Choosing an effective hand disinfectant is necessary in enforcing good hand hygiene practice especially in hospital settings. The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of Aaride AGT-1 as a hand disinfectant for the inhibition of pathogenic microorganisms’ transmission among both patients and personnel in the health care system compared to other commercially available disinfectants. In the present study, a new hand disinfectant Aaride AGT-1 was tested against several bacterial and viral pathogens to evaluate its antimicrobial activity profile. The results revealed that Aaride AGT-1 displayed the highest antibacterial activity against five pathogenic bacteria including MRSA when compared to other commercially available hand sanitizers. Aaride AGT-1 showed the lowest percentage needed to inhibit the growth of bacterial pathogens. In addition, results obtained from time killing assay revealed that Aaride AGT-1 demonstrated the best killing kinetics, by eradicating the bacterial cells rapidly within 0.5 min with 6 log reduction (>99.99% killing). Also, Aaride AGT1 was able to reduce 100% plaque formed by three viruses namely HSV-1, HSV-2 and EV-71. In conclusion, Aaride AGT-1 is capable of killing wide-spectrum of pathogens including bacteria and viruses compared to other common disinfectants used in hospital settings. Aaride AGT-1’s ability to kill both bacteria and viruses contributes as valuable addition to the hand disinfection portfolio.

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne Flaviviruses. ZIKV is known to cause birth defect in pregnant women, especially microcephaly in the fetus. Hence, more study is required to understand the infection of Zika virus towards human brain microvascular endothelial cells (MECs). In this study, brain MECs were infected with ZIKV at MOI of 1 and 5 in vitro. The changes in barrier function and membrane permeability of ZIKV-infected brain MECs were determined using electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) system followed by gene expression of ZIKV-infected brain MECs at 24 hours post infection using one-color gene expression microarray. The ECIS results demonstrated that ZIKV infection enhances vascular leakage by increasing cell membrane permeability via alteration of brain MECs barrier function. This was further supported by high expression of proinflammatory cytokine genes (lnc-IL6-2, TNFAIP1 and TNFAIP6), adhesion molecules (CERCAM and ESAM) and growth factor (FIGF). Overall, findings of this study revealed that ZIKV infection could alter the barrier function of brain MECs by altering adhesion molecules and inflammatory response.