Journal Detail Information

1

Cite

Share

Molecular detection and phylogenetic analysis of Leishmania major in stray dogs in Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia

Alanazi, A.D. ; Rahi, A.A. ; Ali, M.A. ; Alyousif, M.S. ; Alanazi, I.O. ; Mahmoud, M.S. ; Abdel-Shafy, S. ; Alraey, Y.A. ; Alouffi, A.S.

Tropical Biomedicine.2019;36(2):315-323.

Dogs can act as a reservoir of canine leishmaniasis disease, which is caused by Leishmania species. The study aimed to identify and document the genotype of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in the stray dogs in Riyadh Province using kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) as a target gene by using nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR). This cross-sectional investigation was conducted over the course of two years, from March 2016 to July 2018, in different districts of Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia. A total of 237 dogs were examined, only 18 of the dogs were suspected clinically of cutaneous leishmaniasis due to the presence of cutaneous nodules and cutaneous lesion. Biopsy tissue collections were performed and DNA was extracted. CSB2XF and CSB1XR primers were used to amplify the Leishmania kDNA regions. The Leishmania species were detected by specific 13Z and LIR primers by applying nested PCR assay. Nine dogs were found to be positive for Leishmania major. The examined dogs were negative for other Leishmania spp. The phylogenetic analysis and blast results of kDNA showed that the 9 isolates L. major is closely related (99.9%) to the L. major isolate CMG_irfan5, accession number HQ727556.1 from human, Pakistan. This is the first molecular study on dog leishmaniasis from Saudi Arabia confirmed that dogs have a L. major infection. Further epidemiological and molecular investigations are required to study domestic and wild canine infections with L. major and other Leishmania spp in endemic and nonendemic areas of Saudi Arabia as part of leishmaniasis control

2

Cite

Share

Poverty-associated emerging infection of Cystic Echinococcosis in population of Northern Pakistan: A hospital based study

Khan, A. ; Ahmed, H. ; Simsek, S. ; Gondal, M.A. ; Afzal, M.S. ; Irum, S. ; Muhammad, I. ; Mansur, H. ; Fatima, A. ; Ali, M.S. ; Riaz, N. ; Akbar, A. ; Weiping, W. ; Yayi, G.

Tropical Biomedicine.2019;36(2):324-334.

Cystic Echinococcosis (CE) is one of the most important zoonotic parasitic diseases in human, livestock, and wildlife globally. The prevalence of CE depends upon human behavioral risk factors, the diversity and ecology of animal host interactions and the genetic diversity within Echinococcus species which differ in their zoonotic potential and pathogenicity. It is a neglected, economic and socio-cultural problem in Pakistan. The available data about the incidence of CE is very limited and no extensive study has been reported in Pakistan. The current study was aimed to analyze the hospital reported cases of CE and the associated risk factors related to the incidence of CE. The hospital-based data of CE for the time period of January 2012-December 2017 was collected from Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. The data covered demographic characteristics including age, gender, and cyst localization of infected individuals and socioeconomic determinants. The data was analyzed based upon different risk factors along with the different socioeconomic parameters that has an important impact on the distribution of disease. A total of 228 cases were presented in the selected hospitals of different cities during the study period. Out of total 228 patients, 59.21% were males and 40.78% were females (P<0.001). Most infections have been recorded in young adults (>20-30) showing 22.8% of total infected individuals followed by children (0-10) showing 10.5% (n=24), respectively (P<0.001). Liver was the most vulnerable organ (58.77%, n=134) followed by lungs (14.47%, n=33) (P<0.001). The infection was higher among rural communities (84.2%) than urban (12.8%) (P<0.001). Socioeconomic and demographic factors had an important impact on the intensity of disease (P<0.001). The occurrence of cases in children and young adults was an important finding as it indicated an active transmission of the parasite in Pakistan along with the poverty index. Emergence of echinococcosis in Pakistan showed that emerging health issues in Pakistan could bring the disease to limelight for future research. This finding, together with the fact that 1 hospital reported 214 cases over 6 years 325 underlines the need for a program for prevention/control of this disease in Pakistan. The timely measure needs to be taken to hamper the disease development and establishment. In order to control the disease, complete surveillance should be done which in turn weighs down the disease progress.

3

Cite

Share

A comparison of different types of ovitraps for outdoor monitoring of Aedes mosquitoes in Kuala Lumpur

Ahmad-Azri, M. ; Syamsa, R.A. ; Ahmad-Firdaus, M.S. ; Aishah-Hani, A.

Tropical Biomedicine.2019;36(2):335-347.

Dengue is a significant public health problem in Malaysia and vector surveillance is one of the important components in a vector control program. Routinely vector surveillance in Malaysia is performed through larval surveys. However, larval surveys have several limitations. Thus ovitraps are used as an alternative method for monitoring dengue vectors. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Standard Ovitrap (SO), Mosquito larvae Trapping Device (MLTD), Double Sticky Ovitrap (DST) and NPK Fertiliser Trap to monitor the abundance of Aedes mosquitoes. Each ovitrap was placed at four different sampling points and rotated to the next position every one week. Larvae and adult mosquitoes were collected and identified in the laboratory. All four trapping methods successfully collected larvae of Aedes mosquitoes. The mean number of larvae per ovitrap in DST was significantly higher (p < 0.05) compared to SO and MLTD. DST and NPK Fertiliser Trap were capable of capturing adult mosquitoes. Ovitrap Index and the mean number of adults per ovitrap in NPK Fertiliser trap were significantly higher (p < 0.05) as compared to DST. Another set of experiments were conducted to compare NPK Fertiliser traps containing fresh NPK fertiliser solution with those containing stock NPK Fertiliser solution. The fresh solution was prepared fresh while the stock solution was stored for a month before being used in the field. Result shows no significant differences (p > 0.05) between these solutions. Findings from this study conclude that DST is the most effective ovitrap to monitor Aedes larvae, while NPK Fertiliser trap is the most effective ovitrap to trap Aedes adult mosquitoes in the study area.

4

Cite

Share

A quadriplex PCR assay for rapid detection of diarrhoeacausing parasitic protozoa from spiked stool samples

Al-Talib, H. ; Julia Ashazila, M.J. ; Hussaini, J. ; Wang, S.M. ; Mohd Shah, N.A. ; Al-Khateeb, A. ; Chandrika, M.

Tropical Biomedicine.2019;36(2):348-356.

Diarrhoea is a leading killer of children, accounting for 9% of all deaths among children under age 5 worldwide and 3% in Malaysia in 2015. A large proportion of diarrhoea illnesses among children in developing countries are ascribed to an unknown etiology because microscopic examination was the only available technique which has low detection limits. The proposed study aimed to evaluate a new quadriplex PCR assay to detect parasitic pathogens namely E. histolytica, G. lamblia and C. parvum which considered responsible for the majority of human infections. Three set of specific primer pairs were designed for detection of parasitic pathogens. Quadriplex PCR assay was optimized and an internal amplification control was incorporated to check for PCR inhibitors in samples. The PCR assay was evaluated using spiked stool samples. Specific primer pairs were successfully designed and simultaneously amplified the targeted genes. The analytical sensitivity of the quadriplex PCR at the DNA level was found to be 50 ng DNA. The analytical specificity was evaluated with 11 reference protozoal and bacterial strains and was found to be 100%. We concluded that the developed quadriplex PCR assay was rapid and gave results within 5 hours which is essential for the identification of parasitic pathogen and might be useful as an additional diagnostic tool whenever time is important in the diagnosis of parasite that cause diarrhoea.

5

Cite

Share

Dengue protease inhibition activity of selected Malaysian medicinal herbs

Salleh, H.M. ; Chong, S.-L. ; Othman, R. ; Hazni, H. ; Ahmad, K. ; Mohd Yusof, M.Y.Z. ; Fauzi, N.W. ; Wahab, H.A. ; Liew, S.Y. ; Awang, K.

Tropical Biomedicine.2019;36(2):357-366.

Dengue fever is one of major health problem around the world including Malaysia. It is caused by the arthropode-borne flavivirus and transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquito infected with one of the four dengue virus serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, or DENV-4). In this study, a screening exercise of various Malaysian medicinal plants showed that the extracts of Lawsonia inermis, Dryobalanops aromatica, Punica granatum, Zizyphus jujuba Lam. and Zingiber zerumbet exhibited potent inhibitory activity against NS2B-NS3 serine protease. The methanol extracts of Dryobalanops aromatica showed inhibition of 99.70 % at concentration of 200 μg/mL with IC50 value of 0.30 ± 0.16 μg/mL.

6

Cite

Share

Prospective evaluation of the diagnostic potential of LipL32 based latex agglutination test for Bovine leptospirosis

Sabarinath, T. ; Behera, S.K ; Chopra, S. ; Deneke, Y. ; Sharma, V. ; Ali, S.A. ; Chaudhuri, P. ; Kumar, A.

Tropical Biomedicine.2019;36(2):367-372.

The Livestock Sector of India plays an important role in livelihood security and socioeconomic development of rural households. Leptospirosis is an important zoonotic disease responsible for septicaemia, interstitial nephritis, jaundice, abortion, reproductive problem in most of the animal species. Reproductive disturbances in bovine population is most often restricted to investigation of brucellosis, however apart from brucellosis, there are many undiagnosed diseases like leptospirosis that takes a toll in the reproductive anomalies of cattle and buffalo. Hence, the present study was elucidated to screen the seroprevalence of Leptospira in cattle and buffalo in various hamlets of North India using a user friendly screening test i.e. LipL32 latex agglutination test. The overall seropositivity was found to be 26.01% (230/884) in case of bovine in this study and the LipL32 LAT showed a profound sensitivity and specificity with level of 94.97% and 99.53% respectively.

7

Cite

Share

Effects of some natural leads on Trypanosoma and Leishmania strains

Alkhaldi, A.A.M. ; De Koning, H.P ; Bukhari, S.N.A

Tropical Biomedicine.2019;36(2):373-378.

Well-known medical herbal compounds including apigenin, daidzein, phyllanthin and tyramine were assessed against Trypanosoma and Leishmania protozoans. Two strains of the bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma brucei: s427-WT and TbAT1-B48, and Leishmania major and Leishmania mexicana promastigotes were utilised. Among selected natural compounds, apigenin and daidzein displayed moderate activity against African trypanosomes with EC50 16 μM for wild-type sensitive control strain. Tyramine was not found to be very active for trypanosomes strains while all compounds were found to have trivial activity for the inhibition of Leishmania mexicana strains.

8

Cite

Share

Development and validation of TaqMan real-time PCR for the detection of Burkholderia pseudomallei isolates from Malaysia

Mohd Ali, M.R ; Foo, P.C. ; Hassan, M. ; Maning, N. ; Hussin, A. ; Syed Ahmad Yunus, S.Z. ; Fauzi, M.H. ; Muhd Besar, A. ; Harun, A. ; Ismail, N. ; Chan, Y.Y.

Tropical Biomedicine.2019;36(2):379-389.

Rapid detection of Burkholderia pseudomallei, the etiologic agent of melioidosis, allows for timely initiation of appropriate treatment and better clinical outcomes. In the current gold standard, the culture method is time consuming and suffers from low sensitivity. Meanwhile, previously reported molecular assays are fast and sensitive, but their performance on isolates from Malaysia, an endemic region of melioidosis is under reported. This study designed oligonucleotides targeting orf2 of Type III secretion system (TTSS) genes cluster for the detection of Malaysian B. pseudomallei isolates and evaluated the assay on 95 local B. pseudomallei strains, 58 other microorganisms and 71 clinical specimens from patients. The developed assay exclusively detected all tested B. pseudomallei isolates with a detection limit of 20 fg per reaction (equivalent to ~2.5 copies). Subsequent testing on clinical samples showed that the assay detected all confirmed specimens with the growth of B. pseudomallei (n = 10/10). None of the negative specimens had a detectable signal of our TTSS-orf2 assay (n = 0/61). In conclusion, the present study provides crucial preliminary data for a subsequent study and should be considered as a potential alternative to current time-consuming culture method for the detection of B. pseudomallei.

9

Cite

Share

Phylogenetic diversity and DNA barcoding of the camel tick Hyalomma dromedarii (Acari: Ixodidae) of the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia

Fallatah, S.A. ; Ghallab, E.H. ; Khater, E.I.

Tropical Biomedicine.2019;36(2):390-401.

Hard ticks are causative agents of physical illness and vectors of important diseases of human and livestock. The hard tick Hyalomma dromedarii Koch, 1844 is a major ectoparasite of livestock in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), of which, the onehumped dromedaries Camelus dromedarius is the most economically and culturally important and a potential reservoir of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERSCoV) disease. Here we report on the molecular phylogenetic diversity of H. dromedarii collected from camels in the Eastern Province of KSA based on the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene. Maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic analysis of COI sequences of the studied ticks identified 11 haplotypes. All H. dromedarii ticks from KSA belonged to eight haplotypes diverged into two distinguished genetic clades (A-B). These results indicate that H. dromedarii ticks from KSA are monophyletic species with two distinguished lineages with low intra-specific genetic divergence and sharply structured isolated populations with high level of genetic differentiation. This is a first report of DNA barcode of H. dromedarii ticks from KSA and the Arabian Peninsula, which is an important step towards broader phylogenetic studies on larger tick samples from the region. The studies are important for better understanding its interactions with camels and other hosts and role in zoonotic disease transmission (e.g. MERS-CoV or Alkhurma virus) to pinpoint effective control strategies.

10

Cite

Share

Infection rate of Schistosoma japonicum in the snail Oncomelania hupensis quadrasi in endemic villages in the Philippines: Need for snail surveillance technique

Fornillos, R.J.C. ; Fontanilla, I.K.C ; Chigusa, Y. ; Kikuchi, M. ; Kirinoki, M. ; Kato-Hayashi, N. ; Kawazu, S. ; Angeles, J.M ; Tabios, I.K. ; Moendeg, K. ; Goto, Y. ; Tamayo, P.G ; Gampoy, E.F ; Pates, I. ; Chua, J.C ; Leonardo, L.R

Tropical Biomedicine.2019;36(2):402-411.

Schistosomiasis japonica is one of seven NTDs endemic in the Philippines that continues to threaten public health in the country. The causative agent, the blood fluke Schistosoma japonicum, uses an amphibious snail Oncomelania hupensis quadrasi which can harbor larval stages that multiply asexually, eventually producing the infective cercariae which are shed into the water. Contamination of freshwater bodies inhabited by the snail intermediate host occurs through release of human and animal feces containing S. japonicum eggs. Miracidia hatching from these eggs subsequently infect the snails that inhabit these water bodies. The degree of fecal contamination can vary across snail sites and influences snail infection rates in these sites. In this study, conventional malacological surveys using intensive manual search for snails were conducted from 2015 to 2016 in seven selected endemic provinces, namely Leyte and Bohol in the Visayas and Surigao del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Bukidnon, Lanao del Norte and Compostela Valley in Mindanao. A total of 6,279 O. hupensis quadrasi snails were collected from 38 snail sites. The municipality of Trento in Agusan del Sur recorded the highest number of snail sites (7) that yielded O. hupensis quadrasi snails while only one snail site was found positive for O. hupensis quadrasi snails in Kapatagan in Lanao del Norte and Talibon in Bohol. Alegria in Surigao del Norte yielded the highest number of snail sites (5) that were found to harbor snails positive for S. japonicum infection. The snail infection rates in this municipality ranged from 0.43% to 14.71%. None of the snails collected from Talibon in Bohol was infected. Bohol is the only province among the 28 schistosomiasis-endemic provinces which has reached near elimination status. Snail infection rates were found to vary considerably across snail sites, which could be due to the degree of fecal contamination of the snail sites and their connectivity to water that can serve as contamination source.

DISPLAY OPTIONS

Cite

Share

Cite

Share

Cite

Share

Cite

Share

Cite

Share

Cite

Share

Cite

Share

Cite

Share

Cite

Share

Cite

Share