Hepatitis B virus (HBV) with X gene mutations has been a putative pathogen of chronic hepatitis without serological markers of known hepatitis viruses. The aim of this study was to reconfirm whether the HBV with the X gene mutation is associated with these serologically "silent" non-B, non-C (NBNC) chronic hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). HBV DNA was amplified from serum and sequenced in 30 patients with NBNC chronic hepatitis in comparison with 20 patients with ALD and 5 patients with AIH. HBV DNA was identified in 21 patients (70%) in NBNC chronic hepatitis by nested polymerase chain reaction while only one patient (5%) in ALD and none in AIH showed HBV DNA. Eighteen (85.7%) of the 21 identified HBV DNAs had an identical 8-nucleotide deletion mutation at the distal part of the X region. This mutation affected the core promoter and the enhancer II sequence of HBV DNA and created a translational stop codon which truncated the X protein by 20 amino acids from the Cterminal end. All the HBV DNAs had a precore mutation at the 83rd nucleotide resulting in disruption of HBe antigen synthesis. These results indicate that HBV mutants are closely associated with the majority of serologically "silent" NBNC chronic hepatitis cases and the population of such mutant HBV DNAs is not uniform.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most common gram-negative microorganisms identified in the clinical specimens of hospital admitted patients. This was a retrospective study done among the patients attending Dhaka Medical College Hospital during January to December, 2006. A total 294 strains of P. aeruginosa were isolated of which 206 (70%) were from admitted patients and 88 (30%) from outpatients. Some 175 (60%) of the isolates were from males while 119 (40%) from females. Majority of the patients (141, 41.2%) were aged between 21-40 years and 102 (34.7%) were below 20 years. A significant proportion (about 45%) of the patients were from casualty wards, surgical outdoor, ear-nose-throat outdoor and burn unit. Four of the clinical specimens including wound swab, pus, aural swab and urine comprised of 279 (95%) of the total samples. The bacteria isolated were identified by colony morphology, microscopy and relevant biochemical tests. Antimicrobial sensitivity pattern was tested using standard guidelines. Almost all of the P. aeruginosa isolates were resistant to cefixime (93.3%) and co-trimoxazole (93.5%), majority were resistant to ceftazidime (86.8%), gentamycin (77.3%) and ciprofloxacin (75.5%). The result of the study shows that imipenem is the most effective drugagainst P. aeruginosa, followed by amikacin and ciprofloxacin.Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2007; 01 (02): 48-51

To investigate the relationship between intrahepatic cytokine expression and interferon (IFN) response in chronic hepatitis C [CH(C)], interleukin (IL)‐1ß,‐2,‐4,‐6,‐8, interferon (IFN)‐γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α and TNF‐ß mRNAs were investigated semiquantitatively by reverese transcription polymerase chain reaction using serial liver biopsies taken before and after IFN‐α treatment from 24 patients with CH(C), including 12 responders and 12 non‐responders. Before IFN treatment, IL‐2, TNF‐ß, IFN‐γ and IL‐8 mRNA were associated with severe hepatitis activity whereas IL‐4 mRNA was associated with weak hepatitis activity, regardless of IFN response. IL‐2, TNF‐ß and IFN‐γ mRNAs were significantly greater in IFN non‐responders. After IFN treatment a complete response to IFN was significantly associated with the disappearance of these pro‐inflammatory cytokines, whereas non‐responders retained the expression of cytokine mRNA as before IFN treatment. Our results indicated that IFN‐α treatment may modulate the intrahepatic cytokine network, and this may be one mechanism of IFN‐α that reduces hepatitis activity, aside from an anti‐viral effect. A difference in cytokine network may be involved in IFN response in CH(C).

This study was carried out to investigate the expression of various growth factors (GFs) involved in mucosal healing and thereby to clarify whether there are potential differences in the expression of GFs between normal colonic mucosa and the uninvolved mucosa of ulcerative colitis (UC). GF mRNA was investigated by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in colorectal biopsies from 20 normal controls and 15 UC patients. The positive rates (%) for mRNA expression for normal/UC were: epidermal growth factor (EGF) 65/53, transforming growth factor (TGF)-alpha 100/87, TGF-beta 1 60/33, insulin like growth factor-I 45/33, platelet-derived growth factor-A 55/67, basic fibroblast growth factor 0/0, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) 50/53, EGF receptor 20/27, erb-B2 75/73, and HGF receptor (c-MET) 55/67. Semiquantitation of mRNA showed significantly lower expression of TGF-beta 1 (P < 0.05) in UC. Differences in expression and mRNA levels were not statistically significant for any other GFs. Our results indicate that mucosa in chronic persistent UC has a low basal expression of TGF-beta 1 mRNA, and, since TGF-beta 1 is a multifunctional GF that plays important roles in regulating repair and regeneration following tissue injury, this low expression may be partially responsible for the intractability of the disease.

BackgroundBetulinic acid (BA) is a natural triterpenoid compound and exhibits a wide range of biological and medicinal properties including anti-inflammatory activity. Therefore, this theoretical investigation is performed to evaluate (a) physicochemical properties such as acid dissociation constant (pKa), distribution coefficient (logD), partition coefficient (logP), aqueous solubility (logS), solvation free energy, dipole moment, polarizability, hyperpolarizability and different reactivity descriptors, (b) pharmacokinetic properties like human intestinal absorption (HIA), cellular permeability, skin permeability (PSkin), plasma protein binding (PPB), penetration of the blood brain barrier (BBB), (c) toxicological properties including mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, risk of inhibition of hERG gene and (d) molecular mechanism of anti-inflammatory action which will aid the development of analytical method and the synthesis of BA derivatives.MethodsThe physicochemical properties were calculated using MarvinSketch 15.6.29 and Gaussian 09 software package. The pharmacokinetic and toxicological properties were calculated on online server PreADMET. Further, the molecular docking study was conducted on AutoDock vina in PyRx 0.8.ResultsThe aqueous solubility increased with increasing pH due to the ionization of BA leading to decrease in distribution coefficient. The solvation energies in water, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), acetonitrile, n-octanol, chloroform and carbon tetrachloride were − 41.74 kJ/mol, − 53.80 kJ/mol, − 66.27 kJ/mol, − 69.64 kJ/mol, − 65.96 kJ/mol and − 60.13 kJ/mol, respectively. From the results of polarizability and softness, it was clear that BA is less stable and hence, kinetically more reactive in water. BA demonstrated good human intestinal absorption (HIA) and moderate cellular permeability. Further, BA also exhibited positive CNS activity due to high permeability through BBB. The toxicological study revealed that BA was a mutagenic compound but noncarcinogenic in mice model. Moreover, molecular docking study of BA with PLA2 revealed that BA interacts with GLY22 & GLY29 through hydrogen bond formation and LEU2, PHE5, HIS6, ALA17, ALA18, HIS47 and TYR51 through different types of hydrophobic interactions. The binding affinity of BA was − 41.00 kJ/mol which is comparable to the binding affinity of potent inhibitor 6-Phenyl-4(R)-(7-Phenyl-heptanoylamino)-hexanoic acid (BR4) (− 33.89 kJ/mol).ConclusionsOur computed properties may assist the development of analytical method to assay BA or to develop BA derivatives with better pharmacokinetic and toxicological profile.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers with antibody to hepatitis e antigen comprise asymptomatic carriers (ASCs), who have low replication levels of HBV, and patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH), who have high levels of viral replication. To investigate whether defects in the X protein might be responsible for this difference in the level of viral replication, nucleotide sequences of X and precore gene regions in serum HBV were analyzed in 19 ASCs and 9 CAH patients. All patients had a point mutation creating a stop codon in the precore region. Seventeen ASCs (87.3%) had identical mutations consisting of 4 noncontiguous 1-bp deletions or an 8-bp deletion, both of which truncate the normal X protein, whereas no CAH patient had an X gene mutation (P < .001). Thus, deletion of the X protein might be responsible for the low levels of viral replication in ASCs.

The present study was undertaken to establish the efficacy of acridine orange staining for diagnosis of Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) and association of Gardnerella Vaginalis with BV. Two hundred sexually active females in the age group of 15-45 years, with vaginal discharge and itching, were selected for the study.

SUMMARYTo investigate the hypothesis that ThI phenotype cylokines are associated with the increasing activity of hepatitis and Th2 phenotype cytokines with decreasing activity in the liver of chronic viral hepatitis, expressions ofthe mRNA ofthe cytokines IL-2. IFN--y and lL-4 in the liver of 23 patients with chronic hepatitis B were investigated by rever.se transcription poiymerase chain reaction. Patients were divided into three groups according to the phase of acute exacerbation of hepatitis as increasing (« = 9). decreasing {» = 8). and stable phase (n = 6). Both IL-2 and IFN-7 mRNA were preferentially expressed in increasing phase than in decreasing phase (/'