Lassa virus (LASV) is an arena virus causing hemorrhagic fever and it is endemic in several regions of West Africa. The disease-causing virus records high mortality rate in endemic regions due to lack of appropriate treatment and prevention strategies. Therefore, it is of interest to design and develop viable vaccine components against the virus. We used the Lassa virus envelope glyco-proteins as a vaccine target to identify linear peptides as potential epitopes with immunogenic properties by computer aided epitope prediction tools. We report a T-cell epitope 'LLGTFTWTL' and a B-cell epitope 'AELKCFGNTAVAKCNE' with predicted potential immunogenicity for further in vivo and in vitro consideration.

PLCG1 gene is responsible for many T-cell lymphoma subtypes, including peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL), angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL), cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma along with other diseases. Missense mutations of this gene have already been found in patients of CTCL and AITL. The non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) can alter the protein structure as well as its functions. In this study, probable deleterious and disease-related nsSNPs in PLCG1 were identified using SIFT, PROVEAN, PolyPhen-2, PhD-SNP, Pmut, and SNPS&GO tools. Further, their effect on protein stability was checked along with conservation and solvent accessibility analysis by I-mutant 2.0, MUpro, Consurf, and Netsurf 2.0 server. Some SNPs were finalized for structural analysis with PyMol and BIOVIA discovery studio visualizer. Out of the 16 nsSNPs which were found to be deleterious, ten nsSNPs had an effect on protein stability, and six mutations (L411P, R355C, G493D, R1158H, A401V and L455F) were predicted to be highly conserved. Among the six highly conserved mutations, four nsSNPs (R355C, A401V, L411P and L455F) were part of the catalytic domain. L411P, L455F and G493D made significant structural change in the protein structure. Two mutations-Y210C and R1158H had post-translational modification. In the 5’ and 3’ untranslated region, three SNPs, rs139043247, rs543804707, and rs62621919 showed possible miRNA target sites and DNA binding sites. This in silico analysis has provided a structured dataset of PLCG1 gene for further in vivo researches. With the limitation of computational study, it can still prove to be an asset for the identification and treatment of multiple diseases associated with the target gene.

Background Chronic inhalation of air pollutants may causebronchoconstriction, bronchiolitis, and edema of airway, thus alterlung volume. To measure the lung volume, a simple lung functiontest, the peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), can provide a feature oflung volume in liters/minute.Objective The purpose of this study was to measure PEFR val-ues of primary school children in a high air pollution level area(Medan) and compare the results with the PEFR values of those ina low air pollution level area (Tebing Tinggi).Methods A cross sectional study was conducted on primary schoolchildren (10-12 years of age) during May-July 2000 in Medan andTebing Tinggi. Data were obtained by questionnaires. Physical ex-amination included age, sex, height, weight, and PEFR value. PEFRvalues were measured by Mini Wright peak expiratory flow meter(MPFM) from three blows. The highest volume was taken as thePEFR value. Statistical analysis was done by t-test and p<0.05was considered significant.Results There were 212 primary school children eligible for thisstudy; 107 came from the high air pollution level area and 105from the low air pollution level area. The PEFR values did not dif-fer significantly between the two groups (p>0.05)Conclusion PEFR values in a high air population level area werenot statistically different compared with those in low air pollutionlevel area

Perennial indoor environmental pollution in the textile industrial area is a potential health hazard for workers engaged in this line of work, resulting in mental aberration to severe health risks. This study was designed to investigate the indoor environmental quality of textile industries and correlate its effect on the occupational health and well-being of the textile workers by measuring plasma oxidative stress status in textile workers and healthy control subjects. Environmental samples were collected from 15 textile industries located in Dhaka division, and 30 volunteer textile workers and 30 volunteer office workers (control) aged 18 to 57 years participated in the study. The concentration of plasma ascorbic acid (P-ASC), plasma malondialdehyde (P-MDA), and plasma conjugated diene (P-CD) was measured in both groups. The noise level (78.0 ± 0.68 dB) and the formaldehyde level (141.80 ± 4.47 µg/m3) were found to be significantly higher in the indoor environmental area compared with those in the control area (70.17 ± 0.25 dB and 108.0 ± 0.76 µg/m3, respectively). Furthermore, the daily average concentration of suspended particulate matters (PMs), that is, PM2.5 (322.2 ± 13.46 µg/m3) and PM10 (411.0 ± 17.57 µg/m3), was also found to be significantly higher in the indoor environmental air compared with that in the control area (78.59 ± 1.66 and 174.0 ± 2.33 µg/m3, respectively). The levels of P-MDA (0.37 ± 0.03 nmol/L) and P-CD (14.74 ± 0.61 nmol/L) were significantly increased, whereas the level of P-ASC level (0.46 ± 0.04 mg/dL) was markedly decreased in the textile workers compared with the healthy control subjects (0.18 ± 0.01 nmol/L of P-MDA, 10.04 ± 0.44 nmol/L of P-CD, and 1.29 ± 0.06 mg/dL of P-ASC). The textile plants were found to have significantly elevated levels of indoor environmental pollutants compared with those in the control area, and the textile workers were significantly exposed to oxidative stresses compared with the control subjects. The use of noise pads and high-efficiency air filters is perhaps highly instrumental to put an end to this prevailing situation. Moreover, to overcome the oxidative stresses among workers, supplementation of antioxidant vitamins (ie, ascorbic acid and/or vitamin E) may be beneficial. In addition, to prevent serious health-related issues, proper precautions should be taken to protect the occupational health of the textile workers.

Abiotic stresses like salinity and drought directly affect plant growth and water availability, resulting in lower yield in rice. So, a combination of stress tolerance along with enhanced grain yield is a major focus of rice breeding. It was reported earlier that loss in function of the drought and salt tolerance (DST) gene results in increase in grain production through downregulating Gn1a/OsCKX2 expression. Moreover, dst mutants also showed enhanced drought and salt tolerance in rice by regulating genes involved in ROS homeostasis. In the present study, we proceeded to test these reports by downregulating DST using artificial microRNA technology in the commercial but salt sensitive, high-yielding, BRRIdhan 28 (BR28). This cultivar was transformed with DST_artificial microRNA (DST_amiRNA) driven by the constitutive CaMV35S promoter using tissue culture independent Agrobacterium mediated in planta transformation. DST_amiRNA transgenic plants were confirmed by artificial microRNA specific PCR. Transformed plants at T 0 generation showed vigorous growth with significantly longer panicle length and higher primary branching resulting in higher yield, compared to the wild type (WT) BR28. Semi-quantitative RT PCR confirmed the decrease in DST expression in the BR28 transgenic plants compared to WT. T 1 transgenic plants also showed improvement in a number of physiological parameters and greater growth compared to WT after 14 days of 120 mM salt (NaCl) stress at seedling stage. Therefore, DST downregulated transgenic plants showed both higher stress tolerance as well as better yields. Furthermore, stable inheritance of the improved phenotype of the DST_amiRNA transgenics will be tested in advanced generations.