The use of vaccines have resulted in a remarkable improvement in global health. It has saved several lives, reduced treatment costs and raised the quality of animal and human lives. Current traditional vaccines came empirically with either vague or completely no knowledge of how they modulate our immune system. Even at the face of potential vaccine design advance, immune-related concerns (as seen with specific vulnerable populations, cases of emerging/reemerging infectious disease, pathogens with complex lifecycle and antigenic variability, need for personalized vaccinations, and concerns for vaccines' immunological safety -specifically vaccine likelihood to trigger non-antigen-specific responses that may cause autoimmunity and vaccine allergy) are being raised. And these concerns have driven immunologists toward research for a better approach to vaccine design that will consider these challenges. Currently, immunoinformatics has paved the way for a better understanding of some infectious disease pathogenesis, diagnosis, immune system response and computational vaccinology. The importance of this immunoinformatics in the study of infectious diseases is diverse in terms of computational approaches used, but is united by common qualities related to host-pathogen relationship. Bioinformatics methods are also used to assign functions to uncharacterized genes which can be targeted as a candidate in vaccine design and can be a better approach toward the inclusion of women that are pregnant into vaccine trials and programs. The essence of this review is to give insight into the need to focus on novel computational, experimental and computation-driven experimental approaches for studying of host-pathogen interactions and thus making a case for its use in vaccine development.

The extract of the Nigerian lichen Ramalina farinacea showed inhibitory activity against the respiratory syncytial virus in a preliminary assay. A follow-up chemical investigation of this lichen led to the isolation of thirteen phenolic compounds (1-13), including one new hydroquinone depside, designated 5-hydroxysekikaic acid (1), and one new orsellinic acid derivative, 2,3-dihydroxy-4-methoxy-6-pentylbenzoic acid (8). Their structures were unambiguously determined by analysis of 1D and 2D NMR and mass spectroscopic data, as well as by comparison with literature data. Compound 1 was found to partially convert to a 1,4-benzoquinone derivative (1a) during storage. The antiviral activities of the isolated compounds were evaluated against the respiratory syncytial virus. Among them, sekikaic acid (2) showed potent inhibition towards a recombinant strain rg respiratory syncytial virus (IC50 5.69 µg/mL) and respiratory syncytial virus A2 strain (IC50 7.73 µg/mL). The effect of sekikaic acid on the cell viability of HEp2 and Vero cell lines was investigated, and the time of addition assay revealed that sekikaic acid clearly interferes with viral replication at a viral post-entry step, which is over 1.3-fold more active than the control ribavirin at 4 hours postinfection addition. Furthermore, sekikaic acid did not display virucidal activity at concentrations below the TC50, whereas the parental extract did.

Owing to the increasing epidemiological and therapeutic challenges associated with infections due to ESBL producers, ESBL prevalence rate among some bacteria isolates from healthy and non-healthy human population in a metropolitan Nigerian setting was evaluated. A total of one hundred and forty-five (145) bacteria strains were isolated from a total of four hundred and sixty (460) samples collected from urine, wound, throat and anal swabs of 220 healthy volunteers in the community and from 240 patients in 2 secondary and 2 tertiary hospitals (altogether, 4) in Enugu metropolis. The presumptive confirmatory test used for ESBL detection was the Double Disc Synergy Test (DDST) method. Conjugation and plasmid curing studies were also done for resistance factor determination. Of the 145 isolates, 20 were ESBL producers with 35% of these ESBL producers being of community origin and 65% from hospitals. This translates to 4.8% and 9% incidences (comparably higher than established prevalence of 4.4% and 7.5 respectively) for community and hospital infections respectively. The ESBL isolates showed high resistance to tetracycline, gentamicin, pefloxacin, ceftriaxone, cefuroxime, ciprofloxacin and Augmentin(®) (Amoxicilin and clavulanic acid combination). Conjugation studies for Resistance plasmid transfer showed non-transference of resistance determinants between the ESBL transconjugants and recipient strains. Correspondingly, the plasmid curing studies revealed that the acridine orange could not effect a cure on the isolates as they still retained high resistance to the antibiotics after the treatment. This study confirms the growing incidences/pool of ESBL strains in Nigeria and call for widespread and continuous monitoring towards an effective management of the potential therapeutic hurdle posed by this trend.

Background:Though measures are being put in place for the management of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in Nigeria, children remain the most vulnerable to develop chronic hepatitis. Routine screening in children is therefore necessary for effective control. However, the performance of the commonly used immunochromatographic test (ICT) strips has been challenging. Also, identifying the risk factors of transmission in this age group is of importance for the implementation of preventive measures. Hence, the goal of this study was to assess the test performance of the routinely used ICT strip and identify the associated clinical manifestations and risk factors of HBV.Methods:A cross sectional study involving 270 children below six years of age was conducted at ESUTH and Favor Child Pediatrics Hospital in Enugu, Nigeria. The subjects were screened for HBV by ICT and ELISA assays and a structured questionnaire was used to obtain participants data including demographic, socioeconomic, signs and symptoms, risk factors and vaccination.Results:BBased on ELISA, 31 out of 270 children were positive for HBV with an infection rate of 11.5%. ICT kit showed a low sensitivity of 51.6% in diagnosing HBV but was highly specific (100%) and accurate (94.4%). HBV infection was not associated with sex (χ2: 0.209; p = 0.401). The prevalence of HBV infection was similar in all the age group and HBV infection was not associated (χ2: 2.099; p = 0.914) with age group. All the clinical manifestations were not associated (p > 0.05) with HBV infection. Blood transfusion, shared items, tattoo marks and history of surgery associated significantly (p < 0.05) with HBV infections having odd ratios of 4.247, 4.224, 3.134 and 3.195 respectively. The vaccination rate was 55.2% (159/270) and only 3 (1.1%) out of 159 vaccinated subjected contracted the infection (OR: 0.068, p < 0.0001).Conclusions:HBV was prevalent (11.5%) in children below six years old in Enugu metropolis. Moreover, the routinely used ICT test was less reliable than ELISA in diagnosis HBV infection. More so, shared items, blood transfusion, tattooing and history of surgery were potential risk factors while vaccination served as a protective factor against the infection.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is known to cause severe respiratory infections particularly in infants younger than 2 years of age. The only approved drug, ribavirin, is expensive and is not likely to improve therapeutic outcome, thereby necessitating the search for safer and more potent alternatives from natural sources such as endophytic fungi. The present study aimed to investigate the anti-RSV activity of compounds from endophytic fungi. Two endophytic fungi and were isolated from the fresh leaves of the host Nigerian plants and respectively. After fermentation in solid rice media, afforded 4 known compounds 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (), vanillic acid (), ferulic acid () and N-acetyltryptamine ( while afforded 3 known compounds chloroisosulochrin (), ficipyrone A () and pestheic acid (). The compounds were investigated for their anti-RSV activity using the HEP-2 cell lines and ribavirin as the standard drug. Compound was found to show the strongest inhibition of the RSV with IC of 4.22±1.03 µM (ribavirin 4.91±1.85 µM). Other compounds showed moderate inhibition of the virus (IC ranging from 45.00±0.98 to 259.23±2.36 µM). The results of the present study have shown that chloroisosulochrin (), isolated from an endophytic fungus possesses strong activity against RSV.

Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum causes a disease in chickens known as fowl typhoid. Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) has been shown to be crucial in eliminating salmonellosis infection because of its strong association with T-cell responses. This study was undertaken to compare the expression of IFN-γ in chickens generated by different vaccine formulations. Eighty one-day-old Lohmann layer chicks were divided into four groups of 20 birds each for the experiment. This comprised an unvaccinated negative control group (NEG), a group vaccinated with the live 9R vaccine by the injection route (SC), a group vaccinated with alginate-coated chitosan microparticles encapsulating live plasmid-cured S. Gallinarum strain 9 (PC) by the oral route, and a group vaccinated with a weak attenuated live S. Gallinarum strain 9 encapsulated in alginate-coated chitosan microparticles (VM) given orally.Vaccinations were done at 10 and 14 weeks of age followed by challenge at 16 weeks of age. IgG was measured using ELISA. qRT-PCR was used to compare the mRNA fold expression of IFN-γ in the PC, VM and SC groups using the unvaccinated/unchallenged group as the control. There were significant differences in the IgG levels between each vaccinated group and the unvaccinated group (P < 0.05) after booster vaccination and post-challenge. There was 100% protection of the birds in SC and VM groups, 80% protection in PC group and 0% protection in the NEG group. Using 2 −ΔΔCT calculation, IFN-γ was more highly expressed in the PC group than in the SC group or VM group. In conclusion, the IFN-γ was more highly expressed in the PC group (though not significantly higher) compared to the SC and VM groups and this could be attributed to the alginate-coated chitosan microparticles which acted as an adjuvant.

Background Despite the clear risks of tobacco use, millions of people continue to smoke. Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), commonly called e-cigarettes, have been proposed as a substitute for those who are unwilling or unable to quit. Current systematic and narrative reviews on the health effects of ENDS use, particularly respiratory and cardiovascular effects, have come to differing conclusions. Objective We conducted two systematic reviews to critically assess and synthesize available human studies on the respiratory and cardiovascular health effects of ENDS substitution for people who smoke. The primary goal is to provide clinicians with evidence on the health effects of ENDS substitution to inform their treatment recommendations and plans. The twin goal of the reviews is to promote health literacy in ENDS users with facts on the health effects of ENDS. Methods These two reviews will be living systematic reviews. The systematic reviews will be initiated through a baseline review. Studies will be evaluated using the JBI quality assessment tools and a checklist of biases drawn from the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine Catalogue of Bias. A narrative synthesis is planned because of the heterogeneity of data. A search for recently published studies will be conducted every 3 months, and an updated review will be published every 6 months for the duration of the project or possibly longer. Results The baseline and updated reviews will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. The findings of the reviews will be reported in a white paper for clinicians and a fact sheet for people who use ENDS. Conclusions The substitution of ENDS for cigarettes is one way to potentially reduce the risks of smoking. Clinicians and their patients need to understand the potential benefits and possible risks of substituting ENDS for cigarettes. Our living systematic reviews seek to highlight the best and most up-to-date evidence in this highly contentious and fast-moving field of research. Trial Registration PROSPERO CRD42021239094; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=239094 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/29084

No abstract