Interethnic variability in drug response arises from genetic differences associated with drug metabolism, action and transport. These genetic variations can affect drug efficacy as well as cause adverse drug reactions (ADRs). We retrieved drug-response related single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associated data from databases and analyzed to elucidate population specific distribution of 159 drug-response related SNPs in twenty six populations belonging to five super-populations (African, Admixed Americans, East Asian, European and South Asian). Significant interpopulation differences exist in the minor (variant) allele frequencies (MAFs), linkage disequilibrium (LD) and haplotype distributions among these populations. 65 of the drug-response related alleles, which are considered as minor (variant) in global population, are present as the major alleles (frequency �0.5) in at least one or more populations. Populations that belong to the same super-population have similar distribution pattern for majority of the variant alleles. These drug response related variant allele frequencies and their pairwise LD measure (r 2) can clearly distinguish the populations in a way that correspond to the known evolutionary history of human and current geographic distributions, while D' cannot. The data presented here may aid in identifying drugs that are more appropriate and/or require pharmacogenetic testing in these populations. Our findings emphasize on the importance of distinct, ethnicity-specific clinical guidelines, especially for the African populations, to avoid ADRs and ensure effective drug treatment.

Bacterial homeostasis depends on an array of physical and chemical stimulants. Current investigation assessed the impact of one of such factors, the speed of aeration, on cell viability and culturability of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas spp. and Bacillus spp. Each of the bacterial strain was incubated at 37°C with a shaking speed of 0, 100 or 200 rotation per minute (rpm) separately up to 72 hours, with a simultaneous monitoring of morphological changes and cell culturability. All bacterial species were found to optimally grow at 100 rpm whereas at 0 rpm growths of E. coli and Pseudomonas spp. were bit slower compared to that of Bacillus spp. The capacity to form colony forming units (CFUs) of E. coli and Pseudomonas spp. on Luria Burtani (LB) agar plates were observed to be inhibited after 36 hours of growth at 200 rpm; i.e., approximately 3-log reduced CFUs than those formed by Bacillus spp. Besides, morphologically impaired cells were observed for the former two bacteria cultivated at 200 rpm. Taken together, it is assumed that the high speed shaking might evolve the oxidative stress endogenously which possibly rendered the cells lose their culturability.

Evaluation of resistance pattern of the multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria isolated from burn wounds assay Out of 10 random burn wound swab samples, 15 isolates were found which included Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus cereus, Shigella spp. Pseudmonas aeruginosa, Citrobacter spp. and Escherichia coli. Antibiogram assay revealed that four of them were multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains, i.e, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and E. coli which were further selected for a comparative analysis of resistance through determining minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) by using chloramphenicol and tetracycline. In case of tetracycline, the highest MIC value was estimated to be 30 µg/ml and the highest MBC value was found to be 60 µg/ml for the 4 MDR strains tested. Whereas, against chloramphenicol, the highest MIC value was 62.5 µg/ml and the highest MBC value was 125 µg/ml for all the MDR strains except for E. coli, which exhibited absolute resistance.

No abstract

not availableUniversity Heart Journal Vol. 10, No. 2, July 2014; 85-87