There is a global rise in the emergence of infectious diseases and the enigmatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) being the most recent one. It is ravaging the world with little understanding of its etiology and factors affecting its transmission dynamics. Meanwhile, seasonal variations in weather are major factors impacting infectious disease transmission patterns. Developing countries are likely to be most affected by weather changes that could impact on the spread and control of infectious diseases. In Nigeria, weather conditions alternate between rainy and dry seasons. Conditions such as rainfall, humidity and sunlight had been reported to influence host susceptibility to infectious diseases. On the other hand, these weather elements have a direct or indirect impact on the level of vitamin D availability. More so, vitamin C and D supplementation were highlighted to enhance immunity in COVID-19 patients. Thus, understanding the impact of weather changes in transmission dynamics and boosting immune response to COVID-19 through vitamin supplementation in infected patients may be crucial as the rainy season fully sets in.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) since its declaration as a pandemic by world health organization (WHO) has spread across the various continent with little known about the most effective public health response for containing and mitigating the transmission of the epidemic. It is important to state that some authors have published on the lessons learned from transmission and management of COVID-19 infection but only a few considered it from the Africa perspective. Despite the late arrival of the pandemic in Africa and the notion that the virus may not thrive because of the high temperature in the continent; today the narrative has changed with the number of infected patients increasing daily. Herein, the authors have shared their perspectives and opinions on the dynamics and response to COVID-19 from Africa context to create more awareness and approach in mitigating the spread of the virus should the continent becomes the epicenter of COVID-19.
The onset of oxidative stress occurs as a result of an imbalance between free radical scavenging capacity of antioxidants and reactive oxygen species (ROSs). This leads to the induction and progression of many disorders including cancer. The overall aim of this study was to establish the interaction between oxidative stress and carcinogenesis. Venous blood samples of cancer patients (n=30) receiving chemotherapy regimen in Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria and human volunteers (n=50) with no previous history of cancer were collected. Plasma levels of nitric oxide (NO), total glutathione (TGSH), cortisol and some haematological parameters were determined spectrophotometrically. Results showed that there were significant (plt;0.05) differences in the levels of plasma NO, TGSH and cortisol in cancer patients compared to the control. The levels of NO, TGSH and cortisol were observed to be independent of the histopathological grade of cancer and non‐parametric clinical data such as age and sex. NO positively and significantly (plt;0.001) correlated with TGSH (r=0.588). Haematological analysis showed that the levels of White Blood Cells (WBC), Red Blood Cells (RBC), Hemoglobin (HGB) and Packed Cell Volume (PCV) were significantly (plt;0.05) lower in cancer patients compared to the control. Present investigation has shown that NO, TGSH and cortisol can indicate oxidative stress and therefore they can be used as biomarkers in cancer diagnosis. Likewise, results also indicated that changes in haematological parameters may be eminent in cancer patients.
The continual energy demand worldwide and the progressive demising of oil reserves motivate the search for alternative energy resources especially from renewable sources such as agrowaste biomass. This study investigated the optimization of cellulase activity for bioethanol production through modulation of the cellulase activity of three fungi isolated from cassava bagasse. Fungi were isolated from cassava bagasse and genetically identified using 16S rDNA. The isolates were screened for cellulase enzyme production by filter paper and carboxymethylcellulase (CMC) assay. Physiochemical factors (Temperature, moisture content, nitrogen source, pH, substrate and inoculum concentration) which affect the cellulase activity were evaluated. Three fungi isolates were identified as Trichoderma Spp, Aspergillus spp and Rhizopus spp. The exoglucanase and endoglucanase had optimum activity at 25°C and 35°C, moisture content effect at 40 ml, pH 7, inoculum concentration of 10 – 20 ml and substrate concentration of 10–15g. Peptone greatly enhanced enzyme production better than urea and ammonium sulfate at day 3 incubation for both the exoglucanase and endoglucanase. Present study established the potential of these fungi isolates from agrowaste as good cellulolytic enzyme for potential use in bioethanol production.Support or Funding InformationTETFUND Research Grant Award, 2015This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.
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