Diabetes, a chronic physiological dysfunction affecting people of different age groups and severely impairs the harmony of peoples’ normal life worldwide. Despite the availability of insulin preparations and several synthetic oral antidiabetic drugs, there is a crucial need for the discovery and development of novel antidiabetic drugs because of the development of resistance and side effects of those drugs in long-term use. On the contrary, plants or herbal sources are getting popular day by day to the scientists, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies all over the world to search for potential bioactive compound(s) for the discovery and development of targeted novel antidiabetic drugs that may control diabetes with the least unwanted effects of conventional antidiabetic drugs. In this review, we have presented the prospective candidates comprised of either isolated phytochemical(s) and/or extract(s) containing bioactive phytoconstituents which have been reported in several in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies possessing noteworthy antidiabetic potential. The mode of actions, attributed to antidiabetic activities of the reported phytochemicals and/or plant extracts have also been described to focus on the prospective phytochemicals and phytosources for further studies in the discovery and development of novel antidiabetic therapeutics.

Background Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, supported a mass vaccination Measles-Rubella Campaign (MRC) in Bangladesh during January–February 2014. Methods We conducted a mixed-method process evaluation to understand the successes and challenges in implementation of the MRC. We reviewed documents for the MRC and the immunization programme in Bangladesh; observed meetings, vaccination sessions, and health facilities; and conducted 58 key informant interviews, 574 exit interviews with caregivers and 156 brief surveys with stakeholders involved in immunization. Our theory of Change for vaccination delivery guided our assessment of ideal implementation milestones and indicators to compare with the actual implementation processes. Results We identified challenges relating to country-wide political unrest, administrative and budgetary delays, shortage of transportation, problems in registration of target populations, and fears about safety of the vaccine. Despite these issues, a number of elements contributed to the successful launch of the MRC. These included: the comprehensive design of the campaign; strong partnerships between immunization authorities in the government system, Alliance partners, and civil society actors; and motivated and skilled health workers at different levels of the health system. Conclusions The successful implementation of the MRC in spite of numerous contextual and operational challenges demonstrated the adaptive capacity of the national immunization programme and its partners that has positive implications for future introductions of Gavi-supported vaccines.

HIV-1 infection causes robust innate immune activation in virus-infected patients. This immune activation is characterized by elevated levels of type I interferons (IFNs), which can block HIV-1 replication. Recent studies suggest that the viral capsid protein (CA) is a determinant for the sensitivity of HIV-1 to IFN-mediated restriction. Specifically, it was reported that the loss of CA interactions with CPSF6 or CypA leads to higher IFN sensitivity. However, the molecular mechanism of CA adaptation to IFN sensitivity is largely unknown. Here, we experimentally evolved an IFN-β-hypersensitive CA mutant which showed decreased binding to CPSF6 and CypA in IFN-β-treated cells. The CA mutations that emerged from this adaptation indeed conferred IFN-β resistance. Our genetic assays suggest a limited contribution of known host factors to IFN-β resistance. Strikingly, one of these mutations accelerated the kinetics of reverse transcription and uncoating. Our findings suggest that HIV-1 selected multiple, known host factor-independent pathways to avoid IFN-β-mediated restriction.

An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of aeration using blower on growth and production of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in intensive aquaculture system in six (6) earthen ponds at BAU campus, Mymensingh from May to September, 2016. Treatment 1 (T 1 ) with 3 aerated ponds and Treatment 2 (T 2 ) with 3 non-aerated ponds were designed with similar stocking density (300/decimal) of tilapia. Oxygen supply was ensured by blower for 9 hours daily when oxygen depletion occurs in pond water. Fish growth, pond water and soil quality parameters were sampled and assessed. The DO content in the aerated ponds was higher (7.23 mg/l) from the beginning to the end of experiment compared to non-aerated ponds (2.33 mg/l). There were significant differences (p<0.05) of DO content between two treatments at first and last sampling stages. The higher length (15.64±1.56 cm) and weight gain (143.36±39.33 gm), higher SGR (% per day) for tilapia was (2.54±0.00) found in T 1 compared to T 2 (2.42±0.00) with significant differences (p<0.05) between two treatments. In addition, the higher production of tilapia was obtained in T 1 (9581.87±0.00 kg/ha/100 days) compared to T 2 (6490.80±0.00 kg/ha/100 days). The average phytoplankton production was relatively higher in T 2 and conversely zooplankton abundance was higher in T 1 without any significant differences (p>0.05) between the treatments for the abundances of various groups of phytoplankton and zooplankton. Different water quality parameters were found with the better range in aerated ponds. Various intrinsic relationships between DO and other water quality and weather parameters showed that DO content had negative relationships with rainfall, air pressure and humidity but the relationships were not statistically significant. Moreover, different soil quality parameters of pond sediments were found in ideal range for fish culture in both treatments. These results suggest that aeration can be a potential mechanism of aqua-farming to enhance the growth and production of tilapia and DO content in pond water synchronizing other water quality parameters in ponds.

Sulphur plays a vital role in the formation and biosynthesis of protein, chlorophyll, and few amino acids. To investigate the effect of sulphur fertilizer on leaf biomass yield, critical sulphur concentration, sulphur requirement and uptake by Aloe vera L., a pot experiment was carried out following completely randomized design with six levels of sulphur viz., 0, 15, 30, 45, 60 and 80 kg ha −1 with three replications. The results of the study revealed that the growth attributes, leaf and gel yield, and sulphur uptake significantly improved with sulphur application and the best results were obtained from the application of 45 kg sulphur ha −1 . On average, addition of sulphur enhanced the leaf biomass yield by 47.5% and sulphur use efficiency by 38% compared to control. The effect of sulphur on the growth parameters and their significant and positive correlations with yield signifies the importance of sulphur on the yield and quality of A. vera . The calculated minimum amount of sulphur for 80% leaf biomass production was 21.1 kg sulphur ha −1 with a critical leaf sulphur concentration of 0.23% in A. vera. Moreover, sulphur addition to soil substantially enhanced the economic returns of A. vera . Therefore, addition of 45 kg sulphur ha −1 could be a better option for obtaining higher yield and economic return of A. vera .

Old World monkey TRIM5a strongly suppresses human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication. A fusion protein comprising cynomolgus macaque (CM) TRIM5 and cyclophilin A (CM TRIMCyp) also potently suppresses HIV-1 replication. However, CM TRIMCyp fails to suppress a mutant HIV-1 that encodes a mutant capsid protein containing a SIVmac239-derived loop between a-helices 4 and 5 (L4/5). There are seven amino acid differences between L4/5 of HIV-1 and SIVmac239. Here, we investigated the minimum numbers of amino acid substitutions that would allow HIV-1 to evade CM TRIMCypmediated suppression. We performed random PCR mutagenesis to construct a library of HIV-1 variants containing mutations in L4/5, and then we recovered replication-competent viruses from CD4 + MT4 cells that expressed high levels of CM TRIMCyp. CM TRIMCyp-resistant viruses were obtained after three rounds of selection in MT4 cells expressing CM TRIMCyp and these were found to contain four amino acid substitutions (H87R, A88G, P90D and P93A) in L4/5. We then confirmed that these substitutions were sufficient to confer CM TRIMCyp resistance to HIV-1. In a separate experiment using a similar method, we obtained novel CM TRIM5a-resistant HIV-1 strains after six rounds of selection and rescue. Analysis of these mutants revealed that V86A and G116E mutations in the capsid region conferred partial resistance to CM TRIM5a without substantial fitness cost when propagated in MT4 cells expressing CM TRIM5a. These results confirmed and further extended the previous notion that CM TRIMCyp and CM TRIM5a recognize the HIV-1 capsid in different manners.

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IntroductionIt is estimated that the incidence of new infections in developing countries, cervical cancer is often the most common cancer in women and may constitute up to 25% of all female cancers 1 . Cervical cancer which is caused by human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are small, nonenveloped viruses of about 55 nm in diameter containing the viral genome as circular double stranded DNA 2 . The 'low risk' HPV types are associated with anogenital warts and condylomas, but do not confer an excess risk for cancer, whereas the 'high risk' types are associated with cervical dysplasias that have a considerable potential for progression to cancer 3 . An important emerging factor in the development of cervical neoplasia is the role of HPV variants 4 . HPV variants differ in biological and chemical properties and in pathogenicity and oncogenicity.Detection of high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infections might identify women who are at increased risk of development or progression of a cervical lesion [5][6][7] , and vice versa, negative tests have a very high negative predictive value for the development of a cervical lesion [8][9] .The E2 and E1 papillomavirus proteins regulate DNA replication. At some stage when viral DNA gets integrated into the host genome, the E2 gene is inactivated that leads to a de-repression of the E6 and E7 viral oncogenes 10 . E6 protein of the high-risk HPV types associates with the product of tumour suppressor gene p53 and the HPV16 E7 protein to pRb that lead to cancer 11 .Although HPV is essential to the transformation of cervical epithelial cells, it is not sufficient, and a variety of cofactors such as multiple sexual partners, exposure to sexually transmitted disease (STD), immunosuppressant etc. influence whether cervical cancer will develop 12 . So area or country wise study of epidemiology and genotyping of HPV is needed immediately. Viral ecology studies are also needed to assess the effect of vaccination on HPV type