Bio-safety and bio-security: A major global concern for ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Besides its impacts on governance, economics, human culture, geostrategic partnership and environment, globalization greatly exerted control over science and security policies. Biosecurity is the critical job of efforts, policy and preparation to protect health of human, animal and environmental against any biological threats. With the transition into a global village, the possibility of biosecurity breaches has significantly increased. The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of an infringement on biosecurity that has posed a serious threat to the world. Since the first report on the recognition of COVID-19, a number of governments have taken preventive measures, like; lockdown, screening and early detection of suspected and implementing the required response to protect the loss of life and economy. Unfortunately, some of these measures have only recently been taken in some countries, which have contributed significantly to an increased morbidity and loss of life on a daily basis. In this article, the biological risks affecting human, animal and environmental conditions, biosafety violations and preventive measures have been discussed in order to reduce the outbreak and impacts of a pandemic like COVID-19.

Molecular genetic studies in Saudi population; identified variants from GWAS and meta-analysis in stroke.

INTRODUCTION: Stroke is a multifactorial and heterogeneous disorder, correlates with heritability and considered as one of the major diseases. The prior reports performed the variable models such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS), replication, case-control, cross-sectional and meta-analysis studies and still, we lack diagnostic marker in the global world. There are limited studies were carried out in Saudi population, and we aim to investigate the molecular association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified through GWAS and meta-analysis studies in stroke patients in the Saudi population. METHODS: In this case-control study, we have opted gender equality of 207 cases and 207 controls from the capital city of Saudi Arabia in King Saud University Hospital. The peripheral blood (5 ml) sample will be collected in two different vacutainers, and three mL of the coagulated blood will be used for lipid analysis (biochemical tests) and two mL will be used for DNA analysis (molecular tests). Genomic DNA will be extracted with the collected blood samples, and specific primers will be designed for the opted SNPs (SORT1-rs646218 and OLR1-rs11053646 polymorphisms) and PCR-RFLP will be performed and randomly DNA sequencing will be carried out to cross check the results. RESULTS: The rs646218 and rs11053646 polymorphisms were significantly associated with allele, genotype and dominant models with and without crude odds ratios (OR's) and Multiple logistic regression analysis (p < 0.05). Correlation between lipid profile and genotypes has confirmed the significant relation between triglycerides and rs646218 and rs1105364 6polymorphisms. However, rs11053646 polymorphism was correlated with HDLC (p = 0.04). Genotypes were examined in both males' vs. males and females' vs. females in cases and control and we concluded that in rs11053646 polymorphisms with male subjects compared between cases and controls found to be associated with dominant model heterozygote genotypes (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of the current study confirmed the SORT1 and OLR1 SNPs were associated in the Saudi population. The current results were in the association with the prior study results documented through GWAS and meta-analysis association. However, other ethnic population studies should be performed to rule out in the human hereditary diseases.

Expression of variable viruses as herpes simplex glycoprotein D and varicella zoster gE glycoprotein using a novel plasmid based expression system in insect cell.

Several prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems have been used for in vitro production of viruses' proteins. However eukaryotic expression system was always the first choice for production of proteins that undergo post-translational modification such as glycosylation. Recombinant baculoviruses have been widely used as safe vectors to express heterologous genes in the culture of insect cells, but the manipulation involved in creating, titrating, and amplifying viral stocks make it time consuming and laborious. Therefore, to facilitate rapid expression in insect cell, a plasmid based expression system was used to express herpes simplex type 1 glycoprotein D (HSV-1 gD) and varicella zoster glycoprotein E (VZV gE). Recombinant plasmids were generated, transfected into insect cells (SF9), and both glycoproteins were expressed 48 h post-infection. A protein with approximately molecular weight of 64-kDa and 98-kDa for HSV-1 gD and VZV gE respectively was expressed and confirmed by SDS. Proteins were detected in insect cells cytoplasm and outer membrane by immunofluorescence. The antigenicity and immunoreactivity of each protein were confirmed by immunoblot and ELISA. Results suggest that this system can be an alternative to the traditional baculovirus expression for small scale expression system in insect cells.

Comparative performance of a novel herpes simplex virus type 2-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using a targeted chain oligopeptide, peptide 55.

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) glycoprotein G (gG2) has been used as the basis of many serological assays for the detection of HSV type 2 (HSV-2)-specific antibodies. In the present study, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the Pathozyme Viro HSV-2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) ELISA (Omega Diagnostics, Alva, United Kingdom), based on an immunodominant epitope of gG2 presented in a branched-chain format (peptide 55), was compared with two commercially available gG2-specific assays, the Bioelisa HSV-2 IgG assay (Biokit, S.A., Barcelona, Spain) and the HerpesSelect HSV-2 IgG assay (Focus Diagnostics, Cypress, CA). A panel of 218 well-characterized serum samples was tested. Thirty-one samples were determined to be HSV-2 IgG antibody positive and 164 samples were determined to be negative with all three kits. The levels of concordance between the tests were 95.9% between the Omega and HerpeSelect assays, 90.8% between the Omega and Bioelisa assays, and 94.5% between the HerpeSelect and Bioelisa assays. Twenty-three samples gave discordant results. Western blot results showed that of these, the results for 77% were correctly identified by the Omega assay, the results for 68% were correctly identified by the HerpeSelect assay, and the results for 13.6% were correctly identified by the Bioelisa assay. Although there was a high level of agreement between the results obtained by the three assays and no false-positive results were detected by any of the three kits, confirmation of the results for samples with discordant results by Western blotting suggested that the peptide 55-based Omega assay is the most sensitive and specific assay among the assays evaluated.