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Snakebite envenoming (SBE) is a global public health concern, primarily due to the lack of effective antivenom for treating snakebites inflicted by medically significant venomous snakes prevalent across various geographic locations. The rising demand for safe, cost-effective, and potent snakebite treatments highlights the urgent need to develop alternative therapeutics targeting relevant toxins. This development could provide promising discoveries to create novel recombinant solutions, leveraging human monoclonal antibodies, synthetic peptides and nanobodies. Such technologies as recombinant DNA, peptide and epitope mapping phage display etc) have the potential to exceed the traditional use of equine polyclonal antibodies, which have long been used in antivenom production. Recombinant antivenom can be engineered to target certain toxins that play a critical role in snakebite pathology. This approach has the potential to produce antivenom with improved efficacy and safety profiles. However, there are limitations and challenges associated with these emerging technologies. Therefore, identifying the limitations is critical for overcoming the associated challenges and optimizing the development of recombinant antivenoms. This review is aimed at presenting a thorough overview of diverse technologies used in the development of recombinant antivenom, emphasizing their limitations and offering insights into prospects for advancing recombinant antivenoms.
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To overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of safe and effective vaccines is crucial. With the enormous information available on vaccine development for COVID-19, there are still grey areas to be considered when designing a potential vaccine. The rapid regulatory approval of nucleic acid-based vaccines was unique to the COVID-19; these vaccines were rapidly produced cost-effectively and with lesser risk of infectivity. Additionally, they demonstrated relative stability at room temperature (DNA). However, a comparative understanding of the immunogenic impact and efficacy of these vaccines is lacking. Immunogenicity is essential for developing and maintaining effective and long-lasting post-vaccination immunity to pathogenic microorganisms. This systematic review aims to assess and summarize the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of the nucleic acid-based vaccines against COVID-19. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) recommendations were followed in this review. CASP tool was used for quality assessment of randomized controlled trials. All included studies employed a randomized control method, and the results demonstrated promising immune responses and effectiveness that provided high-level protection against COVID-19 infection. This study offers vital insights for advancing vaccine technology. Furthermore, it guides formulation, informs personalized vaccination strategies, and enhances global health preparedness, particularly in regions with limited vaccine access.
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Aim: The aim of this study was to measure the knowledge, attitude, perception and practices of northern Nigerians toward the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials & methods: This was a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study and the data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results & discussions: There were 713 participants, of which 54.0, 57.4, 67.6, 36.2 and 28.9% were between 18 and 30 years of age, married, males, having bachelor's degree and civil servants, respectively. High level of knowledge, attitude, perception and practice was found. Pearson correlation analysis found strong positive (r = 0.622; p < 0.001) relationships between knowledge, attitude, perception (r = 0.454; p < 0.001) and at last, practice (r = 0.282; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Young, male and married northern Nigerians of high socio-economic status had better knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and practices toward COVID-19.
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AIM: The aim of this study was to molecularly characterize orf virus isolated from clinical infections in goats in Sokoto metropolis. MATERIALS & METHODS: Embryonated chicken eggs were used to isolate orf virus according to the established protocol. Viral DNA was extracted and full coding region of B2L gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction, sequenced and blasted for identification and phylogenetically analyzed. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The B2L gene sequences of the isolate showed slight variability (96-98.7%) with the reference sequences as it clustered within the same clade with Korean, Zambian and Ethiopian strains, signifying a close genetic relationship. Unique amino acid substitutions were noted. This is the first genetic characterization of B2L gene of orf virus circulating in Nigeria. CONCLUSION: This study has provided in sight into the genetic diversity of orf virus in the study area.
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Two Malaysian very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV) strains UPM0081 (also known as B00/81) and UPM190 (also known as UPM04/190) isolated from local IBD outbreaks in 2000 and 2004, respectively, were separately passaged for 12 consecutive times in 11-day-old specific pathogen free (SPF) chicken embryonated eggs (CEE) via the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) route. The CEE passage 8 (EP8) isolates were passaged once in BGM-70 cell line yielding UPM0081EP8BGMP1 and UPM190EP8BGMP1, while the EP12 isolates were passaged 15 times in BGM-70 cell line yielding UPM0081EP12BGMP15 and UPM190EP12BGMP15 using T25 tissue culture flask. These isolates were all propagated once in bioreactor using cytodex 1 as microcarrier at 3 g per liter (3 g/L) yielding UPM0081EP8BGMP1BP1, UPM190EP8BGMP1BP1, UPM0081EP12BGMP15BP1, and UPM190EP12BGMP15BP1 isolates. The viruses were harvested at 3 days after inoculation, following the appearance of cytopathic effects (CPE) characterized by detachment from the microcarrier using standard protocol and filtered using 0.2 µm syringe filter. The filtrates were positive for IBDV by RT-PCR and immunofluorescence. Sequence and phylogenetic tree analysis indicated that the isolates were of the vvIBDV strains and were not different from the flask propagated parental viruses.
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Two Malaysian very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV) strains UPM0081 and UPM190 (also known as UPMB00/81 and UPM04/190, respectively) isolated from local IBD outbreaks were serially passaged 12 times (EP12) in specific pathogen free (SPF) chicken embryonated eggs (CEE) by chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) route. The EP12 isolate was further adapted and serially propagated in BGM-70 cell line up to 20 passages (P20). Characteristic cytopathic effects (CPEs) were subtly observed at P1 in both isolates 72 hours postinoculation (pi). The CPE became prominent at P5 with cell rounding, cytoplasmic vacuoles, granulation, and detachment from flask starting from day 3 pi, up to 7 days pi with titers of 109.50 TCID50/mL and log109.80 TCID50/mL for UPM0081 and UPM190, respectively. The CPE became subtle at P17 and disappeared by P18 and P19 for UPM0081 and UPM190, respectively. However, the presence of IBDV was confirmed by immunoperoxidase, immunofluorescence, and RT-PCR techniques. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these two isolates were of the vvIBDV. It appears that a single mutation of UPM190 and UPM0081 IBDV isolates at D279N could facilitate vvIBDV strain adaptability in CEE and BGM-70 cultures.
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BACKGROUND: Since ancient time, increased interest has been witnessed in the use of an alternative herbal medicine for managing, and the treatment of fungal diseases worldwide. This may be connected to the cost and relative toxicities of the available antifungal drugs. It has been a known tradition practiced in the northern part of Nigeria that parents and teachers use the white latex of Calotropis procera to treat Tinea capitis in children attending the local religious school in the area. This study was conducted in 2009 to ascertain the above claim. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fresh latex of C. procera was screened for their antifungal activity against species of dermatophytes: Trichophyton spp., Microsporum spp. and Epidermophyton spp. using the agar incorporation method. RESULTS: The result shows that the latex inhibits the in vitro growth of these pathogenic fungi to varying extents with Trichophyton spp. being the most susceptible (P < 0.05) and thus highly inhibited by the latex followed by the Microsporum spp. and Epidermopyton spp. was least inhibited. These inhibitions followed a dose-dependent trend as undiluted latex (100%) gave the highest inhibitory impacts (P < 0.05) when compared to serially diluted latex. The phytochemical analysis of the fresh latex indicated the presence of alkaloids, saponin, tannins, steroids, flavonoids, anthraquinone, and triterpenoids. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study confirmed the perceived usefulness of the latex in the treatment of T. capitis (ringworm) practiced in our society and therefore, its use topically in the treatment of dermatomycotic infection is encouraged.
