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Hepatitis B and C continue to be the world challenging problems. The results of currently available treatments with antiviral medications and interferon-based therapy have not been satisfactory and the numbers of newly acquired infection continue to increase. This situation has prompted investigations into novel approaches to decrease the mortality and morbidity of those suffering from hepatitis B and C. The dynamics of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in various stages of the illness have been reported in previous studies. It has been asserted that Tregs may have important roles in sustaining the viral persistence and preventing liver damage although the comprehensive mechanisms of hepatitis immunity mediated by Tregs are not well understood. To understand the immunobiology of regulatory T cells in hepatitis B and hepatitis C, we reviewed original research articles available from online databases. We found that in hepatitis B, Tregs development is influenced by plasmacytoid dendritic cells, soluble heat shock protein (HSP)-60, and toll-like receptor (TLR) 2/4 signaling. Tumor growth factor (TGF)-β, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), Tim-3/Gal-9 interactions, tolllike receptor (TLR)-2 stimulation, Notch signaling, HCV-induced miR146a, and contact with dendritic cells or B cells promote Tregs development and activation in hepatitis C. Tregs inhibit the function of cytotoxic T cells in HBV-infected livers whereas interleukin (IL)-8 produced by intrahepatic Tregs contributes to Tregs’ role as the regulator of fibrogenesis in chronic hepatitis C. This present paper reports the significance of Tregs in hepatitis B and C as well as their development and suppression in the context of HBV and HCV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known to be a very challenging task for hematologist to perform Wright-Giemsa stain blood slides analysis especially with the high demand for an accurate and precise analysis. An inaccurate diagnosis might affect the treatment decisions for the patient. Therefore, this study aims to develop an intelligent classification for acute leukemia based on Wright-Giemsa stain blood slides that can be used as the classification of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) blood subtypes. The procedure consists of three stages namely image pre-processing, image segmentation, and classification of white blood cells. Initially, the image quality was enhanced by using contrast stretching and histogram equalization. Then, the HSV color thresholding, Otsu's thresholding, Watershed segmentation, and morphological operation techniques were used to segment the leukemia cells. Next, zero paddings and data augmentation were used to resize the input image dataset and synthesize more images for image classification. In the classification stage, two different deep learning classifiers architecture, namely AlexNet and GoogLeNet of convolution neural networks were used to differentiate between the artifact, normal, B-lymphocyte and T-lymphocyte. From 265 samples images, both classifiers yielded promising results, with a testing accuracy of 98.0% for AlexNet and 98.80% for GoogLeNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An immunomodulatory model for dengue infection is constructed in this paper. This study focuses on T-cell compartments and B cells that are immune cells involved in the dengue infection process. Dengue virus-infected monocyte cells release interferons to signal T-cells to activate B-cells and produce antibodies. Immunomodulator acts as a treatment control and aims to increase the numbers of antibodies so it is expected to reduce the number of infected monocyte cells by dengue virus. Numerical simulation shows that the greater the rate of f (t) the immune cells will be stimulated to suppress the number of infected cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tapak Liman (Elephantopus scaber L) is a traditional medicinal plant containing several active compounds that potentially affecting hematopoietic stem cells, such as epifrieelinol, lupeol, stigmasterol, triacontane-1-ol, dotriacontane-1-ol, lupeol acetate,deoxyelephan-topin, isodeoxyelephantopin, polyphenol luteolin-7, as well as various flavonoids and glucosides. The aim of this study was to elucidate the effect of leaf extract of Tapak Liman on hematopoietic stem cells in mice BALB/c, by observation of the relative number of cells expressing CD4/CD8, CD4/CD62L, and TER119/B220 in the spleen and TER119/B220, TER119/VLA-4 and TER119/CD34 in bone marrow, after being administered leaf extract for 2 weeks. This experiment used 12 female mice, which were divided into three treatment groups, P1= 0.5 g.g bw-1.day-1, P2= 1.0 g.g bw-1.day-1 and P3 = 2.0 g.g bw-1.day-1 Tapak Liman leaf extract as well as a control. The relative numbers of cells expressing surface molecules were analyzed by flowcytometry and quantitative data were tested using one-way ANOVA. The results showed that the leaf extract of Tapak Liman has no significant effect on erythrocyte proliferation; on the other hand, it had a significant effect on both proliferation and differentiation of B lymphocytes (B220+) in bone marrow (p=0.044) and increased the expression of CD4+, CD8+ molecule in B cells (p=0.026) and erythroid cells in spleen and bone marrow, based on the estimation of cells that expressed TER119+VLA-4+, identified as important in the development pathway of erythrocytes. An increased cell percentage of TER11+VLA-4+ occurred for treatment P2, 12% higher than the control. The increased expression of TER119+VLA-4+ was assumed to be due to the iron content in Tapak Liman, which functioned to stimulate the progenitor hematopoietic cells to proliferate and differentiate into a precursor of erythroid cells (TER119 +VLA-4+). There was an increasing number of cells expressing the surface molecules TER119+ and VLA-4+. This indicated that the Tapak Liman leaf extract with a dose of 1.0 g.g bw-1.day-1 could stimulate the proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells into the lymphoid and erythroid pathway, in spleen and bone marrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]