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Background:: Different topical therapies are being used for treating molluscum contagiosum. Potassium hydroxide in varying solution strengths with irritant reaction on the skin can help in eliminating the infection. It is cheap, easily available, can be easily applied at home, with good safety profile and cost effectiveness. This study was conducted to compare the efficacy of 10% potassium hydroxide solution versus cryotherapy in treating molluscum contagiosum., Methodology: This study was a Randomized control trial conducted in the Department of dermatology, Military hospital Rawalpindi. Study included 120 randomly selected patients with molluscum contagiosum divided equally into two groups. Group A were treated with 10% potassium hydroxide aqueous solution applied daily to the lesions twice daily for 6 weeks while Group B received weekly cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen. The status of lesions was documented weekly for 6 weeks., Results: Of the 120 patients enrolled, 67 (55.8%) were male and 53 (44.2%) were female. Mean age of patients was 20.53(±8.17) years. At base line Molluscum contagiosum lesion ranged from minimum of 2 lesions to maximum of 26 lesions with a mean of 8.95 (SD ±4.45) lesions. Of 120 patients, complete clearance was observed in 98(81.6%) of patients, 48(80%) patients had lesion clearance in Group A and 50 (83.3%) patients had lesion clearance was observed in Group B. No statistical significance was observed in the lesion clearance between the two groups (p-0.63)., Conclusions: The efficacy of 10% potassium hydroxide solution and cryotherapy is statistically same over 6 weeks of treatment. Thus less expensive, easily available and cosmetically more acceptable potassium hydroxide solution can be used instead of cryotherapy in treating molluscum contagiosum.

L-asparaginase (LA) catalyzes the degradation of asparagine, an essential amino acid for leukemic cells, into ammonia and aspartate. Owing to its ability to inhibit protein biosynthesis in lymphoblasts, LA is used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Different isozymes of this enzyme have been isolated from a wide range of organisms, including plants and terrestrial and marine microorganisms. Pieces of information about the three-dimensional structure of L-asparaginase from Escherichia coli and Erwinia sp. have identified residues that are essential for catalytic activity. This review catalogues the major sources of L-asparaginase, the methods of its production through the solid state (SSF) and submerged (SmF) fermentation, purification, and characterization as well as its biological roles. In the same breath, this article explores both the past and present applications of this important enzyme and discusses its future prospects.

Background: Diabetes mellitus affects more than 285 million people worldwide. The prevalenceis expected to rise to 439 million by the year 2030. Diabetic foot ulcers precede 84% of non-traumatic amputations in diabetics. One lower limb is lost every 30 seconds around the worldbecause of diabetic foot ulceration. Apart from being lengthy, the treatment of diabetic foot is alsovery expensive. There is very limited emphasis on foot care in diabetic patients. Even indeveloped countries patients feel that they do not have adequate knowledge about foot care. Thisstudy was conducted to find out how much information is imparted by doctors to diabetic patientsabout foot care., Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in admitted patients of theDepartment of Medicine, DHQ Hospital, Abbottabad from May 2014 to June 2015. One hundredand thirt-nine diabetic patients more than 25 years of age were included by non-probability consecutive sampling., Results: The mean age was 57.17 (±11.1) years. 35.3% of patients weremale and 64.7% were female. The mean duration of diabetes in patients was 8.3 (±6) years. Only36.7% of patients said that their doctor told them about foot care. Less than 40% of patients knewthat they should daily inspect their feet, wash them with gentle warm water, and dry themafterwards. Only 25.2% of the participants knew how to manage corns or calluses on feet. 66.5%of patients knew that they should not walk bare foot. Overall, 63% of our patients had less than50% knowledge of the 11 points regarding foot care that the investigators asked them., Conclusion: Diabetic foot problems are the one of the costliest, most disabling and dishearteningcomplication of diabetes mellitus. Doctors are not properly telling diabetic patients about footcare. There is a deficiency of knowledge among the diabetic patients regarding foot care.

Objective: To determine the frequency of E. coli resistance to ciprofloxacin and common factors leading to it among patients presenting with urinary tract infection., Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study., Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medicine, Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, from December 2011 to June 2012., Methodology: A total of 166 patients, > 18 years of age of both gender, who presented with features of UTI and had urine culture positive for E.coli were included in the study. The urine samples were further tested for ciprofloxacin resistance and the patients were further checked for the common factors leading to E.coli resistance to ciprofloxacin., Results: Among 166 patients, 41 were male and 125 were female patients. Sixty-six (39.8%) E. coli isolates showed ciprofloxacin resistance. Male gender (p-value 0.001), previous history of recurrent UTI (p = 0.008, OR = 2.37), history of prior use of ciprofloxacin (p = 0.018, OR = 2.16) and history of catheterization (p = 0.005, OR = 4.80) were independent risk factors found in this study for the development of ciprofloxacin resistant UTIs., Conclusion: Ciprofloxacin resistance rates of E.coli were high at over 39.8%. The risk factors that affected the ciprofloxacin resistance rates of E.coli were prior use of ciprofloxacin, recurrent UTI, previous catheterization and male gender. Ciprofloxacin should be prescribed cautiously in patients with these risk factors and urine culture and sensitivity test should be performed for optimal treatment.

Background: Stroke is a common neurological disease that results in significant mortality and morbidity globally. Several risk factors have been identified for stroke among which hyperlipidaemia is one of the modifiable risk factors. Recent clinical trials have shown a reduction in ischemic stroke for patients taking lipid lowering medications. Therefore, the aim of this study was to find out the frequency of hypercholesterolemia in patients of ischemic stroke in Hazara region., Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out in the Medical Department of Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad. Ninety patients of stroke confirmed as ischemic by CT scan brain were enrolled in the study after informed consent. The frequency of hypercholesterolemia in patients was recorded., Results: There were 55 (61.1%) males. The mean age of patients was 64.4±11.5 years. The mean serum cholesterol in all patients was 4.16±1.1 mmol/l. The mean serum cholesterol of male patients was 4.3±1.2 mmol/l and 4.0±10.9 mmol/l in the case of females., Conclusions: Hypercholesterolemia could not be established as a major risk factor for stroke in our setup through this study that allude to the fact that other risk factors might be contributing more to the incidence of cerebrovascular accident in our population.

Successful completion of the cell cycle usually results in two identical daughter progeny. This process of generational doubling is termed proliferation and when it occurs in a regulated fashion the benefits range from driving embryonic development to mounting a successful immune response. However when it occurs in a dis-regulated fashion, it is one of the hallmarks of cancer and autoimmunity. These very reasons make proliferation a highly informative parameter in many different biological systems. Conventional flow cytometry (CFC) is a high-throughput, fluorescence-based method for measuring the phenotype and function of cells. The application of CFC to measuring proliferation requires a fluorescent dye able to mark live cells so that when they divide, the daughter progeny receives approximately half the fluorescence of the parent. In measurement space, this translates into peaks of fluorescence decreasing by approximately half, each corresponding to a round of division. It is essential that these peaks can be resolved from one another otherwise it is nearly impossible to obtain accurate quantitative proliferation data. Peak resolution is affected by many things, including instrument performance, the choice of fluorescent dye and the inherent properties of the cells under investigation. There are now many fluorescent dyes available for tracking proliferation by dye dilution differing in their chemistry and spectral properties. Here we provide a method for assessing the performance of various candidate dyes with particular emphasis on situations where the cell type is non-quiescent. We have shown previously that even under optimised instrument and labelling conditions, the heterogeneity of non-quiescent cells makes it impossible to obtain an input width below the threshold for peak resolution without reducing the fluorescence distribution using a cell sorter. Moreover, our method also measures how the dye performs post-labelling in terms of loss/transfer to other cells and how the dye is inherited across the cytokinetic plane. All of these factors will affect peak resolution both in non-quiescent and primary cell types., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Increased adult body size in Drosophila raised at lower temperatures could be attributed both to an increase in the cell volume and cell number. It is not clear, however, whether increased cell size is related to (or even caused by) increased nuclear volume and genome size (or configuration). Experiments with Drosophila melanogaster stocks (Oregon-R and w1118) raised at 16, 22, 24, and 28°C resulted in larger adult body and wing size with lower temperature, while eye size was less affected. The increase in wing size reflected an increase in cell size in both males and females of both stocks. The nucleus size, genome size, and DNA condensation of adult flies, embryos, and Schneider 2 cells (S2 cells, of larval origin) were estimated by flow cytometry. In both adult flies and S2 cells, both nucleus size and DNA condensation varied with temperature, while DNA content appears to be constant. From 12% to 18% of the somatic cells were tetraploid (4C) and 2-5% were octoploid (8C), and for the Oregon strain we observed an increase in the fraction of polyploid cells with decreasing temperature. The observed increase in body size (and wing size) at low temperatures could partly be linked with the cell size and DNA condensation, while corresponding changes in the haploid genome size were not observed., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The Arabidopsis receptor kinase FERONIA (FER) is a multifunctional regulator for plant growth and reproduction. Here we report that the female gametophyte-expressed glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein (GPI-AP) LORELEI and the seedling-expressed LRE-like GPI-AP1 (LLG1) bind to the extracellular juxtamembrane region of FER and show that this interaction is pivotal for FER function. LLG1 interacts with FER in the endoplasmic reticulum and on the cell surface, and loss of LLG1 function induces cytoplasmic retention of FER, consistent with transport of FER from the endoplasmic reticulum to the plasma membrane in a complex with LLG1. We further demonstrate that LLG1 is a component of the FER-regulated RHO GTPase signaling complex and that fer and llg1 mutants display indistinguishable growth, developmental and signaling phenotypes, analogous to how lre and fer share similar reproductive defects. Together our results support LLG1/LRE acting as a chaperone and co-receptor for FER and elucidate a mechanism by which GPI-APs enable the signaling capacity of a cell surface receptor.

Kikuchi Fujimoto Disease (KFD) or histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis can present with unexplained fever and lymphadenopathy. It is often mistaken for more serious conditions like malignant lymphoma or tuberculosis. First case was described by Kikuchi in Japan, very few cases have been reported in Pakistan. A middle aged female presented with fever and body aches for one month. She was investigated extensively for pyrexia of unknown origin, all of which came out to be normal except a raised ESR. Anti-tuberculous drugs were started on clinical suspicion, with no improvement after a month. Later, a detailed physical examination revealed cervical lymphadenopathy. One of the lymph nodes was excised and biopsied. The histopathology suggested Kikuchi's disease. Oral Prednisolone was started showing improvement. Her fever subsided and lymph nodes disappeared at the follow-up visit. No relapse was encountered in the subsequent visits.

The high prevalence of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (76.3 %) and metallo-β-lactamases (7.3 %) amongst the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a critical problem that has set forth an enormous therapeutic challenge. The suggested role of nanoparticles as next generation antibiotics, and inadequate information on antibacterial activity of aluminium oxide nanoparticles has led us to investigate the green synthesis of aluminium oxide nanoparticles (Al2O3 NPs) using leaf extracts of lemongrass and its antibacterial activity against extended-spectrum β-lactamases and metallo-β-lactamases clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa. The synthesized Al2O3-NPs were characterized by scanning electron microcopy, high resolution-transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Zeta potential, and differential light scattering techniques. The X-ray diffraction data revealed the average size of the spherical Al2O3-NPs as 34.5 nm. The hydrodynamic size in Milli Q water and Zeta potential were determined to be 254 nm and +52.2 mV, respectively. The minimal inhibitory concentration of Al2O3-NPs was found to be in the range of 1,600-3,200 µg/ml. Treatment at concentrations >2,000 µg/ml, resulted in complete growth inhibition of extended-spectrum β-lactamases and metallo-β-lactamases isolates. Scanning electron microcopy analysis revealed the clusters of nanoparticles attached to the bacterial cell surface, causing structural deformities in treated cells. High resolution-transmission electron microscopy analysis confirmed that nanoparticles crossed the cell membrane to become intracellular. The interaction of nanoparticles with the cell membrane eventually triggered the loss of membrane integrity, most likely due to intracellular oxidative stress. The data explicitly suggested that the synthesized Al2O3-NPs can be exploited as an effective bactericidal agent against extended-spectrum β-lactamases, non-extended-spectrum β-lactamases and metallo-β-lactamases strains of P. aeruginosa, regardless of their drug resistance patterns and mechanisms. The results elucidated the clinical significance of Al2O3-NPs in developing an effective antibacterial therapeutic regimen against the multi-drug resistant bacterial infections. The use of leaf extract of lemongrass for the synthesis of Al2O3-NPs appears to be cost effective, nontoxic, eco-friendly and its strong antibacterial activity against multi-drug resistant strains of P. aeruginosa offers compatibility for pharmaceutical and other biomedical applications.

Induction of DNA double strand breaks leads to phosphorylation and focus-formation of H2AX. However, foci of phosphorylated H2AX (γH2AX) appear during DNA replication also in the absence of exogenously applied injury. We measured the amount and the number of foci of γH2AX in different phases of the cell cycle by flow cytometry, sorting and microscopy in 4 malignant B-lymphocyte cell lines. There were no detectable γH2AX and no γH2AX-foci in G1 cells in exponentially growing cells and cells treated with PARP inhibitor (PARPi) for 24 h to create damage and reduce DNA repair. The amount of γH2AX increased immediately upon S phase entry, and about 10 and 30 γH2AX foci were found in mid-S phase control and PARPi-treated cells, respectively. The γH2AX-labeled damage caused by DNA replication was not fully repaired before entry into G2. Intriguingly, G2 cells populated a continuous distribution of γH2AX levels, from cells with a high content of γH2AX and the same number of foci as S phase cells (termed "G2H" compartment), to cells that there were almost negative and had about 2 foci (termed "G2L" compartment). EdU-labeling of S phase cells revealed that G2H was directly populated from S phase, while G2L was populated from G2H, but in control cells also directly from S phase. The length of G2H in particular increased after PARPi treatment, compatible with longer DNA-repair times. Our results show that cells repair replication-induced damage in G2H, and enter mitosis after a 2-3 h delay in G2L.

Temperature and nutrient availability are both hypothesized to affect organisms at the cellular and genomic levels. In this multigenerational study, Daphnia magna (D. magna) and Daphnia pulex (D. pulex) were maintained at high (20 °C) and low (10 °C) temperatures and nourished with phosphorus (P)-sufficient (50 μmol/L) and P-deficient (2 μmol/L) algae for up to 35 generations to assess the multigenerational impacts on genome size and nucleus size. Analysis by flow cytometry revealed significant increases in nucleus size for both species as well as genome size for D. magna in response to a low temperature. The degree of endoreplication, measured as cycle value, was species specific and responded to temperature and dietary composition. Under dietary P deficiency, D. magna, but not D. pulex, showed an apparent reduction in haploid genome size (C-value). These genomic responses are unlikely to reflect differences in nucleotide numbers, but rather structural changes affecting fluorochrome binding. While the ultimate and proximate causes of these responses are unknown, they suggest an intriguing potential for genomic responses that merits further research.

Hodgkin's lymphoma has been traditionally defined as a hematopoietic neoplasm composed of diagnostic Reed-Sternberg cells. More than 70% of the cases involve cervical or supraclavicular lymph nodes. Isolated sub-diaphragmatic lymphadenopathy or organ involvement is rare. We present the case of Hodgkin's lymphoma in a 51 years old female, who presented with obstructive jaundice and lymphadenopathy, empirically treated previously as a case of tuberculosis. Chemotherapy with modified ABVD protocol was given with dose modification according to LFT's. Her liver functions returned to normal levels after the first cycle. The main purpose of reporting the case is to stress definitive diagnosis of the disease before initiating treatment and the modified chemotherapy regimen used in this infrequent presentation of the disease.

Experiments with Daphnia magna and Daphnia pulex raised at 10 and 20 °C yielded larger adult size at the lower temperature. This must reflect increased cell size, increased cell numbers, or a combination of both. As it is difficult to achieve good estimates on cell size in crustaceans, we, therefore, measured nucleus and genome size using flow cytometry at 10 and 20 °C. DNA was stained with propidium iodide, ethidium bromide, and DAPI. Both nucleus and genome size estimates were elevated at 10 °C compared with 20 °C, suggesting that larger body size at low temperature could partly be accredited to an enlarged nucleus and thus cell size. Confocal microscopy observations confirmed the staining properties of fluorochromes. As differences in nucleotide numbers in response of growth temperature within a life span is unlikely, these results seem accredited to changed DNA-fluorochrome binding properties, presumably reflecting increased DNA condensation at low temperature. This implies that genome size comparisons may be impacted by ambient temperature in ectotherms. It also suggests that temperature-induced structural changes in the genome could affect cell size and for some species even body size.

As there is no evidence of previous studies on evaluating the level of job satisfaction and the major causes of dissatisfaction among the pharmacists in Iran, this study was designed. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of pharmacists practicing in Tehran private-sector pharmacies. We selected a stratified random sampling using number of prescriptions as a variable for stratification. The questionnaire was divided into three sections containing the demographic characteristics, general health perception and job satisfaction. Of all the participants, 62% were the owners of pharmacies and 38% were pharmacists in charge (non-owner). Seventy-eight percent of respondents reported satisfaction about their psychological and physical state. Just 11% of pharmacists were financially satisfied and 49% felt relaxed at the workplace. There was no correlation between the satisfaction and owning the pharmacy or sex of respondents. Spearman›s correlation showed that the income satisfaction correlated negatively with age (p ≤ 0.001) and years of experience (p < 0.05). Moreover, the average working hours was significantly higher among men compared to women (p < 0.01) and among owners relative to non-owners (p < 0.05). Overall, general health perception and quality of life among the respondents were at satisfactory level. However, work-related satisfaction was not high enough and most interviewed pharmacists were financially dissatisfied.

A man of 30 years, admitted in Neurology unit of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital with weakness of all four limbs for 4 weeks which was of gradual onset and progressive. He had no difficulty in vision, swallowing & speech. He had no disturbances of sensation, bowel & bladder functions. There was no preceding history of gastrointestinal or upper respiratory tract infection or vaccination. General examination was normal except the presence of hypertension detected two months before the onset of current illness. All cranial nerve functions were intact. Muscle power was grade 4 in all limbs and the reflexes were absent. All modalities of sensation and coordination were normal. Cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) study revealed protein-cell dissociation. Electro physiologic findings were consistent with Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP). The patient was treated with prednisolone 60mg/day for two months with improvement of muscle power. The steroid was reduced gradually and then maintained 20mg/day without any relapse.

Consanguineous marriage has been the culturally preferred form of marriage in Iran. This paper examines the extent to which education, urbanization and changes in modes of economic production have affected the incidence of consanguineous marriage and attitudes towards consanguineous marriages. The 2002 Iran Fertility Transition Survey conducted in the four provinces of Gilan, Sistan and Baluchistan, Yazd and West Azarbaijan provides information on the degree of relationship of marriage partners from around 6550 ever-married women aged 15-49. Attitudinal data were also obtained. Overall, the level of marriage to biological relatives ranged from 23% in Gilan to 78% in Sistan and Baluchistan. The paper finds that the practice of marriage to biological relatives has remained surprisingly resilient in the face of modernizing influences and that ethnicity, province and area of residence remain important determinants. On the other hand, attitudes have shifted towards marriage with a non-relative. Anthropological research would illuminate the processes of consanguineous marriage in Iran.

Kikuchi Fujimoto Disease (KFD) can present with dysphasia, fever and lymphadenopathy. A young Bangladeshi girl presented with fever, cervical lymphadenopathy, dysphasia, weight loss and skin rash. Antitubercular drugs were given on clinical judgement, with no improvement after one month. Later, fine needle aspiration and histopathology of Lymph Node suggested KFD. Computerized Tomography (CT) scan of neck revealed enlarged retropharyngeal lymphnode (LN) causing pharyngeal narrowing. Oral Prednisolone was given showing improvement and no relapse was encountered. KFD may present with dysphasia uncommonly along with fever and lymphadenopathy. Awareness of this disorder by clinicians and pathologists will help prevent misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment.

Patients with semantic impairments sometimes demonstrate category-specific deficits suggesting that the anatomical substrates of semantic memory may reflect categorical organisation, however, neuroimaging studies have failed to provide consistent data in support of a category-based account. We conducted three functional neuroimaging experiments to investigate the neural correlates of semantic processing, two with positron emission tomography (PET) and a third with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The first experiment used a lexical decision task to search for brain regions selectively activated by concepts from four different categories--animals, fruit, tools, and vehicles. The second experiment used a semantic categorisation task to increase the demands on the semantic system and to look for evidence of consistent activations for the domains of natural kinds or man-made items. The final experiment was a replication of the semantic categorisation task using fMRI to increase the spatial resolution and statistical sensitivity of the experiment. The results of these experiments reliably identified a distributed neural system common to both natural kinds and artifacts but failed to find robust evidence of functional segregation by domain or categories. Category effects were neither reliable nor consistently present across experiments although some were consistent with previous studies. We discuss the implications of these findings, arguing that they are most consistent with a semantic system undifferentiated by category at the neural level.

Epstein Barr virus (EBV) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of oral hairy leukoplakia (OHL). EBV is normally detected by lesional biopsy. The objectives of this study were to examine oral scrapes containing squamous epithelial cells (squames) from HIV-infected people with and without clinical lesions of OHL, and from healthy non-HIV-infected controls, for EBV-DNA by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). EBV-DNA was detected in 65% of HIV-infected people and 20% of healthy HIV-negative controls but in HIV-infected individuals it was found as frequently in those without OHL as in those with. Moreover, EBV-DNA was not detected in all HIV-infected individuals, nor in all OHL. The results suggest that the presence or absence of detectable EBV-DNA in oral scrapes, though a guide, cannot be regarded as absolutely reliable in the diagnosis or exclusion of OHL.