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Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media (CSOM) is characterized by persistent otorrhoea from the middle ear through a perforated tympanic membrane. It is regarded as one of the most important causes of hearing impairment in developing countries. In many cases, treating CSOM with antibiotics generates fears of resistance. Unlike conventional antibiotics, homeopathic remedies are mostly free from side effects. Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate the effects of homeopathic medicines to treat CSOM patients. A total of 90 subjects were included in this study; among them, 60 were suffering from CSOM, and 30 were healthy controls. The CSOM patients were randomly assigned for the daily administration of homeopathic medicines such as tellurium metallicum in 6C potency (n=17), mercurius solubilis in 200C potency (n=13), and calcarea sulphurica in 30C potency (n=10) for 8 weeks. Ear suppuration was prevented in all of the patients treated with the medicines. More than 50% of the patients’ tympanic membrane perforation were healed by tellurium metallicum and calcarea sulphurica, however, no membrane healing was observed by mercuris solubilis. It was next examined whether the patients underwent hearing impairment compared to healthy control subjects. The average hearing thresholds of the control subjects (n=30) at 1, 4, 8, and 12 kHz frequencies were 13.55 ± 1.57, 15.58 ± 1.12, 27.58 ± 2.00, and 32.57 ± 2.45 dB SPL, respectively. When the average hearing thresholds of the CSOM patients (n=40) were measured at all of the above frequencies, the values became 30.25 ± 1.75, 36.80 ± 3.25, 50.75 ± 2.35, and 59.50 ± 2.96 dB SPL, respectively. This result indicated the loss of hearing in CSOM patients as the average hearing thresholds of the patients were significantly higher (p

Graphical abstract, Highlights • There are distinctive overlaps in different heavy metal affected metabolic pathways. • Affected pathways vary according to the tissue origin and maturity of the cell. • Arsenic appears to have relatively more pleiotropic effects on metabolic pathways. • Some of the arsenic affected pathways are associated with diabetes., Various anthropogenic and natural events over the years have gradually increased human exposure to various heavy metals. Several of these heavy metals including cadmium, mercury, nickel, chromium, and the metalloid arsenic among others, have created major public health concerns for their high level of toxicities. Identification of the general as well as the differentially affected cellular metabolic pathways will help understanding the molecular mechanism of different heavy metal-induced toxicities. In this study, we analyzed 25 paired (control vs. treated) transcriptomic datasets derived following treatment of various human cells with different heavy metals and metalloid (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, iron, mercury, nickel and vanadium) to identify the affected metabolic pathways. The effects of these metals on metabolic pathways depend not only on the metals per se, but also on the nature of the treated cells. Tissue of origin, therefore, must be considered while assessing the effects of any particular heavy metal or metalloid. Among the metals and metalloid, arsenic appears to have relatively more pleiotropic influences on cellular metabolic pathways including those known to have association with diabetes. Although only two stem cell derived datasets are included in the current study, effects of heavy metals on these cells appear to be different from other mature cells of similar tissue origin. This study provides useful information about different heavy metal affected pathways, which may be useful in further exploration using wet-lab based techniques.

This study was aimed at evaluating the association between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and fetal birth weight considering duration of pregnancy, maternal age and body mass index (BMI). This was a retrospective cross-sectional study followed by cohort type of study. Initially, pregnant women in their 24 to 28th week of gestation were selected for determining their fasting blood glucose (FBG) level and blood glucose level 2 hrs after 75 g oral glucose intake. The cut-off value for the diagnosis of GDM was > 5.3 mmol/l for FBG level and > 8.6 mmol/l for taking 75 g oral glucose intake after 2 hrs. Both GDM and control group subjects were followed up to neonatal period to find out neonatal outcomes. Among the total 215 subjects, 84 pregnant women were selected with GDM and rest 131 were control. It is found that GDM alone had a significant (p = 0.05) positive effect on both the duration of pregnancy and fetal birth weight, but not on maternal BMI. Both the effects of duration of pregnancy and GDM are considered together on fetal birth weight, only GDM had significant impact on fetal birth weight compared to the control group. Similarly, when the effect of maternal BMI and GDM is considered together on fetal birth weight, only GDM group was found to have significant effect on fetal birth weight. Parallel results were observed for the effect of both maternal age and GDM on fetal birth weight. In binary logistic regression analysis, when the differences are considered in maternal age, duration of pregnancy and maternal BMI along with GDM, both maternal age ≥ 35 years (OR: 9.43, p = 0.001) and GDM (OR: 10.60, p = 0.003) was found to have significant positive effect on fetal birth weight. It was found that the GDM showed significant influence on fetal birth weight considering the effects of maternal age, duration of pregnancy and maternal BMI. Dhaka Univ. J. Biol. Sci. 29(2): 209-218, 2020 (July)

The association between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and occupational exposures are less studied in Bangladeshi context, despite the fact that occupational exposures are serious public health concerns in Bangladesh. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate this association considering demographic, health and smoking characteristics of Bangladeshi population. This was a hospital-based quantitative study including 373 participants who were assessed for COPD through spirometry testing. Assessment of occupational exposures was based on both self-reporting by respondents and ALOHA based job exposure matrix (JEM). Here, among the self-reported exposed group (n = 189), 104 participants (55%) were found with COPD compared to 23 participants (12.5%) in unexposed group (n = 184) that differed significantly (p = 0.00). Similarly, among the JEM measured low (n = 103) and high exposed group (n = 236), 23.3% and 41.5% of the participants were found with COPD respectively; compared to unexposed group (14.7%; n = 34), that differed significantly also (p = 0.00). Likewise, participants with longer self-reported occupational exposures (>8 years) showed significantly (p = 0.00) higher proportions of COPD (79.5%) compared to 40.4% in shorter exposure group (1-8 years). Similarly, significant (p = 0.00) higher cases of COPD were observed among the longer cumulative exposure years (>9 years) group than the shorter cumulative exposure years (1-9 years) group in JEM. While combining smoking and occupational exposure, the chance of developing COPD among the current, former and non-smokers of exposed group were 7.4, 7.2 and 12.7 times higher respectively than unexposed group. Furthermore, logistic analysis revealed that after adjustments for confounding risk factors, the chance of developing COPD among the self-reported exposure group was 6.3 times higher (ORs: 6.3, p = 0.00) than unexposed group; and JEM exposure group has odds of 2.8 and 1.1 respectively (p

This study was performed to assess whether there is an association between elevated Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG) and hearing impairment in Bangladeshi population. A total of 142 subjects (72 with elevated FBG; 70 control) were included in the study. The mean auditory thresholds of the control subjects at 1, 4, 8 and 12 kHz frequencies were 6.35 ± 0.35, 10.07 ± 0.91, 27.57 ± 1.82, 51.28 ± 3.01 dB SPL (decibel sound pressure level), respectively and that of the subjects with elevated FBG were 8.33 ± 0.66, 14.37 ± 1.14, 38.96 ± 2.23, and 71.11 ± 2.96 dB, respectively. The auditory thresholds of the subjects with elevated FBG were significantly (p 10 years) showed significantly (p 40 years) and younger (≤40 years) age groups compared to the respective controls. The binary logistic regression analysis showed a 5.79-fold increase in the odds of extra-high frequency hearing impairment in diabetic subjects after adjustment for age, gender and BMI. This study provides conclusive evidence that auditory threshold at an extra-high frequency could be a sensitive marker for hearing impairment in diabetic subjects.

Cigarette smoking is considered as one of the main factors of developing chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs), but very few studies had been performed showing comparative association between different CRDs and cigarette smoking. This study attempts to determine and compare the association of cigarette smoking with different CRDs including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis (CB) and asthma altogether in the context of Bangladesh. This case-control study was conducted among 406 subjects, where 297 were cases of chronic respiratory illness and 109 were controls. The diagnosis of each respiratory diseases (either asthma or CB or COPD) was confirmed by registered physicians. Of 98 COPD patients, 100 CB patients, 99 asthma patients and 109 controls, current smokers were found as 67.3%, 58%, 41.4% and 33.9% respectively. Current smokers with Brinkman Index (BI)≥ 400 were 43.9%, 39.7%, 26.9% and 8.2% for COPD, CB, asthma, and control group, sequentially. Regarding unadjusted association between cigarette smoking and different CRDs, current smokers with BI≥ 400 had 4.55, 21.75 and 13.14 times significantly higher chances of developing asthma, COPD and CB respectively than non-smokers. Logistic analysis revealed that after adjustment with age, body mass index (BMI) and gender, current smokers with BI≥ 400 had 6.01, 15.63 and 33.47 times more likelihood of developing asthma, CB, and COPD respectively than non-smokers; and these findings were significant as well. Thus, it can be concluded that cigarette smoking affected COPD more pronouncedly followed by CB and asthma among the study population. [ J Adv Biotechnol Exp Ther 2021; 4(3.000): 298-304]

Diarrhoeal infection is defined as a significant reason of morbidity as well as mortality all over the world. Isolation of Shigella, the most significant etiological agents of diarrhea in developing countries, was missing occasionally when patients feces are cultured by conventional procedures. The collected 200 samples from hospitalized diarrhoeal patients in Tangail district, Bangladesh during 2010-2011, Shigella were isolated from 24 (12%) samples utilizing conventional culture methods. Among176 culture negative stool samples,ipa H gene, specific marker to identify Shigella species was detected from 14 (8%) by PCR. Furthermore, these samples which possess the ipa H gene were cultured and identified as Shigella-like organism (s) by utilizing various phenotypic as well as molecular tools. Of 24 Shigella spp. which was identified using conventional culture methods, S. flexneri were dominant 41.7%, followed by S. boydii 29.2%, S. sonnei 25%, and S. dysenteriae 4.2%. Among 14 of 176 culture negative ipaH positive samples, 7 were identified as Shigella sspp., of which, 3 were S. flexneri, 1 was S. boydii, 2 were S. sonnei and 1 identified as a novel group of S. dysenteriae designated as KIVI 156. Additionally, all Shigella strains were resistant to ampicillin, sulfamethaxol-trimethoprime and were susceptible to ciprofloxacin and mecillinam. This study demonstrated that the conventional culture method cannot be referred as an adequate method to focus the actual disease burden caused by Shigella.

Groundwater contamination by arsenic has created a major health hazard in Bangladesh by affecting millions of people. In this study, we report cytotoxic effects of arsenic in primary culture of murine thymocytes and the counteractive actions of tea extract to reduce this cytotoxic effects. When murine thymocytes were incubated for shorter period (1 h) with higher concentrations (50 and 100 ?M) of sodium arsenite (NaAsO2), cell viability was decreased to 79.06 ± 0.52% and 62.53 ± 0.23%, respectively. In case of longer incubation (16 hrs) with a wide range of NaAsO2 concentration (1-100 ?M), cell viability was reduced from 89.30 ± 0.84% to 79.0 ± 0.52% by 1 ?M NaAsO2, and this reduction was continued with increasing concentration reaching to 29.60 ± 0.72% by 100 ?M. Tea is known to possess antioxidant property and we found that this tea extract reduced NaAsO2-mediated death of the cells in culture. After 16 h of incubation, the chromosomal DNA of 5 ?M NaAsO2-exposed cells was found degraded suggesting apoptotic death of the cells. Interestingly, this degradation of chromosomal DNA was blocked by tea extract. All of these results together suggest a future therapeutic application of tea extract to reduce or block arsenic toxicity.Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 14(1): 79-85, 2015 (June)

Objective To determine the total polyphenol content, antioxidant activity and antibacterial properties of the extracts of different Bangladeshi tea varieties such as flowery broken orange pekoe, broken orange pekoe, red dust and green tea. Methods Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined by Folin–Ciocalteu and aluminum chloride colorimetric assay, respectively. The antioxidant capacity was determined by ferric ion reducing antioxidant power and phosphomolybdenum method. Antibacterial activity was evaluated by disc diffusion method in agar plate and subsequently, the minimum inhibitory concentration was determined by broth dilution method. Results Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were significantly higher (P

Lifestyle including smoking, noise exposure with MP3 player and drinking alcohol are considered as risk factors for affecting hearing synergistically. However, little is known about the association of cigarette smoking with hearing impairment among subjects who carry a lifestyle without using MP3 player and drinking alcohol. We showed here the influence of smoking on hearing among Bangladeshi subjects who maintain a lifestyle devoid of using MP3 player and drinking alcohol. A total of 184 subjects (smokers: 90; non-smokers: 94) were included considering their duration and frequency of smoking for conducting this study. The mean hearing thresholds of non-smoker subjects at 1, 4, 8 and 12 kHz frequencies were 5.63 ± 2.10, 8.56±5.75, 21.06 ± 11.06, 40.79 ± 20.36 decibel (dB), respectively and that of the smokers were 7 ± 3.8, 13.27 ± 8.4, 30.66 ± 12.50 and 56.88 ± 21.58 dB, respectively. The hearing thresholds of the smokers at 4, 8 and 12 kHz frequencies were significantly (p5 years) showed higher level of auditory threshold (62.16 ± 19.87 dB) at 12 kHz frequency compared with that (41.52 ± 19.21 dB) of the subjects smoked for 1-5 years and the difference in auditory thresholds was statistically significant (p