Home > Isolation and Molecular Characterization of Colicin/Microcin Producing Probiotic Escherichia Coli and its Therapeutic Utility Against Selected Gram Negative Pathogens
Isolation and Molecular Characterization of Colicin/Microcin Producing Probiotic Escherichia Coli and its Therapeutic Utility Against Selected Gram Negative Pathogens
Probiotics are living microbial adjuncts which has valuable effects on host body incuding improved food digestion, enhancing host‟s immune responses, modification of host associated microbial community and thus, improving the overall ambient environment. Since increase in multidrug resistance pathogens makes the standard treatments in-effective, probiotic have been developed sccessfully as alternate therapeutic drugs in recent era. Commercialized synthetic drugs (e.g. sulfa drugs) have also been interlinked with severe side effects to the hosts which have ultimately lemmatized their use. Bacteriocin (peptide antimicrobial) producing bacteria that can competitively exclude pathogens in the host, is an emrging approach towards novel therapeutics. These defensive proteins are released by 95% of bacterial species in their natural habitat to compete with one another for food and space. Purified bacteriocins of Lactobactericeae (lantibiotics) have been commercialized as prebiotics after successful experiments in laboratory animal. Bacteriocins of Gram negative bacteria (colicins and microcins) are also able to competitively exclude closely related bacterial species when fed to model organism and livestock. The current study was carried out to isolate commensal Gram negative strains that can hinder the growth of common pathogens by producing colicins and microcins against them. Commensal E.coli strains from cattle, sheep and humans were the choice of study since they were expected to better adapt to the host body when administrated as probiotics. Phenotypic inhibitory activity was determined, followed by genomic detection of various colicins, microcins and virulence determinants among the active isolates. Moreover, these strains were also evaluated for antibiotic sensitivity profile, pH tolerance, hemolytic activity and entero-invasive property. The E.coli strains were also sorted into phylogenetic groups of E.coli i.e. A0, A1, B1, B2, D1 and D2. From 300 fecal samples of cattle, sheep and human, 675 lactose fermenting Gram negative colonies were selected, out of which 513 were confirmed as E.coli based on biochemical characterization. For accuracy of further tests, 465 E.coli isolates (n=155/ sample) were evaluated in vitro for growth inhibition of five Gram negative species i.e. E.coli O157:H7, E.coli O26:H11, Salmonella enterica, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Only 68 isolates (26.4% cattle, 25% sheep and 48.5% human) produced significant growth inhibition among which 41.1% inhibited E.coli O157:H7, 35.2% E.coli O26:H11, 30.7% S. enterica, 24.8% P. aeruginosa and 13% inhibited K. pneumonia. Genomic enumeration of colicin and microcin determinants of these antagonistic E.coli isolates revealed that each of the isolate produced at-least one colicin while the microcins were rarely found in commensal species. The highest prevailing colicin was col E6 (70.4%) followed by col Ib (66.3%), E4 (54.28%), E7 (49.9%), col J (42.9%), col M (35.2%) and col Ia (29.3%). Colicins like S4, D, A, E1, E3 and microcins including mH47, mV, mB17 and mC7 were prevalent at intermediate levels (< 25%) while col E2, 10 and mB17 were rarely found (< 5%) in E.coli isolates. Determinants for col B, K, 5 and mL were not perceived in any E.coli isolate. Phylogenetic grouping revealed that group B2 E.coli was more prevelant (i.e. 27.9%) among human samples followed by 13.2% in sheep and 11.7% in cattle while group D1 was the second most prevalent group i.e. 16%. Almost 13.2 % B1 E.coli, 11.6% A1 and 5.8% A0 E.coli were found among the antagonistic strains from all sources. Virulence gene determinants (i.e. Stx1, Stx2, Hlye, St and eaeA) were detected in 60.2% E.coli isolates while remaining 39.7% were non-pathogenic commensal isolates which were further confirmed by 16SrRNA sequencing. Antibiotic susceptibility profile, hemolysis assay, entero-invasive ability and pH tolerance of all non-pathogenic strains revealed that out of total E.coli strains, four cattle, two human and one sheep derived E.coli strains were the most suitable strains to be considered as probiotic species. However, further insight is suggested to unveil the effects of downstream processes and to discover eminent capsule packaging for these strains so that they can be easily fed to hosts.
"تم اللہ کے ساتھ کفر کا رویہ کیسے اختیار کرتے ہو حالانکہ تم بے جان تھے، اس نے تم کو زندگی عطا کی، پھر وہی تمھاری جان سلب کرے گا، پھر وہی تمہیں دوبارہ زندگی عطا کرے گا، پھر اسی کی طرف تمہیں پلٹ کر جانا ہے"۔
Mothers-in-law play an integral role in promoting maternal and child health practices in rural Pakistan. This study discusses the design, implementation, and evaluation of a 25- episode radio drama featuring the mother-in-law as the primary influencer for maternal and child health practices. The radio drama was designed after an extensive pre-drama audience research comprising of 10 focus groups, and 14 in-depth interviews in Bagh and Mansehra. Post-drama evaluation comprised two focus groups in the target areas. The endline evaluation found that viewership of the drama improved communication between people of all age groups and social roles without offending their dignity, intelligence, and sense of tradition. Additionally, the findings showed that the audience demonstrated improvement in knowledge about danger signs for mother and child, as well as positive attitudes to seeking timely service from a trained healthcare provider. The study makes a contribution to existing health communication campaigns by introducing a culture-centric approach, through radio dramas, to influence mothers-inlaw and consequently impact maternal and child health practices.
Damselflies or Zygoptera, an important group of predators and biodiversity indicator, has been neglected in Pakistan. Partially to redress this, damselflies were collected from various localities of Pakistan during 2004 – 2008. A total of 1061 damselflies collected, yielding 51 species in 26 genera and 5 families. Eight species, namely; Libellago lineata lineata, Libellago greeni, Protosticta hearseyi, Coeliccia vacca, Cylonolestes cyanea, Ellatoneura souteri, Ellatoneura campioni and Ellatoneura atkinsoni are recorded for the first time from Pakistan. A new species of Indocnemis ahmedi sp. nov. is described from Nouseri (AJK) and Dasu (N.W.F.P). All species incorporated into key are illustrated by their valid names, synonyms, measurement of body parts (abdomen, forewing and hindwing length), habitat description, sex ratio of collected specimens with their dates of collection, distribution range, differential characters from published description for new records to country and comprehensive characters description for new to science specimen has been provided. The known distribution of all the species is also updated. A map is provided of the distribution of each of them. Biodiversity indices study indicates that it was comparatively higher in AJ&K as compared to Punjab, N.W.F.P, Baluchistan, Sindh and Northern areas respectively. Comparison of all the collected damselflies was done on area basis as well as on time period basis. Results revealed significant diferences among 3 species and non-significant in 30 species on area basis. On time period basis, 33 species showed decreased length and 17 species showed increase in length. Sex ratio for whole collection was also calculated and it was found female biased.