The Risk of Developing Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections in Integrated Health Care System of Pakistan-A Meta-Analysis

Studies regarding the prevalence of CLABSIs in Pakistan are limited. However, it is known that healthcare-associated infections are a concern in many low- and middle-income countries, including Pakistan. The present study is aimed to identify the relative risk of developing CLABSIs in the hospital care setups of Pakistan. The risk of biases in included studies was assessed using Cochrane tool parameters. Analysis of results revealed a relative risk of getting CLABSIs is 1.78 (p<0.001) among patients admitted in the hospitals for greater than 72 hours. This shows that the chances of getting infected at the central line site were more than 50% among patients admitted to ICUs in Pakistan. It has been concluded that the relative risk of CLABSIs in the integrated healthcare system of Pakistan is high.   DOI: https: //doi. Org/10.59564/amrj/01.01/003  

Purification, Characterization and Binding of Metals to Zinc Alpha 2-Glycoprotein Zag by Employing Various Techniques

In this thesis ―Purification, Characterization and Binding of Metals to Zinc Alpha 2-Glycoprotein (ZAG) by Employing Various Techniques‖ the development of several techniques were carried out to analyze the interaction of biologically important metals of Irving William Series. The expression and purification of the ZAG protein was also optimized for the preparation of samples. The folding to the native conformation was also carried out. That ZAG protein is present in almost all fluids of the body. Since the discovery of ZAG, several studies have been carried out. The importance of ZAG as an important biochemical agent is known long before. The growing number of literature since today demonstrates that it’s an important biomarker for the cancer cachexia, prostate cancer, lipid mobilizing agent and obesity suppressor. The crystal structure of ZAG reveals that the fold and distribution of domains are similar to the Major histocompatibility complex-I (MHC-I) molecules. This class is known for their immune regulation and thus ZAG is believed as a central player in the immune system and cellular signaling. There is no clear evidence of ZAG participation in the cancerous conditions but over expression is dealt as a biomarker. The study shows that the ZAG interacts with several ligands. There interaction with metals is known for boosting the bioactivity of ZAG. Although, it’s believed long ago that the ZAG is an important protein that participate in several biochemical processes and little is known to understand the ligands bound conformations of ZAG with their targets like peptides and metals. In this current project, we were focused to get the good expression and purification procedure for the preparation of ZAG. The unnative aggregated fold of ZAG from the inclusion bodies was transformed into the native fold using refolding and dialysis method optimization. The introduction of histidine tag to the C-terminal and their successful removal by the Carboxypeptidase Y enzyme was also carried out. The results of the cleavage of histidine tag were evaluated with gel electrophoresis, Mass Spectrometry and Fluorescence Spectroscopy. The confirmation of native fold and bioactivity was also confirmed from DAUDA binding affinity using fluorescence emission. The formation of metal complex of Irving William Series with ZAG and their respective complexation analysis was also studies using MALDI-TOF MS and Fluorescence Spectroscopy. xiii It was found that the ZAG has multiple binding sites that interact with metals even in the presence of DAUDA. The X-ray tube analysis using FPXRF shows that Fe (III) and Co (II) has similar concentration of atoms bound to ZAG molecules.