ABSTRACT Destabilization of Lysozyme and chaperone like action of alpha crystallin isolated from goat’s eye lens was investigated at various temperature ranges in phosphate buffer (pH 7.1) solution and dithiothretol (DTT). This was monitored spectrophotometrically at 260nm. The heat and DTT-induced destabilization of lysozyme was prevented by alpha crystallin in a concentration dependent manner. Alpha crystallin like other chaperones, fulfils its chaperone like action in preventing agg...
ABSTRACT Background: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and remains a global health challenge. Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is a leading root of cardiovascular diseases worldwide. Growing evidence indicates a strong association between T2DM and high level of hepcidin; a major regulator of iron homeostasis. Iron overload is an important risk factor that plays a major role in pathogenesis of diabetes and its complications. Insulin resistance and elevated c-react...
Preeclampsia is a multisystem disease of pregnancy of unknown cause. It is a maternal syndrome, which is characterized by increased blood pressure, edema, proteinuria or significant amount of protein in the urine of pregnant women and abnormal clotting, liver and renal functions all of which may be due to the release of placental toxic factors into the mother’s circulation. The only effective therapy to this complication is to facilitate the culteinment of the pregnancy or delivery (in...
Aqueous crude extract of Desmodium adscendens, as dispensed at the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine (CSRPM), was freeze-dried into a powder and used in this study to evaluate its toxicological effects in rats. For acute toxicity studies, high doses of the freeze-dried extract, were administered orally as single doses to rats, and the behaviours of the animals and organ toxicity were noted. Low, medium and high doses of the plant extract, representing 3, 10, and 30% of ...
Cancer is a major health burden worldwide as a result of its high frequency of mortality and morbidity. The most frequent cancer globally among women is breast cancer with a high death rate of about 458,000 deaths per year. Breast cancer is a multi-factorial disease which acts in sequence or simultaneously to initiate and/or promote tumour growth (Ritchie et al., 2001). The origin of breast cancer is poorly understood but it has been associated with are risk factors such as obesity, gend...
ABSTRACT The immunoglobulin G (IgG) receptors FcyRIIa and FcyRIIIb vary among different ethnic groups, and more importantly, are also known to be associated with either susceptibility to or protection from certain diseases. These variations are manifest as differences in the antigen-binding capabilities of the receptors. The genes encoding for these receptors are polymorphic and these also vary among populations. These variations can be investigated using molecular methods such as PCR. The ai...
ABSTRACT Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is an inflammation of the intestinal mucosa and is characterised by the onset of diarrhoea with or without vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. Rotaviruses are the leading cause of AGE in infants and young children resulting in severe dehydration, which can eventually lead to hospitalisation and death. In Ghana, diarrhoea is implicated in the death of about 11% of all children under the age of 5 years, with rotavirus being the most responsible causative a...
ABSTRACT African trypanosomiasis still remains a lethal disease to both human and livestock. The disease persists due to limited drug availability, toxicity and emergence of drug resistance, hence the need to provide alternative forms of therapy. Studies have shown that the iron chelator deferoxamine exhibited anti-trypanosomal effects by inhibiting cell growth and interfering with the activity of some iron dependent enzymes. In this study, the in vitro effects of different phenolic acids, w...
ABSTRACT Warfarin is the most commonly prescribed oral anticoagulant drug for reducing thromboembolic events that often give rise to stroke, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, or serious coronary malfunctions. Warfarin has a narrow therapeutic/toxic ratio and genetic factors have been associated with inter-individual variability in warfarin dose / response in different ethnic populations. The initiation of this drug has been associated with one of the highest adverse event rates for a...
ABSTRACT Ten phages were isolated randomly from sewage sources and disposal points on the University of Ghana,Legon campus, purified and characterised as delivery systems for the resistance marker genes, Strr and Benr. The phages were found to have proteins of relative molecular weights ranging from 9,000 - 100,000. Eight phages were found to be morphologically related to the tailed phages. The other two were tailless phages. All the coliphages isolated were morphologically related to the T-...
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the antibiotic resistance and clonal lineage of Salmonella isolated from patients suspected of suffering from typhoid fever and the susceptibility of these Salmonella strains to “Mist Enterica”, a herbal preparation used at the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine (CSRPM) out-patients’ department, Mampong-Akwapim, Ghana, to treat typhoid fever. Other strains of Salmonella isolated from food sources were also included in...
ABSTRACT viii Bacteriophages were isolated from sewage samples obtained from the Tema Sewage Disposal Plant and the Legon vicinity using the indicator bacteria strains Shigella dysenteriae. Salmonella tvohi. Escherichia cull, and Salmpneila fir.P.UP__D.. Ten phages were isolated and partially characterized by electron microscopy, DNA fingerprinting and protein profiles by SDS-PAGE. The relatedness of the phages was determined by immunological studies. Some of the phages were screened for thei...
ABSTRACT Desmodium adscendens is used as prophylaxis in asthma. Earlier work in this laboratory on the scientific basis for the therapeutic action of the plant indicated that both the aqueous and alcoholic extracts were anti-anaphylactic in vitro. Since extracts of the plant are taken orally by asthmatic patients, the present work was carried out to investigate the in vivo effects of both alcoholic and aqueous extracts of D. adscendens on anaphylaxis. The methods used were the contraction of ...
ABSTRACT The major objective of this work was to establish an in vitro assay system for evaluating Ocimum canum, an antidiabetic plants, using insulin release from isolated pancreatic p-islet cells of rats. An in vivo assay was carried out to confirm the previous work by Hogarh (1996) indicating the anti-diabetic activity of 0. canum. The effect of the aqueous extract of fresh leaves of 0. canum on lipid profile of genetically diabetic mice and their lean littermates was also evaluated. In vi...
ABSTRACT Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a leading cause of chronic liver disease among sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. Disease progression has been implicated with circulating genotypes of HCV. Determination of RNA and genotypes of HCV in sickle cell disease patients may give an indication of their contribution to the observed clinical manifestations and disease progression which will inform appropriate clinical management. Aim: This study sought to identify and characte...