Background:The etiology of alcohol dependence is a complex interplay of biopsychosocial factors. The genes for alcohol-metabolizing enzymes: Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH2 and ADH3) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) exhibit functional polymorphisms. Vulnerability of alcohol dependence may also be in part due to heritable personality traits.Aim:To determine whether any association exists between polymorphisms of ADH2, ADH3 and ALDH2 and alcohol dependence syndrome in a group of Asian Indians. In addition, the personality of these patients was assessed to identify traits predisposing to alcoholism.Materials and Methods:In this study, 100 consecutive males with alcohol dependence syndrome attending the psychiatric outpatient department of a tertiary care service hospital and an equal number of matched healthy controls were included with their consent. Blood samples of all the study cases and controls were collected and genotyped for the ADH2, ADH3 and ALDH2 loci. Personality was evaluated using the neuroticism, extraversion, openness (NEO) personality inventory and sensation seeking scale.Results:Allele frequencies of ADH2*2 (0.50), ADH3*1 (0.67) and ALSH2*2 (0.09) were significantly low in the alcohol dependent subjects. Personality traits of NEO personality inventory and sensation seeking were significantly higher when compared to controls.Conclusions:The functional polymorphisms of genes coding for alcohol metabolizing enzymes and personality traits of NEO and sensation seeking may affect the propensity to develop dependence.

The use of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in infectious disease diagnosis, has resulted in an ability to diagnose early and treat appropriately diseases due to fastidious pathogens, determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of slow growing organisms, and ascertain the quantum of infection. This article outlines the PCR, some of its modifications and their application in infectious disease diagnosis. Introduction:

Tuberculosis is re-emerging as an important cause of morbidity and mortality in man. This article outlines current strategies available for the diagnosis of tuberculosis, and its applicability. Fluorescent staining, modified culture methods, antigen detection, ELISA based assays against various antigen preparation and recent advances in molecular techniques have been outlined. Present strategies being developed at Armed Forces Medical College for the early diagnosis, speciation, antibiotic sensltivlty testing and epidemiologic testing have also been alluded to. MJAFI 2000; 56: 143-148

The stem-loop III (SLIII) structure within the 5' untranslated region has been shown to be critical for internal initiation of translation of Hepatitis C virus (HCV). Using 'Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP)' of the SLIII region we have investigated for natural mutations and demonstrated presence of some non-covariant changes in certain sub-domains. However, overall SLIII-RNA structure was found to be phylogenetically conserved. Additionally, by SSCP analysis we have determined the genotype of 50 HCV isolates collected from Southern India, 25 random samples were confirmed by DNA sequencing. Results showed the prevalence of genotype 1 in this part of India.