BackgroundSepsis is a global healthcare problem, characterized by whole body inflammation in response to microbial infection, which leads to organ dysfunction. It is becoming a frequent complication in hospitalized patients. Early and differential diagnosis of sepsis is needed critically to avoid unnecessary usage of antimicrobial agents and for proper antibiotic treatments through the screening of biomarkers that sustains with diagnostic significance.Main body of abstractCurrent targeting conventional markers (C-reactive protein, white blood cell, tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukins, etc.) are non-specific for diagnosing sepsis. Procalcitonin (PCT), a member of the calcitonin super family could be a critical tool for the diagnosis of sepsis. But to distinguish between bacterial versus viral infections, procalcitonin alone may not be effective. Rapid elevation in the concentration of procalcitonin and other newly emerging biomarkers during an infection and its correlation with severity of illness makes it an ideal biomarker for bacterial infection. Beside this, the procalcitonin levels can be used for monitoring response to antimicrobial therapy, diagnosis of secondary inflammations, diagnosis of renal involvement in paediatric urinary tract infection, etc.The present article summarizes the relevance of procalcitonin in the diagnosis of sepsis and how it can be useful in determining the therapeutic approaches.ConclusionFurther studies are needed to better understand the application of PCT in the diagnosis of sepsis, differentiating between microbial and non-microbial infection cases and determining the therapeutic approaches for sepsis.

Persistent infection with Helicobacter pylori confers an increased risk of peptic ulceration and gastric adenocarcinoma. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species play a crucial role in the progression from normal gastric mucosa to cancer. The aim of the present study was to investigate the plasma malondialdehyde and nitric oxide levels in H. pylori related gastroduodenal diseases and associate their levels with gastric pathology and genotypes of H. pylori. Malondialdehyde and nitric oxide levels in plasma samples of 250 subjects were spectrophotometrically determined. Subsequently, genotypic and histopathological assessment was performed in gastric biopsies obtained during endoscopy. The levels of MDA and NO exceeded in subjects infected with genotype-1 of Hp than those with other genotypes suggesting more precise interaction of highly virulent strains of Hp in eliciting severe tissue damage. In conclusion, the study demonstrates close relationship between the plasma malondialdehyde and nitric oxide levels, gastric histopathology and genotypes of H. pylori.

The population of India harbors one of the world’s most highly diverse gene pools, owing to the influx of successive waves of immigrants over regular periods in time. Several phylogenetic studies involving mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomal variation have demonstrated Europeans to have been the first settlers in India. Nevertheless, certain controversy exists, due to the support given to the thesis that colonization was by the Austro-Asiatic group, prior to the Europeans. Thus, the aim was to investigate pre-historic colonization of India by anatomically modern humans, using conserved stretches of five amino acid (EPIYA) sequences in the cagA gene of Helicobacter pylori. Simultaneously, the existence of a pathogenic relationship of tyrosine phosphorylation motifs (TPMs), in 32 H. pylori strains isolated from subjects with several forms of gastric diseases, was also explored. High resolution sequence analysis of the above described genes was performed. The nucleotide sequences obtained were translated into amino acids using MEGA (version 4.0) software for EPIYA. An MJ-Network was constructed for obtaining TPM haplotypes by using NETWORK (version 4.5) software. The findings of the study suggest that Indian H. pylori strains share a common ancestry with Europeans. No specific association of haplotypes with the outcome of disease was revealed through additional network analysis of TPMs.

In a letter to the editor, Raineri SM et al. have given an insight of another dimension of procalcitonin (PCT) use as a diagnostic tool in invasive candidiasis. But based on our preliminary information, PCT is reported as unconventional modes of diagnosis approach which yet to prove its stand-alone biomarker properties for invasive candidiasis.

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