Besides liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with many extrahepatic manifestations (EHMs). HCV exhibits lymphotropism that is responsible for various EHM. An important characteristic of HCV is escape from the immune system, which enables it to produce chronic infections and autoimmune disorders along with accumulation of circulating immune complexes. These EHMs have large spectrum, because they affect many organs such as heart, lungs, kidney, brain, thyroid, and skin. HCV-related cardiac and pulmonary manifestations include myocarditis, cardiomyopathies, cardiovascular diseases (i.e., Stroke, ischemic heart disease), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, and interstitial lung diseases. This review discusses etiology and pathogenesis of HCV-associated cardiac and pulmonary manifestations and how different genes, immune system, indirectly linked factors (mixed cryoglobulinemia), liver cirrhosis, and antiviral treatment are involved in HCV-related heart and lung diseases, however, their exact mechanism is not clear.

Salmonella gallinarum is a poultry restricted-pathogen causing fowl-typhoid disease in adult birds with mortality rates up-to 80% and exhibit resistance against commonly used antibiotics. In this current study, a temperate broad host range bacteriophage SGP-C was isolated against S. gallinarum from poultry digesta. It showed infection ability in all the 15 tested field strains of S. gallinarum. The SGP-C phage produced circular, turbid plaques with alternate rings. Its optimum activity was observed at pH 7.0 and 37–42°C, with a latent period of 45 min and burst size of 187 virions/bacterial cell. The SGP-C lysogens, SGPC-L5 and SGPC-L6 exhibited super-infection immunity against the same phage, an already reported feature of lysogens. A virulence index of 0.5 and 0.001 as MV50 of SGP-C suggests its moderate virulence. The genome of SGP-C found circular double stranded DNA of 42 Kbp with 50.04% GC content, which encodes 63 ORFs. The presence of repressor gene at ORF49, and absence of tRNA sequence in SGP-C genome indicates its lysogenic nature. Furthermore, from NGS analysis of lysogens we propose that SGP-C genome might exist either as an episome, or both as integrated and temporary episome in the host cell and warrants further studies. Phylogenetic analysis revealed its similarity with Salmonella temperate phages belonging to family Siphoviridae. The encoded proteins by SGP-C genome have not showed homology with any known toxin and virulence factor. Although plenty of lytic bacteriophages against this pathogen are already reported, to our knowledge SGP-C is the first lysogenic phage against S. gallinarum reported so far.

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Diabetes mellitus is defined by an abnormally high blood glucose level. Insulin resistance, beta-cell dysfunction, and endogenous insulin production are all symptoms of type 2 diabetes, also known as Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM). With 38 million people, Asian Indians have a higher prevalence of diabetes. Many single nucleotide polymorphisms in the Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor Gamma (PPAR-) gene play a role in the development of diabetes, either directly or indirectly. On exon 6 of the PPAR gamma gene, a silent mutation at position 161 convert the C allele into T allele. We obtained 926 individual samples from the local population, 500 were controls (fasting blood sugar < 99 mg/dL, random blood sugar < 126 mg/dL) and 426 were diabetes patients (fasting blood sugar > 99 mg/dL, random blood sugar > 126 mg/dL). In serum analysis lipid profiling was done that include TG, TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, and leptin. DNA was isolated and quantified; ARMS (amplification-refractory mutation system) PCR technique was used subsequently. The genotypic frequencies for CC, CT, and TT in diabetes patients are 66.66%, 20%, and 13.33%, respectively. Normal persons had genotype frequencies of 48.78%, 39.02%, and 12.19% for CC, CT, and TT, respectively. Minor allele frequency did not differ considerably between patients and controls (p-0.273). The patients and controls had considerably varied anthropometric and biochemical characteristics. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to investigate such an association in the local population.