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Objective To assess impact of Direct Acting Antiviral (DAA) therapies for treatment of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) genotypes 1, 3 and 4 in a real-world cohort from India. Methods Adults with chronic HCV infection treated with Sofosbuvir (SOF) and Ledipasvir (LDV) (genotypes 1 and 4) or SOF and Daclatasvir (DCV) (genotype 3), with or without Ribavirin (RBV) between December 2015 and December 2016 were included. The primary endpoint was Sustained Virological Response at Post-treatment Week 12 (SVR12). Results Of the 648 patients, 181 received SOF/LDV (65 with RBV) and 467 received SOF/DCV (135 with RBV). Most patients were males (65.4%), aged 41–60 years (49.4%) and treatment-naive (92.6%). Genotype 3 (72.1%) was most common, followed by genotypes 1 (22.4%) and 4 (5.6%). Forty two percent patients (n = 271) had cirrhosis (112 patients were decompensated). SVR12 (modified intention-to-treat) was achieved by 98.1% of patients (512/522) (100% in genotypes 1 and 4, and 97.3% (362/372) in genotype 3). On intention to treat analysis, SVR12 was 88.1% (512/581) [genotype 1—96.8% (121/125), genotype 3—85.2%, genotype 4—93.5% (29/31)]. Seventy patients had treatment failure (non response in 6, virological breakthrough in 2, 10 patients relapsed, 2 died and 50 were lost to follow up). High SVR was observed regardless of HCV genotype, presence of cirrhosis or past history of treatment. No major adverse events warranting discontinuation of treatment were noted. Conclusions DAA therapy for HCV genotypes 1, 3 and 4 achieves high SVR rates in all patients, including those with cirrhosis and previous non-responders.

The present study investigated the level of Bacillus anthracis (B. anthracis) spores contamination in the soil, as well as in small ruminant’s wool/hair in Tharparkar, Pakistan. A total of 160 samples, including soil (n= 80), sheep wool (n= 40) and goat hair (n= 40) were collected from different areas of Tharparkar. Results showed that almost 33.75% samples were found positive for B. anthracis spores from soil, wool and hair; among those 66.25% were from outbreak area, having significantly higher (P less than 0.001) incidence than normal areas. Moreover, the soil samples exhibited higher positive prevalence (P less than 0.001) than wool, which also had significantly higher (P less than 0.001) than hair samples. The samples taken from Mithi area exhibited higher (P less than 0.001) prevalence of B. anthracis, followed by Chachro, Diplo and Nangar Parkar (60.00, 30.00, 25.00 and 20.00%, respectively). The differences in area-wise prevalence were also significant ((P less than 0.05). The highest prevalence of B. anthracis spores was recorded in open area, followed by in earthen boundaries, and in confined houses (46.42, 30.76 and 23.00%, respectively). These results indicated that soil is a main source of B. anthracis spores, moreover, sheep wool harbor more spores than goat hair

The fungus Cephalosporium aphidicola has been shown to hydroxylate testosterone, 19-nortestosterone, 1-dehydrotestosterone, 1α-methyltestosterone, androst-4-en-3-one, androst-4-en-3,17-dione and 17α-methyltestosterone predominantly at the C-6β position with a minor hydroxylation occurring at the C-14α position. 19-Nortestosterone was also hydroxylated at the C-10β position. In contrast to the hydroxylation of progesterone by this organism, hydroxylation at C-11α was a minor pathway.

A novel triterpene peradione(1), has been isolated from Perovskia aabrotanoides a Pakistani medicinal plant. The structure of this of this compound was elucidated by extensive spectroscopic studies

The enantiomeric hexahydro-10-methylnaphthal-4-en-3-ones are hydroxylated by the fungus, Cephalosporium aphidicola at C-6 and at C-9 (steroid-like enantiomer) or at C-1 (steriod enantiomer).

The microbiological hydroxylation of 4,4-dimethylandrost-5-en-3-ones by the fungus, Cephalosporium aphidicola, takes place at C-7 rather than in a biosynthetically patterned sense on the C-4 dimethyl groups.

A new triterpenoidal aldehyde, nepehinal ( 1), has been isolated from the alcoholic extract of the whole plant of NEPETA HINDOSTANA. Its structure was established as 1beta,3beta,1 1alpha-trihydroxy-lup-20(29)-en-30-al through chemical and spectroscopic studies including two dimensional NMR. (13)C-NMR spectral assignments of nepeticin ( 2) have also been revised.

A new triterpene, perovskone (1) with a novel carbon skeleton, was isolated from the whole plant of Perovskia abrotanoides (Labiatae). The structure of 1 was established on the basis of 2D NMR spectroscopic studies and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. A possible biogenetic route for 1 was also suggested