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Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease which predominantly affects females. The disease characteristics in male SLE patients are reported to be distinct and may vary across ethnicities and geographical regions. Objective To determine and compare the clinical phenotype and organ damage between male and female patients with SLE in Malaysia. Methodology This was a cross-sectional study involving SLE patients from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre from June 2016 until June 2017. Information on their socio-demographics and disease characteristics were obtained from the clinical records. Disease damage was assessed using the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology (SLICC/ACR) damage index (SDI) scores. The disease characteristics, autoantibody profiles and organ damage were compared between male and female patients, and multivariable analysis using male sex as dependent variable was then performed. Results A total of 418 patients were recruited and a total of 59 (14.1%) patients were male. Male patients presented with lower SLE ACR criteria at initial presentation but a significantly higher number of them had renal involvement (lupus nephritis) (78.0% versus 63.8%, p = 0.04). Male patients had less musculoskeletal involvement (45.8% versus 63.0%, p = 0.02) and tended to have lesser mucocutaneous involvement. Immunologic profile revealed that a lower number of male patients had positive anti-Ro antibody (22.7% versus 44.7%, p = 0.04) and they tended to have positive lupus anticoagulant antibody (27.6% versus 14.3%, p = 0.06). Presence of organ damage (SDI score ≥ 1) was significantly higher among males (55.9% versus 39.6%, p = 0.02) with higher renal damage (25.4% versus 9.2%, p = 0.004) and cardiovascular event of ischaemic heart disease or stroke (20.3% versus 7.0%, p = 0.004). They were also inclined to develop damage much earlier as compared to female patients, 3 (interquartile range (IQR) 7.5) versus 5 (IQR 7) years, p = 0.08. The occurrence of disease damage was independently associated with male gender with odds ratio of 1.9 (95% confidence interval 1.1–3.5), p = 0.02. Conclusion Male patients with SLE have more severe disease with renal damage and cardiovascular event.

Background Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) are at risk of work disability due to the substantial impact of the disease towards their physical and mental health. Objectives To study the prevalence of work disability (WD) and unemployment rate among SLE patients, and their associations with the quality of life (QOL) in National University of Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) Methods This was a cross-sectional study which recruited consecutive SLE patients who attended the Nephrology and Rheumatology clinic at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) from March 2017 to July 2017. Information on their current and past employment history were obtained from a customised questionnaire and WD was defined as unemployment or an inability to do paid work due to illness at the time of study or at any time after the diagnosis of SLE being made. The disease characteristics, disease activity and damage were determined from the medical records. The quality of life was measured using SF-36 questionnaires. Statistical analyses were subsequently performed to determine the factors associated with WD. This study was approved by the UKMMC ethics research committee (FF FF-2017–109). Results A total of 197 patients were recruited, and their median age was 37 (32 to 47) years with median disease duration of 12 (8 to 17) years. Majority of them were Malays (n=116, 58.9%), followed by Chinese (n=69, 35%), Indians (n=8, 4.1%) and others (n=4, 2.0%). The prevalence of work disability was 35%(n=69) and the onset of WD was 4 (IQR:1 to 9) years after SLE diagnosis. WD was associated with older age, lower education level, more frequent disease flare, longer disease duration, higher SLICC ACR Damage Index, active disease (SLEDAI 2K and BILAG 2004 and had major organ involvement (lupus nephritis, haematological and neuropsychiatric), all p Conclusions More than one third of SLE patients had experienced work disability. Lower education level, being married and major organ involvement were the independent predictors for work disability. A larger prospective study is warranted to further delineate the risk factors. References [1] Garris C, et al. Impact of systemic lupus erythematosus on burden of illness and work productivity in the United States. Lupus2013;22:1077–1086. [2] Mok CC, et al. Risk and predictors of work disability in Chinese patients with SLE. Lupus2008;17:1103–1107. Disclosure of Interest None declared

Light intensity influences the gas exchange characteristics of plants. In this paper, the effect of light intensity on the gas exchange characteristics of Melothria pendula was studied. The gas exchange of sun exposed and shaded species were studied using a portable photosynthesis system. Light response and carbon dioxide (CO2) response curves were fitted, and the gas exchange characteristics were derived from the fitted curves. The results indicate that light saturation point (LSP), light compensation point (LCP), maximum assimilation (Amax), maximum carboxylation rate (Vcmax) and maximum electron transport (Jmax) were higher in sun exposed species compared to shaded species (P < 0.05). The findings lead to a conclusion that M. pendula species can differ in their gas exchange characteristics depending on the level of light and CO2 received by the plants.

In this work, commercial cellulases and hemicellulases were evaluated for their hydrolytic activity towards pretreated oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB). A total of three commercial cellulase preparations, Novozyme Celluclast®, Novozyme Cellic®Ctec, Dupont Accellerase®1500, and a commercial hemicellulase preparation, Novozyme Cellic®Htec, were evaluated. The assays were performed either using the cellulase alone or cellulase in combination with the hemicellulase, formulated at different enzyme activity ratios. Among the three cellulases, the Novozyme Cellic®Ctec yielded the highest reducing sugars, whereby 32.9% hydrolysis yield of OPEFB was achieved. The addition of the commercial hemicellulase to Celluclast® and Accellerase®1500 enhanced OPEFB hydrolysis. However, the addition of the hemicellulase to Cellic®Ctec, failed to enhance the production of the reducing sugars. Nevertheless, the amount of reducing sugars produced using Cellic®Ctec alone was the highest when compared to other enzyme combinations. It can be concluded that among the three commercial cellulases evaluated, the Novozyme Cellic®Ctec is the best enzyme for OPEFB hydrolysis.

A cellobiohydrolase B (CbhB) from Aspergillus niger ATCC 10574 was cloned and expressed in E. coli. CbhB has an open reading frame of 1611 bp encoding a putative polypeptide of 536 amino acids. Analysis of the encoded polypeptide predicted a molecular mass of 56.2 kDa, a cellulose binding module (CBM) and a catalytic module. In order to obtain the mRNA of cbhB, total RNA was extracted from A. niger cells induced by 1% Avicel. First strand cDNA was synthesized from total RNA via reverse transcription. The full length cDNA of cbhB was amplified by PCR and cloned into the cloning vector, pGEM-T Easy. A comparison between genomic DNA and cDNA sequences of cbhB revealed that the gene is intronless. Upon the removal of the signal peptide, the cDNA of cbhB was cloned into the expression vector pET-32b. However, the recombinant CbhB was expressed in Escherichia coli Origami DE3 as an insoluble protein. A homology model of CbhB predicted the presence of nine disulfide bonds in the protein structure which may have ...

Genomic data mining was carried out and revealed a total of seventeen β-glucosidases in filamentous fungi Aspergillus niger. Two of them belonged to glycoside hydrolase family 1 (GH1) while the rest belonged to genes in family 3 (GH3). These proteins were then named according to the nomenclature as proposed by the International Union of Biochemistry (IUB), starting from the lowest pI and glycoside hydrolase family. Their properties were predicted using various bionformatic tools showing the presence of domains for signal peptide and active sites. Interestingly, one particular domain, PA14 (protective antigen) was present in four of the enzymes, predicted to be involved in carbohydrate binding. A phylogenetic tree grouped the two glycoside hydrolase families with GH1 and GH3 related organisms. This study showed that the various domains present in these β-glucosidases are postulated to be crucial for the survival of this fungus, as supported by other analysis.

Summary: Saccharomycopsis fibuligera can utilize starch but not tributyrin as the sole carbon source, whereas Yarrowia lipolytica can utilize tributyrin but not starch. S. fibuligera mutant strain 193 met was crossed to Y. lipolytica A his1 to produce hybrids. The intergeneric hybrids were able to utilize both starch and tributyrin as sole carbon source. They were mitotically unstable and gave segregants during prolonged vegetative culture. The majority of these segregants had the phenotype of the S. fibuligera parent, with a very low number of genetic recombinants. A more stable hybrid was produced by protoplast fusion between a mutant, ade met, obtained from UV treatment of a Met− mitotic segregant of the hybrid 14i and Y. lipolytica B lys5 leu2 ade1 xpr2. Sixteen of the 40 mitotic segregants of this hybrid were recombinants. Furthermore when a haploid mitotic segregant of S. fibuligera 193 met, met glu, was crossed to Y. lipolytica B leu2 ade1 xpr2 more stable hybrids were also obtained. Eleven of the 35 mitotic segregants of the hybrid SA11 were recombinants. Such high frequencies of recombinant sectors from these hybrids should provide a system to establish genetic mapping analysis for the novel Saccharomycopsis-Yarrowia recombinant strains.