Search

Migratory birds are a natural reservoir for major respiratory viruses such as the avian influenza virus (AIV) and the avian coronavirus (AvCoV). Transmission of these viruses from migratory birds to domestic birds increases the prevalence of those diseases that cause severe economic and public health concerns in Bangladesh. The study focused on active surveillance of major respiratory viral pathogens in migratory birds, molecular identification of the viruses, and their phylogenetic origin. To conduct this study, 850 environmental samples (830 fecal samples, 10 soil samples, and 10 water samples) were collected during three consecutive winter seasons from three divisions (Dhaka, Sylhet, and Mymensingh) and pooled according to the year of collection and locations, resulting in a total of 184 tested samples. Using gene-specific primers and probes in TaqMan-and SYBR Green-based RT-qPCR assays, the samples were screened for AIV and AvCoV, respectively. Out of the 184 pooled samples, 37 were found to be positive for these respiratory pathogens. Furthermore, out of the 37 (20.11%) positive respiratory pathogens, 11.96% were AIV (n = 22) and 8.15% were AvCoV (n = 15). For the first time in Bangladesh, AIV H4N2, H4N6, and AvCoVs have been found in fecal samples from migratory birds through surveillance. Phylogenetic analyses of the HA and NA genes of AIV and the polymerase gene (Orf 1) of AvCoV revealed that these strains share a close phylogenetic relationship with the isolates from wild birds in Europe and Asia. The Bangladeshi strains with Eurasian ancestry might pose a significant threat to migratory birds flying through the Asian flyways. They might also be a potential source of virus introduction and spread to poultry raised on land. These findings emphasize the significance of ongoing AIV and AvCoV surveillance in migratory birds in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are RNA molecules formed by joining a downstream 3 splice donor site and an upstream 5 splice acceptor site. Several recent studies have identified circRNAs as potential biomarker for different diseases. A number of methods are available for the identification of circRNAs. The circRNA identification methods cannot provide full-length sequences. Reconstruction of the full-length sequences is crucial for the downstream analyses of circRNA research including differential expression analysis, circRNA-miRNA interaction analysis and other functional studies of the circRNAs. However, a limited number of methods are available in the literature for the reconstruction of full-length circRNA sequences. We developed a new method, circRNA-full, for full-length circRNA sequence reconstruction utilizing chimeric alignment information from the STAR aligner. To evaluate our method, we used full-length circRNA sequences produced by isocirc and ciri-long using long-reads RNA-seq data. Our method achieved better reconstruction rate, precision, sensitivity and F1 score than the existing full-length circRNA sequence reconstruction tool ciri-full for both human and mouse data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study involves the preparation and characterization of antibacterial nanofibers made from nigella/PVA mixer along with silver nanoparticles. Silver nanoparticles were efficiently synthesized by reduction of AgNO3 while alcoholic extraction process was used to extract the medicinal constituents form nigella. Then the resulting solution was electrospun into nanofibers by electrospinning technique under optimum processing conditions. The developed nanofibrous mat was characterized by bacterial assay, moisture management tester (MMT), thermal analyzer, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and FTIR to evaluate its antibacterial, moisture, thermal, morphological, and bonding behavior. The agar diffusion method had been used to evaluate the antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria revealing the formation of inhibition zone with a value around 18.66 ± 2 mm. Besides, the developed nanomat showed enhanced moisture and thermal properties having average diameter of 223 ± 20.5 nm. In addition, the presence of characteristic peaks in FTIR spectra revealed all the desired components are present in the developed nanofibrous mat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]