Nurul 'Izzah Mohd Sarmin, Nurul Hana’ Mahmud, Adiba Najwa Jawahir, Hasnah Begum Said Gulam Khan and Nik Mohd Mazuan Nik Mohd Rosdy

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QUANTITATIVE MONITORING OF MICROBIAL CONTAMINATION TO INCREASE AWARENESS IN CROSS INFECTION CONTROL DURING DENTAL PRACTICE

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Abstract 

Occupational hazards linked to dental practice are not a recent problem. In this study, the researchers quantified airborne microbial load in clinical environment during routine dental treatment and evaluated the microbial contamination in dental unit water line system (DUWLs) in Citrine and Zircon clinics. Air was sampled using settled plate method. The difference in the contamination level between the different clinical environments and the rooms where there was no treatment done was statistically significant (P<0.05). At the end of treatment, operative had the highest bacterial contamination (38 ± 8 CFU/mÑ) maybe due to the active usage of highspeed handpieces and scaler, while oral surgery had the lowest bacterial contamination (14±3 CFU/mÑ). The results for the microbial contamination of DUWLs in Zircon and Citrine clinic were not statistically significant (P>0.05). The highest bacterial count was from air-water syringe (60 CFU/mL) but was far below the recommendation from the American Dental Association (>200 CFU/mL) and it was of drinking water quality.

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Asmirah Ahmadunissah and Aziyah Abdul-Aziz

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POLYMORPHISMS OF coa GENE IN METHICILLIN RESISTANT AND METHICILLIN SENSITIVE Staphylococcus aureus ISOLATED FROM A HOSPITAL IN SELANGOR, MALAYSIA

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Abstract

The emergence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus or MRSA and methicillin-sensitive S. aureus or MSSA is consistently reported worldwide, especially in healthcare settings. This study aims to determine the molecular typing of MRSA and MSSA from 17 Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from a hospital in Selangor. The isolates were subjected to standard laboratory microbiological tests to confirm their identities. Eleven of the S. aureus were found to be MRSA while the rest were MSSA. Amplification of the coa gene resulted in multiple size bands ranging from 440 to 820bp. Genotyping of the coa gene via PCR-RFLP with AluI digestion exhibited seven coa-RFLP banding patterns with three to six fragments each. Four of the patterns were unique in the MRSA strains and two patterns were found unique only to the MSSA strains while one pattern was observed in both MRSA and MSSA strains indicating considerable heterogenicity of the S. aureus isolates. The most frequent RFLP pattern was P7, observed in 35.3% of the MRSA strains. This suggests the possible spreading of this strain in the hospital where they were isolated from. This study showed that the PCR-RFLP of coa gene can be used for easy and rapid molecular typing system for MRSA and MSSA.

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Angelo Mark P. Walag and Romeo M. Del Rosario

PROXIMATE BIOCHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND BRINE SHRIMP LETHALITY ASSAY OF SELECTED SEA STARS FROM GOSO-ON AND VINAPOR, CARMEN, AGUSAN DEL NORTE, PHILIPPINES

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Abstract

Marine ecosystems cover 70% or more of the earth’s surface and are home to a great diversity of marine organisms that play vital role in the ecological balance of marine environments. Various anthropogenic activities continue to pose harm to the coastal waters thus the need to conduct more studies. The goal of this research is to determine the proximate biochemical composition and the cytotoxicity of crude extracts of selected sea stars collected from the coastal waters of Carmen, Agusan del Norte, Philippines. Proximate biochemical analysis of sea stars were only limited to the ash, lipid, carbohydrate and protein contents. Cytotoxicity was evaluated in terms of brine shrimp lethality assay. The findings showed significant differences in the ash, carbohydrates, lipid, and protein contents in the three sea stars. Brine shrimp lethality assay showed that only A. planci had cytotoxic activity while the rest of the sea stars were categorized as non-toxic. Based on this study, the collected non-toxic sea stars could be used as an alternative source of proteins in the development of feeds and other food materials. Furthermore, the presence of cytotoxic activity of A. planci indicates the advanced studies required in discovering and isolating bioactive components that can be used a lead component in antibacterial and antitumor drugs.

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Fatoki John Olabode, Badmus Jelili Abiodun, Adedosu Olaniyi Temitope, Adekunle Adeniran Sanmi and Adedeji Adebayo Lawrence 

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PON-1 ACTIVITY AND LIPID PROFILE IN MALE RAT EXPOSED TO LOCALLY FORMULATE ANTIMALARIAL HERBAL CONCOCTION 

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Abstract

Treatment of malarial with locally prepare herbal concoction (LPHC) is on the increase due to the high cost of synthetic anti-malarial drugs and because of increase resistance strains to the latter. These factors influenced the uncontrolled proliferation of hawkers of the herbal products with unknown toxicological fingerprints. The lipid dynamics of plasma, brain, erythrocyte and liver were assessed in rat exposed to 2.5 ml/kg b.w of selected LPHC sourced from ten (10) different vendors and control group (distilled water) for four (4) weeks. The concoctions decreased plasma cholesterol and increased plasma FFA in all the herbal exposed groups. Significant depletions of HDL-cholesterol and phospholipid with non-HDL lipoprotein triacylglycerol constipation were the hallmark of the herbs impact on lipoproteins. Herbal treatment enhanced hepatic and brain cholesterogenesis while down-regulated cardiac cholesterogenesis and phospholipidosis. The treatment also significantly induced astrocyte triacylglycerol constipation. Hepatic and brain HMG-CoA reductase activities were induced in nearly all the treated groups. Lowered plasma paraoxonase activities were observed in all the herbal exposed groups. These findings indicate that consumption of locally formulates antimalarial herbal concoction perturbs lipid metabolism spectrum and may represent some of its adverse effects. 

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Nur Nadhirah Zakaria, Siti Aqlima Ahmad, Gillian Lee Li Yin, Nur Adeela Yasid, Motharasan Manogaran, Kavilasni Subramaniam, Tengku Athirrah Tengku Mazuki, Norazah Mohammad Nawawi and Mohd Yunus Shukor

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BIODEGRADATION OF PHENOL BY ANTARCTIC BACTERIUM Rhodococcus baikonurensis STRAIN AQ5-001 IN THE PRESENCE OF HEAVY METALS 

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Abstract

In the past decades, the applications of indigenous microbes obtained from hydrocarbon-polluted environments in remediating phenol have proven effective even though phenol is highly toxic to microorganisms. The remediation of phenol in cold and polluted environments including Antarctica requires the usage of microorganisms that are able to adapt to low temperatures and can withstand the toxicity of phenol. Henceforth, this study is aimed at identifying the phenol-degrading ability of the Antarctic bacterium and its tolerance to 10 heavy metals; As, Ag, Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn. The bacterium was grown on phenol agar and supplemented with 0.2 g/L of phenol. Identification of the bacterium was found to be Gram-positive, catalase-positive and oxidase-negative. Through the analysis of the 16S rRNA sequence gene, the strain belonged to the Rhodococcus genus. Phenol degradation and optical density was monitored daily using 4-aminoantipyrine spectrophotometric assay method. The phenol-degrading abilities of the Antarctic bacterium was inhibited only by 1 ppm of Ag, Cd and Hg. Heavy metals Cd and Hg had values p<0.001 using ANOVA analysis. Complete degradation occurred in the other 7 heavy metals ANOVA analysis of p>0.05. It was found that Ag began its inhibition at 0.9 ppm, Cd at 0.8 ppm and Hg at 0.5 ppm. The IC50 of Hg was found to be 0.5 ppm. The tolerance towards heavy metals of phenol-degrading bacterium was proved ideal and has the potential to be used in remediation and waste-water treatments in low temperature environments. 

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Rabiatul-Adawiah Zainal-Abidin, Norliza Abu-Bakar,Sew Yun Shin and Sanimah Simoh

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SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISM (SNP) RELATED DATABASES FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF RICE BREEDING

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Abstract

Molecular markers have been widely used in rice breeding programmes to improve the agronomical traits of rice. Among different types of molecular marker, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) is the most preferable markers choosen by researchers. Recent advances in sequencing and genotyping technology have permitted the discovery of large-number of SNPs in many organisms. Consequently, the growing number of SNPs has influenced the development of many SNP related databases. The availability of SNP databases provides an opportunity for researchers to exploit these data for rice improvements through marker-assisted selection and molecular breeding approaches. This review presents features and outline of SNP databases related to rice. This paper also highlights major rice SNP databases, their uses, features as well as their current developmental status that will benefit the community of rice researchers. With this effort, the interest of rice breeder to explore and utilise the SNP databases is highly anticipate.

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Salihu Ibrahim, Mohd Yunus Abd Shukor, Nur Adeela Yazid and Siti Aqlima Ahmad

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MICROBIAL DEGRADATION OF VEGETABLE OILS: A REVIEW

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Abstract

The use of vegetable oils by man dates back to ancient times. When spilt into the environment with wastewater derived from kitchens, restaurants and food processing industries led to serious anthropogenic problems can occur, such as blocking of pipes, depleting oxygen, oil film formation, odour problems, and congest treatment filters thus killing the marine organisms livings. Their specific properties and chemical composition have allowed them to be used as food, lubricants, fuels and in the manufacturing of agrochemicals, plasticisers, inks, and coatings. As such, biodegradation of vegetable oils contaminated water is very important because of its related negative effects. Microbial degradation is considered as the most effective technique in degrading vegetable oils within the environment. Even though there are other available methods for degrading vegetable oils using thermal degradation techniques like spectrophotometric methods, but the oil involves various modifications, thus causing lack of accuracy/specificity. Microbial vegetable oil degradation has been labelled as efficient as it is specific, reducing time management, eco-friendly, easy to be used, disease free and cost effective which effectively reduces chemical oxygen demand and suspended lipid solids compared to thermal methods. Many aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms capable of degrading vegetable oils have been well studied in fungal and bacterial strains mostly from the genus Rhodococcus and others such as Pseudomonas, Enterobacter aerogenes, Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Serratia, Staphylococcus, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Mucor, Burkholderia sp., Acinetobacteria, Penicllium chrysogenum, and Lactobacillus sp.

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Atiqah Subki and Zetty Norhana Balia Yusof

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BIOINFORMATICS IDENTIFICATION OF THIAMINE PYROPHOSPHATE (TPP) RIBOSWITCH IN OIL PALM 

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Abstract

 Riboswitch is an mRNA element which binds specific ligands, resulting in a change in the production of the end proteins and it has gained high interest recently. The most widely studied riboswitch is thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) riboswitch where TPP binds directly to it to regulate gene expression via a variety of mechanisms. TPP riboswitches have been found in archaea, bacteria and eukaryotes. This study aims to explore the possibility of the presence of TPP riboswitch in oil palm (Elaies guineensis) and the seaweeds of Malaysia via bioinformatic tools. Various software were utilised to search for the conserved sequence namely RiboSW, RibEX, Riboswitch Scanner, and Denison Riboswitch Detector and further structural analysis was carried out using Clustal Omega and Mfold web server. The analysis revealed the position, segment length, secondary structure and derivatization of its conserve region (aptamer) and expression platform of putative TPP riboswitch. In oil palm, TPP riboswitch motif was found located at the 3’ end of the intron region of ThiC gene. While in seaweeds putative TPP riboswitch was predicted to be with 128 nucleotides in length. Identification of putative TPP riboswitch can pave the way for further exploitation of this motif for better understanding of the regulation of thiamine biosynthesis pathway in oil palm. 

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Suhaili Shamsi, Ai Luan Lim, Farhah Amirah Zukeflli and Uswatun Hasanah Zaidan

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QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF STEVIOL GLYCOSIDES IN COMMERCIAL STEVIA EXTRACTS FROM LOCAL MARKET IN MALAYSIA 

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Abstract

Extracts from leaves of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, steviol glycosides are used to sweeten food and beverages. It has been approved as sweeteners in many countries all over the world. The majority findings show there is no toxicity in steviol glycosides. However, the complex purification process on commercial stevia has caused its authenticity to be challenged and discussed. Furthermore, the safety of commercial stevia extract in Malaysia has been in query. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to screen and determine the quality of commercial stevia extract from local market in Malaysia, in comparison to the standard solution of steviol glycosides obtained from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana. The present study analysed and compared three independent commercial stevia samples by using High Liquid Performance Chromatography (HPLC), Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The results showed that the commercial stevia extracts have different qualities of steviol glycosides; in terms of the steviol glycosides content and composition. It is of a remarkable fact that all three analytical methods showed no steviol glycosides were able to be detected in commercial stevia Sample 1. Sample 2 was found to contain the highest concentration of steviol glycosides according to HPLC analysis, while Sample 3 showed the most identical compounds to the standard steviol glycosides according to FTIR analysis. The present study shows the different composition and quality of steviol glycosides in commercial stevia extracts, which warrants further investigation. 

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Yong Hui Tan, Eric Wei Chiang, Chan, Siew Ling Hii and Kwan Kit Woo

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BEHAVIORAL PROPERTIES OF ACINETOBACTER SPECIES IN DEGRADING OIL 

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Abstract

Major shipping routes worldwide, such as the Straits of Malacca, are under constant threat from oil spills and the environmental impacts of these spills are directly related to the speed and efficiency of remediation methods. Three Acinetobacter strains of bacteria isolated from the soil and pond water were shown to have behavioral properties suitable for degrading petroleum hydrocarbon. The three strains (F1, F4 and F12) showed a close match with Acinetobacter radioresistens, A. baumannii and A. calcoaceticus, respectively, based on 16S rRNA sequencing. Biofloccule formation, an important behavioural property for oil degradation, was observed in all three strains when cultured in a minimal salt broth with 1% spent engine oil. F12 (A. calcoaceticus) was shown to reduce hydrocarbon abundance and diversity of crude oil three days after inoculation. The strain had the highest rate of crude oil degradation and the best growth rate. 

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Anton S. Tkachenko, Anatolii I. Onishchenko, Tatyana V. Gorbach and Galina I. Gubina-Vakulyсk

O-6-METHYLGUANINE-DNA METHYLTRANSFERASE (MGMT) OVEREXPRESSION IN SMALL INTESTINAL MUCOSA IN EXPERIMENTAL CARRAGEENAN-INDUCED ENTERITIS

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Abstract

Aim: To assess a DNA repair enzyme MGMT expression in inflammation-involved small intestinal tissue of rats with chronic carrageenan-induced enteritis. Methods: MGMT expression was determined immunohistochemically in small intestine of ten rats orally consumed k-carrageenan-containing 1% processed Eucheuma seaweed solution during four months. The solution intake resulted in the development of small intestinal inflammation confirmed morphologically. Results: We have found that the oral intake of carrageenan is associated with the strong MGMT overexpression both in enterocytes and in the stroma. MGMT expression is mainly observed on the surface of villi, i.e. in regions directly exposed to carrageenan. We suggested a protective character of MGMT overexression and several mechanisms of its upregulation in inflamed intestine. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that MGMT is upregulated in the small intestine of rats administered carrageenan.

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Tunku Syed Iskandar Syed Azhar, Suriani Mohamed and Lay-Harn Gam

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DIFFERENTIATION OF THE MEAT SOURCES OF CHICKEN, BEEF AND PORK PRODUCTS BY USING PROTEIN PROFILING

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Abstract

Halal issue is getting the attention worldwide lately. The Halal Food Authority rules for Halal are based on Islamic Shari’ah. As regards to meat product in terms of Halal concept, the main concern is the adulteration of pork meat that is unknown to consumers. In this study, we have developed a rapid and ease of use method to identify the meat sources in minced meat products, namely sausages and burgers which are highly consumed nowadays. The meat products were purchased from departmental stores in Penang, Malaysia. Proteins was extracted from the meat product and was purified to remove the additive, and protein profiles were analyzed after separation using SDS-PAGE, from which the unique pattern of protein profiles for each meat types namely chicken, beef and pork were identified. The unique protein profile can be used to differentiate the source of meats in meat finished products, it can also be used to determine and adulteration of pork in these food.

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Citrawati Dyah Kencono Wungu, Mochamad Amin, Ulfa Kholili, Gwenny Ichsan Prabowo, Poernomo Boedi Setiawan, Soetjipto and Retno Handajani

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THE ANALYSIS OF MUTATION PROFILE ON PRE-S1 AND PRE-S2 REGION OF HEPATITIS B VIRUS IN CHRONIC LIVER DISEASE

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Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to complete the data frequency and mutation profile of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) pre-S1 and pre-S2 in Indonesia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was used 32 blood serum samples of Chronic Liver Disease (CLD) patients with Hepatitis B surface antigen (HbsAg) at Endoscopy Outpatient Clinic, RSUD Dr. Soetomo Hospital, Surabaya. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) of HBV DNA was performed on the samples based on pre-S1 and pre-S2 region. Then, electrophoresis was performed on the PCR product and followed by sequencing on samples with positive electrophoresis result. The sequencing results were analyzed by comparing them with the published sequences of HBV nucleotide. Results: The amplification results of nested PCR DNA HBV with primers based on HBV pre-S1 and pre-S2 region were positive at 21 serums. In patients with CLD in this study, pre-S1 and / or pre-S2 HBV mutations were found in 11 (84.62%) chronically infected HBV patients, 4 (100%) patients with liver cirrhosis, and 4 (100%) HCC patients. Dominant mutations were L101V (16.57%), M120I / T or pre-S2 start codon (10.82%), and F141L (10.81%). M120 and F141L mutations have been previously reported to be associated with CLD, while the dominant L101V mutation in this study as well as several other mutations has not been reported in previous studies. Conclusions: Mutations of pre-S1 and pre-S2 HBV regions were obtained in 90.48% of CLD patients in the form of substitution and deletion of amino acids.

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