Hepatitis B virus X protein: The X factor in chronic hepatitis B virus disease progression.

Introduction: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the most common aetiological factor causing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HBx gene plays an enigmatic role in HBV-related HCC. In this study we have analysed amino acid substitutions in HBx from HBV-infected individuals of different clinical stages.

Sequencing of from saliva in patients with periodontitis and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Background: Porphyromonas gingivalis is a major periodontal pathogen. Saliva is the most easy, non-invasive microbiological sample for detection of periodontal pathogens.

Aim And Objectives: A prospective study on 37 diabetic patients was grouped into well-controlled diabetes with/without periodontitis and uncontrolled diabetic with periodontitis.

Genetic characterization of Chikungunya virus 2009 isolates from South India.

Chikungunya Virus (CHIKV) is a single stranded positive sense enveloped RNA virus. Re-emergence of CHIKV caused a massive outbreak with severe clinical manifestation affecting multiple organs. The genetic diversity of CHIKV, which caused recurring outbreaks in India, was studied.

Next generation sequencing of oral microbiota in Type 2 diabetes mellitus prior to and after neem stick usage and correlation with serum monocyte chemoattractant-1.

Introduction: Oral microbiome impacts health and disease. T2DM and periodontitis are associated. Neem (Azadiracta indica) has antibacterial activity against oral microbiota.

Frequency of transmitted drug resistance mutations among treatment-naïve HIV-1-infected individuals at a tertiary care centre in South India.

Introduction: Morbidity and mortality among HIV-1-infected individuals has been dramatically reduced by the implementation of combinational antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, the efficiency of these therapies is compromised due to HIV-1 transmitted drug resistance mutations (TDRMs).

Methods: We collected a total of 127 samples from ART-naïve HIV-infected individuals and sequenced the pol gene and analysed for drug resistance mutations using the Calibrated Population Resistance (CPR) tool in the Stanford database.

Daily quality control in CD3+ and CD4+ T cell estimation by the FACSCount system at a tertiary care center in south India.

CD4(+) T cell count estimations are subject to high variations; hence, in this study, the previous day's tested samples were included routinely as the internal quality controls. The percentages of variation of the 2-day values were analyzed for 280 observations and the mean variation for CD4(+) and CD3(+) T cell counts ranged from 5.21% to 9.