The nematicidal effect of some bacterial biofertilizers on Meloidogyne incognita in sandy soil

In a greenhouse experiment, the nematicidal effect of some bacterial biofertilizers including the nitrogen fixing bacteria (NFB) Paenibacillus polymyxa (four strains), the phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) Bacillus megaterium (three strains) and the potassium solubilizing bacteria (KSB) B. circulans (three strains) were evaluated individually on tomato plants infested with the root-knot nematode Meloidogyneincognita in potted sandy soil. Comparing with the uninoculated nematode-infested control, the inoculation with P. polymyxa NFB7, B. megaterium PSB2 and B. circulans KSB2, increased the counts of total bacteria and total bacterial spores in plants potted soil from 1.2 to 2.6 folds estimated 60 days post-inoculation. Consequently, the inoculation with P. polymyxa NFB7 increased significantly the shoot length (cm), number of leaves / plant, shoot dry weight (g) / plant and root dry weight (g) / plant by 32.6 %, 30.8 %, 70.3 % and 14.2 %, respectively. Generally, the majority treatments significantly reduced the nematode multiplication which was more obvious after 60 days of inoculation. Among the applied strains, P. polymyxa NFB7, B. megaterium PSB2 and B. circulans KSB2 inoculations resulted in the highest reduction in nematode population comparing with the uninoculated nematode-infested control. They recorded the highest reduction in numbers of hatched juveniles/root by 95.8 %, females/root by 63.75 % and juveniles/1kg soil by 57.8 %. These results indicated that these bacterial biofertilizers are promising double purpose microorganisms for mobilizing of soil nutrients (nitrogen, phosphate and potassium) and for the biological control of M. incognita.

Investigation of medication prescribing errors in Wad Medani, Gezira, Sudan

This is Sudan's first cross sectional exploratory study aimed to analyze the appropriateness of prescriptions written in different health settings in Wad Medani, Sudan. Two pretested questionnaires were used to collect information about the possible causes of medication errors from randomly selected practicing physicians and pharmacists. The sample consisted of 2000 prescriptions collected in the period of August and September 2009. There were statistically significant differences between legibility of printed and handwritten prescriptions (p < 0.001), of all prescriptions 43.8% was not accompanied by instructions to the patients and 14% contained potential interactions with different degrees of seriousness, ranging from minor 1.8%, moderate 8.4% and severe 3.9%. According to the standard classifications of prescription writing, only one prescription (0.1%) was considered ideal with no error encountered, 12.2% of prescriptions contained errors being potentially serious to the patients, 17.8% showed errors of major importance, 6.9% had errors of minor importance and 10.5% contained trivial errors. While of the prescriptions 52.6% were free from errors but they were incomplete, something that could lead to serious patients' harm. The study identified a range of weaknesses in the prescribing phase and proposed a set of recommendations encouraging physicians and pharmacists to work together to avoid such errors.

Cytokines in relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in DA rats: persistent mRNA expression of proinflammatory cytokines and absent expression of interleukin-10 and transforming growth factor-beta

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in rats is typically a brief and monophasic disease with sparse demyelination. However, inbred DA rats develop a demyelinating, prolonged and relapsing encephalomyelitis after immunization with rat spinal cord in incomplete Freund's adjuvant. This model enables studies of mechanisms related to chronicity and demyelination, two hallmarks of multiple sclerosis (MS). Here we have investigated, in situ, the dynamics of cytokine mRNA expression in the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral lymphoid organs (lymph node cells and splenocytes) of diseased DA rats. We demonstrate that peripheral lymphoid cells stimulated in vitro with encephalitogenic peptides 69-87 and 87-101 of myelin basic protein responded with high mRNA expression for proinflammatory cytokines; interferon-gamma, interleukin-12 (IL-12), tumour necrosis factors alpha and beta, IL-1 beta and cytolysin. A high expression of mRNA for these proinflammatory cytokines was also observed in the CNS where it was accompanied by classical signs of inflammation such as expression of major histocompatibility complex class I and II, CD4, CD8 and IL-2 receptor. The expression of mRNA for proinflammatory cytokines was remarkably long-lasting in DA rats as compared to LEW rats which display a brief and monophasic EAE. Furthermore, mRNAs for putative immunodownmodulatory cytokines, i.e. transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), IL-10 and IL-4 were almost absent in DA rats, in both the CNS and in vitro stimulated peripheral lymphoid cells, while their levels were elevated in the CNS of LEW rats during the recovery phase. We conclude that the MS-like prolonged and relapsing EAE in DA rats is associated with a prolonged production of proinflammatory cytokines and/or low or absent production of immunodownmodulatory cytokines.

Protracted, relapsing and demyelinating experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in DA rats immunized with syngeneic spinal cord and incomplete Freund's adjuvant

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a model for multiple sclerosis (MS). However, MS is a chronic, relapsing and demyelinating disease, whereas EAE in rats is typically a brief and monophasic disorder showing little demyelination. We demonstrate here that DA rats develop severe, protracted and relapsing EAE (SPR-EAE) after a subcutaneous immunization at the tail base with syngeneic spinal cord and incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA). The neurological deficits were accompanied by demyelinating inflammatory lesions in the spinal cord, with infiltrating T lymphocytes and perivascular deposition of immunoglobulins and complement. The induction of SPR-EAE was associated with humoral autoreactivity to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) and cellular autoreactivity to the rat myelin basic protein (MBP) peptides 69-87 and 87-101. These two peptides, as well as whole rat MBP, were encephalitogenic. In conclusion, we believe that the presently described demyelinating SPR-EAE represents a useful model for MS.

T cell immunity and interferon-gamma secretion during experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in Lewis rats

An immunospot assay that detects single secretory cells was used to enumerate interferon-gamma secreting cells (IFN-gamma-sc) in mononuclear cell suspensions from the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral lymphoid organs after actively induced experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in Lewis rats. In the CNS compartment there was a significant increase in the number of IFN-gamma-sc preceding the onset of the clinical signs of EAE. Both in rats with EAE and rats immunized with Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA) the number of IFN-gamma-sc increased in peripheral lymphoid organs, as compared to non-immunized controls. In view of the potent immunoregulatory effects of IFN-gamma, its intra-CNS secretion may play a crucial role for clinicopathological events in EAE. To study the numbers of primed T cells that in response to myelin antigens produced IFN-gamma, mononuclear cell suspensions from peripheral lymphoid organs were precultured to allow for antigen uptake, presentation and T cell triggering, followed by enumeration of IFN-gamma-sc. T cells responding to a peptide of myelin basic protein (MBP) that previously have been shown encephalitogenic in Lewis rats, appeared initially and were quantitatively dominant over the course of EAE. Later, T cell reactivities to multiple regions of MBP appeared, showing that the concept of immunodominance in EAE is non-absolute and time dependent. Splenocyte cultures from EAE rats exposed to the different antigens showed a reduced number of IFN-gamma-sc compared to cultures not exposed to antigen, suggesting an antigen-induced suppression of T cell effector molecules.