Browsing by Author "Adu, Bright"

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    EVALUATION OF THE ANTI - PROLIFERATIVE EFFECT, ANTIOXIDANT AND PHYTOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF FICUS PUMILA LINN
    (International Journal of Phamaceutical Sciences and Research, 2019-05) Torkornoo, Dennis; Larbie, Christopher; Agbenyegah, Sefakor; Dowuona, Jasmine Naa Norkor; Appiah-Oppong, Regina; Dotse, Eunice; Aning, Abigail; Adu, Bright; Sinclear, Caleb
    This study sought to evaluate the heavy metal content of the raw powder and extract of the plant, the phytochemical constituents, antioxidant effect by the use of DPPH assay, the total phenolic content using Folin Ciocalteu assay and the cytotoxic effect using the MTT Assay of Ficus pumila ethanolic extract, methanolic and hydro fractions on liver cancer cells (HepG2), Leukemic cells (Jurkat) and normal liver cells (Chang). FTIR and Gas ChromatographyMass Spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to identify the functional groups and major constituents of the most active fraction of F. pumila. Alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, cardiac glycoside, saponins, and tannins were present in the ethanolic extract of F. pumila. The heavy metal analysis revealed the presence of Iron in both the raw powder (1.97 ± 0.11 mg/l) and extract (0.92 ± 0.02 mg/L). Zinc was also detected in both the raw powder (1.19 ± 0.00 mg/l) and extract (0.6595 ± 0.02 mg/l). The results from the FTIR revealed the presence of alkynes, alkyl halides, aromatics and aliphatic amines common to all fractions and compounds such as Phenol, 2,4-bis (1,1-Dimethylethyl) and Dodecane, 2,6, 10-trimethyl were detected in the samples by GC-MS. The DPPH assay also showed that all the fractions scavenged DPPH free radical in a dose-dependent manner as compared to the positive control (Ascorbic acid) and positively correlated to the phenolic contents. The MTT assay revealed that methanolic fraction was selective towards the Jurkat cell lines (Selectivity Index = 2.822). This increases the prospects that this plant contains compound(s) which could serve as leads for novel anticancer drugs.
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    Immunological and Genetic Correlates of Immunity to Plasmodium Falciparum Malaria
    (2010-07-20) Adu, Bright
    Malaria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children under five years old and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. Previous studies have shown that immunity to malaria is mediated by host immunological and genetic factors and parasite genetics. In this study which sought to identify immunological and genetics correlates of immunity against Plasmodium falciparum malaria, data from two consecutive malaria transmission community-based cohort studies and a hospital-based malaria case-control were analyzed. The Afro-immuno assay (AIA) enzyme linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) protocol was used to measure baseline isotype IgG and IgM and IgG1-4 subclasses levels to eight (8) malaria antigens GLURP-R0, GLURP-R2, MSP1 hybrid, EBA-175, AMA1-FVO, MSP3-FVO, LR146 and AS202.11. FcγIIA-131H/R, FcγIIB-232I/T, FcγIIIA-158V/F and FcγIIIB-NA1/NA2/SH together with IgG3 hinge region length polymorphisms were genotyped using various polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing techniques. There was a strong correlation between IgG1 and 3 for MSP3-FVO; IgG2 and 3 for GLURP-R2; IgG1 and 2 for AMA1-FVO and IgG1 and 2 for EBA-175 with age (0.413 ≤ r ≤ 0.202, p < 0.00001). In an age adjusted univariate analysis to investigate the association between the antibodies and clinical malaria, IgG1 to MSP3 FVO (IRR=0.83 [95% CI, 0.64, 1.06, p= 0.13]), IgG3 to GLURP R0 (IRR= 0.89 [95% CI, 0.77, 1.03, p=0.12], IgG3 to EBA-175 (IRR=0.88 [95% CI, 0.73, 1.05, p= 0.14]) and IgG4 to MSP3 FVO (IRR=0.81 [95% CI, 0.65, 1.02, p= 0.08]) showed some association with reduced risk to clinical malaria. In a final analysis using a model that comprises, age and the immunological variables with trends 23 suggestive of protection, only IgG4 to MSP3 FVO (IRR=0.85 [95% CI, 0.66, 1.08, p= 0.19]) and IgG3 to GLURP R0 (IRR= 0.92 [95% CI, 0.79, 1.07, p=0.29] showed persistent trends towards association with protection though statistically insignificant. The FcγRIIIB-NA1/NA1 genotype was significantly associated with reduced risk to uncomplicated malaria (p=0.007) and severe malaria (p=0.0002) while the FcγRIIIB-NA2/NA2 genotype was associated with susceptibility in both cases. There was an over-representation of the heterozygous long-medium (LM) (46.0%) genotype among individuals apparently protected against clinical malaria while the homozygous medium-medium (MM) (13.9%) was under-represented. For all the antigens, the MM and the homozygous long-long (LL) genotypes were associated with the highest and the lowest IgG3 levels respectively. Trends towards protection approaching significance observed for IgG3 to GLURP-R0 might be due to the cytophilic nature of IgG3 enabling effective parasite clearance through ADCI while IgG4 to MSP3-FVO might probably be a surrogate marker to some specific cytokine response critical for protection against malaria. The association of the FcγRIIIB-NA1/NA1 genotype with protection against and the FcγRIIIB-NA2/NA2 with susceptibility to severe and uncomplicated malaria in this study is consistent with the observation that NA1 has a higher affinity for both IgG1 and IgG3 than the NA2. The over-representation of LM among individuals with reduced risk to clinical malaria might be explained by the fact that such individuals benefit from both an efficient L-allele and a perhaps not so efficient but high IgG3 titre inducing M-allele. Findings from this study support the development of a multivalent vaccine from GLURP-R0 and MSP3-FVO. FcγRIIIB-NA1/NA1 and IgG3 hinge region 24 length polymorphisms have been implicated in this study as potential confounders to be adequately corrected for in malaria vaccine trials and pre-clinical studies to enable accurate interpretation of data.