A new superbug emerging in Indian hospitals calls for immediate action

A new multidrug resistant fungal superbug identified in several hospitals worldwide including India is giving doctors sleepless nights. Named Candida auris, it is resistant to most available antifungals. This superbug is fatal if untreated and infects intensive care patients with prolonged hospital stays.

In a short span of 7 years, this superbug has emerged as a cause of hospital-acquired multidrug resistant infection in many countries including India, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, Spain, UK, South Africa, Venezuela, Columbia, and the USA. This superbug demands immediate action from the medical community and Indian authorities.

According to Dr. Anuradha Chowdhary (picture above), Professor at the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute in New Delhi, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that more than 90% of the patient samples are misidentified by most commercial laboratory equipment. As a result, patients miss getting specific drugs. Also since this fungus can persist around bed areas, mattress, chair, and windowsill for more than 3 months, it is seen as a serious concern in large bedded hospitals where rigorous cleaning and strict infection control practices are not a priority. While there are many antibacterials available, there are only three categories of antifungals used, of which this superbug is resistant to azoles, and has limited susceptibility to amphotericin B and echinocandins, which are expensive.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Public Health England, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Europe, and the centers for disease control, USA have issued health alerts for strict vigilance of C. auris cases. Consultant microbiologists Anuradha Chowdhary, Cheshta Sharma, and Jacques F Meis recommend implementing control measures such as isolation of patients and their contacts, wearing of personal protective clothing by healthcare workers, screening of patients on affected wards, skin decontamination with chlorhexidine, environmental cleaning with chlorine-based reagents, and terminal room decontamination with hydrogen peroxide vapor or UV light as preventive measures to stop the superbug from spreading.

The study is a collaborative effort of Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, University of Delhi in New Delhi and Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital, Nijmegen in the Netherlands. It was published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

Reference: PLOS Pathogens 13(5): e1006290.

This was published by FirstPost, OutlookIndia, Amar Ujala NewsPaper in Hindi (clip below), BioVoice, and India Science Wire. 

Indian scientists find a new better drug to treat depression and anxiety

Psychological disorders that affect mood, emotion, and cognition are a rising global health concern. These include depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, dementia, Alzheimer’s, and cerebral ischemic stroke. Indian scientists have found a new compound that is an effective drug against these central nervous system disorders.

The compound is called 2-oxa-spiro [5.4] decane#3, and acts specifically on nerve cells, also inhibits their inflammation. It showed potent anti-depression and anti-anxiety activity in various animal models. 

“The new compound has the potential to be advanced as a versatile therapeutic molecule to treat stroke, depression, and possibly other neuropsychiatric disorders”, say scientists. 

According to WHO more than 300 million people globally of all ages suffer from depression. Giving the new drug increased social interaction, loss of which is a hallmark of depression. It was non-toxic and more effective than fluoxetine, a commonly used anti-depressant.

This research was initiated under an Indo-French collaboration called Joint Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry at Interfaces and Joint Laboratory for Natural Products and Synthesis towards Affordable Health. The research team consisted of Pranav Chintamani Joshi, Ramesh Samineni, Dwaipayan Bhattacharya, Bommana Raghunath Reddy, Lenin Veeraval, Tapatee Das, Swati Maitra, Abhipradnya Bipin Wahul, Shailaja Karri, Srihari Pabbaraja, Goverdhan Mehta, Arvind Kumar, and Sumana Chakravarty. They published their results in a recent issue of the journal Scientific Reports.

It is a joint effort of CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Hyderabad, and CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, and Academy ofScientific and Innovative Research in New Delhi. 

This story was published by CatchNews, YahooNews, BioVoice, IndianScienceJournal, MedicalDialogues, and India Science Wire.

Reference: Scientific Reports 7: 1492.

Traditional and Nano medicine combo against diabetes

Indian scientists have used a substance from plant source to make silver nanoparticles that are effective against diabetes.  The new medicine is called NanoHerb and is made using gymnemic acid isolated from leaves of Gurmar plant.

Gurmar plant is native to India and Sri Lanka and its extract is taken orally along with insulin or diabetes medications to reduce blood sugar in traditional medicine. The silver nanoparticles made in this study had an average diameter of 21.5 nanometers. This small size enhances uptake in the body, which is the possible mechanism by which it increases the secretion of pancreatic insulin thereby managing diabetes, according to scientists. 

Diabetic rats were orally given metformin or the NanoHerb for 2 weeks. They found that NanoHerb lowered blood glucose, harmful LDL cholesterol, concomitantly increasing the beneficial HDL cholesterol, just like metformin. The scientists find the new NanoHerb medicine to be very promising. “We recommend biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles to be utilized for treatment of diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia. It can be a natural alternative to drugs such as metformin that are synthetic and have side effects”, says Dr. Shankar Kalakotla, Professor at Pullareddy Institute of Pharmacy, Sangareddy in Telangana.

They have applied for a patent and looking forward to ethics permission to test NanoHerb in human patients. Studies in mice showed that it is safe and nontoxic. It was published in a recent issue of the Journal Material Letters.  

The research team consisted of Kalakotla Shanker, G Krishna Mohan, Vinyas Mayasa, and Lakshmi Pravallika. The study was done at the Institute of Science and Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, in Telangana, and KLE University, Belgaum in Karnataka. The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology provided funding. (India Science Wire)

 

Dr. G Krishna Mohan (left) and Shanker Kalakotla (right), Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad did the study.

Reference: Materials Letters (2017). Doi: 10.1016/j.matlet. 2017.02.137

This story was published by BioVoice and India Science Wire. 

Indian scientists develop rice that yields better under drought

A group of Indian, Chinese, and Canadian scientists have made transgenic rice that gives high yields even under severe water deficit. The rice is made by transferring the TOR gene from Arabidopsis thaliana plant into Indica BPT5024 variety of rice, commonly known as samba mahsuri. This gene is known to be involved in pathways controlling growth and development.

Putting this gene into rice increased its height, length of the panicle that encloses the grain, efficiency of photosynthesis, chlorophyll content, and water use efficiency. Under lab controlled water scarce conditions, the transgenic rice performed better than their unmodified counterparts. The results were published in a recent issue of the journal Scientific Reports.

The content of chlorophyll- the pigment required for plants to grow; reduces under stress conditions like drought, which in turn minimizes the yield. The new transgenic rice maintained high chlorophyll content even under water-deficit and therefore performed better. Transgenic rice were made by Achala Bakshi, Mazahar Moin, M Udaya Kumar, Aramati Bindu Madhava Reddy, Maozhi Ren, Raju Datla, E A Siddiq, and P B Kirti at the University ofHyderabad and PJTS Agricultural University in Hyderabad, University ofAgricultural Sciences-GKVK in Bangalore, National Research Council of Canada in Canada, and Chinese academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing, and ChongqingUniversity in Chongqing, China. 

Seedlings of transgenic rice that perform better under drought conditions are seen growing in small plates in the lab (above). They grow taller compared to non-transgenic rice plants in pots with lesser water in a greenhouse (below).

“The need of extensive irrigation is a major constraint in rice production. Overexpressing TOR gene plays a major role in improving plant development, biomass, and yield potential under limited water conditions. Transgenic plants would be expected to have higher yields and better plant performance. Also, saved water, the most important ingredient in cultivation, could be utilized in the cultivation of other crops that need water and are deprived of it”,  says PB Kirti, professor at the Department of Plant sciences, University of Hyderabad. 

This story was published by Down to Earth, Outlook India, BioVoice, and IndiaScience Wire. 

Reference: ScientificReports 7:42835.

Indian clinical trial puts forth recommendations for improving growth in preterm infants

WHO recommends that infants must be exclusively breast fed for 6 months after which they should be given complementary diet to ensure good health and appropriate growth. However, no such guidelines exist for infants who are born preterm, that is, before 34 weeks of gestation period, as opposed to 37 weeks, which is the normal term of pregnancy. Complementary diet consists of semisolid, soft, or solid foods other than breast or animal milk.

Clinicians at AIIMS, Kasturba Gandhi hospital, and Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and associated Safdarjung hospital, New Delhi conducted a clinical trial to address this concern regarding preterm infants. They published their results in a recent issue of The Lancet Global Health. The research team included Shuchita Gupta, Ramesh Agarwal, Kailash Chandra Aggarwal, Harish Chellani, Anil Duggal, Sugandha Arya, Sunita Bhatia, Mari Jeeva Sankar, Vishnubhatla Sreenivas, Vandana Jain, Arun Kumar Gupta, Ashok K Deorari, Vinod K Paul, and Investigators of the CF trial. The study was done with 403 infants between March 2013 and April 2015, and was largely funded by Indian Council of Medical Research.

There are more than 15 million preterm births worldwide every year, which is the leading cause of death in children below 5 years of age. Most preterm infants have poor growth and development. In this study also, 34% infants died before hospital discharge and 10% died before 4 months of age, emphasizing the risk of death due to preterm birth. Scientists examined if feeding preterm infants with a complementary diet early in life improves their growth at 12 months of age. “Preterm infants have higher energy requirements, and feeding them with complementary diet at 4 months of age could be a good measure to accelerate growth, and this needed to be tested”, said Dr. Ramesh Agarwal at the Department of Pediatrics, AIIMS in New Delhi. Scientists found that starting an early complementary diet in preterm infants did not improve their growth, but did increase the number of hospital admissions indicating higher chances of infection in these children. 

Hence, they concluded that complementary feeding must be started at 6 months of age for preterm children, just like normal infants. This age however indicates corrected age, which means that if an infant is born 2 weeks before the expected date of delivery, he must be put on complementary diet at 6 months plus 2 weeks of age. “Our study will fill the big vacuum in understanding the diet for preterm infants, and help design evidence-based policies in India and other developing countries”, says Dr. Agarwal.

Another concern that this study brings out is that most preterm infants were iron-deficient despite supplementation. “This could be a result of more vegetarian food rich in fibers. This is in line with another study in Haryana, where most women are iron-deficient despite iron and folic acid supplementation. In India, this is seen even in women from higher socio-economic status, which could be a result of eating less and losing blood every month to menstrual cycles” according to Dr. Agarwal. 

Published by Down to Earth, Outlook, and India Science Wire. 

International Women’s Day: Celebrating the contribution of Women in science

We can accomplish holistic national growth only if all Indians participate, and that includes half our population- that’s women! The National seminar on women leadership in science and technology highlighting the contribution of women in science was organized on 8^th and 9^th March 2017 in New Delhi. The seminar highlighted the spirit of excellence demonstrated by women in science and technology and discussed the gender specific issues in science that women face today.

The two days seminar witnessed sessions from eminent women scientists, entrepreneurs, media personalities, and professors from leading Indian universities. Professor Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India addressed the seminar.

It discussed the opportunities that enable women to pursue science, and the challenges that women face to get visibility, recognition and a work-life balance. Vigyan Prasar organized the seminar in collaboration with Department of Biotechnology, Government of India on the occasion of International Women’s day 2017.

Opportunities and challenges for women in S&T

Women have made substantial contributions to science through published papers, patents, presentations in conferences, and devising new technologies. Unfortunately, they are under represented in advisory for policymaking, or as faculty in universities and institutions.

Less than ten percent of faculty members in Indian universities are women. A leading institute like Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata now has a women director after 83 years of its existence. Less than 30% of the scientists in government scientific organizations (like DRDO, CSIR, DST, DBT and ICMR) are women. Of the 450 scientists who have won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize for their contribution to science, only sixteen (less than 3%) are women. Eight of these sixteen awards are in biology and medicine. The numbers are much less in physics, engineering, and mathematics.

This is despite the fact that women don’t lag behind in their caliber. Then why are only a few women making to the visible top? We have to ask if women scientists are being nurtured, and are there enough opportunities for them, are we addressing their challenges, and are academies honoring women?

Women face many challenges. The societal structure is such that women have to manage both work and home. Their childbearing age coincides largely with their age for career advancement. To encourage women to pursue science, the government has to implement policies that enable women to have flexible working hours and childcare leave. “Good work ethics can make life easy for women and enhance quality of their work”, said Dr. Suparna Datta, Professor at BIT Mesra. Increasing the options for reentry to work after a break in career will also promote the entry of women in science, she said.

Women also face social stigmas. Many women experience inequality, abuse, and violence at home, and gender-based discrimination at work. There are gender stereotypes in science too, that includes that subjects like physics and mathematics are ‘masculine’. From an early childhood, women are discouraged to pursue STEM fields. This later reflects as small number of women in STEM leadership roles including academia.

We can work towards managing societal stigmas. We can use technology and Internet to change the social constraints that women face, said Dr. Charu Malhotra, professor at Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. She emphasized that online hash-tag campaigns (like RingABell) and discussions to prevent violence against women have worked in the past.  On similar lines, we could start cause-related fund raising to increase awareness about women issues. This exercise will benefit the society in the longer run.

Role of Media and policy to improve the visibility of women 

Women have contributed to S&T in many ways. But the visibility of their contribution is poor. To increase the visibility of the contribution of women, media can play a very important role, believes Dr. Gita Bamezai, Professor at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi.

People have started recognizing the contribution of women in media and it may soon be the case in science and academia. To increase the representation of women in academics, which at present is less than 10 percent, women scientists will have to get out of their labs and soil their hands in communication and public engagement to get visibility, she said.

Increasing the visibility of the contribution of women in S&T and in the society is the need of the hour. To accomplish this goal, we need to empower women, which requires the government to make policies that dilute gender bias, and improve the health and well being of women.

On 25^th September 2015, the Indian government led by Prime minister Modi became a party to the United Nations sustainable development plan. The agenda contains 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved by 193 member countries within the next fifteen years, that is, by 2030.

It aims to reduce poverty, reduce child and female mortality, and halt the spread of HIV, Malaria and other major diseases. The fifth sustainable development goal is a stand-alone gender goal that aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. “Inclusion of gender equality and empowering women in the UN sustainable development goals is a huge achievement”, said Dr. Vinita Sharma, Former advisor, Department of Science and Technology. 

Other sustainable development goals also complement the fifth goal of achieving gender equality. These include ensuring healthy lives for people of all age groups (that also includes women), providing quality education and life long learning opportunities for all, and providing safe water and sanitation to all.

Improving the quality of life of women through S&T

S&T can improve the lives of millions of tribal and rural women, who contribute significantly to their society, but their efforts often go unnoticed. For example, it is a well-known fact today that tribal women of Andhra Pradesh manage most of the activities in the processing of gum karaya, except its sale in the market. Gum karaya is an ingredient in many foods such as sorbets and ketchup, is used in cosmetics, in paper and publishing industry, and is even exported to US and Japan.

To extract gum karaya, women have to walk 8-10 kilometers every two days to forests, risking their lives and earning a meager amount of a few hundred rupees per day. Despite performing most of the work, their efforts went unnoticed, until recently, when a team from CSIR aimed to improve the quality of gum karaya for improving Indian exports. “The work done by women in the society is often invisible”, said Dr. Aasha Kapur Mehta, Professor at Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. When they went to the fields to train the labor, they discovered that it this activity was performed largely by women. It was important to train women to achieve development.

Women contribute significantly in many other economic activities like harvesting milk in dairy, crops in agricultural farms, grinding of seeds to produce oil, and separating coir, but their efforts go unnoticed. “We need to understand their lives and invest in them to make them self-sufficient”, said. Dr. Rajeshwari Raina, Professor at Shiv Nadar University, Uttar Pradesh.

Women can be empowered by skill building and vocational training programs, according to Dr. Vijaya Khader, who is the former Dean at the Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University in Hyderabad. This could include training them for cultivating mushroom, making ice creams and engaging in fish culture. It will improve livelihood, which will further reduce malnutrition and improve the quality of life of both women, and their families, she added.

To empower women, we have to start by giving them a healthy life. India has the highest number of women with anemia in South Asia. This is alarming because anemia causes depression, tiredness, low immunity, high-risk pregnancy, and low birth weight babies- all of which aren’t healthy for the society, said Padma Shree Dr. Indira Chakravarty. She emphasized that improving the health of women should be the government’s priority. She further added that we must ensure that women citizens are healthy. This will make for a healthier and prosperous society.

Working towards a mission

India needs to nurture and promote women in science. A few government schemes provide funding to working women scientists, and support them to pursue their career after a break. Dr. Vandana Singh from the Department of Science and Technology elaborated on the scholarships that are available for women to continue their journey with science.

DST’s women scientist scholarship helps women to join mainstream bench science and also provides internships for self-employment. WOS-C scheme for example, provides training and internship in intellectual property rights to women educated in fields of science. DST also offers societal research fellowships for women scientists to bring about women empowerment and development. SERB women excellence awards recognize the scientific achievements of women below the age of 40 years. 

DBT’s Biocare scheme helps women scientists working in universities and institutes to undertake independent R&D projects. DBT also recognizes the achievements of women scientists by conferring two awards under the National Women Bioscientist category.

The road ahead

The speakers at the National Seminar on women leadership in S&T gave recommendations to help women in overcoming the challenges that they face and increase their participation in the society. The following recommendations were proposed.

·      Enabling flexible working hours at work

·      Arranging daycare facilities for their children in the office

·      Arranging on-campus housing for their families

·      Increasing funds and opportunities to draw women to pursue education

·      Taking adequate measures to end gender-based discrimination at work

·      Increasing funding to enable more women to avail schemes by UGC, DST, and DBT

·      Design programs to invite women with a break in career to pursue science

The society has to work together to empower women, who make for half of its population. But, it is more important that women themselves believe in their capacity and invest in their dreams. “Women must believe in themselves and work hard to make the most of their capabilities”, said Professor Rupmanjari Ghosh, Vice Chancellor of Shiv Nadar University, Uttar Pradesh and recipient of the Streeshakti Science Samman (2008) for her original contribution to Indian Science.

P.S. This article was published (with modifications) in the May 2017 issue of Science Reporter magazine. The reader will have to pay to access the entire contents. 

Scientists test mosquitoes to boost filarial elimination in India

A method of testing mosquitoes is in line to become a powerful tool in ascertaining the success of Filarial elimination in the country.

In the conventional setup, scientists collect data about number of infected patients before and after an elimination drive. This is achieved by testing for filarial worm infection in human blood samples. This is expensive, labor-intensive, and invasive, as it requires skilled clinicians to draw blood under hospital settings. Fortunately now, scientists have a new non-invasive method of finding filarial parasite in mosquitoes that can help them accomplish this goal at lower cost, lesser time, and with high efficiency.

In a recent study in Tamil Nadu, scientists looked for infected mosquitoes rather than looking for infected humans. This technique called Molecular Xenomonitoring was previously successful in Sri Lanka in the year 2006, and has now shown promise in India. “Molecular Xenomonitoring is the detection of parasite DNA or RNA in mosquitoes and can serve as an alternative method for estimating the infection prevalence in human populations”, say scientists.

The study was done by Vector Control Research Centre (Indian Council of Medical Research), Puducherry, India; Neglected Tropical Diseases Support Center, Task Force for Global Health, Georgia, USA; Department of Public Health, Government of Tamil Nadu, India; SJL Global Consulting, Seattle, Washington, USA; and the Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Massachusetts, USA. They published their results in a recent issue of the journal PLOS Neglected TropicalDiseases. 

Lymphatic filariasis affects 947 million people globally, of which one third of the disease burden is in India. As per our commitment to WHO, filariasis has to be eliminated by year 2020. To achieve this goal, many districts have undergone 10-12 rounds of mass drug administration, of which 72 districts have achieved success, and 147 districts are undergoing the process.

Lymphatic Filariasis, commonly called Elephantiasis causes thickening and swelling of limbs, genitals, and breasts. It is accompanied by sub-optimal mental health and social stigma. After the filarial roundworm enters a patient’s body, it remains in the body for up to 8 years, blocks vessels and brings down the immune system. Worms produce numerous larvae in the body that are spread to other humans by mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes were collected from two locations- Thanjavur and Ammapettai districts in Tamil Nadu. Both these locations are known hotspots of filariasis. Mosquitoes were trapped in gravid traps kept outside 207 houses in the evening. Next morning, the mosquitoes were brought to the lab, where they were tested for the presence of the filarial parasite. The exercise was done in the year 2000 and then followed up in 2012, to determine if elimination drive was successful. The number of infected mosquitoes reduced from 2.7% to 1.2%, which matched the reduction in infected patients from 49.5% to 23.4%.

“Molecular xenomonitoring supported the observed filariasis infection trends found in humans. It is a low cost, non-invasive monitoring and evaluation tool with sensitive detection of infection signals in low prevalence settings. Owing to poor hygienic conditions in India, high rate of mosquito breeding causes disease resurgence. This technique can be used to monitor mosquitoes in an area post-success also”, says Dr. Jambulingam Purushothaman, Director at the Vector Control Research Centre, Pondicherry.

He believes that the technique will expand to other areas and will help eliminate diseases like kala azar in the future. Presently, three other districts in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Orissa are being tested with this technique to determine the success post-elimination drive. This requires building regional laboratories and training manpower, which is on the agenda, he said. 

The story was published by India Science Wire. 

Reference: PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases (April 2017). doi-10.1371/journal.pntd.0005519.