Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Latent Activity Of Curcumin Against Leishmaniasis In Vitro, Danish Saleheen, Syed Atif Ali, Khalid Ashfaq, Anwar Ali Siddiqui, Ajmal Agha, Muhammad Masoom Yasinzai

Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences

In this study the anti-proliferative effect of curcumin (curcuma longa) that is the active ingredient of ground dried rhizome has been studied against three local and three reference leishmanial strains, Leishmania major, Leishmania tropica and Leishmania infantum (Pakistani isolate). Curcumin has shown an average IC50 of 5.3mM against promastigotes of various leishmanial strains which is much lower as compared with pentamidine that is one of the basic treatments against leishmaniasis. The main draw back attributed to these assays performed on promastigotes is the heterogeneity of results compared with those obtained with intracellular amastigotes or with in vivo effect. We also …

Determination Of Alpha-I Antitrypsin Genetic Deficiency In Duodenal Ulcer By Polymerase Chain Reaction, A Shahid, H Qureshi, S J. Zuberi, Anwar Ali Siddiqui, T Sultana, M A. Waqar

Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences

Objective: To confirm alpha-I-AT deficiency status in duodenal ulcer using a combination of PCR and restricted enzyme digestion.

Methods: Fifty patients with endoscopically proven duodenal ulcer and hundred controls with no signs of the disease were included. Alpha-i-AT phenotypes were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction enzyme digestion.

Results:Alpha-I-AT concentration in duodenal ulcer patients showed a mean value of 2.12 ± 0.11g/1 (range: 0.52-3.95 g/1, p

Conclusion: Alpha-1 AT deficiency was found in 10% of duodenal ulcer patients. DNA analysis more accurately resolved the phenotypes as S and Z mutations (JPMA 52:545; 2002).