Browsing by Author "Sania Munir"

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    Epitope mapping of hcv structural proteins for potential vaccine design; an insilico approach
    (UMT, Lhr, 2018) Sania Munir
    Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Recent studies have shown an increased burden (2.8%) of HCV infection, which is nearly equal to 185 million infections globally. Highest prevalence rated countries are located in Asia and Africa. Pakistan has the high HCV seroprevalence rates between 2.4% and 6.5% in general population. Due to error prone nature, HCV has the ability to escape immune system surveillance. High variation in genome is the primary hurdle in vaccine development against the virus. After the infection host, Cytotoxic T- lymphocytes contribute their role in the eradication of infection. For successful eradication of HCV a vaccine development is a need of the hour. HCV Structural proteins are one of the potential immunogenic viral proteins. The study is aimed to analyze the core, E1 and E2 protein as a potential vaccine candidate. In this study the sequences of HCV structural proteins were taken and comparison was made by BLASTP to find out maximum potential candidates for a vaccine development. All the sequences were aligned by using CLUSTAL OMEGA software and consensus sequence was developed by using JALVIEW software. Immune Epitope Database (IEDB) was used to predict epitope sequences. The predicted epitopes were analyzed to determine their antigenicity through Vaxijen server version 2.0. I- Tasser software further used for the visualization of predicted epitopes positions and immunogenicity.
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    Recurrence of chikungunya outbreak; an upcoming problem for Pakistan
    (Future Virology, 2018) Muhammad S Afzal; Sarmad Zahoor; Mahvish Kabir; Haroon Ahmed; Sania Munir
    InPakistan,theinitialoutbreakofchikungunyawasreportedinNovember–December2016inthecityofKarachi. Atotal1740peoplewerebroughttohospitalbetweenDecember2016andMarch2017 [1].Recurrenceofinfection was observed again with thousands of cases in April 2017. It is proposed that due to the upcoming rainy season and poor senatory system of the city, reemergence of the Aedes aegypti (A. aegypti) borne viral disease will be highly predictable. During the recent outbreak, the highest numbers of cases were reported from Malir followed by Ibrahim Hyderi, Kemari, Bin Qsim, Kemari and Lyari [2]. In April 2017, a large number of confirmed and suspected cases were reported from the city. According to the Health Department of Sindh, from April 2017 to 5 May 2017, a total of 212 chikungunya cases were confirmed by testing acute-phase samples for presence of viral RNA and convalescent-phase samples for the presence of antibodies. Out of these reported cases, the highest number of patients (131) arrived at Ibrahim Hyderi Hospital, followed by 81 infected patients from Malir and Kemari, whereas only nine were reported from Saudabad [3]. The situation is alarming, considering that 21,000 suspected patients were tested for chikungunya or given symptomatic treatment at hospitals in the city [4]. On 4 May 2017, the WHO shared its findings to the provincial GovernmentthatfiveoutofsixcitydistrictsofKarachiweredisease-infested.Asaresult,itwashighlyrecommended totheGovernmenttotake‘radical’measurestosafeguardthecityfromtheincreasingincidenceofchikungunya [5].