The use of plant growth promoting bacterial inoculants as live microbial biofertilizers provides a promising alternative to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Inorganic phosphate solubilization is ...one of the major mechanisms of plant growth promotion by plant associated bacteria. This involves bacteria releasing organic acids into the soil which solubilize the phosphate complexes converting them into ortho-phosphate which is available for plant up-take and utilization. The study presented here describes the ability of endophytic bacteria to produce gluconic acid (GA), solubilize insoluble phosphate, and stimulate the growth of Pisum sativum L. plants. This study also describes the genetic systems within three of these endophyte strains thought to be responsible for their effective phosphate solubilizing abilities. The results showed that many of the endophytic strains produced GA (14-169 mM) and have moderate to high phosphate solubilization capacities (~400-1300 mg L(-1)). When inoculated into P. sativum L. plants grown in soil under soluble phosphate limiting conditions, the endophytes that produced medium-high levels of GA displayed beneficial plant growth promotion effects.
Football (soccer) is a very popular team sport among African women and girls, with player numbers continuing to rise at all levels of the sport. Whereas the participation in football and associated ...injuries are on the rise, there are not enough sports and exercise medicine (SEM) personnel to attend to these women football players. While Africa may not currently have enough SEM trained medical doctors and/or physiotherapists, it has relatively higher numbers of other healthcare workers; for example, nurses, who lead healthcare services provision from community to tertiary levels. The primary objective of this study will be to compare sports medicine practices; injury prevention behaviours; injury risk parameters; incidence and prevalence of injuries and illnesses in teams with and without a Football Nurse during one competitive season in Malawi's Women's football league. This study will be a cluster randomised control trial will recruit 24 teams from the Women's Football League in Malawi, which will be randomised to either the intervention group or the control group. A cohort of 12 nurses will receive training in basic football medicine; after which they will be attached to a total of 12 women's football teams (intervention group) during one competitive season. The Football Nurses will be directly report to a physiotherapist or doctor in their district to whom they will refer serious injuries for investigations, or further management. The teams with Football Nurses will be compared to other teams that will not have Football Nurses. We expect to develop a low cost, sustainable and context relevant solution to manage the treatment gap of football injuries/illnesses in underserved communities such as women's football.
IntroductionThere is evidence that BCG immunisation may protect against unrelated infectious illnesses. This has led to the postulation that administering BCG before unrelated vaccines may enhance ...responses to these vaccines. This might also model effects of BCG on unrelated infections.Methods and analysisTo test this hypothesis, we have designed a randomised controlled trial of BCG versus no BCG immunisation to determine the effect of BCG on subsequent unrelated vaccines, among 300 adolescents (aged 13–17 years) from a Ugandan birth cohort. Our schedule will comprise three main immunisation days (week 0, week 4 and week 28): BCG (or no BCG) revaccination at week 0; yellow fever (YF-17D), oral typhoid (Ty21a) and human papillomavirus (HPV) prime at week 4; and HPV boost and tetanus/diphtheria (Td) boost at week 28. Primary outcomes are anti-YF-17D neutralising antibody titres, Salmonella typhi lipopolysaccharide-specific IgG concentration, IgG specific for L1-proteins of HPV-16/HPV-18 and tetanus and diphtheria toxoid-specific IgG concentration, all assessed at 4 weeks after immunisation with YF, Ty21a, HPV and Td, respectively. Secondary analyses will determine effects on correlates of protective immunity (where recognised correlates exist), on vaccine response waning and on whether there are differential effects on priming versus boosting immunisations. We will also conduct exploratory immunology assays among subsets of participants to further characterise effects of BCG revaccination on vaccine responses. Further analyses will assess which life course exposures influence vaccine responses in adolescence.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval has been obtained from relevant Ugandan and UK ethics committees. Results will be shared with Uganda Ministry of Health, relevant district councils, community leaders and study participants. Further dissemination will be done through conference proceedings and publications.Trial registration numberISRCTN10482904.
The burden of cardiometabolic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, is increasing in sub-Saharan Africa and this has been linked to urbanisation. Helminths, through their ...immunomodulatory properties, may protect against these disorders. We hypothesised that the rural environment protects against cardiometabolic diseases and that helminths may influence rural-urban disparity of cardiometabolic disease risk.
We compared metabolic parameters of individuals aged ≥10 years living in rural, high-helminth-transmission and urban, lower-helminth-transmission settings in Uganda. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in rural Lake Victoria island fishing communities and in urban sub-wards in Entebbe municipality. Helminth infection and outcomes, including insulin resistance (computed using the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance HOMA-IR), fasting blood glucose, fasting blood lipids, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumference, were assessed.
We analysed 1,898 rural and 930 urban participants. Adjusting for BMI, exercise, smoking, alcohol intake, age and sex, urban residents had lower mean fasting glucose (adjusted mean difference 95%CI 0.18 -0.32, -0.05 p=0.01) and HOMA-IR (-0.26 -0.40, -0.11 p=0.001) but higher blood pressure (systolic, 5.45 3.75, 7.15 p<0.001; diastolic, 1.93 0.57, 3.29 p=0.006). Current helminth infection did not explain the observed differences.
In the Ugandan context, living in rural fishing communities may protect against hypertension but worsen glucose metabolism.
A more effective vaccine for tuberculosis (TB) is a global public health priority. Vaccines under development will always need evaluation in endemic settings, most of which have limited resources. ...Adolescents are an important target population for a new TB vaccine and for other vaccines which are relevant at school-age. However, in most endemic settings there is limited experience of trials of investigational products among adolescents, and adolescents are not routinely vaccinated.
We used
(MVA85A), a well-tolerated candidate vaccine for tuberculosis, to assess the effect of
infection on vaccine immunogenicity among Ugandan adolescents in primary school. We describe here the challenges and lessons learned in designing and implementing this first clinical trial among Ugandan adolescents using a non-licensed vaccine.
The school based immunization study was feasible and adhered to Good Clinical Practice principles. Engagement with the community and all stakeholders was critical for successful implementation of the trial. Creative and adaptable strategies were used to address protocol-specific, operational and logistical challenges. This study provided lessons and solutions that can be applied to other trials among adolescents in similar settings elsewhere, and to school-based immunization programs.
Sufficient time and resources should be planned for community preparation and sensitization to ensure buy in and acceptance of a project of this kind. This trial shows that challenges to implementing early field trials in Africa are not insurmountable and that necessary well-planned high-quality ethical trials are feasible and should be encouraged.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02178748 03/06/2014.
Football (soccer) is a very popular team sport among African women and girls, with player numbers continuing to rise at all levels of the sport. Whereas the participation in football and associated ...injuries are on the rise, there are not enough sports and exercise medicine (SEM) personnel to attend to these women football players. While Africa may not currently have enough SEM trained medical doctors and/or physiotherapists, it has relatively higher numbers of other healthcare workers; for example, nurses, who lead healthcare services provision from community to tertiary levels. The primary objective of this study will be to compare sports medicine practices; injury prevention behaviours; injury risk parameters; incidence and prevalence of injuries and illnesses in teams with and without a Football Nurse during one competitive season in Malawi's Women's football league. This study will be a cluster randomised control trial will recruit 24 teams from the Women's Football League in Malawi, which will be randomised to either the intervention group or the control group. A cohort of 12 nurses will receive training in basic football medicine; after which they will be attached to a total of 12 women's football teams (intervention group) during one competitive season. The Football Nurses will be directly report to a physiotherapist or doctor in their district to whom they will refer serious injuries for investigations, or further management. The teams with Football Nurses will be compared to other teams that will not have Football Nurses. We expect to develop a low cost, sustainable and context relevant solution to manage the treatment gap of football injuries/illnesses in underserved communities such as women's football. Trial registration number: Pan African Clinical Trial Registry (PACTR202205481965514).
Several licensed and investigational vaccines have lower efficacy, and induce impaired immune responses, in low-income versus high-income countries and in rural, versus urban, settings. Understanding ...these population differences is essential to optimising vaccine effectiveness in the tropics. We suggest that repeated exposure to and immunomodulation by chronic helminth infections partly explains population differences in vaccine response.
We have designed an individually randomised, parallel group trial of intensive versus standard praziquantel (PZQ) intervention against schistosomiasis, to determine effects on vaccine response outcomes among school-going adolescents (9-17 years) from rural
-endemic Ugandan islands. Vaccines to be studied comprise BCG on day 'zero'; yellow fever, oral typhoid and human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines at week 4; and HPV and tetanus/diphtheria booster vaccine at week 28. The intensive arm will receive PZQ doses three times, each 2 weeks apart, before BCG immunisation, followed by a dose at week 8 and quarterly thereafter. The standard arm will receive PZQ at week 8 and 52. We expect to enrol 480 participants, with 80% infected with
at the outset.Primary outcomes are BCG-specific interferon-γ ELISpot responses 8 weeks after BCG immunisation and for other vaccines, antibody responses to key vaccine antigens at 4 weeks after immunisation. Secondary analyses will determine the effects of intensive anthelminthic treatment on correlates of protective immunity, on waning of vaccine response, on priming versus boosting immunisations and on
infection status and intensity. Exploratory immunology assays using archived samples will enable assessment of mechanistic links between helminths and vaccine responses.
Ethics approval has been obtained from relevant ethics committes of Uganda and UK. Results will be shared with Uganda Ministry of Health, relevant district councils, community leaders and study participants. Further dissemination will be done through conference proceedings and publications.
ISRCTN60517191.
Drivers of lower vaccine efficacy and impaired vaccine-specific immune responses in low-income versus high-income countries, and in rural compared with urban settings, are not fully elucidated. ...Repeated exposure to and immunomodulation by parasite infections may be important. We focus on
malaria, aiming to determine whether there are reversible effects of malaria infection on vaccine responses.
We have designed a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group trial of intermittent preventive malaria treatment versus placebo, to determine effects on vaccine response outcomes among school-going adolescents (9 to 17 years) from malaria-endemic rural areas of Jinja district (Uganda). Vaccines to be studied comprise BCG vaccine on day 'zero'; yellow fever, oral typhoid and human papilloma virus vaccines at week 4; and tetanus/diphtheria booster vaccine at week 28. Participants in the intermittent preventive malaria treatment arm will receive dihydroartemisinin/piperaquine (DP) dosed by weight, 1 month apart, prior to the first immunisation, followed by monthly treatment thereafter. We expect to enrol 640 adolescents. Primary outcomes are BCG-specific interferon-γ ELISpot responses 8 weeks after BCG immunisation and for other vaccines, antibody responses to key vaccine antigens at 4 weeks after immunisation. In secondary analyses, we will determine effects of monthly DP treatment (versus placebo) on correlates of protective immunity, on vaccine response waning, on whether there are differential effects on priming versus boosting immunisations, and on malaria infection prevalence. We will also conduct exploratory immunology assays among subsets of participants to further characterise effects of the intervention on vaccine responses.
Ethics approval has been obtained from relevant Ugandan and UK ethics committees. Results will be shared with Uganda Ministry of Health, relevant district councils, community leaders and study participants. Further dissemination will be done through conference proceedings and publications.
Current Controlled Trials identifier: ISRCTN62041885.
Biopiling is an ex situ bioremediation technology that has been extensively used for remediating a wide range of petrochemical contaminants in soils. Biopiling involves the assembling of contaminated ...soils into piles and stimulating the biodegrading activity of microbial populations by creating near optimum growth conditions. Phytoremediation is another very successful bioremediation technique and involves the use of plants and their associated microbiomes to degrade, sequester or bio-accumulate pollutants from contaminated soil and water. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a combined phytoremediation/biopiling system, termed Ecopiling, to remediate hydrocarbon impacted industrial soil. The large scale project was carried out on a sandy loam, petroleum impacted soil 1613 mg total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) kg(-1) soil. The contaminated soil was amended with chemical fertilizers, inoculated with TPH degrading bacterial consortia and then used to construct passive biopiles. Finally, a phyto-cap of perennial rye grass (Lolium perenne) and white clover (Trifolium repens) was sown on the soil surface to complete the Ecopile. Monitoring of important physico-chemical parameters was carried out at regular intervals throughout the trial. Two years after construction the TPH levels in the petroleum impacted Ecopiles were below detectable limits in all but one subsample (152 mg TPH kg(-1) soil). The Ecopile system is a multi-factorial bioremediation process involving bio-stimulation, bio-augmentation and phytoremediation. One of the key advantages to this system is the reduced costs of the remediation process, as once constructed, there is little additional cost in terms of labor and maintenance (although the longer process time may incur additional monitoring costs). The other major advantage is that many ecological functions are rapidly restored to the site and the process is esthetically pleasing.
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