A study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors associated with brucellosis in farmers, veterinary technical staff and other volunteers in Peninsular Malaysia using the One Health concept. A cross sectional study design was employed to sample a population of farmers and Veterinary technical staff on a volunteer basis. The Brucella Coombs test was used to elucidate the seroprevalence of brucellosis in the sampled population and the associated factors and predictors for brucellosis. The seroprevalence of brucellosis among farmers and non-farmers (veterinary technical staff and others) of 446 people studied was 1.35% (95% CI=0.28-2.42). Occupation, age and drinking unpasteurized milk were significant risk factors for brucellosis using multivariate logistic regression at 90% confidence level. The odds of having brucellosis increased by 7.19 times in farmers compared to non-farmers (90% CI=1.16, 44.71), it increased 7.16 times in individuals 40 years and below compared with those above 40 years old (90% CI=1.16, 44.41) and 4.45 times among those who drink unpasteurized milk compared to those who do not (90% CI= 1.03, 19.15). This study highlights the current state of human brucellosis in Malaysia among those groups that are occupationally at risk. A nationwide health education of the occupationally exposed population especially farmers may decrease the incidence of the infection and support the on-going eradication efforts of brucellosis in Malaysia.
Genosensor-based electrodes mediated with nanoparticles (NPs) have tremendously developed in medical diagnosis. Herein, we report a facile, rapid, low cost and highly sensitive biosensing strategy for early detection of HPV 18 using gold-nanoparticles (AuNPs) deposited on micro-IDEs. This study represents surface charge transduction of micro-interdigitated electrodes (micro-IDE) alumina insulated with silica, independent and mini genosensor modified with colloidal gold NPs (AuNPs), and determination of gene hybridization for early detection of cervical cancer. The surface of AuNPs deposited micro-IDE functionalized with optimized 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (APTES) followed by hybridization with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) virus to develop DNA genosensor. The results of ssDNA hybridization with the ssDNA target of human papillomavirus (HPV) 18 have affirmed that micro-IDE functionalized with colloidal AuNPs resulted in the lowest detection at 0.529 aM. Based on coefficient regression, micro-IDE functionalized with AuNPs produces better results in the sensitivity test (R2 = 0.99793) than unfunctionalized micro-IDE.
The E6 region has higher protuberant probability annealing than consensus probe focusing on another region in the human papillomavirus (HPV) genome in terms of detection and screening method. Here, we designed the first multiple virus single-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (ssDNA) for multiple detections in an early phase of screening for cervical cancer in the E6 region and became a fundamental evolution of detection electrochemical HPV biosensor. Gene profiling of the virus ssDNA sequences has been carried by high-end bioinformatics tools such as GenBank, Basic Local Alignment Searching Tools (BLAST), and Clustal OMEGA in a row. The output from bioinformatics tools resulted in 100% of similarities between our virus ssDNA probe and HPV complete genome in the databases. The cross-validation between HPV genome and our designed virus ssDNA provided high specificity and selectivity during screening methods compared with Pap smear. The DNA probe for HPV 18, 5' COOH-GAT CCA GAA GGT ACA GAC GGG GAG GGC ACG 3', while 5'COOH-GGG CGC TGT GCA GTG TGT TGG AGA CCC CGA3' as DNA probe for HPV 58 designed with 66.77% guanine (G) and cytosine (C) content for both. Our virus ssDNA probe for the HPV biosensor promises high sensitivity, specificity, selectivity, repeatability, low fluid consumption, and will be useful in mini-size diagnostic devices for cervical cancer detection.