Vol. 1 No. 2 April - September, 2008
Editor in chief : Director’s Message: INFECTION, the newsletter of National
Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), is still in its
G. B. Nair neonatal stages. At this stage, the newsletter requires to be nurtured
with care so that it grows into a useful and vibrant contribution. One
Editors : of the principal reasons to bring out a newsletter, among the myriad
already existing, is to use an informal medium to disseminate
K. K. Banerjee information of the activities of NICED. The activities would include
T. Biswas events that have taken place in the preceding six months and events
N. S. Chatterjee that will take place in the next six months and also to circulate
K. Sarkar technical information of some of our research activities that would be
S. Samanta useful to the practising clinician and to the public at large. We also
wish to use this medium to disseminate information of recent
Contents : outbreaks of diarrhoea that NICED has examined and outbreaks that
occur across the country and the region. Stylistically, we have
1. Message from Editor-in- endeavored to keep the presentation and language simple and easy to
chief understand and different from annual reports, technical reports and
2. Scientists’ column other reports of that creed. Our goal here is to disseminate
3. News corner- highlights scientifically useful information to as large a populace as possible. As
of surveillance data with any venture, there is always scope for improvement and
4. Events therefore please do not hesitate to let us know areas where we can
5. Seminars improve or on topics that we should emphasize on.
6. Forthcoming events
7. Papers presented abroad G. Balakrish Nair, PhD, FNA, FNASc, FTWAS
8. Awards received
students and faculties
9. Addition to Faculty We are happy to launch the first issue of the NICED Newsletter,
10. Publications
11. Superannuation of staff
Scientist’s column
Avianuenza (Bird Flu)
Vibriophages: Applications in therapy and bacteriology
Viruses are genetic parasites that survive and multiply in animal cells and often cause life-threatening diseases like
hepatitis, influenza and AIDS with which all of us are familiar. Bacteriophages are also viruses, but they are
specific for bacteria. According to a hypothesis about the origin of viruses, they evolved from more complicated
forms of life by the loss of all protoplasm unnecessary to the peculiar mode of existence of bacteriophages have
chosen and it is possible that animal viruses and bacteriophages are derived from a common progenitor. Studies on
phages of Vibrio cholerae O1 have been of historical interest. The bacteriophage was discovered by Felix
d’Herelle, in the early part of the 20th century and the name bacteriophage was proposed to imply that phages eat or
devour bacteria. The phages had been used earlier for the confirmatory diagnosis of V.cholerae O1 infection. They
are still being used for the differentiation of classical and ElTor biotypes of V.cholerae O1. In countries where
cholera is endemic, V.cholerae O1 bacteriophages (i.e. vibriophages) have been detected in sewage water and
served as strain markers. The phages were used for typing of V.cholerae classical, O1 and O139 strains. In
countries where cholera exhibits a seasonal behavior characterized by fluctuations in incidence, environmental
surveillance can play an important role in cholera control. It has been suggested that surveillance by detecting
V.cholerae O1 bacteria and vibriophages in sewage water may be a feasible means of predicting outbreaks of
cholera.
Phage Therapy
Phages are estimated to be the most widely distributed and diverse entities in the biosphere. Phage therapy has
been used for over 60 years as an alternative to antibiotics in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. When
antibiotics were discovered in 1941 and marketed widely in the USA and Europe, Western scientists mostly lost
interest in further use and study of phage therapy for some time. Even after 1940s, Russian scientists continued to
develop already successful phage therapy to treat the wounds of soldiers in field hospitals during World War II.
However, due to the scientific barriers of the Cold War, this knowledge was not translated and disseminated across
the world. Ernest Hankin, a British bacteriologist, reported the presence of marked antibacterial activity against V.
cholerae in the waters of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India. He suggested that an unidentified substance
(which passed through fine porcelain filters and was heat labile) was responsible for this phenomenon and for
limiting the spread of cholera epidemics. Almost twenty years after Hankin’s observation, Frederick Twort from
England, gave a hypothesis that it may be a virus. During 1925, d’Herelle’s report of treating four cases of bubonic
plague with antiplague phage drew attention towards phage therapy. He latter visited India and worked on phage
therapy of plague at the Haffkine Institute, Bombay (Mumbai). The disease cholera caused by V. cholerae is an
ideal test case for therapy with phages and effective vaccines are still not available. In late 1960s, the World Health
Organization (WHO) set up an international trial of phage therapy for cholera in Dhaka. This trial was designed
according to the widely accepted international standards and conducted with the support and under the supervision
of the National Institute of Health, USA. In several WHO sponsored studies in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in
the 1970s, bacteriophage therapy was compared with tetracycline as the therapeutic agent. It was reported that very
high dose phage therapy was comparable to tetracycline in reducing the excretion of vibrios in the stool. A study
was conducted in this institute on phage therapy. A Removable Intestinal Tie Adult Rabbit Diarrhoea (RITARD)
model was used to investigate possible exploitation of bacteriophages as a biocontrol agent to eliminate the
pathogen V. cholerae in the gut. Rabbit treated with cocktail phages showed 100-fold less infectious cells
compares to the untreated control rabbit. Histological results also supported our findings.
Safety
A potential benefit of phage therapy is freedom from the severe adverse effects of antibiotics. Antibiotics target
both pathogenic microorganisms and normal microflora. As a result, the microbial balance in the patient is
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disturbed and may lead to serious secondary infections. This is not possible in phage therapy. Another benefit of
phage therapy is that although bacteria are able to develop resistance to phages the resistance might be easier to
overcome. Bacteriophages are often very specific, targeting only one or a few strains of bacteria. Antibiotics
usually kill both harmful bacteria and useful bacteria such as those facilitating food digestion. The specificity of
bacteriophages might reduce the chance that useful bacteria are killed when fighting an infection. Lysogenic
bacteriophages, which integrate their genetic material (DNA) in the bacterial chromosome, are not generally used
therapeutically. This group can act as a way for bacteria to exchange DNA and this can help spread antibiotic
resistance or even, theoretically, can make the avirulent genotype of V. cholerae pathogenic. Although much work
remains to be done on the efficacy of phage therapy in outbreaks of cholera, reports from many countries suggest
that phage therapy might have prospect for eliminating or reducing the use of antibiotics in cholera.
Phage Typing Study
From early days, one major practical use of phages was for bacterial identification through a process called phage
typing – the use of patterns of sensitivity to a specific battery of phages to precisely identify microbial strains.
Phages adsorb to specific receptor sites on the bacterial cell wall. In gram-negative bacteria, the receptors have
been identified as protein and lipopolysaccharide components of the outer membrane layer surrounding the
peptidoglycan. A particular phage or group of phages will adsorb to specific site and different phages will adsorb
to different sites. Thus, on the surface of a given bacterial cell a variety of different receptors are present, each type
being represented in a large number of copies. Despite more than a century of study, cholera remains an important
cause of morbidity and mortality and still presents a devastating global problem. Among the several typing
methods, phage typing is one of the important and useful methods for the identification and differentiation of
V.cholerae strains. The use of bacteriophages as a method of strain differentiation has contributed greatly to the
understanding of the epidemiology of the disease cholera. S. Mukerjee initiated a study on the classical biotype of
V. cholerae in Kolkata in early 1950s. The replacement of the classical biotype by ElTor biotype rendered this
scheme obsolete since the classical biotype disappeared from India during 1960s. The last case of classical cholera
isolated at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata was from Baroda in India in
the year 1980. The internationally recognized phage typing scheme of Basu and Mukerjee (1968) includes five
phages (I, II, III, IV, and V) by which V.cholerae O1 biotype ElTor strains can be differentiated into six different
phage types. Phage typing has been routinely performed at NICED, Kolkata since 1968. Limitations and
restrictions of this scheme led to the development of a new phage typing scheme at the NICED with the help of
newly isolated phages for V.cholerae O1. The scheme was found to be highly effective and could be widely
adopted for phage typing of V.cholerae O1 biotype ElTor. The emergence of toxigenic V.cholerae O139 led to the
development of an effective phage typing scheme for this organism. A total of five newly isolated phages lytic to
V.cholerae O139 strains, differing from each other and also from O1 phages, were included in this scheme. It was
observed that these two schemes were highly efficient and widely adopted for phage typing of V. cholerae O1 and
O139. As a WHO collaborating center for diarrhoeal diseases research and training, NICED is a national reference
laboratory and receives per year 1000-1500 strains of V. cholerae from 30-40 institutions of India and abroad for
biotyping, serotyping and phage typing. In India, constant monitoring using phage typing of the isolated strains of
V.cholerae O1 is very important. Any noticeable change in this phenotypic marker may raise the suspicion of
emergence of a new clone. The phages play an important role as a potential predictor of outbreaks of the disease,
which serves as an early useful signal for monitoring control measures of cholera.
Avian influenza is an infection caused by avian (bird) influenza (flu) viruses. There are many subtypes of type
influenza virus depending on changes in surface proteins (hemagglutinin [HA] and neuraminidase [NA]).
There are 16 HA subtypes and 9 NA subtypes and each combination represent a different subtype.
All known subtypes of influenza a viruses can infect birds. These
influenza humarldwide outbreak of disease) could begin. No one can predict when a pandemic mig
in the viruses occur naturally among birds. Wild birds,
ht occur. However, experts fromd are watching theducks, and swanvery closely and regular surveillance is
particularly the aquatic birds such as water fowl, H5N1 situation
ongoing.
can act as hosts for carrying the influenza viruses in the intestines.
Typically, wild birds do not become sick when they are infected
but can spread it to other birds or animals by viruses3 shed in
faeces, nasal secretions or dropped feathers.
Avian influenza subtype H5N1 virus, highly pathogenic virus is
Mamta Chawla-Sarkar, Division of Virology
News corner
The major pathogens recorded in
News corner
the surveillance of enteric pathogens
Prevalence of enteric pathogens among diarehoeal patiens among acute diarrhoeal patients at the
Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kolkata are
Rota virus, Vibrio cholerae O1, Shigella
spp, Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium
spp. Prevalence of Rota virus, V. cholerae
O1, and G. lamblia were maximum during
winter (December-February), monsoon
(July-August) and summer (March-June),
respectively. There is no such seasonality
for shigellae and Crytosporidium spp.
Compared to previous years, the
antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of V.
cholerae O1 has changed as most of the
isolates were resistant to tetracycline
(72%) but all the isolates were susceptible
to chloramphenicol. Reduced susceptibility
was noticed with ciprofloxacin (69%) and
resistance to other antimicrobials followed
the trend as observed during previous
years. Multi antimicrobial resistance is
being observed among many Shigella spp,
especially towards fluoroquinolones.
Influenza viruses are dynamic and continuously
evolving. Influenza viruses can change in two
different ways: antigenic drift and antigenic shift.
The segmented genome allows influenza A viruses
from different species to mix and create a new
influenza A virus if viruses from two different
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species infect the same person or animal. For
example, if a pig or human is infected with a
human and an avian influenza A virus at the same
Events: April-September, 2008
Bioinformatics Workshop: Biomedical Informatics Centre of the Institute organized a two day workshop during
22-23 May, 2008. The aim of the workshop was to share knowhow of the techniques and tools of Bioinformatics in
present day research. Ten candidates including scientists, research scholars and M.Tech students were selected for
the workshop. Five participants were selected from NICED and others were from various academic institutes like
NIT- Rourkela, Central Forensic Science Laboratory, School of Tropical Medicine, IPGME&R, Kolkata and
Calcutta University. Two eminent bioinformaticians Prof. Subhasish Mukherjee of Calcutta University and Prof.
Dhananjay Bhattacharyya of the Biophysics Division of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata were invited to
deliver lectures in the workshop.
Prof. Subhasish Mukherjee delivered a lecture on “Bioinformatics, a Machine Learning Approach” on first day of
the workshop and Prof. Dhananjay Bhattacharyya delivered a lecture on “non-canonical base pair in tRNA” on the
second day.
Staff members of Biomedical Informatics Centre of the Institute demonstrated various bioinformatics tools and
techniques used for genome sequence analysis and protein modeling. Finally, extensive hands-on training was
provided to all the participants.
Closing ceremony of JICA –NICED collaborative project on “Prevention of diarrhoeal diseases” : The
closing ceremony of JICA-NICED project on “Prevention of Diarrhoeal Diseases” was held at ICMR Building at
I.D & B.G Hospital Campus on 10 June 2008. The guests of honour were Dr. S.K Bhattacharya, Additional
Director General, ICMR, Prof. N. K Ganguly, former Director General, ICMR, Mr. Sanjiv Datta, Financial
Advisor, ICMR, Mr. Mitsuo Takamatsu, Senior Consul, Consulate General of Japan, Kolkata, Mr. Tomoyuki Fujii,
Resident representative of JICA India office, New Delhi and Prof. Yoshifumi Takeda, Former Chief Adviser,
JICA-NICED collaborative project. Dr. G.B. Nair, Director NICED could not attend the ceremony.
The welcome address was delivered by Dr. S. K. Bhattacharya, ADG, ICMR. Among the notable speakers were
Prof. N. K Ganguly, Former DG, ICMR, Mr. Sanjiv Datta, FA, Prof. Y. Takeda, former Chief Adviser, JICA-
NICED collaborative project, Mr. Mitsuo Takamatsu, Senior Consul, Consulate General of Japan, Kolkata Mr.
Tomoyuki Fujii, Resident Representative of JICA India office, New Delhi,
In the following session, the chief achievements of this project were highlighted in a brief, informative and lucid
presentation by Dr. S. Chakrabarti, Scientist F. This lecture was followed by presentations of salient achievements
in microbiological aspects by Dr. T Ramamurthy, Scientist E. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by Dr. P.
Dutta, Scientist E
During the post lunch session a video conference was held from JICA granted building with ICMR heads quarter
New Delhi. Dignitaries from NICED, Kolkata were Dr. S.K Bhattacharya, Additional Director General, ICMR,
Mr. Sanjiv Datta, Financial Advisor, ICMR, Prof. Y. Takeda, former Chief Adviser, JICA-NICED collaborative
project, Dr. S. Chakroborty DD (SG), Dr. A. Palit Deputy Director, Div. of Training & Extn. and Dr. Lalit Kant,
Senior DDG, ICMR, Dr. (Mrs.) Rashmi. Arora, Senior DDG, ICMR, Dr. (Mrs.) Deepali. Mukherjee, Senior DDG
of ICMR Hqs, New Delhi.
5
Meeting for the initiation of a study to understand Economic Burden of Rotavirus Diarrhoea: The ICMR-
CDC funded research project on “Establishment of hospital based surveillance for rotavirus disease and strains” is
an ongoing project that started on 1 July 2005 and has completed three years at present. The rationale of the study
is to monitor the pediatric diarrhea cases for active surveillance of different strains of rotaviruses according to their
G and P type nature across several centres spread across different regions of the country. A meeting was held at
National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases on 26 August 2008 to initiate an analysis of the economic
burden of rotavirus disease by taking details of expenditure related to treatment cost in the hospital, household
expenditure related to caring for the patient during the hospital stay etc. The meeting was attended by Dr Rashmi
Arora, DDG[SG] from ICMR Head Quarters, Prof Dr Gagandeep Kang, PI from Christian Medical College,
Vellore, Dr Shobha Chitambar, PI from National Institute of Virology, Pune and Dr G.B. Nair, Dr Triveni
Krishnan, PI from Kolkata, Dr Mihir Bhattacharya, Co PI from Kolkata, Dr Phalguni Dutta, Dr Utpala Mitra, Dr
Alok Deb, Dr Shovan Das[Project SRF], Dr Sourav Chowdhury [Project SRF], Mr B.Ganesh and Dr S.M.
Nataraju from National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata.
Felicitation of the employees on completion of 25 years of service: ICMR felicitates its employees who
complete their 25 years of service in recognition of their service in the Council. Dr. G. B. Nair, Director of the
6
Institute and Dr. Sekhar Chakrabarti, Scientist F, felicitated the employees of the Institute with flower bouquet,
memento, a watch and a certificate on 28 August 2008.
Scientific Advisory Committee Meeting: The Scientific Advisory Committee Meeting of the Institute was held
during 1-2 September 2008. The meeting was chaired by Prof. N. K. Ganguly, former Director General, ICMR. In
the meeting discussions were held on the ongoing and future projects of the scientists of the Institute.
XII National Expo 2008:
National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases
was one of the participants at the XII National Expo
2008 held during 5 – 10, September 2008 in Central
Park, Salk Lake, Kolkata amongst nearly sixty other
representations from various academic and industrial
central government organizations and state level
organizations. The Expo was organised by the Central
Calcutta Science & Culture Organisation for Youth.
The colorful displays attracted hundreds of young
students for whom the displays were very informative
and provided a very useful learning experience. The
seminars that were conducted during the morning and
afternoon hours at the venue of the expo also
attracted many ardent listeners. The rich heritage of
our country was show cased in several cultural
programmes; several competitions that were conducted during the expo provided youngsters to display their talents in
drawing, recitation etc. A colourful valedictory ceremony was held on the last day to thank the participants and
distribute certificates of appreciation and a memento as a token of love and affection.
Training Mission in Cholera Case Management and Research September 7 and 15, 2008 :The training
mission in Cholera Case Management and Research, jointly hosted by National Institute of Cholera and Enteric
Diseases (NICED), Bose Institute and Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Kolkata, was held during 7-15
September 2008. The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and National Institutes of
7
Health (NIH), USA sponsored this training mission for the scientists working in the field of diarrheal diseases
research. The aim was to reach out to the researchers who are working in the area of diarrheal diseases in
particular, and other infectious diseases, in general. The objectives of the training included exchange of knowledge
and experience, and develop collaborations that will hopefully blossom into a new era of collaborative science in
the fields of diarrheal diseases and other infectious diseases research with the understanding of each others'
perspectives. Twenty nine participants from Bangladesh, Canada, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, USA, and Vietnam
joined the programme.
During the course of the training, participants visited a number of hospitals at Kolkata including Infectious
Diseases Hospital and Beliaghata General Hospital (ID&BG), Kolkata, Robert Koch’s laboratory at Medical
College Kolkata and the laboratory at IPGMER, Kolkata where Ronald Ross worked. They also visited Mother
Teresa’s tomb and the other missionary run centers like Titagarh Leprosy hospital to expose themselves to the
reality of the infectious diseases and its management.
Scientific community of the three host institutes joined their hands to have two poster sessions which fostered
exchange of ideas, thoughts and possible collaboration with scientists working abroad in the areas of mutual
interest. Other scientific activities included four hot topic sessions that covered areas spanning basic research to
translational research under the scope of diarrheal diseases. Participants got the scope to visit Mangrove forest of
Sunderbans and remote villages of that area to have an understanding of the management of infectious diseases at
the remote areas and to see the skill of the hospital staff who manage large numbers of patients.
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Seminars: April-September 2008
Title Invited Speaker Date
Dynamics of Hyaluronan- Prof. Kasturi Dutta 11 April, 2008
Binding Protein (HABP1) (School of Environmental
Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru
mediated signaling: cell death University, New Delhi)
and survival
Interdisciplinary wetland and Dr. Ruben Jose Lara 22 May, 2008
marine research in the tropics: (Center for Tropical Marine
Ecology, Bremen, Germany)
current investigation at the
center for tropical marine
ecology and prospective for
partnership
Mechanisms of interferon action Dr. Srikanta Dash 14 July, 2008
and resistance: lessons learned (Associate Professor of
Pathology and Director of
from HCV cell cultures Hepatitis Research
Laboratory, Tulane University
Health Sciences Center,New
Orleans, Louisiana )
Interfacing ion channels to Dr. Randy Duran 17 July, 2008
microelectronics (Professor of Chemistry
University of Florida, USA)
Development of a rapid test for Dr. Uta Praekelt 31 July, 2008
enteropathogenic E.coli (Department of Genetics,
University of Leicester, UK.)
Studies on etiological agents of Dr. Rittwika 1 August, 2008
viral diarrhoea, with special Bhattacharya
reference to human astroviruses (Post Doctoral Fellow
and human picobirnaviruses Pennsylvania State
University)
Role of remote sensing & GIS Dr. A. Jeyaram 21 August, 2008
for impact modeling and risk Head & Regional
Coordinator-VRC
assessment of diseases Regional Remote Sensing
Service Centre
(ISRO & NNRMS)
IIT Campus,
Kharagpur- 721 302
Molecular evolution and Dr. O. Colin Stine 29 September,
epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae University of Maryland 2008
School of Medicine
Baltimore, USA
9
Forthcoming Events
• 13th International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Pacific Rim will be held at Kolkata, India
during 12-15 January 2009. It is a part of US-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Programme (CMPS) on
Enteric Diseases. NICED will host the programme.
• Foundation Day of the Institute will be celebrated on 18 February 2009
Papers presented abroad
• Dr. Sandipan Ganguly, Scientist C, presented an oral presentation entitled "Incidence and molecular diagnosis
of Giardia and other parasites" in DMID International Research in Infectious Diseases Meeting (ICTDR
Annual Meeting) in Bethesda, Maryland, USA in May, 2008
Awards
PhD awardee during April-September 2008:
Name of Name of the Division Title of the thesis University Year of
the superviser PhD
scholar awarded
Rittwika T. Krishnan Virology Studies on etiological agents Jadavpur 2008
Bhattacharya of viral diarrhoea with University
special reference to human
Dr. Souvik T. N. Naik Virology Studies on molecular Jadavpur 2008
Ghosh epidemiology and genomic University
diversity of animal
Amit Ghosh A. Pal rotaviruses
Studies on Jadavpur 2008
Pathophysiology enterotoxigenicity of non- University
toxigenic Vibrio cholerae
Non-O1, Non-O139 strains
Honours
• Dr. S. Ganguly, Scientist C, acted as a resource person on antibiotic resistance in an AIR interview in May,
2008.
• Dr. S. Ganguly acted as resource person & technical expert in Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy and
Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging in Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India in Sep, 2008.
Achievements
• Raikamal Ghosh, pursuing her PhD in Microbiology from the Institute is the first recipient of ASM Asia
Fellowship Programme.
10
• Mr. Pradip Kumar Ghosal, Maintenance Engineer, NICED has been selected as Graduate Member of the
Institute of Engineers (India)
Addition to Faculty
• Dr. Samiran Panda joined this Institute as Scientist E in the Epidemiology Division.
Publications
Corresponding authors are from the Institute
• Barman S., Hens D. K., Koley H., Niyogi S. K., and Kumar R. (2008). Chromosomal and plasmid encoded drug
resistances of a Klebsiella pneumoniae UTI 2 strain isolated from urine of a post-operative patient. World J
Microbiol Biotechnol. 24: 2693-2697
• Dutta S., Sur D., Manna B., Sen B., Bhattacharya M., Bhattacharya S. K., et al. (2008). Emergence of highly
fluoroquinolone-resistant Salmonella enterica serovar typhi in community-based fever surveillance from
kolkata, India. Int J Antimicrob Agents; 31:387-389.
• Mukherjee G, Banerjee KK, Biswas T. (2008) Oligomerization of Vibrio cholerae hemolysin induces CXCR3
upregulation and activation of B-1a cell.Cell Mol Immunol.; 5:231-234.
• Nair, G. B., & Takeda, Y. (2008). Cholera: the need to translate research knowledge into effective preventive
and control measures. Future Microbiol; 3:379-381.
• Nayak, M. K., Balasubramanian, G., Sahoo, G. C., Bhattacharya, R., Vinje, J., Kobayashi, N., et al. (2008).
Detection of a novel intergenogroup recombinant norovirus from kolkata, India. Virol; 377:117-123.
• Pazhani G. P., Niyogi S. K., Singh A. K., Sen B., Taneja N., Kundu M., Yamasaki S., Ramamurthy T. (2008)
Molecular characterization of multidrug-resistant Shigella species isolated from epidemic and endemic cases of
shigellosis in India. J Med Microbiol.; 57:856-63.
• Saha D. R., Rajendran, K., Ramamurthy T., Nandy, R. K., & Bhattacharya S. K. (2008). Intestinal parasitism
and Vibrio cholerae infection among diarrhoeal patients in kolkata, India. Epidemiol Infect; 136:661-664.
• Saha S., Chowdhury P., Pal A., & Chakrabarti M. K. (2008). Downregulation of human colon carcinoma cell
(COLO-205) proliferation through PKG-MAP kinase mediated signaling cascade by E. coli heat stable
enterotoxin (STa), a potent anti-angiogenic and anti-metastatic molecule. J Appl Toxicol; 28: 475-483.
• Sarkar K., Bal B., Mukherjee R., Chakraborty S., Saha S., Ghosh A., et al. (2008). Sex-trafficking, violence,
negotiating skill, and HIV infection in brothel-based sex workers of eastern India, adjoining Nepal, Bhutan, and
Bangladesh. J Health Popul. Nutr; 26: 223-231.
• Udden S. M. N., Zahid M. S. H., Biswas K., Ahmad Q. S., Cravioto A., Nair G. B., et al. (2008). Acquisition of
classical CTX prophage from Vibrio cholerae O141 by el tor strains aided by lytic phages and chitin-induced
competence. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA; 105: 11951-11956.
11
Collaborative research projects
• Alam M. M., Kobayashi N., Ishino, M., Nagashima S., Paul, S. K., Chawla-Sarkar M., et al. (2008). Identical
rearrangement of NSP3 genes found in three independently isolated virus clones derived from mixed infection
and multiple passages of rotaviruses. Archives Virol.; 153: 555-559.
• Barman N. N., Deb R., Ramamurthy T., Sharma R. K., Borah P., Wani S. A., et al. (2008). Molecular
characterization of shiga like toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) isolates from pigs oedema. Indian J
Med. Research; 127:602-606.
• Bairagya B. B., Bhattacharya P., Bhattacharya S. K., Dey B., Dey U., Ghosh T., et al. (2008). Genetic variation
and haplotype structures of innate immunity genes in eastern India. Infect. Genetics Evol; 8:360-366.
• Chattoraj P., Ganguly T., Nandy R. K., & Sau S. (2008). Overexpression of a delayed early gene hlg1 of
temperate mycobacteriophage L1 is lethal to both M. smegmatis and E. coli. J Biochem Mol Biol; 41:363-368.
• Hisatsune J., Nakayama M., Isomoto H., Kurazono H., Mukaida N., Mukhopadhyay A. K., Azuma T., Yamaoka
Y., Sap J., Yamasaki E., Yahiro K., Moss J., Hirayama T. (2008) Molecular characterization of Helicobacter
pylori VacA induction of IL-8 in U937 cells reveals a prominent role for p38MAPK in activating transcription
factor-2, cAMP response element binding protein, and NF-kappaB activation. J Immunol.;180:5017-5027
• Kam K. M., Luey C. K., Parsons M. B., Cooper K. L., Nair G. B., Alam M., Islam M. A., Cheung D. T., Chu Y.
W., Ramamurthy T., Pazhani G. P., Bhattacharya S. K., Watanabe H., Terajima J., Arakawa E.,
Ratchtrachenchai O. A., Huttayananont S., Ribot E. M., Gerner-Smidt P., Swaminathan B., Vibrio
parahaemolyticus PulseNet PFGE Protocol Working Group. (2008) Evaluation and validation of a PulseNet
standardized pulsed-field gel electrophoresis protocol for subtyping Vibrio parahaemolyticus: an international
multicenter collaborative study. J Clin Microbiol. ; 46:2766-73.
• Mahalanabis D., Lopez A. L., Sur D., Deen J., Manna B., Kanungo S., et al. (2008). A randomized, placebo-
controlled trial of the bivalent killed, whole-cell, oral cholera vaccine in adults and children in a cholera
endemic area in kolkata, India. PLoS ONE; 3(6)
• Miyoshi S., Nitanda Y., Fujii K., Kawahara K., Li T., Maehara Y., Ramamurthy T., Takeda Y., Shinoda S.
(2008) Differential gene expression and extracellular secretion of the collagenolytic enzymes by the pathogen
Vibrio parahaemolyticus. FEMS Microbiol Lett.; 283:176-81.
• Morita M., Ohnishi M., Arakawa E., Bhuiyan N. A., Nusrin S., Alam M., Siddique A. K., Qadri F., Izumiya H.,
Nair G. B., Watanabe H. (2008) Development and validation of a mismatch amplification mutation PCR assay
to monitor the dissemination of an emerging variant of Vibrio cholerae O1 biotype El Tor. Microbiol Immunol.
;52:314-7.
• Ochiai R. L., Acosta C. J., Danovaro-Holliday M. C., Baiqing D., Bhattacharya S. K., Agtini M. D., et al.
(2008). A study of typhoid fever in five Asian countries: Disease burden and implications for controls. Bull.
World Health Organ; 86:260-268.
• Shammas M. A., Koley H., Bertheau R. C., Neri P., Fulciniti M., Tassone P., Blotta S.,Protopopov A.,
Mitsiades C., Batchu R. B., Anderson K. C., Chin A., Gryaznov S., Munshi N. C. (2008) Telomerase inhibitor
GRN163L inhibits myeloma cell growth in vitro and in vivo.Leukemia ;22:1410-8.
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• Shima K., Kawamura N., Hinenoya A., Sugimoto N., Wu Y., Asakura M., Nishimura K., Nair G. B., Yamasaki
S. (2008) Rapid culture-free identification and molecular typing of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli by
PCR-RFLP. Microbiol Immunol.; 52:310-3.
• Stine O. C., Alam M., Tang L., Nair G. B., Siddique A. K., Faruque S. M., Huq A., Colwell R., Sack R. B.,
Morris J. G. Jr. (2008) Seasonal cholera from multiple small outbreaks, rural Bangladesh. Emerg Infect Dis.;
14:831-3.
• Talukder K. A., Aslam M., Islam Z., Azmi I. J., Dutta D. K., Hossain S., Nur-E-Kamal A., Nair G. B., Cravioto
A., Sack D. A., Endtz H. P. (2008) Prevalence of virulence genes and cytolethal distending toxin production in
Campylobacter jejuni isolates from diarrheal patients in Bangladesh. J Clin Microbiol.; 46:1485-8.
Book Chapter:
• Nair G.B., Mukhopadhyay A.K., Safa A., Takeda Y. Emerging hybrid variants of Vibrio cholerae O1 In Vibrio
cholerae: genomics and molecular biology/ edited by Faruque S.M. and Nair G. B.- UK: Caister Academic,
2008
• Ramamurthy T. Antibiotic resistance in Vibrio cholerae In Vibrio cholerae: genomics and molecular biology/
edited by Faruque S.M. and Nair G. B.- UK: Caister Academic, 2008
Superannuation of staff
In the period April-September 2008, Dr.Phalguni Dutta, Scientist F, Mr. Amitabha Ghosh, Technical Officer, Mr.
Naresh, Ghosh, Senior Technical Assistant, Mr. Sambunath Goswami, Senior Technical Assistant retired from
service. The Director and all the staff of the NICED fondly recalled their contributions to the growth and
development of the Institute and wished them a happy and prosperous post-retirement life.
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