Kanjaksha Ghosh

Retired

Plasmodium vivax malaria poses a major global health challenge, fueled by the parasite’s ability to establish chronic infections via dormant liver hypnozoites that enable immune evasion and show transmission resilience. A key virulence determinant of P. vivax blood-stage infection is the ligand-receptor interaction of infected erythrocytes mediated...

Factor XIII deficiency is an inherited bleeding disorder, which is rare, ∼1 in 5,000,000, while its combination with an intellectual disability is seldom. It is mostly a result of genetic mutation caused due to consanguineous marriage. Due to deficiency of fibrin stabilising factor, a clot formed is weak and leads to fibrinolysis, which is evident...

Background With tremendous advances in medical and allied sciences and India passing through epidemiological transition, the need for overhauling undergraduate medical education was felt in the past 30–40 years. Around the world, both developed and developing nations felt similar needs. The present review evolved from the quest of how to overhaul m...

Fermented papaya preparation (FPP) is the source of antioxidants that may help in reducing the complications associated with oxidative stress and may improve the quality of life in sickle cell disease patients. In this study, we assessed the in vitro effect of FPP on sickled red blood cells (RBCs) using oxidative stress markers and observed that FP...

Homoeopathic medicines alleviated Schizophrenia symptoms in Haemophilia B patient

Purpose There is an increasing interest in the contribution of women in science and various branches of medicine. Hematology is a recently developed specialty. The purpose of this review was to explore the contribution of pioneer women hematologists of India in the last century when the subject was developing across the world including India. Meth...

Introduction: Monoclonal antibodies Ab (MoAb) are increasingly becoming part of therapeutic armamentarium for haematologists and haemato-oncologists. This review brings together commonly used antibodies in one place for brevity and novel understanding. Areas covered: Pubmed and Scopus databases were explored focusing on MoAb in clinical haematol...

Background: Dysregulated serum levels of Mannan binding lectin (MBL) has a probable role in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) pathogenesis. Objective: To evaluate the association between serum MBL levels in SLE patients from western India with the severity of disease Methods: SLE patients (n=70) from Western India were included. Based on MBL le...

Introduction: : D- Dimer levels from peripheral blood are increasingly used to assess various pathological conditions. Initially an area for haematologists, now this analyte is evaluated more extensively from many specialities of medicine. Covid-19 infection has not only added a new dimension to D-Dimer level assessment in this disease but has als...

Sickle cell disease (SCD) poses considerable public health problems in India. This study was undertaken to understand the clinical course of SCD among children identified during newborn screening programmes in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh where the frequency of the HbS gene is high. A total of 8,916 newborn babies 8,411 from Gujarat and 505 from Madh...

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a hematopoietic stem cell disorder that occurs because of t(9;22)(q34;q11) translocations. Complex translocations have been reported in CML. We report a novel 5-way translocation 46,XY,t(9;11;13;19;22)(9q34.12;11p11.12;13q21.31;19q13.12;22q11.21) using GTG banding, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and spectral k...

Afibrinogenemia is an extremely rare inherited bleeding disorder. Less than 100 such cases have been described from India. Beta-thalassemia carrier status (trait) is common in many Indian casts and religious groups; hence, a rare combination of these two conditions can be expected. Here, we report one such case treated solely using homeopathic medi...

Background There is paucity of data related to the prevalence of the rare blood group antigens amongst South Gujarat blood donor population due to unavailability and high cost of antisera. Therefore it is difficult to screen donors for such rare antigens by gold standard haemagglutination assay. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) of Ina and...

The quantity of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) required for a particular therapy demands their subsequent expansion through ex vivo culture. During in vitro multiplication, they undergo replicative senescence which may alter their genetic stability. Therefore, this study was aimed to analyze cellular, molecular, and chromosomal alterations i...

COVID-19 infection causes substantial changes in blood coagulation. Understanding this process helps management of the patient with least injury through therapeutic misadventurism. At the heart of the disease process, there is widespread endothelial and pulmonary alveolar epithelial cell damage related to the entry and proliferation of the virus an...

Background Haemophilia is a high cost low volume disease. Resource limited nations (RLN) usually spend very little on health budget and most of it is spent in dealing with common ailments. Clotting products constitute more than 90 percent of the total cost of haemophilia care. The manner in which these products can be made accessible for persons wi...

Introduction: Blood storage centres in remote areas of the country was started to serve the patients in those locations. Present study analyses the the utilisation of blood from such storage centres under one regional transfusion centre in south Gujrat. Materials and methods: In this retrospective study amount of blood requested, utilised, major...

Background and objectives: Platelet concentrates (PCs) can be prepared in several different ways, and they can be stored over few days before the use. Regulated on activation, normal T cells expressed and secreted (RANTES) levels in these concentrates may vary depending on the type of preparation and duration of storage of this component. We measu...

Objectives Monoclonal antibodies (MAs) are increasingly becoming part of therapeutic armamentarium for hematologists and hemato-oncologists. There is paucity of review on majority of these antibodies in one place. The objective of this review is an attempt to fill the gap in paucity of review on majority of these monoclonal antibodies (MAs) in one...

The β-thalassemias and sickle cell disorders pose a considerable health burden in India. Of the more than 10,000 annual births of children with a severe hemoglobinopathy, only around 10.0% are managed optimally. Thus, genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis (PND) is a valid option for a large and diverse country. Our center was one of the first t...

Introduction: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic multi-system autoimmune disease with varied clinical presentations. Complement components are the major players in disease pathogenesis. This retrospective cross-sectional study was aimed at assessing the role of autoantibodies to these complement components and their association diseas...

Background Hepatitis‐E virus (HEV) is an emerging infectious threat to blood safety. The enormity of the transmission of HEV and its clinical consequence are issues currently under debate. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of HEV‐RNA in blood donors in western India. Materials and Methods We screened 13 050 blood donors for HEV using HEV...

Coronavirus disease 2019 infection produce a prothrombotic state. This is initiated through multiple pathways and is finally aggravated by cross talks with cytokine storm and neutrophil, platelet, complement activation. All these combine towards the second week of illness to produce thrombosis in the lung capillaries surrounding the alveolus produc...

Objectives This study evaluated the red blood cell (RBC) Lewis phenotypes by simple haemagglutination technique and molecular genotyping in healthy individuals. Background The expression of Lewis antigen on RBCs is dependent on the interaction of FUT3 and FUT2 genes. Complexity of the genetic control of Lewis antigen expression and the error‐prone...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a prototype autoimmune disease with unclear etiology. Several loci associated with genetic susceptibility for lupus have been described. However, it lacks reports on cytokine gene-gene interactions among SLE patients from Asian population. Epistasis interaction among single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of cy...

Background: The study aimed to look at alterations in expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) and their potential use as biomarkers in the pathogensis of SLE. Methods: SLE patients (n = 41) and healthy controls (n = 50) were recruited. Quantitative RT-PCR/ELISA assays were performed for expression of MM...

Aim: To investigate the possible association between MMP-2 (−1575 G/A, −1306 C/T) and its inhibitor TIMP-2 (−418 G/C) functional polymorphisms with development of severity in systemic lupus erythemato-sus (SLE) patients. Materials & methods: 150 SLE patients and matched healthy controls were recruited. Polymorphisms were detected by PCR-RFLP and se...

Covid 19 is a new beta corona virus which is driving the present pandemic across the world. The virus is highly transmissible through respiratory route with a Ro value varying between1.3-2.0. The virus is a direct strand RNA virus and is one of the largest viruses of RNA virus group. It has 11 open reading frame of which ORF 9-11 is involved in tra...

Background: Blood transfusion is a lifesaving therapy for patients with hemoglobinopathies. However, the need of frequent transfusion carries the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs). This study was aimed to determine the seroprevalence of Hep-B, Hep-C and HIV-1infections among the multi-transfused Beta-thalassemic patients and correla...

We disclose fabrication of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) surface functionalized with gelatin at different concentrations (G10/G20/G40 AgNPs) with average particle size ~ 200nm, bioconjugated with antisera antibodies (AsAb) of major and clinically significant blood groups (CSBG) at different titres from neat to 1:128. Bioconjugation by ionic interac...

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in cytokine genes including interleukin-10 have been described to play a vital role in the overall pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus. However, due to a lack of evidence from the Indian population, this study was conducted to analyse the possible influence of interleukin-10 promoter polymorphisms over the d...

Introduction: Haemoglobinopathies are important causes of inherited disorders with substantial mortality and morbidity across the world. Therefore, proper utilisation of available screening and diagnostic techniques are important for its diagnosis and management. Areas covered: In this review the authors attempt to: summarise clinical presentations...

Thalassaemias are the most common inherited autosomal recessive single gene disorders characterised by chronic hereditary haemolytic anaemia due to absence or reduced synthesis of one or more of the globin chains. Haemoglobin E (HbE)-β-thalassaemia is the genotype responsible for approximately one-half of all cases of severe β-thalassaemia worldwid...

Background: In idiopathic autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA haemolytic antibodies are directed to every type of red cellsWestern blot studies have shown antibody positivity towards red cell anion channel complex which also includes band 4.2 a protein with similarities to tissue trans glutaminase. Objective: Evaluation of AIHA for anti tissue t...

Objective: To evaluate the combination of plasma activated endothelial microparticles (CD62e), serum Copeptin (CPP) and placental growth factor (PlGF) levels at 18-23 weeks of gestation for prediction of preeclampsia (PE) in primigravid women. Methods: This was a nested case-control study from a prospective cohort of 1115 primigravid women atten...

Background: Medical colleges should be the engines of medical research in India however sadly it is far from that. Materials and methods: Articles published in English literature from 1990's were reviewed along with personal experience of more than 30 years of interacting with various medical institutions of India. Results: Six to ten medical...

Several studies have demonstrated associations between interleukin-18 polymorphisms and risk of systemic lupus erythematosus in different populations except one of Indian origin. We therefore investigated for the influence of interleukin-18 (-1297T/C, -607A/C, -137G/C; + 105A/C) polymorphisms on genetic susceptibility and clinical expression of the...

To develop an animal model for Indian strain Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. This model will allow one to study many facts of H. pylori infection in a more controlled manner. Mongolian gerbils were orogastric inoculated with two different Indian strains of H. pylori at different time points. Animals were sacrificed and looked for the pre...

An otherwise healthy male child of 9 years presented with paroxysmal fever and diffuse abdominal pain along with loss of appetite and nausea lasting for 3-4days every 4-6 weeks for last 2 years. He also has stretchable skin and hypermobile joint which he inherited from his mother who never suffered any paroxysmal attack of the kind. Work up for acu...

Thalassaemia are the most common inherited autosomal recessive single gene disorders characterized by chronic hereditary haemolytic anaemia due to the absence or reduced synthesis of one or more of the globin chains. Haemoglobin E-β thalassaemia is the genotype responsible for approximately one half of all severe beta-thalassaemia worldwide. This s...

Genetic structure of the Indian population is influenced by waves of several immigrants from West Eurasia. Therefore, genetic information of various ethnic groups is valuable to understand their origins, the pattern of migration as well as the genetic relationship between them. No genetic data is available on Pathare Prabhu, which is a small indige...

Background & objectives: Sickle cell disease (SCD) patients require red cell transfusion during different clinical complications of the disease. Such patients are at a high risk for developing alloantibody against red cell antigens. From India, there are limited data available on alloantibody formation in multiply transfused SCD patients. The prese...

Haemophilia is a high cost low volume disease. Being a relatively uncommon condition governments of the day are not very interested in developing comprehensive care for such a condition. Patient’s society where such kind of patients come together under one umbrella and fight for their rights and proper management of the condition has important role...

Aim: To investigate the possible association between MMP-9 (-1562 C/T) and TIMP-1 (372 T/C) polymorphism and inflammatory markers with disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Materials & methods: 150 SLE patients were recruited. Disease severity was assessed by SLEDAI (SLE disease activity index). The polymorphisms were...

Hematological abnormalities and altered vascular permeability are frequently encountered in Dengue virus infected patients, but the mechanisms that alter platelet–endothelium interactions remain incompletely understood. The DENV NS1 protein has been implicated in adverse disease outcomes. In the present study the role of NS1 protein in affecting th...

The master erythroid regulator KLF1,plays a pivotal role during erythroid lineage development by regulating the expression of many erythroid genes. Variations in the KLF1 gene are found to be associated with varied erythroid phenotypes. With the aim of determining the role of KLF1 gene variations in HbF induction and their genotype phenotype relati...

Introduction The hemoglobinopathies pose a significant health burden in India. Apart from the β thalassemias and sickle cell disorders, α thalassemias and structural hemoglobin variants are also common. Here we have reviewed the phenotypic and molecular diversity of hemoglobinopathies encountered at a referral center in western India over a period...

Background:Sickle cell anaemia is common amongst Tribal population of south Gujrat. Alloimmunisation in multitransfused sickle cell anaemia patient is 10 times commoner in these patients than beta Thalassemia major patients from regular blood donor communities. Study design & methodology: Red cell antigen typing of Rh (D,C,E,c,e ), Kell (K, k), Du...

Background: Extended phenotyping is one of the important method of reducing red cell alloimmunisation. Extended phenotyping of red cells from voluntary donors have many uses in addition to its application in population genetics. As there was very little data extended phenotyping on a cohort of Indian Voluntary blood donors this project was underta...

The present study was undertaken to investigate genetic variations present in the coding regions of the UGT1A1 gene among the Gilbert’s syndrome patients. Analysis of genetic variations was performed by direct DNA sequencing among the patients that do not have any polymorphic variations in the promoter regions of the UGT1A1 gene. We identified seve...

This study evaluated the effect of alpha thalassemia on the red cell indices and hemoglobin profiles of normal, sickle heterozygous and sickle homozygous newborn babies in central India where the sickle gene is linked to the Arab-Indian haplotype. 265 newborn babies were analysed with complete blood count and hemoglobin analysis on high performance...

Background: Lichen planus is a common chronically relapsing autoimmune skin condition with poorly understood etiology. Apart from cellular immunity, presence of various antibodies has been hypothesized. Various studies have found the presence of serum anti-nuclear antibody, anti-mitochondrial antibody, anti-desmoglein 1 and 3 antibodies, anti-kera...

Macrothrombocytopenia is being increasingly described across the globe. There is paucity of data on the prevalence of this condition from different parts of India. 10,047 healthy college students from the city of Surat in western India were investigated for macrothrombocytopenia i.e. those with Mean platelet Volume of > 11 fL and platelet count of...

Background: Hemarthrosis is a common clinical presentation of patients with severe and moderately severe hemophilia. Severe pain, swelling, and loss of function involving knee, ankle, elbow, and shoulder joints are commonly seen. In India, except for paracetamol and some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), opiate analgesics are not eas...

Inherited macrothrombocytopenia is increasingly being recognized as a relatively common condition. This descriptive review aims at focusing on the different areas of advancement that have taken place with this condition with particular reference to India. A pubmed search of articles between January 1990 and October 2017 with the key words-macrothro...

Background: Molecular bases of blood group systems, including Rh blood group, have been poorly studied in the Indian population so far, while specificities of Europeans, East Asians and Africans have been well known for years. In order to gain insights into the molecular bases of this population, we sought to characterize the RHD allele in D- Indi...

Background SLE is an autoimmune disease presenting with diverse symptoms. Complement components and autoantibodies targeted against them play a major role in the disease pathogenesis. In this study, we have tried to identify the association between KIR genes with the clinical-serological aspects of SLE. Methods Total of 250 consecutive cases of SL...

Red cell distribution width (RDW) is altered because of prematurity and fetal growth restriction (FGR). We conducted a prospective observational study to determine normal RDW values in Indian neonates (N=964) with significant FGR. Mean RDW values in preterm neonates were higher than term neonates (P<0.0004). The RDW values in Indian neonates (with...

The main aim of this study was to screen various genetic and nongenetic factors that are known to alter warfarin response and to generate a model to predict stable warfarin maintenance dose for Indian patients. The study comprised of 300 warfarin-treated patients. Followed by extensive literature review, 10 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, that is,...

Background Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem generalized chronic autoimmune disorder characterized by humoral autoimmunity. The etiology of SLE is thought to be multifactorial involving an interplay of environmental, humoral, and genetic factors. There is a strong association of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) with SLE, however,...

A 40 year old female presented with branch retinal vein occlusion in the right eye followed by a second episode, a year later, of central retinal vein occlusion in the left eye. The patient was found to be heterozygous for factor V Leiden and factor V HR2 haplotype G5380A. She had a history of use of oral contraceptives, had reduced levels of tissu...

Background: The Rh blood group system is the most polymorphic system and is implicated in hemolytic transfusion reaction and hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn. Molecular genetics of the RH genes have been extensively studied in Caucasians, Africans, and East Asians and the variant alleles giving rise to weak and partial D phenotypes have...

Hemoglobinopathies are a group of inherited single gene disorders. There are reports on hemoglobin (Hb) variants identified in the tribal and non-tribal populations of Tripura State in northeastern India. This study aimed to determine the spectrum of hemoglobinopathies and enzymopathies by newborn screening in Tripura State and assess the extent of...

Promising biomarkers which may help predict the risk of developing severe dengue virus infection (DVI) are lacking and will be helpful. Thus the main aim of this study was to analyze the role of cell-derived microparticles (MP) in DVI. Sixty patients with DVI i.e. 18: dengue with warning signs (DWS); 1: DSS and 41: dengue without warning signs (DWO...

Objective: Neonatal sepsis is a major cause of mortality in the developing countries. However, with current severity scores and laboratory parameters, predicting outcomes of neonatal sepsis is a serious challenge. Red cell distribution width (RDW) is a readily available pragmatic means to predict outcomes of various comorbidities in adults and chil...

Background: Molecular genotyping of ABO blood group system has identified more than 60 “O” group alleles based on the single-nucleotide polymorphisms present in the ABO gene. Heterogeneity of O group alleles has been observed in various countries from South America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia. India is a vast country with more than 1300 million...