Syeda Tasneem Towhid

• post-doc
• Professor (Associate) at Jagannath University

Background and Aims Dengue is a mosquito‐borne viral disease that frequently causes seasonal outbreaks in Bangladesh, particularly during the monsoon months from June to September. Recent outbreaks have shown significant shifts in clinical manifestations, including changes in the timeframe and serotype mixing. This study focused on the clinical and...

We collected a urine specimen from a 20-year-old male, cultured it on Chrom-agar Enterococcus, identified it with VITEK2, and whole-genome sequenced it using the PacBio RSII. The genome was 3,111,621 nucleotides long with a GC% of 37.6%. It was identified as a human pathogen with a 92.3% probability and is available on NCBI with an accession ID of...

This project aimed to find out the microbiological quality of municipal supply water in Dhaka South area and if the current regime of microbiological quality testing can determine the risk to public health from supply water satisfactorily. Water samples were collected from six different points of the water distribution network of Dhaka’s south loca...

This study aimed to assess the current level of knowledge and impact of training among community pharmacists in Bangladesh regarding antibiotic resistance, and to explore the potential relationship between knowledge, training, and antibiotic dispensing practices. A cross-sectional study was conducted among community pharmacists practicing in Bangla...

This study aimed to investigate thalassemia awareness and prevention among university students in Bangladesh, with a focus on demographic factors, attitudes, and opinions regarding safe marriage influencing their knowledge and behavior. Key findings showed that 54% of the participants were female, emphasizing the need for targeted educational effor...

Wastewater surveillance (WWS) of SARS-CoV-2 has become a crucial tool for monitoring COVID-19 cases and outbreaks. Previous studies have indicated that SARS-CoV-2 RNA measurement from testing solid-rich primary sludge yields better sensitivity compared to testing wastewater influent. Furthermore, measurement of pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) sign...

This study aims to determine the knowledge of self-management, prognosis, and the quality of daily life among adult patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in Bangladesh. Settings and Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2021 to August 2021 on diabetic patients from Dhaka City and Rangpur City in Bangladesh. A struc...

Objective To investigate the environmental factors associated with enteric diseases among children in coastal Bangladesh. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted between July 2018 and November 2018, enrolling 59 preschool children from Nabipur village in Bhola district and Paikgacha village in Khulna district. Keraniganj in Dhaka...

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a leading cause of infections in Community- Associated (CA) as well as Hospital-Associated (HA) settings. Identification of new antibacterial agents from natural sources takes the forefront in research. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to identify the resistance pattern o...

Wastewater surveillance (WWS) has received interest from researchers, scientists, and public health units for its application in monitoring active COVID-19 cases and detecting outbreaks. While WWS of SARS-CoV-2 has been widely applied worldwide, a knowledge gap exists concerning the effects of enhanced primary clarification, the application of coag...

Introduction: Antibiotic resistance is one of the most significant threats to global health, food security, and development. Public knowledge is considered a prerequisite for the appropriate use of antibiotics and the limited spread of antibiotic resistance. Thus, this study aimed to assess students’ perception of antibiotic consumption and the ris...

With the rise of the rapid evolution of therapeutic antibiotic resistance among human pathogens, low-middle income countries are recommended to evaluate the burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among critical pathogens to prioritize disinfection and prescription of effective antibiotics. In this study, we present the level of risk factors among...

Background: Thalassemia is the most common congenital single-gene condition globally, characterized by a lack of or reduced synthesis of either the α- or β-globin chains and passed down from parents to offspring. This study aimed to determine the level of knowledge of thalassemia among Bangladeshi students from universities and their opinion...

Background Thalassemia is the most common congenital single-gene condition. It is marked by a lack of or reduced synthesis of either the alpha- or beta-globin chains and passed down from parents to offspring. This study aimed to determine how healthy students in Bangladeshi public universities were aware of thalassemia and how they felt about it. M...

Clinical testing has been the cornerstone of public health monitoring and infection control efforts in communities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. With the anticipated reduction of clinical testing as the disease moves into an endemic state, SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance (WWS) will have greater value as an important diagnostic tool. An in-de...

Wastewater surveillance (WWS) of SARS-CoV-2 was proven to be a reliable and complementary tool for population-wide monitoring of COVID-19 disease incidence but was not as rigorously explored as an indicator for disease burden throughout the pandemic. Prior to global mass immunization campaigns and during the spread of the wildtype COVID-19 and the...

Background This study aimed to determine the knowledge about self-management and the effects of diabetes on the daily activities among adult patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in Bangladesh. Methodology A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to August 2021 on diabetic patients from Dhaka and the Rangpur district in Bangladesh. A str...

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been recognized as a major cause of nosocomial infection due to resistance to multiple classes of antibiotics. This study reports presence of carbapenem resistance genes in clinical Pseudomonas isolates from Dhaka, Bangladesh, as well as their resistance to some common disinfectants (benzylkoniu...

Wastewater surveillance (WWS) of SARS-CoV-2 was proven to be a reliable and complementary tool for population-wide monitoring of COVID-19 disease incidence but was not as rigorously explored as an indicator for disease burden throughout the pandemic. Prior to global mass immunization campaigns and during the spread of the wildtype COVID-19 and the...

Aims: The study aimed to assess perception of the students about antibiotic consumption and the rise of antibiotic resistance with the view to developing an effective community engagement strategy for antimicrobial stewardship. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out from July 2020 to November 2020. The students from Dhaka City, Bangladesh...

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a leading cause of infections in Community- Associated (CA) as well as Hospital-Associated (HA) settings. Identification of new antibacterial agents from natural sources takes the forefront in research. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to identify the resistance pattern o...

Clinical testing has been the cornerstone of public health monitoring and infection control efforts in communities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. With the extant and anticipated reduction of clinical testing as the disease moves into an endemic state, SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance (WWS) is likely to have greater value as an important diagno...

The objective of this research was to evaluate the microbiological safety of the street and ready-to-eat food available in Dhaka city, Bangladesh and check the risk factors associated with ingestion of food from popular public places. Forty-five ready-to-eat food samples belonging to 18 categories were collected aseptically from local Street vendor...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has claimed millions of lives to date. Antigenic drift has resulted in viral variants with putatively greater transmissibility, virulence, or both. Early and near real-time detection of these variants of concern (VOC) and the...

Wastewater-based epidemiology/wastewater surveillance has been a topic of significant interest over the last year due to its application in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to track prevalence of COVID-19 in communities. Although SARS-CoV-2 surveillance has been applied in more than 50 countries to date, the application of this surveillance has been largely...

Wastewater-based epidemiology is a topic of significant interest over the last year due to the application of SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to track incidence rates of COVID-19 in communities. Although SARS-CoV-2 surveillance has been applied in more than 50 countries to date, the application of this surveillance has been largely focused on relatively af...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has claimed millions of lives globally to date. Rapid accumulation of co-occurring mutations has led to the emergence of viral variants which appear to be more transmissible, virulent, or both. Variants of concern (VOC) now in...

The global spread of SARS-CoV-2 with its diverse signs and symptoms manifested in COVID-19 patients across different age groups and geographic locations perplexed the clinicians and public health experts. Emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 through continuous mutation with a limited arsenal of treatment made the study of viral pathogenesis and factors...

Electrogenic bacteria are able to transfer electrons to extracellular electron acceptors as well as can be used in devices like bioelectrochemical systems (BES). This study was focused to produce electricity from wastewater using microbial fuel cell and find out potential electrogenic bacteria from liquid tannery wastes. After power generation stud...

The global climate change brings about myriad of changes in the environment and ecosystem. The sea-level rise due to climate change results in salt-water intrusion into freshwater reservoirs of the coastal areas, increasing the salinity of the natural sources of potable water. People in the coastal areas consume saline water, exposing the intestina...

The objective of this research was to assess the microbiological quality of ready-to-eat food available in Dhaka city, Bangladesh, and check the risk factors associated with ingestion of ready-to-eat food from popular public places. This study was conducted in the Center of Excellence in the. Forty-five samples belonging to 18 categories were colle...

Aims: This study aims to evaluate the microbiological safety in street foods available in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Study Design: Seven categories of street foods were collected aseptically in triplicates from 10 locations of the most populous areas of Dhaka city, transported to the microbiology laboratory of Center of Excellence, Primeasia Universi...

This conceptual analysis elucidates the microbial interaction inside municipal distribution pipes, subsequent deterioration in the quality of the supply water, and its impacts on public health. Literature review involved a total of 21 original reports on microbiological events inside the water distribution system were studied, summarizing the curre...

This study involved microbiological Analysis of Drug-resistant Pathogens from Street Food from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Background: Eryptosis, the suicidal erythrocyte death characterized by cell shrinkage and phosphatidylserine-translocation, is triggered by fever and inflammation. Signaling includes increased cytosolic Ca2+-activity ([Ca2+]i), caspase activation, and ceramide. Inflammation is associated with increased plasma concentration of C-reactive protein (C...

Foot-and-mouth disease virus is a positive stand RNA virus that causes an acute vesicular disease of bovid wild and domesticated ruminants. Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) comprises of 7 antigenically distinct serotypes (Type O, A, Asia 1, C and SAT1-3) that do not provide cross-protection against one another. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a...

Foot-and-mouth disease virus is a positive stand RNA virus that causes an acute vesicular disease of bovid wild and domesticated ruminants. Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) comprises of 7 antigenically distinct serotypes (Type O, A, Asia 1, C and SAT1-3) that do not provide cross-protection against one another. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a...

Chorein encoded by VPS13A (vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein 13A) is defective in chorea-acanthocytosis. Chorein fosters neuronal cell survival, cortical actin polymerization and cell stiffness. In view of its anti-apoptotic effect in neurons, we explored whether chorein is expressed in cancer cells and influences cancer cell survival. RT...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by neurotoxic amyloid-ß plaque formation in brain parenchyma and cerebral blood vessels known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Besides CAA, AD is strongly related to vascular diseases such as stroke and atherosclerosis. Cerebrovascular dysfunction occurs in AD patients leading to alterations in blood f...

Background/aims: Klotho deficiency results in excessive formation of 1,25(OH)2D3, accelerated ageing and early death. Moreover, klotho deficiency enhances eryptosis, the suicidal erythrocyte death characterized by phosphatidylserine exposure at the erythrocyte surface. Triggers of eryptosis include increase of cytosolic Ca(2+)-activity ([Ca(2+)]i)...

Glucose depletion of erythrocytes triggers suicidal erythrocyte death or eryptosis which leads to cell membrane scrambling with phosphatidylserine exposure at the cell surface. Eryptotic erythrocytes adhere to endothelial cells by a mechanism involving phosphatidylserine at the erythrocyte surface and CXCL16 as well as CD36 at the endothelial cell...

Platelet activation is essential for primary hemostasis and acute thrombotic vascular occlusions. On activation, platelets release their prothrombotic granules and expose phosphatidylserines, thus fostering thrombin generation and thrombus formation. In other cell types, both degranulation and phosphatidylserine exposure are modified by sphingomyel...

Background: The serum and glucocorticoid inducible kinase SGK1, which was originally cloned from mammary tumor cells, is highly expressed in some but not all tumors. SGK1 confers survival to several tumor cells. Along those lines, the number of colonic tumors following chemical carcinogenesis was decreased in SGK1 knockout mice. Recently, a highly...

Background/Aims: Endothelial cell stiffness plays a key role in endothelium-dependent control of vascular tone and arterial blood pressure. Actin polymerization and distribution of microfilaments is essential for mechanical cell stiffness. Chorein, a protein encoded by the VPS13A gene, defective in chorea-acanthocytosis (ChAc), is involved in neuro...

Background/Aims: Human parvovirus B19 (B19V) may cause inflammatory cardiomyopathy (iCMP) which is accompanied by endothelial dysfunction. The B19V capsid protein VP1 contains a lysophosphatidylcholine producing phospholipase A2 (PLA) sequence. Lysophosphatidylcholine has in turn been shown to inhibit Na(+)/K(+) ATPase. The present study explored w...

Specimen from 300 patients with different kinds of skin and soft tissue infections were collected and cultured on blood agar, MacConkey agar and chocolate agar. Colonies cultured in these media were identified by biochemical tests and then checked for antibiotic susceptibility. These data taken together with the patient history provided the prevale...

Peptidoglycans, bacterial wall components, have previously been shown to trigger eryptosis, the suicidal erythrocyte death, characterized by cell shrinkage and cell membrane scrambling with phosphatidylserine exposure at the cell surface. Phosphatidylserine exposing erythrocytes adhere to the vascular wall at least partially by interaction of eryth...

Annexin 7 deficiency has previously been shown to foster suicidal death of erythrocytes or eryptosis, which is triggered by increase of intracellular Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)](i)) and characterized by cell shrinkage and cell membrane scrambling with subsequent phosphatidylserine exposure at the cell surface. Eryptosis following increase of [Ca...

Background/aims: Side effects of vancomycin, a widely used antibiotic, include thrombocytopenia. The vancomycin-induced thrombocytopenia has been attributed to immune reactions. At least in theory, thrombocytopenia could result in part from the triggering of apoptosis, which results in cell shrinkage and cell membrane scrambling with subsequent ph...

Background/aims: Ipratropium bromide, an anticholinergic agent widely used in obstructive lung disease, has previously been shown to trigger suicidal death of nucleated cells or apoptosis. Despite their lack of mitochondria and nuclei, key organelles in the execution of apoptosis, erythrocytes may similarly undergo suicidal cell death, which is ch...

Aim: Suicidal erythrocyte death or eryptosis is characterized by cell shrinkage and phosphatidylserine exposure at the cell surface. Eryptotic erythrocytes may adhere to the vascular wall by binding of phosphatidylserine to endothelial CXC chemokine ligand 16 (CXCL16). Triggers of eryptosis include osmotic shock or energy depletion. Susceptibility...

The antibiotic rifampicin is widely used in the treatment of tuberculosis. Side effects of rifampicin include hemolytic anemia. Loss of circulating erythrocytes resembling hemolytic anemia could result from stimulation of eryptosis, the suicidal erythrocyte death characterized by cell shrinkage and cell membrane scrambling with phosphatidylserine (...

Eryptosis, the suicidal erythrocyte death leads to cell shrinkage and cell membrane scrambling with phosphatidylserine exposure at the cell surface. Eryptotic erythrocytes adhere to the vascular wall by binding of phosphatidylserine to the CXC chemokine ligand 16 (CXCL16). Stimulators of eryptosis include increased cytosolic Ca(2+) activity, energy...

Arithmetic means ± SEM (n = 10) of Annexin-V positive cells (%) after 30 min exposure to platelet buffer in the absence (0) and presence of 50 and 1000 ng/ml monomeric PGN (mPGN) and ionomycin 10 μM as a positive control. ***p < 0.001 indicates statistically significant difference to value in the absence of mPGN (one-way ANOVA). Each experiment inc...

Rationale: The recently discovered chemokine CXC motif ligand 16 (CXCL16) is highly expressed in atherosclerotic lesions and is a potential pathogenic mediator in coronary artery disease. Objective: The aim of this study was to test the role of CXCL16 on platelet activation and vascular adhesion, as well as the underlying mechanism and signaling...

Peptidoglycan (PGN), a component of bacterial cell wall and belonging to "Microbe-Associated Molecular Patterns" (MAMP) triggers host reactions contributing to the pathophysiology of infectious disease. Host cell responses to PGN exposure include apoptosis. Bacterial infections may result in activation of blood platelets and thrombocytopenia. The p...

Recent observations pointed to the ability of platelets to migrate and thus to invade the inflamed vascular wall. Platelet migration could be stimulated by stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1), an effect dependent on phosphatidylinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) and paralleled by activation and phosphorylation of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP). M...

Platelets are activated on increase of cytosolic Ca2+ activity ([Ca2+](i)), accomplished by store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) involving the pore-forming ion channel subunit Orai1. Here, we show, for the first time, that the serum- and glucocorticoid-inducible kinase 1 (SGK1) is expressed in platelets and megakaryocytes. SOCE and agonist-induced [Ca2...

Suicidal death of erythrocytes, or eryptosis, is characterized by cell shrinkage and cell membrane scrambling leading to phosphatidylserine exposure at the cell surface. Eryptosis is triggered by increase of cytosolic Ca2+ activity, which may result from treatment with the Ca2+ ionophore ionomycin or from energy depletion by removal of glucose. The...

In this study, clinical samples were collected and characterized by culture techniques, antibiotic-resistance patterns, hemolysis and susceptibility to herbal agents. A total of 50 specimens of pus, urine, throat swab and sputum were collected to study Staphylococcus aureus. Eight of the isolates showed positive coagulation test and produced charac...

Thymoquinone (TQ) is a nutrient with anticarcinogenic activity that stimulates suicidal death of tumor cells. Moreover, TQ triggers suicidal death of erythrocytes or eryptosis, an effect at least partially due to increase in cytosolic Ca(2+) activity and ceramide formation. The present experiments explored whether TQ influences apoptosis of blood p...