About the Authors

Muhammad R. Khanani

Contributed equally to this work with: Muhammad R. Khanani, Mehreen Somani

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan

Mehreen Somani

Contributed equally to this work with: Muhammad R. Khanani, Mehreen Somani

Affiliation Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

Sadiq S. Rehmani

Affiliation Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

Nazle M. C. Veras

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine and Emerging Pathogens Institute, Jacksonville, Florida, United States of America

Marco Salemi

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine and Emerging Pathogens Institute, Jacksonville, Florida, United States of America

Syed H. Ali

syed.ali@aku.edu

Affiliations Department of Microbiology, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan, Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MRK M. Somani SHA. Performed the experiments: M. Somani . Analyzed the data: M. Somani SSR NV M. Salemi SHA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MRK. Wrote the paper: M. Somani SSR SHA.