Methods: 21 day old male Sprague Dawley rats were assigned as Experiment-1 & 2 - PND rats were divided into 4 groups with interventions for 7 months (n = 8/group). NC- Normal control fed normal chow diet; OB- Obese group, fed high fat diet; OB + CHO + DHA- fed high fat diet and oral supplementation of choline, DHA. OB + EE- fed high fat diet along with exposure to enriched environment .Experiment-2 had similar groups and interventions as experiment 1 but for next 5 months were fed normal chow diet without any interventions. Body mass index was assessed and blood was analyzed for serum lipid profile. Common Carotid Artery (CCA) was processed for Haematoxylin and eosin, Verhoff Vangeison stains. Images of tissue sections were analyzed and quantified using image J and tissue quant software.
Results: In experiment.1, mean body mass index (p
Methods: Specimens were studied for evidence of adenovirus (AdV), enterovirus (EV) and coronavirus (CoV) with panspecies gel-based nested PCR/RT-PCR assays. Gene sequences of specimens positive by panspecies assays were sequenced and studied with the NCBI Basic Local Alignment Search Tool software.
Results: There was considerable discordance between real-time and conventional molecular methods. The real-time AdV assay found a positivity of 10.4%; however, the AdV panspecies assay detected a positivity of 12.4% and the conventional AdV-Hexon assay detected a positivity of 19.6%. The CoV and EV panspecies assays similarly detected more positive specimens than the real-time assays, with a positivity of 7.8% by the CoV panspecies assay versus 4.2% by rRT-PCR, and 8.0% by the EV panspecies assay versus 1.0% by rRT-PCR. We were not able to ascertain virus viability in this setting. While most discordance was likely due to assay sensitivity for previously described human viruses, two novel, possible zoonotic AdV were detected.
Conclusions: The observed differences in the two modes of amplification suggest that where a problem with sensitivity is suspected, real-time assay results might be supplemented with panspecies conventional PCR/RT-PCR assays.
RESULTS: 50% minimum inhibitory concentration with silver-conjugated Hesperidin was achieved with 0.5 μg/ml of Hesperidin conjugated with silver nanoparticles at 1 h. Differential genetic analysis revealed the expression of 122 genes (≥ 2-log FC, P
Objectives: In this study, we aimed to report the complete nucleotide sequence of Malaysian isolate of Rice tungro spherical virus Seberang Perai (RTSV-SP) for the first time. RTSV-SP was characterized and its evolutionary relationship with previously reported Indian and Philippines isolates were elucidated.
Materials and Methods: RTSV-SP isolate was isolated from a recent outbreak in a paddy field in Seberang Perai zone of Malaysia. Its complete genome was amplified by RT-PCR, cloned and sequenced.
Results: Sequence analysis indicated that the genome of RTSV-SP consisted of 12,173 nucleotides (nt). Comparative analysis of 6 complete genome sequences using Clustal Omega showed that Seberang Perai isolate shared the highest nucleotide identity (96.04%) with Philippine-A isolate, except that the sORF-2 of RTSV-SP is shorter than RTSV Philippine-A by 27 amino acid residues. RTSV-SP found to cluster in Southeast Asia (SEA) group based on the whole genome sequence phylogenetic analysis using MEGA X software.
Conclusions: Phylogenetic classification of RTSV isolates based on the complete nucleotide sequences showed more distinctive clustering pattern with the addition of RTSV-SP whole genome to the available isolates. Present study described the isolation and molecular characterization of RTSV-SP.
Materials and Methods: Study design was cross-sectional, in which sociodemographic data of respondents were collected through a validated questionnaire; results were analyzed by using validated data collection tool. The results were concluded on the basis of good, moderate, and poor response, which was evaluated through data analysis by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, version 20.0. A P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results: Respondents were 182 (44.4%) males and 228 (55.6%) females; better knowledge was recognized among the females (P < 0.001) with mean knowledge of 15.55 ± 2.7. Chinese population had good knowledge with statistically strong correlation with mean knowledge of 15.63 (P = 0.006). Likewise, Buddhism was reported to have good knowledge among all the religions. Rural population was underlined with lesser family income and they showed good practice and understanding (P = 0.006). Comparatively positive attitude was noticed among the females (P < 0.001) with mean attitude of 15.55 ± 2.7. The highest level of education in this study was postgraduate, which showed 77.1% good attitude. Postgraduate participants were having varied results with standard deviation of ±6.23. Statistically highly significant association was seen between the religion and attitude of respondents with the P < 0.001. Chinese medicine is widely used, but religious difference was found among the races. Similar difference was found in knowledge and practice among the population of rural side and low family income compared to urban population with higher income and access to allopathic medicine.
Conclusions: Despite having better practice among the Malaysian population, still the knowledge needs to be disseminated among the population for the overall use of traditional Chinese medicine with safety to improve health and quality of life in Malaysia.
Materials and Methods: In two tertiary care selected hospitals, the included diabetic patients were randomly divided into two study arms. In the control group, 200 patients who were receiving usual treatment from hospitals were included. However, in the intervention group, those 200 patients who were receiving usual treatment along with counseling sessions from pharmacists under the Diabetes Medication Therapy Adherence Clinic (DMTAC) program were included. The study continued for 1 year, and there were four follow-up visits for both study arms. A prevalidated data collection form was used to measure the improvement in predictors of diabetic foot in included patients. Data were analyzed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software program, version 24.0.
Results: With the average decrease of 1.97% of HbA1c values in the control group and 3.43% in the intervention group, the univariate and multivariate analysis showed a statistically significant difference between both of the study arms in the improvement of predictors belonging to the diabetic foot (P < 0.05). The proportion of patients without any signs and symptoms of the diabetic foot in the intervention group was 91.7%, which increased from 42.3% at baseline (P < 0.05). However, this proportion in the control group was 76.9% at the fourth follow-up, from 48.3% at baseline (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: A statistically significant reduction in the signs and symptoms of diabetic foot was observed in the intervention group at the end of 1 year. The progression of diabetic foot was significantly decreased in the pharmacist intervention group.
METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. A total of 92 preschool children (4-6 years) were invited to participate with their parents/guardians. Nine parameters of toothbrushing behaviour were assessed from parental responses (questionnaire) and observation of child and parents/guardians (video recording). Oral examination included recording plaque, gingival and dental caries indices. BORIS software was used to assess toothbrushing parameters and Smart PLS was used to perform association with a second-generation multivariate analysis to create models with and without confounding factors.
RESULTS: Girls were slightly more (53%) than boys (47%). Children aged 4 years were slightly more in number (38%), followed by 6-year-olds and 5-year-olds. Nearly, 90% parents had tertiary education and 46% had more than 2 children. Differences were recorded in the reported and observed behaviour. Thirty-five percent parents/guardians reported using pea-size toothpaste amount but only 28% were observed. Forty percent reported to brush for 30 s-1 min, however 51% were observed to brush for 1-2 min. Half the children were observed to use fluoridated toothpaste (F
Participants: This was a retrospective study involving premature infants with gestational age less than 32 weeks treated from September 2016 to March 2019 in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. Clinical diagnosis was made based on Early Treatment Retinopathy of Prematurity study. Participants' weekly weight gain since birth was entered in the website (http://winrop.com), along with date of birth, gestational age and final clinical examination outcome. WINROP software signals an alarm if an infant is at high risk of developing ROP requiring treatment during weight data entry. By using the alarm status, the sensitivity and specificity of this algorithm for predicting ROP requiring treatment were obtained.
Results: Ninety-two infants were included in this study. An alarm was detected in 67 infants (72.8%). There were a total of 53 infants (54.6%) with no ROP, 15 (16.3%) of whom developed stage 1 ROP, 10 (10.8%) who developed stage 2 ROP and 14 infants (15.2%) who developed stage 3 ROP. In our study, WINROP sensitivity was 95.2% and specificity was 33.8%.
Conclusion: WINROP is recommended as an initial screening tool for premature infants at risk of developing treatment-requiring ROP in Malaysia. It may help to alert clinicians managing severely ill infants when clinical examinations are less possible.
METHODS: per-orally infected C57BL/6 mice with 15-20 cysts of the avirulent T. gondii Beverly strain at 9-11 weeks of age were examined 12 weeks later during parasite establishment. Distributions of the parasite's cysts and the histopathological lesions in the brains were analyzed using Image J software. Relative expression of TNF-α and iNOS of cell-mediated immunity (CMI), Bax (pro-apoptosis) and Bcl-2 (anti-apoptosis) were all assessed using immunohistochemistry.
RESULTS: higher parasite burden was seen in the forebrain with p value <= 0.05. Dramatically increased TNF-α, iNOS, and Bax expressions with Bax/Bcl-2 ratio 2.42:0.52 were reported (p value <= 0.05). The significant correlation between Bax data and different CMI biomarkers including TNF-α and i-NOS was evaluated. Interestingly, no significant correlation was seen between TNF-α, iNOS, Bax and Bcl-2 expressions and location of the parasite. However, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was statistically correlated with CMI biomarkers and whole sample mean parasite burden, p value <= 0.05.
CONCLUSION: Chronic toxoplasmosis exhibits an immense pro-apoptotic signal on the cerebral tissues of experimental mice.