Actinomyces naeslundii is an oral microbiome that has been suggested to involve in actinomycosis particularly in immunocompromised patients. However, studies have also shown that the bacterium can inhibit the colonisation of Candida albicans and cariogenic bacterium, Streptococcus mutans. Even though various studies have been conducted to characterise A. naeslundii, however, the role of the bacterium in the oral cavity either to induce pathogenicity or to improve oral health remain unclear. The objective of this study is to determine the role of A. naeslundii in the oral cavity using bioinformatic tools with the hypothesis that A. naeslundii possesses genome similarity to oral probiotics. Materials and method: The study was conducted by data mining of the genomic sequences of A. naeslundii NCTC10301 from GenBank. Following that, genomic comparison was performed with 25 species of well-known probiotics. MAUVE version 2.3.1 was used to find similarities between A. naeslundii with the known probiotics through identification of potential relevance probiotic properties in A. naeslundii. Phylogenetic tree was constructed using PHYLIP package to identify evolutionary relationship of A. naeslundii with the known probiotics. The 16s rRNA sequences of A. naeslundii and known probiotics were harvested from GenBank using BLAST. Finally, the functions of all A. naeslundii genes that shared similarity with known probiotics were identified using INTERPRO. Result: Genome comparison analysis of the present study showed that A. naeslundii genome exhibited high similarity to Bifidobacterium species such as B. animalis subsp. lactis, B. bifidum, B. longum and B. breve. In addition, phylogenetic tree analysis showed that Bacillus species, B. subtilis and B. cereus , appeared to clade together with A. naeslundii, with bootstrap value of 98%. Conclusion: A. naeslundii had high similarity with probiotic Bifidobacterium species thus supported the hypothesis of the present study that A. naeslundii possesses genome similarity to oral probiotic.
Introduction:Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungus that is associated with oral carcinogenesis. In addition, biofilm formation has been one of the important virulence factors of the yeast. Streptococcus salivarius K12 is an oral probiotic while Musa acuminata is a well-known prebiotic. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of S. salivarius K12 and M. acuminata skin aqueous extract (synbiotic) on C. albicans with the hypothesis that S. salivariusK12 and M. acuminata inhibit C. albicans biofilm formation. Methods: To develop mono-species biofilm, C. albicans(ATCC MYA-4901 and cancer isolates, ALC2 and ALC3 strains) and S. salivarius K12 were standardised to 105 cells and 106 cells, respectively and grown in 96-well plate in nutrient broth (NB) or RPMI at 37 °C for 72 h. Polymicro-bial biofilms were developed by inoculating both microorganisms in the same well with similar cell number as in mono-species. To determine the effect of synbiotic, similar protocol was repeated by mixing with 800 mg mL-1 of M. acuminata skin extract and incubated at 37 °C for 72 h. The medium was replenished at every 24 h, aseptically. Finally, the biofilms were assessed using crystal violet assay and the optical density was measured at OD620nm. Results:C. albicans strain MYA-4901 and ALC3, when grown in polymicrobial with S. salivarius K12 in NB that is predominated by yeast-form C. albicans, exhibited decreased biofilms by 71.40±11.7% and 49.40±3.9%, respec-tively when compared to the expected biofilms. Meanwhile in RPMI, which C. albicans strain ATCC MYA-4901, ALC2 and ALC3 were predominated by hyphal-form showed decreased biofilms by 72.0±26.7%, 53.4±14.4% and 65.7±6.7%, respectively when compared to the expected biofilms. Conclusion:S. salivarius K12 and M. acuminata skin extract synbiotic inhibit biofilm formation of C. albicans yeast and hyphal forms thus supported the hypothesis of the present study.
Objective: The objective of this study is to identify stroke patients’ adherence toward nurses’ advice and quality of life.
Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at a medical ward in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan, Pahang; it used the Quality of Life Index Stroke Version-III and Medical Outcome Study Measure of Patient Adherence. The data were collected using the purposive sampling method and were analysed using SPSS version 19.
Results: A total of 54 respondents, ranging in age from 50 to 80 years old, (46.3% male and 53.7% female) with 94.4% being Malays. Returned surveys indicated that 50% of the respondents have no formal education. A total of 64.8% patients adhered to the nurss’ advice and the remaining 35.2% were non-adherents. There is a positive correlation between adherence and the quality of life. Male patients demonstrated a better adherence level compared to women (p=0.019). However, there was no association between age, race and education level with adherence.
Conclusion: Healthcare professionals, such as nurses, have substantial roles in ensuring stroke patients adhere to rehabilitation guidelines with a view to maximising quality of life.
Objective: this study aims to assess the knowledge and awareness of hepatitis B and its associated factors among students of medical colleges at Kuantan Campus, the International Islamic University Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used, and data collection was carried out using a selfstructured close-ended questionnaire. Descriptive and analytic statistics were performed with independent t-test, One Way ANOVA and a correlation analysis determine any significant differences between the groups with p < 0.05 significance value Results: According to the results, there was a significant (p < 0.001) association between the type of Faculty with knowledge and awareness about hepatitis B. In addition, the results showed an association between year of study with the knowledge and awareness of hepatitis B (p < 0.001). Furthermore, there was an association between duration of clinical experience with knowledge and awareness of hepatitis B (p < 0.001). The results showed that there was no association between gender with knowledge and awareness of hepatitis B (p > 0.05). Conclusion: levels of knowledge showed a strong correlation with levels of awareness, meaning that students with high knowledge also had high awareness of hepatitis B. On the whole, students were aware of and knowledgeable about hepatitis B.
The prevalence of oral cancer has been reported annually along with high mortality rate. Probiotics have been suggested to possess anti-cancer properties, however the role of these microorganisms on oral cancer is remain unclear. The objective of the present study is to identify the mechanisms exerted by probiotics on oral carcinogenesis by using systematic review and meta analysis with the hypothesis that probiotics inhibit oral carcinogenesis. Materials and method: Comprehensive literature search was conducted on PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science electronic database from January 2019 until April 2019. Main keywords that were used are “probiotic” AND “oral cancer”. Articles that were published in English language were included in this review. Articles were selected independently by three authors and inspected independently by another researcher. The titles and abstracts of the studies were screened to identify studies that meet the inclusion criteria. Full text articles of the remaining studies were assessed to determine the availability to be included in the review. Meta-analysis was conducted by using RevMan 5 software, and the result was graphically plotted on the forest plot. This review was done according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA-P) 2015 guidelines. Results: After thorough screening of the full text articles, seven papers were eligible to be included in the systematic review. The included articles were mainly discussed on the association of probiotics and oral cancer. Two from the seven papers were selected to be analyse for quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis). The present study also showed that, Lactobacillus salivarius REN produces protective effect from developing neoplastic tongue lesions with odd ratio < 1. Conclusion: Probiotics were found to confer positive effect as an inhibitory agent against the oral carcinogenesis thus supported the hypothesis of the present study that probiotics can inhibit oral carcinogenesis.
Objective: This study was aimed to investigate the association of parental obesity, food habits, and physical activity levels with body mass index status and sociodemographic factors among children in Kuantan, Pahang.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 pupils in three primary schools in Kuantan. The three schools were representative of the three major ethnicities in Malaysia, Malays, Chinese, and Indians, and the children were aged 8 to 11 years. Self-developed questionnaires were used to record sociodemographic details and anthropometric measures of both parents and children, and physical activity and food habits were measured using a Children Physical Activity Questionnaire (C-PAQ) and the Harvard Food Frequency Questionnaire (HFFQ), respectively. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS 20.0, with a binary logistic regression model then used to represent the interactions among different factors in terms of predicting childhood obesity.
Results: Binary logistic regression analysis shows that parental anthropometric measures, children’s ages, levels of physical activity, and food habits are signif-icant predictors for paediatric obesity. There is also a significant association between parents’ anthropo-metric measurements and childhood obesity. Significant correlation was found between fast food con-sumption, fruit and vegetable consumption, and physical activity and body mass index in children (p˂0.05).
Conclusion: The study provides evidence that parental obesity, fast food consumption, fruit and vegetables intakes, and physical activity levels have significant associations with children's body mass indices.