Effect of a religious coping intervention of rational emotive behavior therapy on mental health of adult learners with type II diabetes.

BACKGROUND: Some previous studies have highlighted the high rate of mental health problems associated with type II diabetes (T2DM). The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a religious coping intervention of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) on the mental health of adult learners with T2DM. METHODS: This study utilized a randomized controlled trial to select 146 adult learners with T2DM and mental health-related problems. The treatment group was made up of 73 adult learners, while the control group was also made up of 73 adult learners. The experimental group received 8 sessions of a religious coping intervention of REBT, while the control group received usual care. Data were collected using the patient health questionnaire, Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale, and Kessler psychological distress scale. Repeated ANOVA and univariate analysis of covariance were used for data analyses. RESULTS: The religious coping intervention of REBT substantially enhanced the mental health of adult learners with T2DM as measured by Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale (P < .000) and patient health questionnaire (P < .000). The religious coping intervention of REBT significantly alleviated the psychological distress of adult learners with T2DM as measured by Kessler psychological distress scale (P < .000). CONCLUSION: In this study, it has been demonstrated that a religious coping intervention of REBT effectively improves the mental health of adult learners with T2DM. The study concludes that the religious coping intervention of REBT is a practical alternative medicine approach to enhancing the mental health of adult learners with T2DM.

Potential influences of religiosity and religious coping strategies on people with diabetes.

Diabetes is a significant health issue that threatens patients' overall wellbeing and quality of life. Critical public health concerns center on creating the best approach for diabetes management. Patients and caregivers have different approaches to diabetes management; however, this and the associated physiological, physical and mental health issues remain challenging. This review explores the potential influences of religiosity and religious coping strategies on people with diabetes. This study used a literature review approach to investigate how religiosity and religious coping strategies can influence the effective management of diabetes among patients. Based on the literature search, the researchers were able to identify and cite published papers that were analyzed using the descriptive-narrative analysis. An important goal of the descriptive-narrative analysis was to provide descriptions of the selected literature and take implications from the literature. The results of studies reviewed show some religious coping strategies for managing chronic diseases such as diabetes. The studies did establish a relationship between religiosity and diabetes management and suggest that religious coping strategies could positively impact the management of diabetes; however, they reported some adverse effects. Hence, we propose a pathway for the development of religion-oriented interventions and support framework for the management of diabetes.

Zoom-based GROW coaching intervention for improving subjective well-being in a sample of school administrators: A randomized control trial.

Background/objective: Poor subjective well-being is a risk factor for poor health; and threatens school administrators' leadership roles and overall occupational and personal outcomes. Online digital care and coaching such as Zoom-delivered GROW (Z-GROW) coaching may be an invaluable approach to building resilience and improving well-being. This study investigated the effectiveness of the Z-GROW coaching model in enhancing self-reported well-being in a sample of school administrators in South-East Nigeria. Method: A randomized control trial was conducted with a sample of 109 school administrators who met the inclusion criteria. Participants were allocated into Z-GROW (N = 55) and waitlist control (N = 54) groups. A 2-hour Z-GROW programme was delivered to the Z-GROW intervention group weekly for 9 weeks. Subjective well-being was measured using the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE), and the Flourishing Scale (FS). Data were collected on three occasions: pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up using the same measures. All data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The presentation of data was supported by figures and charts. Results: Results revealed that school administrators' three dimensions of subjective well-being significantly improved following the Z-GROW intervention. It was further shown that the improved state of participants was sustained through a 3-monthfollow-up assessment. Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that intervention using GROW coaching in the zoom platform improves the self-reported well-being of school administrators. The outcomes of this study present the Z-GROW model as a viable intervention for subjective well-being and other mental health conditions among school administrators. Through the Z-GROW model, employees can access occupational health coaching from the comfort of their homes.

Experimental validation and molecular docking to explore the active components of cannabis in testicular function and sperm quality modulations in rats.

BACKGROUND: Data available support that ninety percent of male infertility cases are due to low sperm counts. There is a scarcity of data on the medicinal effects of cannabis on fertility. This study evaluated testicular function and sperm quality modulation with cannabis in rats. METHODOLOGY: Twenty-five male Wistar rats were randomly grouped into five: A, B, C, and D, each group have 5 rats. A (control): 0.2 ml 2% DMSO, B (vitamin C): 90 mg/kg body weight, C, D, and E were administered: 5 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg body weight of ethanolic leaf extract of cannabis (ELEC) respectively. The rats were sacrificed 24 h after the last day of the 60 day oral administrations. Flavonoids were the predominant phytochemical present in the extract while quercetin, kemferol, silyman and gallic acid were identified. RESULTS: The results showed a significant improvement (p < 0.05) in sperm quality and a significant increase in the concentrations of follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, triglycerides, cholesterol, and total protein determination compared to the normal control. Similarly, there was a significant increase (p < 0.05) in the activities of acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, and superoxide dismutase compared to the normal control. RAC-alpha serine/threonine-protein kinase (AKT1)-silymarin complexes (-8.30 kcal/mol) and androgen receptor (AR)-quercetin complexes (9.20 kcal/mol) had the highest affinity. CONCLUSION: The antioxidant effects of the flavonoids in the ethanolic extract of cannabis may have protected testicular and sperm cells from oxidative damage. Biochemical processes and histopathological morphology were preserved by cannabis. The docking prediction suggests that the bioactive principle of cannabis may activate the androgenic receptors. The androgenic receptor modulation may be attributed to silymarin and quercetin.

Deciphering the Interactions of Bioactive Compounds in Selected Traditional Medicinal Plants against Alzheimer's Diseases via Pharmacophore Modeling, Auto-QSAR, and Molecular Docking Approaches.

Neurodegenerative diseases, for example Alzheimer's, are perceived as driven by hereditary, cellular, and multifaceted biochemical actions. Numerous plant products, for example flavonoids, are documented in studies for having the ability to pass the blood-brain barrier and moderate the development of such illnesses. Computer-aided drug design (CADD) has achieved importance in the drug discovery world; innovative developments in the aspects of structure identification and characterization, bio-computational science, and molecular biology have added to the preparation of new medications towards these ailments. In this study we evaluated nine flavonoid compounds identified from three medicinal plants, namely T. diversifolia, B. sapida, and I. gabonensis for their inhibitory role on acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity, using pharmacophore modeling, auto-QSAR prediction, and molecular studies, in comparison with standard drugs. The results indicated that the pharmacophore models produced from structures of AChE, BChE and MAO could identify the active compounds, with a recuperation rate of the actives found near 100% in the complete ranked decoy database. Moreso, the robustness of the virtual screening method was accessed by well-established methods including enrichment factor (EF), receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), Boltzmann-enhanced discrimination of receiver operating characteristic (BEDROC), and area under accumulation curve (AUAC). Most notably, the compounds' pIC50 values were predicted by a machine learning-based model generated by the AutoQSAR algorithm. The generated model was validated to affirm its predictive model. The best models achieved for AChE, BChE and MAO were models kpls_radial_17 (R2 = 0.86 and Q2 = 0.73), pls_38 (R2 = 0.77 and Q2 = 0.72), kpls_desc_44 (R2 = 0.81 and Q2 = 0.81) and these externally validated models were utilized to predict the bioactivities of the lead compounds. The binding affinity results of the ligands against the three selected targets revealed that luteolin displayed the highest affinity score of -9.60 kcal/mol, closely followed by apigenin and ellagic acid with docking scores of -9.60 and -9.53 kcal/mol, respectively. The least binding affinity was attained by gallic acid (-6.30 kcal/mol). The docking scores of our standards were -10.40 and -7.93 kcal/mol for donepezil and galanthamine, respectively. The toxicity prediction revealed that none of the flavonoids presented toxicity and they all had good absorption parameters for the analyzed targets. Hence, these compounds can be considered as likely leads for drug improvement against the same.

Studies on the serological markers for hepatitis B virus infection among type 2 diabetic patients.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B infection is a public health concern globally. HBV can be associated with type II diabetes mellitus, as HBV outbreaks have been observed among diabetics in healthcare facilities. This study evaluates the prevalence of HBV infection among patients with type II diabetes mellitus. METHOD: A total of one hundred and eighty (180) diabetic patients and one-hundred non-diabetics (Controls) were recruited for this study. Structured questionnaires were administered to the consented participants to obtain relevant data. Sera samples obtained were screened using the HBsAg ELISA kit; CTK Biotech, Inc, while the 5 panel kit-rapid diagnostic test, was used to assay for serological markers. Questionnaires were used to obtain relevant information and demographic data. RESULT: Overall prevalence of HBV infection among diabetes patients was 13.3%. Breakdown showed 9 (5.0%) seropositivity was obtained among male subjects compared to 15(8.3%) recorded among the females, P = .834; P < .05. Subjects aged 41-50 years recorded, 7(3.9%) positivity P = .774; P > .05. Educational status of participants showed 22 (12.2%) positivity among subjects with tertiary level of education P = .032; P < .05). Risk factors considered showed that 5(2.8%).seropositive subjects were alcoholic consumers (P value = .9711; P > .05). Result among non-diabetics (Control) subjects showed (4%) seropositivity among the male subjects compared to (5.0%) seropositivity recorded among the female subjects (P = .739; P > .05). CONCLUSION: There is an indication of higher risk of HBV infection among type 2 diabetic patients when compared to non-diabetics. There is the need for more research on this area of study, to further validate the association between HBV infection and Diabetes Mellitus.

Predictive evaluation of pediatric patients based on their typhoid fever status using linear discriminant model.

Epidemiologic studies have established a relationship between pediatric patients and typhoid fever infection. This study was carried out to ascertain if specific hematological measurements of the pediatric patients discriminate between their positive and negative status to typhoid infection and to produce a rule for classifying other pediatric patients. Discriminant analysis was applied to predict the probability of a specific categorical outcome based on several explanatory variables (predictors). This study analyzed the differentiation between two hundred pediatric patients attending Landmark University Medical Centre based on their typhoid fever status. The hematological parameters considered were Packed Cell Volume, White Blood Cell count; Neutrophil, Erythrocyte level, Hemoglobin and Platelet count, Assay of samples were performed using standard procedures. Fisher's Linear Discriminant Method was used for classification of variables in this study. With the use of the Fisher's Linear Discrimination method for classification of the obtained data, a minimum value of -0.0067 was obtained implying that any new pediatric patient with a discriminant score above -0.0067 would be diagnosed to be typhoid negative; otherwise, they would be classified as typhoid positive pediatric patients. The efficiency of this method of classification was tested using two approaches; Retribution estimate approach and leaving-one out approach which showed a prevalence rate of typhoid positive patients at 75.8% and 74.7% respectively. This data analysis hypotheses that typhoid fever is highly endemic amongst our study subjects. A point-of-care diagnosis with a strong positive predictive value, which improves pediatric enteric fever diagnosis, is strongly advocated.

The Looming Dangers of Explosion in Community Transmissions of COVID-19 in Nigeria.

Currently, Nigeria is still at the ascending phase of the COVID-19 curve with no sign of deceleration. Thus, the recent decision by governors of states in northern Nigeria to deport Almajirai (itinerant Islamic school pupils) from their states as part of efforts to contain COVID-19 transmission is likely to have a serious backlash. With hundreds of Almajirai testing positive to COVID-19, and millions of others untested, they constitute ubiquitous nodes of transmission. Their deportation has created multiple emigration channels that constitute prospective feeders to covert community transmission. This viewpoint examines this trend within the context of Nigeria's current [in]capacity to manage the spread of COVID-19 and concludes that greater risks seem to lie ahead unless the government takes stringent containment measures.

Optimizing Laboratory Diagnostic Services for Infectious Meningitis in the Meningitis Belt of sub-Saharan Africa.

For longer than a century, the "meningitis belt" of sub-Saharan Africa has experienced the largest-ever global meningitis epidemic. Whereas HIV-associated immunosuppression drives higher susceptibility to environmental infectious organisms with tropism for the central nervous system (CNS), most diagnostic laboratories in the belt stick to N. meningitidis, H. influenzae, and S. pneumoniae. Cryptococcus neoformans has been the leading cause of death (incidence, 89%; death, 75%). To establish whether diagnostic services target geographically important pathogens, there is a need to know the current spectrum of etiology. Given Africa's agro-silvo-pastoralism, the One Health diagnostic approach is recommended. Considering  multipathogen detection capacity, needed speed for corticosteroid therapy decision, and susceptibility/resistance to antimicrobials with improved CNS penetration, proposed laboratory categorization will help neurologists to choose suitable services.

Real-Time PCR to Identify Staphylococci and Assay for Virulence from Blood.

The genus Staphylococcus includes pathogenic and non-pathogenic facultative anaerobes. Due to the plethora of virulence factors encoded in its genome, the species Staphylococcus aureus is known to be the most pathogenic. S. aureus strains harboring genes encoding virulence and antibiotic resistance are of public health importance. In clinical samples, however, pathogenic S. aureus is often mixed with putatively less pathogenic coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), both of which can harbor mecA, the genetic driver for staphylococcal methicillin-resistance. In this chapter, the detailed practical procedure for operating a real-time pentaplex PCR assay in blood cultures is described. The pentaplex real-time PCR assay simultaneously detects markers for the presence of bacteria (16S rRNA), coagulase-negative staphylococcus (cns), S. aureus (spa), Panton-Valentine leukocidin (pvl), and methicillin resistance (mecA).

Development of a heptaplex PCR assay for identification of Staphylococcus aureus and CoNS with simultaneous detection of virulence and antibiotic resistance genes.

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcal toxicity and antibiotic resistance (STAAR) have been menacing public health. Although vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) is currently not as widespread as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), genome evolution of MRSA into VRSA, including strains engineered within the same patient under anti-staphylococcal therapy, may build up to future public health concern. To further complicate diagnosis, infection control and anti-microbial chemotherapy, non-sterile sites such as the nares and the skin could contain both S. aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), either of which could harbour mecA the gene driving staphylococcal methicillin-resistance and required for MRSA-VRSA evolution. RESULTS: A new heptaplex PCR assay has been developed which simultaneously detects seven markers for: i) eubacteria (16S rRNA), ii) Staphylococcus genus (tuf), iii) Staphylococcus aureus (spa), iv) CoNS (cns), v) Panton-Valentine leukocidin (pvl), vi) methicillin resistance (mecA), and vii) vancomycin resistance (vanA). Following successful validation using 255 reference bacterial strains, applicability to analyse clinical samples was evaluated by direct amplification in spiked blood cultures (n = 89) which returned 100 % specificity, negative and positive predictive values. The new assay has LoD of 1.0x10(3) CFU/mL for the 16S rRNA marker and 1.0x10(4) CFU/mL for six other markers and completes cycling in less than one hour. CONCLUSION: The speed, sensitivity (100 %), NPV (100 %) and PPV (100 %) suggest the new heptaplex PCR assay could be easily integrated into a routine diagnostic microbiology workflow. Detection of the cns marker allows for unique identification of CoNS in mono-microbial and in poly-microbial samples containing mixtures of CoNS and S. aureus without recourse to the conventional elimination approach which is ambiguous. In addition to the SA-CoNS differential diagnostic essence of the new assay, inclusion of vanA primers will allow microbiology laboratories to stay ahead of the emerging MRSA-VRSA evolution. To the best of our knowledge, the new heptaplex PCR assay is the most multiplexed among similar PCR-based assays for simultaneous detection of STAAR.

Development of a new pentaplex real-time PCR assay for the identification of poly-microbial specimens containing Staphylococcus aureus and other staphylococci, with simultaneous detection of staphylococcal virulence and methicillin resistance markers.

Staphylococcus aureus strains harbouring genes encoding virulence and antibiotic resistance are of public health importance. In clinical samples, pathogenic S. aureus is often mixed with putatively less pathogenic coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), both of which can harbour mecA, the gene encoding staphylococcal methicillin-resistance. There have been previous attempts at distinguishing MRSA from MRCoNS, most of which were based on the detection of one of the pathognomonic markers of S. aureus, such as coa, nuc or spa. That approach might suffice for discrete colonies and mono-microbial samples; it is inadequate for identification of clinical specimens containing mixtures of S. aureus and CoNS. In the present study, a real-time pentaplex PCR assay has been developed which simultaneously detects markers for bacteria (16S rRNA), coagulase-negative staphylococcus (cns), S. aureus (spa), Panton-Valentine leukocidin (pvl) and methicillin resistance (mecA). Staphylococcal and non-staphylococcal bacterial strains (n = 283) were used to validate the new assay. The applicability of this test to clinical samples was evaluated using spiked blood cultures (n = 43) containing S. aureus and CoNS in mono-microbial and poly-microbial models, which showed that the 5 markers were all detected as expected. Cycling completes within 1 h, delivering 100% specificity, NPV and PPV with a detection limit of 1.0 × 10(1) to 3.0 × 10(1) colony forming units (CFU)/ml, suggesting direct applicability in routine diagnostic microbiology. This is the most multiplexed real-time PCR-based PVL-MRSA assay and the first detection of a unique marker for CoNS without recourse to the conventional elimination approach. There was no evidence that this new assay produced invalid/indeterminate test results.

Engineering of the LukS-PV and LukF-PV subunits of Staphylococcus aureus Panton-Valentine leukocidin for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus produces several toxins, including Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL). The involvement of PVL in primary skin infections, necrotizing pneumonia, musculoskeletal disorders, brain abscess, and other diseases, some of which are life-threatening, has been reported. Following expert opinion, we aimed to provide the tools for establishment of sequence-based diagnostics and therapeutics for those conditions. We engineered the synergistic S and F (LukS-PV and LukF-PV respectively) pro-toxin subunits from Staphylococcus aureus USA400 into separate expression E. coli BL21(DE3)-pLysS hosts. RESULTS: Following Nickel affinity chromatography (NAC), the F subunit came out without bands of impurity. The S sub-unit did not come off very pure after NAC thus necessitating further purification by size exclusion and ion-exchange chromatography. The purification plots showed that the BioLogic-LP and AKTA systems are reliable for following the progress of the chromatographic purification in real-time. Computer predicted Mw for the 6His-LukF-PV and 6His-LukS-PV were 35645.41 Da and 33530.04 Da respectively, while the mass spectrometry results were 35643.57 Da and 33528.34 Da respectively. CONCLUSION: The BioLogic-LP and AKTA systems are commendable for reliability and user-friendliness. As a recent work elsewhere also reported that a second round of chromatography was necessary to purify the S subunit after the first attempt, we speculate that the S subunit might contain yet unidentified motif(s) requiring further treatment. The purified S and F sub-units of PVL were supplied to the Nottingham Cancer Immunotherapy group who used them to establish sequence-based monoclonal antibodies for diagnostic and therapeutic uses targeting PVL.

Gene expression of Aurora kinases in prostate cancer and nodular hyperplasia tissues.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the transcript levels of Aurora kinases and compare them to their immunoreactivity patterns in prostate tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 26 cases of prostate cancer (PCa) and 38 cases of benign nodular hyperplasia (BPH) were sampled from archived formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues. Tissue sections were lysed, total RNA extracted and cDNA made by random hexamer priming while slide sections were immunostained for the kinases. Normalized relative quantitation was performed for all the kinases using real-time PCR on TaqMan chemistry. RESULTS: The immunoreactivity profile showed 15.4, 53.8 and 30.7% positivity for Aurora kinases A, B and C in PCa cases, respectively, while the positivity was 76.3, 73.7 and 84.2% for the same kinases in BPH cases. The immunoreactivity was preponderant on epithelial tissue compared to stromal component. CONCLUSION: Aurora kinases were significantly overexpressed in BPH cases compared to PCa cases. At the transcript level, there was no significant differential expression in the kinases between PCa and BPH cases.

Helicobacter pylori mutants defective in the clpP ATP-dependant protease and the chaperone clpA display reduced macrophage and murine survival.

The ATP-dependent caseinolytic proteases (Clp) are important in resistance against environmental stresses, antibiotic treatments and host immune defences for a number of pathogenic bacteria. ClpP is the proteolytic subunit, whilst ClpA acts both as a chaperone and as an ATPase driving the degradation of damaged or mis-made proteins. The gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori infects approximately half of the world's population and can cause gastric or duodenal ulcers, gastric malignancies and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphomas. The conditions of its in vivo environment expose the organism to host immune cells and upon treatment, antibiotics, conditions likely to cause protein damage. We generated isogenic nonpolar mutants in strain SS1 of clpP and clpA and double mutants with both genes inactivated. Such mutants showed increased sensitivity to antibacterials causing protein damage and/or oxidative stress, in addition to a reduced survival in human macrophages. In the mouse infection model the double mutant SS1 clpAP lacked all ability to colonize the murine host. This suggests that the ability to recover from protein damage is of key importance in the pathogenesis of this organism.