Knowledge on cervical cancer and perceived barriers to the uptake of HPV vaccination among health professionals.

BACKGROUND: Despite the fact that cervical cancer is preventable and curable in the early stages, it still remains to be a major public health problem in India. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge and awareness regarding the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination among health care professionals working in a tertiary care hospital in urban India. METHODS: To this aim, we conducted a cross-sectional study among 318 health care professionals working in tertiary hospitals across Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Our research group designed a structured questionnaire with 31 items to assess the knowledge and attitudes on cervical cancer, its prevention, and HPV vaccination. RESULTS: Among the 318 respondents, 90.6% were aware of cervical cancer, 83.3% were aware that PAP (Papanicolaou) smear test detects cervical cancer, and 86.2% of the respondents knew that HPV causes cervical cancer. 29.2% of the eligible respondents underwent the screening against cervical cancer, and 19.8% of the study participants were vaccinated for HPV. Only 34.9% know that the HPV vaccine could be given to boys. The most common reason for not being vaccinated against HPV was the lack of awareness. In our study, 77.2% of the respondents were willing to be vaccinated and recommend HPV vaccination to their family members. CONCLUSION: From this study, it was evident that there is a lack of awareness about HPV vaccination and its importance in preventing cervical cancer among healthcare professionals. Our finding clearly establishes the need to devise intervention programs to promote vaccination against HPV and periodical screening for cervical cancer among healthcare professionals.

An open label randomized clinical trial of Indomethacin for mild and moderate hospitalised Covid-19 patients.

Indomethacin, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), has been presented as a broad-spectrum antiviral agent. This randomised clinical trial in a hospital setting evaluated the efficacy and safety of this drug in RT-PCR-positive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. A total of 210 RT-PCR-positive COVID-19 patients who provided consent were allotted to the control or case arm, based on block randomisation. The control arm received standard of care comprising paracetamol, ivermectin, and other adjuvant therapies. The patients in the case arm received indomethacin instead of paracetamol, with other medications retained. The primary endpoint was the development of hypoxia/desaturation with SpO2 ≤ 93, while time to become afebrile and time for cough and myalgia resolution were the secondary endpoints. The results of 210 patients were available, with 103 and 107 patients in the indomethacin and paracetamol arms, respectively. We monitored patient profiles along with everyday clinical parameters. In addition, blood chemistry at the time of admission and discharge was assessed. As no one in either of the arms required high-flow oxygen, desaturation with a SpO2 level of 93 and below was the vital goal. In the indomethacin group, none of the 103 patients developed desaturation. On the other hand, 20 of the 107 patients in the paracetamol arm developed desaturation. Patients who received indomethacin also experienced more rapid symptomatic relief than those in the paracetamol arm, with most symptoms disappearing in half the time. In addition, 56 out of 107 in the paracetamol arm had fever on the seventh day, while no patient in the indomethacin group had fever. Neither arm reported any adverse event. The fourteenth-day follow-up revealed that the paracetamol arm patients had faced several discomforts; indomethacin arm patients mostly complained only of tiredness. Indomethacin is a safe and effective drug for treating patients with mild and moderate covid-19.

A Computational approach to screen, predict and annotate human and chimpanzee PHEX intronic miRNAs, their gene targets, and regulatory interaction networks.

The knowledge of what separates us genetically from our less-evolved relatives is crucial for gaining new biomedical insight about the human-chimpanzee relatedness that could influence the development of new treatments and diagnostic aids for various ailments. Especially, more than 300 diseases have been mapped to the X chromosome, which has unique and complicated characteristics than other chromosomes in the human genome. Although the genomes of humans and chimpanzees share 99% similarity, significant differences exist between the two species in their non-coding intronic regions. Therefore, this evolutionary-based genome annotation study attempted to computationally compare, contrast, and annotate the homologous miRNAs and their gene regulatory mechanisms in the intronic regions of the PHEX gene on the human X chromosome of the two species. From our results, we identified a total of 1296 human miRNAs and 46, 957 gene targets. Similarly, 30, 563 targets of homologous chimp miRNAs were predicted. miRNAs like hsa-miR-17-5p showed a maximum number of interactions while miRNAs like hsa-miR-107 with the least number of interactions in the human/chimp gene networks. A few top-ranked miRNAs such as hsa-miR-24, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-34a, and hsa-miR-378 were observed to be common between the two genera. The cooperativity and multiplicity of certain miRNAs were predicted to regulate the expression of diverse cancer-associated genes such as Cyclin D1, Notch1, CDK-6, E2F3, ALK4, CKDN2A, DHFR, and MAPK14. Nevertheless, further in vitro and in vivo experimental validations of these gene candidates are required before they could be used as potential diagnostic markers and drug targets.

Molecular docking analysis of compounds from Justica adhatoda L with glycogen synthase kinase-3 ß.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is linked with Glycogen synthase kinase-3 ß.Therefore, it is ofinterest to document molecular docking analysis data of compounds from Justica adhatoda L with glycogen synthase kinase-3 ß. We report the binding features of ethambutol, pyrazinamide, stigmasterol and vasicoline with GSK-3 ß.

Molecular docking analysis of the BRCA1 protein with compounds from Justica adhatoda L.

BRCA1 is a human tumour suppression gene. Therefore, it is of interest to document the Molecular docking analysis data of the BRCA1 protein with compounds from Justica adhatoda L (adhatoda). We report that Amrinone, Hexadecanoic acid, Pyrazinamide & Vasicinone have acceptable binding features with the BRCA1 protein for further consideration.

Molecular docking analysis of phytocompounds from Andrographis paniculata binding with proteins in the notch-signaling pathway.

It is of interest to document the molecular docking analysis of phytocompounds from Andrographis paniculata binding with protein NOTCH1 in the Notch-signaling pathway in the context of cancer. Hence, we document the binding features of neoandrographolide, 14-deoxyandrographolide, androgapholide and andrograpanin with proteins in the notch-signaling pathway for further consideration.