Medicine for the soul: (Non)religious identity, coping, and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the threat and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has become a significant source of distress, using religion to cope may be associated with more positive health. Given the severity and chronicity of the pandemic, religious individuals may also have relied on a variety of non-religious coping methods. Much of the existing COVID-19 research overlooks the role of religious group membership and beliefs in relation to coping responses and associated mental health, with an additional lack of such research within the Canadian context. Thus, this cross-sectional study investigated relations among religiosity, stressor appraisals, (both religious and non-religious) coping strategies, mental and physical health in a religiously-diverse Canadian community sample (N = 280) during the pandemic's 2nd wave from March to June 2021. Numerous differences were apparent in appraisal-coping methods and health across five (non)religious groups (i.e., Atheists, Agnostics, "Spiritual but not religious", Christians, and those considered to be religious "Minorities" in Canada). Religiosity was also associated with better mental health, appraisals of the pandemic as a challenge from which one might learn or grow, and a greater reliance on problem-focused, emotional-engagement, and religious coping. Moreover, both problem-focused and emotional-engagement coping mediated the relations between religiosity and health. Taken together, this research has implications for individual-level coping as well as informing culturally-sensitive public health messages promoting targeted self-care recommendations with integrated religious or spiritual elements during times of threat and uncertainty, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1 plays a more prominent role than activating transcription factor 4 or the p53 tumour suppressor in thapsigargin-induced G1 arrest.

Background: Thapsigargin (Tg) is a compound that inhibits the SERCA calcium transporter leading to decreased endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+ levels. Many ER chaperones are required for proper folding of membrane-associated and secreted proteins, and they are Ca2+ dependent. Therefore, Tg leads to the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER, activating the unfolded protein response (UPR) to help restore homeostasis. Tg reportedly induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in many cell types but how these changes are linked to the UPR remains unclear. The activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) plays a key role in regulating ER stress-induced gene expression so we sought to determine if ATF4 is required for Tg-induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis using ATF4-deficient cells. Methods: Two-parameter flow cytometric analysis of DNA replication and DNA content was used to assess the effects of Tg on cell cycle distribution in isogenic HCT116-derived cell lines either expressing or lacking ATF4. For comparison, we similarly assessed the Tg response in isogenic cell lines deleted of the p53 tumour suppressor and the p53-regulated p21WAF1 cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor important in G1 and G2 arrests induced by DNA damage. Results: Tg led to a large depletion of the S phase population with a prominent increase in the proportion of HCT116 cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. Importantly, this effect was largely independent of ATF4. We found that loss of p21WAF1 but not p53 permitted Tg treated cells to enter S phase and synthesize DNA. Therefore, p21WAF1plays an important role in these Tg-induced cell cycle alterations while ATF4 and p53 do not. Remarkably, the ATF4-, p53-and p21WAF1-deficient cell lines were all more sensitive to Tg-induced apoptosis. Taken together, p21WAF1 plays a larger role in regulating Tg-induced G1 and G2 arrests than ATF4 or p53 but these proteins similarly contribute to protection from Tg-induced apoptosis. This work highlights the complex network of stress responses that are activated in response to ER stress.

Believing in science: Linking religious beliefs and identity with vaccination intentions and trust in science during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite evidence supporting numerous scientific issues (e.g. climate change, vaccinations) many people still doubt the legitimacy of science. Moreover, individuals may be prone to scepticism about scientific findings that misalign with their ideological beliefs and identities. This research investigated whether trust in science (as well as government and media) and COVID-19 vaccination intentions varied as a function of (non)religious group identity, religiosity, religion-science compatibility beliefs, and/or political orientation in two online studies (N = 565) with university students and a Canadian community sample between January and June 2021. In both studies, vaccination intentions and trust in science varied as a function of (non)religious group identity and beliefs. Vaccine hesitancy was further linked to religiosity through a lack of trust in science. Given the ideological divides that the pandemic has exacerbated, this research has implications for informing public health strategies for relaying scientific findings to the public and encouraging vaccine uptake in culturally appropriate ways.