Assessment of the understanding and awareness of bioethics among healthcare professionals in all public and private hospitals of Haripur district, Pakistan: a multicentre cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of bioethics awareness among healthcare professionals in Pakistan, focusing on the associations with sociodemographic characteristics, training and teaching of ethics, medical ethics practice and specific ethical issues. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Public and private hospitals in Haripur, Pakistan. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 647 healthcare professionals participated in this study. METHODS: This study was conducted between March and May 2023, following Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology checklist criterion, involving healthcare professionals with at least 6 months of experience in patient care practice. Providers under close supervision are advised not to respond to the bioethics knowledge, attitudes and practices survey form due to potential ethical dilemmas. RESULTS: Both physicians and non-physicians need to know more about bioethics. There was a significant difference (p<0.05) in ethical training and teaching based on job categories/designations, with ethical views differing greatly by job designation. Specific ethical issues, such as accepting gifts from patients and pharmaceutical companies, referral fees, advising specific products, disclosure of medical errors, patient confidentiality, not informing patients fully about treatment and performing tasks for financial gain, showed significant associations (p<0.05) with healthcare professional's designation. Ethical awareness scores also showed significant differences (p<0.05) based on age, ethnicity, place of posting, professional experience and the organisation's ethical guidelines. CONCLUSION: This study highlighted a notable gap in the understanding of certain ethical concerns among healthcare professionals, with nurses showing relatively lower awareness of healthcare practice compared with other professionals. Addressing these issues through targeted training and robust ethical guidelines is critical to improving patient care in Pakistan's healthcare system.

Evaluation of Sodium Alginate Stabilized Nanoparticles and Antibiotics against Drug Resistant Escherichia coli Isolated from Gut of Houbara Bustard Bird.

Alternative approaches and/or modified approaches to tackle resistance in gut microbes are need of the hour. The current study was planned to find the resistance modulation and toxicity potential of sodium alginate stabilized MgO nanoparticles and antibiotics against Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolated from the gut of Houbara bustard bird (n = 105 fecal samples). The preparations consisted of gel stabilized ampicillin (G+A), gel stabilized MgO and ampicillin (G+M+A), gel stabilized MgO and cefoxitin (G+M+C), gel stabilized tylosin (G+T), gel stabilized MgO and tylosin (G+M+T), and gel stabilized MgO (M+G). The fecal samples showed 53% (56/105) prevalence of E. coli which was found to be significantly (p < 0.05) associated with most of the assumed factors and resistant to multiple drugs. G+M+T showed the lowest (4.883 ± 0.00µg/mL) minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) followed G+M+C, G+M+A, G+A, M+G, and G+T. Significant reduction (p < 0.05) in MIC with respect to incubation interval found at the 16th hr for G+M+A, G+A, and G+M+C that further remained nonsignificant (p > 0.05) onwards until the 24th hr of incubation. In the case of G+T and M+G, significant reduction in MIC was found at the 20th hr and 24th hr of incubation. Ecotoxicology and histopathology trials on snails showed mild changes in MICs of the preparations. The study thus concluded increasing drug resistance in E. coli of houbara bird while sodium alginate stabilized MgO nanoparticles and antibiotics were effective alternative antibacterial composites with mild toxicity.

Gut microbial dysbiosis and its association with esophageal cancer.

Due to its aggressive nature and low survival rate, esophageal cancer is one of the deadliest cancer. While the intestinal microbiome significantly influences human health and disease. This research aimed to investigate and characterize the relative abundance of intestinal bacterial composition in esophageal cancer patients. The fecal samples were collected from esophageal cancer patients (n = 15) and healthy volunteers (n = 10). The PCR-DGGE was carried out by focusing on the V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene, and qPCR was performed for Bacteroides vulgatus, Escherichia coli, Bifidobacterium, Clostridium leptum and Lactobacillus. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene targeting the V3+V4 region was performed on 20 randomly selected samples. PCR-DGGE and High-throughput diversity results showed a significant alteration of gut bacterial composition between the experimental and control groups, which indicates the gut microbial dysbiosis in esophageal cancer patients. At the phylum level, there was significant enrichment of Bacteroidetes, while a non-significant decrease of Firmicutes in the experimental group. At family statistics, a significantly higher level of Bacteroidaceae and Enterobacteriaceae, while a significantly lower abundance of Prevotellaceae and Veillonellaceae were observed. There was a significantly high prevalence of genera Bacteroides, Escherichia-Shigella, while a significantly lower abundance of Prevotella_9 and Dialister in the experimental group as compared to the control group. Furthermore, the species analysis also showed significantly raised level of Bacteroides vulgatus and Escherichia coli in the experimental group. These findings revealed a significant gut microbial dysbiosis in esophageal cancer patients. So, the current study can be used for the understanding of esophageal cancer treatment, disease pathway, mechanism, and probiotic development.

Occurrence of Trichophyton verrucosum in cattle in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, China.

BACKGROUND: Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is an important cattle breeding area in China, and cattle breeding bases are located in this area. In Ningxia, dermatophytes have not been paid attention to, so dermatophytosis is becoming more and more serious. For effective control measures, it is important to determine the disease prevalence and isolate and identify the pathogenic microorganism. RESULTS: The study showed the prevalence of dermatophytes was 15.35% (74/482). The prevalence in calf was higher than adult cattle (p < 0.05). The morbidity was the highest in winter compared with autumn (p < 0.0001), summer (p < 0.05) and spring (p < 0.0001). The prevalence in Guyuan was the highest compared with Yinchuan (p < 0.05) and Shizuishan (p < 0.05). The incidence of lesions on the face, head, neck, trunk and whole body was 20.43, 38.71, 20.43, 10.75 and 9.68%, respectively. From all samples, the isolation rate of Trichophyton was highest (61.1%). The phylogenetic tree constructed showed that the 11 pathogenic fungi were on the same branch as Trichophyton verrucosum. CONCLUSIONS: This study reports, for the first time, the presence of Trichophyton verrucosum in cattle in Ningxia and showed that the incidence of dermatophytosis is related to different regions, ages and seasons. A better knowledge of the prevalence of dermatophytosis of cattle may allow the adoption of more efficient control measures and prophylaxis.

Selective inhibition of NADPH oxidase reverses the over contraction of diabetic rat aorta.

Abnormal vascular responsiveness in diabetes has been attributed to a number of changes in contractile pathways, affected in part by the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). It has been reported that NADPH oxidase (NOX) is increased in diabetic (streptozotocin treated; STZ) rat arteries; however the pharmacological agents used to inhibit NOX activity are known to be unsuitable for in vitro studies and have a high level of non-selectivity. Here we have used the highly selective NOX inhibitor VAS2870 in diabetic rat aorta and compared its effects with apocynin, SOD, and allopurinol on phenylephrine and U46619 induced contraction. Male Wistar rats were injected intraperitoneally with 65mg/kg STZ and development of diabetes was confirmed by testing blood glucose levels. Rats were killed by CO2 asphyxiation, and the thoracic aorta removed and mounted in an organ bath under a tension of 1g. Diabetic rat aortas exhibit a greatly increased response to phenylephrine, which was reduced to a level consistent with control rat aorta by 10(-5)M VAS2870 and 150U/ml SOD. Incubation with VAS2870 led to an increase in normal rat aorta contraction, but led to a significant reduction in phenylephrine and U46619 induced tone in diabetic rat aorta, which indicates that ROS in diabetic rats directly contributes to these contractile responses. Apocynin and allopurinol had no effect on contraction in diabetic or normal rat aorta. This data is the first to show that selective inhibition of NOX reduces diabetic arterial contraction in direct comparison with inhibition of other known contributors of ROS.