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BACKGROUND: Malaria remains a serious public health problem in India. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as per the 2021 report, India accounts for 83% of malaria cases in Southeast Asia. Various interventions have been implemented to control malaria's burden in India. In October 2021, the WHO approved the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine for administration in four scheduled doses in children five months of age to reduce the burden and severity of malaria. The objectives of this study were to assess public awareness about the vaccine among residents of India and determine any associations with demographic characteristics. METHODS: The study was a web-based, cross-sectional survey. The survey questionnaire was sent out electronically using Qualtrics® (Provo, UT) and remained active for 12 weeks (December 2021 to March 2022). The questionnaire was self-administered anonymously, using a link that was shared with people across India through social media platforms. A total of 2,371 respondents above 18 years of age and current residents of India participated in the study. The chi-square test was used to examine the association between awareness about the vaccine and demographic characteristics. A p-value of <0.05 was used to describe a statistically significant association. RESULTS: Most participants (71.95%) had heard about the malaria vaccine, and 68.75% favored making it a required childhood vaccine. Similarly, 67.27% indicated that they would encourage caregivers to get their children/wards vaccinated. Age, gender, educational status, residence, and caregiver status were associated with the awareness regarding the malaria vaccine (p < 0.05). Males, participants between 18 and 24 years old, and caregivers of children aged five years or less were more likely to be aware of the vaccine. Participants with higher education and residing in urban localities had more awareness of the vaccine. CONCLUSION: The malaria vaccine has the potential to eradicate malaria in India, especially if included in the immunization schedule for children. However, it is critical that health policymakers target populations that are less aware of information on any intended rollout of the malaria vaccine to ensure rapid uptake toward the goal of eliminating malaria from India.
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Deep brain stimulation involving the stereotactic implantation of electrodes in the deeper neural tissue remains one of the most trusted nonpharmacotherapeutic approaches for neuromodulation in the clinical setting. The recent advent of techniques that can modulate the neural structure and/or function at the cellular level has stimulated the exploration of these strategies in managing neurological and psychiatric disorders. Optogenetics, which is widely employed in experimental research, is the prototype of the above techniques. Other methods such as chemogenetics, sonogenetics, and magnetogenetics have also been introduced. Although these strategies possess several noticeable differences, they have an overlapping conceptual framework enabling their classification under a singular hypernym. This article introduces this hypernym, "stimulogenetics" in an attempt to solve the pertinent ambiguity to aid the classification of existing literature. The article also compares the strategies classified under stimulogenetics and concludes that the current literature suggests that nonsurgical approaches such as chemogenetics and sonogenetics are better suited for clinical applications. However, due to the dearth of clinical studies, it is not possible to determine this definitively.
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Steinernema hermaphroditum entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) and their Xenorhabdus griffiniae symbiotic bacteria have recently been shown to be a genetically tractable system for the study of both parasitic and mutualistic symbiosis. In their infective juvenile (IJ) stage, EPNs search for insect hosts to invade and quickly kill them with the help of the symbiotic bacteria they contain. The mechanisms behind these behaviors have not been well characterized, including how the nematodes sense their insect hosts. In the well-studied freeliving soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, ciliated amphid neurons enable the worms to sense their environment, including chemosensation. Some of these neurons have also been shown to control the decision to develop as a stress-resistant dauer larva, analogous to the infective juveniles of EPNs, or to exit from dauer and resume larval development. In C. elegans and other nematodes, dye-filling with DiI is an easy and efficient method to label these neurons. We developed a protocol for DiI staining of S. hermaphroditum sensory neurons. Using this method, we could identify neurons positionally analogous to the C. elegans amphid neurons ASI, ADL, ASK, ASJ, as well as inner labial neurons IL1 and IL2. Similar to findings in other EPNs, we also found that the IJs of S. hermaphroditum are dye-filling resistant.
