COVID-19 Prevention Behaviours and Vaccine Acceptability, and Their Association with a Behaviour Change Campaign in Somalia: Analysis of a Longitudinal Cohort.

Somalia experienced its first wave of COVID-19 infections in March 2020 and has experienced fluctuating infection levels since. Longitudinal data on suspected cases of COVID-19, attitudes, and behaviours were collected by telephone interviews of cash-transfer programme beneficiaries from June 2020-April 2021. A multi-media Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) campaign was designed and implemented from February 2021 to May 2021. Between the end of the first wave and the onset of the second the perceived threat from COVID-19 increased, with the proportion of respondents viewing it as a major threat increasing from 46% to 70% (p = 0.021). Use of face coverings increased by 24% (p < 0.001) and hand shaking and hugging for social greeting decreased, with 17% and 23% more people abstaining from these practices (p = 0.001). A combined preventative behaviour score (PB-Score) increased by 1.3 points (p < 0.0001) with a higher score in female respondents (p < 0.0001). During wave 2, vaccine acceptance was reported by 69.9% (95% CI 64.9, 74.5), overall. Acceptance decreased with increasing age (p = 0.009) and was higher in males (75.5%) than females (67.0%) (p = 0.015). Awareness of the SBCC campaign was widespread with each of the 3 key campaign slogans having been heard by at least 67% of respondents. Awareness of 2 specific campaign slogans was independently associated with an increased use of face coverings (aOR 2.31; p < 0.0001) and vaccine acceptance (aOR 2.36; p < 0.0001). Respondents reported receiving information on the pandemic from a wide range of sources with mobile phones and radio the most common. Trust in different sources ranged widely.

Antibacterial, antioxidant, and haemolytic potential of silver nanoparticles biosynthesized using roots extract of Cannabis sativa plant.

In this study, Cannabis sativa roots extract has been employed for the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The appearance of reddish-brown colour followed by absorption peak of AgNPs at 408 nm through UV-vis spectrophotometry suggested biosynthesis of AgNPs. The size of the particles ranged from 90-113 nm, confirmed using DLS and TEM along with zeta potential of -25.3 mV. The FTIR provided information regarding the phytochemical capping. The study was further elaborated for determining AgNPs antibacterial, antioxidant, and cellular toxicity using MIC, DPPH, MTT, and haemolytic assays, respectively. The AgNPs were significantly effective against Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive), as compared to that of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Escherichia coli (Gram-negative). AgNPs also exhibited remarkable antioxidant potential wherein 58.01 ± 0.09% free radical scavenging was observed at a concentration of 100 µg/ml. AgNPs revealed lower cytotoxicity where cell viability was observed to be 52.38 ± 0.6% at a very high concentration of 500 µg/ml in HEK 293 cells. Further, very low toxicity was seen in RBCs i.e. 6.47 ± 0.04% at a high concentration of 200 µg/ml. Thus, the current study beholds anticipation that Cannabis sativa ethanolic root extract-mediated AgNPs may play a vital role in therapeutic.

Review on Natural Bioactive Products as Radioprotective Therapeutics: Present and Past Perspective.

Among conventional treatment methodologies, surgery, hyperthermia, radiation, and chemotherapy have become integral components of treatment for most cancers. Radiation therapy in the treatment of many malignancies is always the better choice over surgery and chemotherapy. Ionizing radiation produced as a consequence of using these radiations has always been a concern in these treatment methods. Synthetic radio-protectors with their inherent limitations are being used to date to reduce the mortality of these radiations; still, it compromises the clinical efficacy of these administrations. Hence, investigations for alternative methods, including natural resources such as plant and fruit extracts, are being explored to treat radiation-mediated ailments. The present review article endeavors to provide a comprehensive, updated, and chronological account of these promising plants and fruit extracts and their bioactive principles as radio-protectors. We present the merits and demerits of radiation therapy and cell stress generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) associated with radiation need and availability of radio-protectors. Finally, we discuss green-based bioactive compounds that have radioprotective properties.

Bibliometric analysis on exploitation of biogenic gold and silver nanoparticles in breast, ovarian and cervical cancer therapy.

Multifunctional nanoparticles are being formulated to overcome the side effects associated with anticancer drugs as well as conventional drug delivery systems. Cancer therapy has gained the advancement due to various pragmatic approaches with better treatment outcomes. The metal nanostructures such as gold and silver nanoparticles accessible via eco-friendly method provide amazing characteristics in the field of diagnosis and therapy towards cancer diseases. The environmental friendly approach has been proposed as a substitute to minimize the use of hazardous compounds associated in chemical synthesis of nanoparticles. In this attempt, researchers have used various microbes, and plant-based agents as reducing agents. In the last 2 decades various papers have been published emphasizing the benefits of the eco-friendly approach and advantages over the traditional method in the cancer therapy. Despite of various reports and published research papers, eco-based nanoparticles do not seem to find a way to clinical translation for cancer treatment. Present review enumerates the bibliometric data on biogenic silver and gold nanoparticles from Clarivate Analytics Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus for the duration 2010 to 2022 for cancer treatment with a special emphasis on breast, ovarian and cervical cancer. Furthermore, this review covers the recent advances in this area of research and also highlights the obstacles in the journey of biogenic nanodrug from clinic to market.