Awareness of COPD and Its Risk Factors Among the Adult Population of the Aseer Region, Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: Epidemiological studies are urgently needed to assess the prevalence of COPD in the region to determine the baseline, against which the future trends in the risk factor levels can be assessed and preventive strategies be planned to promote health among the population. Therefore, this study was undertaken to assess the awareness of COPD and its risk factors in Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted among the general adult population aged 18 years and above living in the Aseer region. A minimum sample of 385 was targeted, using the Raosoft sample size calculator. An online questionnaire was prepared in both English and Arabic language using Google forms and distributed among participants through social media. Results: It was observed that less than one-third (116, 30.12%) of the study population had ever heard about COPD. Nearly one-third spent time with smokers. Among all, 223 (57.3%) respondents had never heard and 46 (11.9%) respondents did not know anything about COPD. The majority correctly knew that the lungs are the primary organ affected by COPD (92, 79.3%). Age, sex, marital status, income, and occupation showed a significant association with COPD awareness. Nearly 41.4% knew that COPD progresses exclusively with age, COPD is more expensive for society than lung cancer (49.0%), cigarette smoking affects COPD (34.5%), COPD is fully recoverable with short-term antibiotics (35.0%), COPD lasts more than 18 months (48.1%), COPD can worsen with smoke exposure (37.4%), lead to disability (46.7%) and quitting smoking has an important role in preventing COPD (34.0%). Conclusion: The awareness regarding the disease was low among the respondents. Only one-third correctly knew that quitting smoking has an important role in preventing COPD. This study projects an urgent need of improving awareness of COPD and its risk factors in the general population.

ACC Deaminase Produced by PGPR Mitigates the Adverse Effect of Osmotic and Salinity Stresses in Pisum sativum through Modulating the Antioxidants Activities.

Salinity-induced ethylene production and reactive oxygen species (ROS) inhibit agricultural productivity. The plant synthesizes ethylene directly from aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC). By using ACC as a nitrogen source, bacteria with ACC deaminase (ACCD) inhibit the overproduction of ethylene, thereby maintaining the ROS. The present study investigated the ACCD activity of previously identified rhizobacterial strains in Dworkin and Foster (DF) minimal salt media supplemented with 5 mM ACC (as N-source). Bacterial isolates GKP KS2_7 (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and MBD 133 (Bacillus subtilis) could degrade ACC into α-ketobutyrate, exhibiting ACCD activity producing more than ~257 nmol of α-ketobutyrate mg protein−1 h−1, and were evaluated for other plant growth-promoting (PGP) traits including indole acetic acid production (>63 µg/mL), phosphate solubilization (>86 µg mL−1), siderophore (>20%) ammonia and exopolysaccharide production. Furthermore, Fourier Transform Infrared analysis also demonstrated α-ketobutyrate liberation from ACC deamination in DF minimal salt media, thereby confirming the ACCD activity. These isolates also showed enhanced tolerance to salinity stress of 3% w/v NaCl in vitro, in addition to facilitating multifarious PGP activities. Seed bacterization by these ACCD-producing bacterial isolates (GKP KS2_7 and MBD 133) revealed a significant decline in stress-stimulated ethylene levels and its associated growth inhibition during seedling germination. They also mitigated the negative effects of salt stress and increased the root-shoot length, fresh and dry weight of root and shoot, root-shoot biomass, total sugar, protein, reducing sugar, chlorophyll content, and antioxidants enzymes in Pisum sativum. As a result, these strains (GKP KS2_7 and MBD 133) might be applied as biofertilizers to counteract the negative effects of soil salinity.