The Role of Neighborhood Environment in Promoting Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Disease among Young Adults: Data from Middle to High Income Population in an Asian Megacity

Background: Modifiable risk factors of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have their triggers in the neighborhood environments of communities. Studying the environmental triggers for CVD risk factors is important to understand the situation in a broader perspective. Young adults are influenced the most by the environment profile around them hence it is important to study this subset of the population.Methods: This was a descriptive study conducted using the EPOCH research tool designed by the authors of the PURE study. The study population consisted of young adults aged 18-25 in two areas of Karachi. The study setting was busy shopping malls frequented by young adults in the particular community being studied.Results: Our total sample size was 120 individuals, who consented to be interviewed by our interviewers. Less than 50% of the population recognized some form of restriction regarding smoking in their communities. The largest contributor to tobacco advertising was actors smoking in movies and TV shows with 89% responses from both communities. Only 11.9% of the individuals disapproved of smoking cigarettes among men with wide acceptance of \u27sheesha\u27 across all age groups. Advertising for smoking and junk food was more frequent as compared to smoking cessation, healthy diet and exercise in both the areas. Unhealthy food items were more easily available in contrast to healthier options. The cost of healthy snack food options including vegetables and fruits was higher than sugary drinks and foods.CONCLUSION: This assessment showed that both communities were exposed to environments that promote risk factors for cardiovascular diseases

Improved outcome of myeloma related bone pain with oral analgesics and bisphosphonate therapy: A single-center experience from Pakistan

Objective: To determine the frequency of myeloma-related bone pain and to evaluate the effectiveness of various therapeutic options in such patients.Subjects and methods: This was a retrospective review and we evaluated the patients with multiple myeloma over a period of 2 years from January 2005 to September 2012, for various types of bone pain and determined the optimum management for the same. Myeloma was diagnosed according to previously established criteria. All patients who presented with myeloma-related bone pain were included. Response to various analgesics was analyzed.Results: During the study period n = 125 patients were diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Of these n = 89 (71%) presented with bone pain. There were 63 males and 62 females with median age of 58 years. Eighty patients complained of moderate pain, with backache as the commonest site which was observed in n = 30 patients (24%). Skeletal survey was diagnostic in 71%. Bone marrow involvement was seen in n = 55 patients with plasmacytosis ranging from 16 to 90%. Hypercalcemia was observed in 5% of the patients while IgG kappa was found in 22%. Fifty seven patients responded to World Health Organization step 1 and step 2 analgesic therapies alone while n = 32 patients required a combination of radiotherapy and surgery.Conclusion: We observed that moderate bone pain is a frequent presenting symptom in multiple myeloma which in our experience responded very well to oral analgesics

Data from: Pangenome and immuno-proteomics analysis of Acinetobacter baumannii strains revealed the core peptide vaccine targets

Background: Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as a significant nosocomial pathogen during the last few years, exhibiting resistance to almost all major classes of antibiotics. Alternative treatment options such as vaccines tend to be most promising and cost effective approaches against this resistant pathogen. In the current study, we have explored the pan-genome of A. baumannii followed by immune-proteomics and reverse vaccinology approaches to identify potential core vaccine targets. Results: The pan-genome of all available A. baumannii strains (30 complete genomes) is estimated to contain 7,606 gene families and the core genome consists of 2,445 gene families (~32 % of the pan-genome). Phylogenetic tree, comparative genomic and proteomic analysis revealed both intra- and inter genomic similarities and evolutionary relationships. Among the conserved core genome, thirteen proteins, including P pilus assembly protein, pili assembly chaperone, AdeK, PonA, OmpA, general secretion pathway protein D, FhuE receptor, Type VI secretion system OmpA/MotB, TonB dependent siderophore receptor, general secretion pathway protein D, outer membrane protein, peptidoglycan associated lipoprotein and peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase are identified as highly antigenic. Epitope mapping of the target proteins revealed the presence of antigenic surface exposed 9-mer T-cell epitopes. Protein-protein interaction and functional annotation have shown their involvement in significant biological and molecular processes. The pipeline is validated by predicting already known immunogenic targets against Gram negative pathogen Helicobacter pylori as a positive control. Conclusion: The study, based upon combinatorial approach of pan-genomics, core genomics, proteomics and reverse vaccinology led us to find out potential vaccine candidates against A. baumannii. The comprehensive analysis of all the completely sequenced genomes revealed thirteen putative antigens which could elicit substantial immune response. The integration of computational vaccinology strategies would facilitate in tackling the rapid dissemination of resistant A.baumannii strains. The scarcity of effective antibiotics and the global expansion of sequencing data making this approach desirable in the development of effective vaccines against A. baumannii and other bacterial pathogens

Modeling and analysis of innate immune responses induced by the host cells against hepatitis C virus infection.

An in-depth understanding of complex systems such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and host immunomodulatory response is an open challenge for biologists. In order to understand the mechanisms involved in immune evasion by HCV, we present a simplified formalization of the highly dynamic system consisting of HCV, its replication cycle and host immune responses at the cellular level using hybrid Petri net (HPN). The approach followed in this study comprises of step wise simulation, model validation and analysis of host immune response. This study was performed with an objective of making correlations among viral RNA levels, interferon (IFN) production and interferon stimulated genes (ISGs) induction. The results correlate with the biological data verifying that the model is very useful in predicting the dynamic behavior of the signaling proteins in response to a stimulus. This study implicates that HCV infection is dependent upon several key factors of the host immune response. The effect of host proteins on limiting viral infection is effectively overruled by the viral pathogen. This study also analyzes activity levels of RNase L, miR-122, IFN, ISGs and PKR induction and inhibition of TLR3/RIG1 mediated pathways in response to targeted manipulation in the presence of HCV. The results are in complete agreement at the time of writing with the published expression studies and western blot experiments. Our model also provides some biological insights regarding the role of PKR in the acute infection of HCV. It might help to explain why many patients fail to clear acute HCV infection while others, with low ISG basal levels, clear HCV spontaneously. The described methodology can easily be reproduced, which suitably supports the study of other viral infections in a formal, automated and expressive manner. The Petri net-based modeling approach applied here may provide valuable insights for study design and analyses to evaluate other disease associated integrated pathways in biological systems

Additional file 1: of Pangenome and immuno-proteomics analysis of Acinetobacter baumannii strains revealed the core peptide vaccine targets

Virulent protein in core proteome: Virulent proteins (295) present in core conserved genome (2445) of A. baumannii are identified, and found out to facilitate the bacteria in its pathogenesis. (XLSX 123 kb

Evolutionary relationship of the Acinetobacter baumannii strains based on 16SrRNA sequences.

The evolutionary history was inferred using the Neighbor joining method. 1000 bootstrap re-samplings were done to estimate the consensus tree. The optimal tree with a sum of branch length = 0.5833 is shown. The tree is drawn to scale with branch lengths in same units as those of evolutionary distances used to infer the phylogenetic tree. The evolutionary distances were computed using the maximum composite likelihood method and are in the units of the number of base substitutions per site. A) Illustrates the complete phylogenetic tree of all the included strains and B) shows the enhanced view of the selected clads. The strains like A. baumannii AYE, A. baumannii A1, A. baumannii 307-0294 all belonging to IC I fall in the same clade, indicating phylogenetically closeness to their clonal strains. A. baumannii D1279779 expressed as a separate branch of the tree, validating the unique properties of this strain in between IC I and IC II. Similarly strains belonging to IC II appeared in single clad, showing their close phylogenetic relationships

Additional file 6: of Pangenome and immuno-proteomics analysis of Acinetobacter baumannii strains revealed the core peptide vaccine targets

Eptiope analysis of 13 prioritized proteins. B-cell epitope predictions, T-cell epitope location, antigenicity, NetsurfP exposure of epitopes. (XLSX 63 kb

Food and Tobacco Purchasing Environment.

<p>Food and Tobacco Purchasing Environment.</p

Knowledge of smoking and lifestyle changes in relation to heart disease and other conditions.

<p>Knowledge of smoking and lifestyle changes in relation to heart disease and other conditions.</p