Predictors of depression among caregivers of disabled children in community based rehabilitation centres in Selangor

Background: Disabled children caregivers face challenges in their daily life as being a caregiver is not an easy task especially towards activities of daily living of dependent children. This study was carried out to determine predictors of depression among caregivers of disabled children. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among caregivers of disabled children attending Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) centres in four randomly selected districts in Selangor. Data were obtained using self-administered questionnaire. Depression was screened using DASS-21 questionnaire. All collected data were analysed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21, involving descriptive and multivariate analysis. Results: Response rate was 81% with a total of 348 respondents. Prevalence of depression was 21% in this study. Predictors for depression were caregivers level of education (AOR = 3.64, 95%CI=1.42-9.30), disabled child attainment of other education (AOR = 2.16, 95%CI= 1.06 - 4.42), financial assistance received (AOR =0.39, 95%CI= 0.29-0.93) and maladaptive coping strategy (AOR = 1.22, 95%CI= 1.13-1.31). Conclusion: This study showed that caregivers education level, coping strategy and financial support play an important role in developing depression. Thus these caregivers need a supportive circle for them to prevent depression in their life which could affect quality of care of their disabled children

Leishmaniasis: current treatment and prospects for new drugs and vaccines

Leishmaniasis is a disease that ranges in severity from skin lesions to serious disfigurement and fatal systemic infection. WHO estimates that the disease results in 2 million new cases a year, threatens 350 million people in 88 countries and that there are 12 million people currently infected worldwide. Current treatment is based on chemotherapy, which relies on a handful of drugs with serious limitations such as high cost, toxicity, difficult route of administration and lack of efficacy in endemic areas. Pentavalent antimonials have been the mainstay of antileishmanial therapy for over 70 years with second line drugs, Amphotericin B and Pentamidine, used in case of antimonial failure. Since the introduction of miltefosine at the beginning of this century, no new antileishmanial compounds have been approved for human treatment. Leishmaniasis is considered one of a few parasitic diseases likely to be controllable by vaccination. However, to date no such vaccine is available despite substantial efforts by many laboratories. The development of a safe, effective and affordable antileishmanial vaccine is a critical global public-health priority. This review outlines the current status of vaccine development and looks at the currently available chemotherapy as well as examples of drugs in development and different approaches to antileishmanial drug discovery and identification of novel antiparasitic compounds

Genetic engineering of rice for resistance to sheath blight

A 1.1 kb rice genomic DNA fragment, containing a chitinase gene under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter, was cloned into the rice transformation vector pGL2. After transformation of Indica rice protoplasts in the presence of polyethyleneglycol, plants were regenerated. The presence of the chimeric chitinase gene in T0 and T1 transgenic rice plants was detected by Southern blot analysis. Western blot analysis of transgenic plants and their progeny revealed the presence of two proteins with apparent molecular weights of 30 and 35 kDa that reacted with the chitinase antibody. Progeny from the chitinase-positive plants were tested for their resistance to the sheath blight pathogen, Rhizoctonia solani. The degree of resistance displayed by the transgenic plants to this pathogen correlated with the level of chitinase expression

PHLDA1 expression marks the putative epithelial stem cells and contributes to intestinal tumorigenesis

Studies employing mouse models have identified crypt base and position +4 cells as strong candidates for intestinal epithelial stem cells. Equivalent cell populations are thought to exist in the human intestine; however robust and specific protein markers are lacking. Here, we show that in the human small and large intestine, PHLDA1 is expressed in discrete crypt base and some position +4 cells. In small adenomas, PHLDA1 was expressed in a subset of undifferentiated and predominantly Ki-67-negative neoplastic cells, suggesting that a basic hierarchy of differentiation is retained in early tumorigenesis. In large adenomas, carcinomas, and metastases PHLDA1 expression became widespread, with increased expression and nuclear localization at invasive margins. siRNA-mediated suppression of PHLDA1 in colon cancer cells inhibited migration and anchorage-independent growth in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. The integrins ITGA2 and ITGA6 were downregulated in response to PHLDA1 suppression, and accordingly cell adhesion to laminin and collagen was significantly reduced. We conclude that PHLDA1 is a putative epithelial stem cell marker in the human small and large intestine and contributes to migration and proliferation in colon cancer cells. ©2011 AACR