Perception of Availability, Accessibility, and Affordability of COVID-19 Vaccines and Hesitancy: A Cross-Sectional Study in India

Background: The current study aimed to identify the perceptions and issues regarding the affordability, availability, and accessibility of COVID-19 vaccination and determine the extent of vaccine hesitancy among non-vaccinated individuals. Methods: A Prospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 575 individuals for a period of six months. All the relevant information was collected using the peer-validated survey questionnaire. An independent t-test was applied to check the association between variables. Result: Among 575 participants, 80.8% were vaccinated, and 19.2% were non-vaccinated. Among the vaccinated, 35.1% were vaccinated in private centres and 64.9% in public health centres (PHC). In total, 32% had accessibility issues and 24.5% had availability issues. However, responders vaccinated at PHC were having more issues in comparison to other groups which was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Among the 163 privately vaccinated participants, 69.9% found it completely affordable. Another 26.9% and 3.1% found vaccines partly affordable and a little unaffordable. Among the 110 non-vaccinated, 38.1% were found to be vaccine-hesitant. Conclusions: Individuals vaccinated at PHC experienced issues such as long waiting times, unavailability of doses, and registration. Further, a significant level of hesitancy towards COVID-19 vaccines was observed. The safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines contributed to negative attitudes

Identification of hub genes involved in cisplatin resistance in head and neck cancer

Abstract Background Cisplatin resistance is one of the major contributors to the poor survival rate among head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. Focusing on the protein–protein interaction rather than a single protein could provide a better understanding of drug resistance. Thus, this study aimed to identify hub genes in a complex network of cisplatin resistance associated genes in HNC chemotherapy via a series of bioinformatic tools. Methods The genes involved in cisplatin resistance were retrieved from the NCBI gene database using “head and neck cancer” and “cisplatin resistance” as key words. The human genes retrieved were analyzed for their interactions and enriched using the STRING database. The interaction between KEGG pathways and genes was visualized in Cytoscape 3.7.2. Further, the hub gene was identified using the Cytohubba plugin of Cytoscape and validated using UALCAN and Human Protein Atlas database. Validated genes were investigated for the drug–gene interaction using the DGIbd database. Results Out of 137 genes obtained using key words, 133 were associated with cisplatin resistance in the human species. A total of 150 KEGG pathways, 82 cellular components, 123 molecular functions, and 1752 biological processes were modulated on enrichment analysis. Out of 37 hub genes, CCND1, AXL, CDKN2A, TERT, and EXH2 genes were found to have significant (p < 0.05) mRNA expression and effect on overall survival whereas protein expression was found to be positive for all the significant genes except TERT. Thus, they can be targeted with palbociclib, methotrexate, bortezomib and fluorouracil, sorafenib, dasatinib, carboplatin, paclitaxel, gemcitabine, imatinib, doxorubicin, and vorinostat. Conclusion As the pathogenesis of head and neck cancer is complex, targeting hub genes and associated pathways involved in cisplatin resistance could bring a milestone change in the drug discovery and management of drug resistance which might uplift overall survival among HNC patients

A rare case of quadrigeminal plate lipoma presenting with the sixth cranial nerve palsy

Intracranial lipomas are rare benign tumour that is slow growing, generally asymptomatic, most frequently located in the midline areas and are usually an incidental finding on imaging and therefore cases are not frequently reported. This study reports a case of a patient with quadrigeminal plate lipoma presenting with obstructive hydrocephalous and the 6th cranial nerve palsy that was successfully treated with ventriculo-peritoneal shunting without addressing the lesion