Banking Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) Stem Cells: Awareness, Attitude and Expectations of Potential Donors from One of the Largest Potential Repository (India)

<div><p>Background</p><p>The concept of Umbilical Cord blood (UCB) stem cells is emerging as a non-invasive, efficacious alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells to treat a variety of blood and bone marrow diseases, blood cancers, metabolic disorders and immune deficiencies. Aim of the present study was to determine the level of awareness about banking UCB among pregnant women in India. We also assessed patient perception for banking of UCB and explored the patient expectations of banking UCB in future. This is the first study to assess current attitudes, in a sample population of potential donors from one of the largest potential UCB repository (India). Obtaining this information may help optimize recruitment efforts and improve patient education.</p><p>Material and Method</p><p>Present explorative questionnaire based survey included 254 pregnant women in the final analysis.</p><p>Results</p><p>We established only 26.5% pregnant women in our study population knew what exactly is meant by UCB. A large proportion (55.1%) was undecided on whether they want to bank UCB or not. Women were more aware of the more advertised private cord blood banking compared to public banking. More than half of the pregnant women expected their obstetrician to inform them regarding UCB. One-third of the women in our population had undue expectations from banking of the UCB.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Obstetricians should play a more active role in explaining the patients regarding pros and cons of UCB banking.</p></div

Demographic characteristics of the population studied.

<p>Demographic characteristics of the population studied.</p

Willingness to bank cord blood for research (if given an option), keeping in mind the larger picture of future benefit to the society.

<p>Willingness to bank cord blood for research (if given an option), keeping in mind the larger picture of future benefit to the society.</p

Awareness regarding stem cell banking.

<p>Awareness regarding stem cell banking.</p

Willingness to store cord blood stem cells for the index pregnancy.

<p>Willingness to store cord blood stem cells for the index pregnancy.</p

CD4-<i>gp120</i> interaction interface - a gateway for HIV-1 infection in human: molecular network, modeling and docking studies

<p>The major causative agent for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1). HIV-1 is a predominant subtype of HIV which counts on human cellular mechanism virtually in every aspect of its life cycle. Binding of viral envelope glycoprotein-<i>gp120</i> with human cell surface CD4 receptor triggers the early infection stage of HIV-1. This study focuses on the interaction interface between these two proteins that play a crucial role for viral infectivity. The CD4–<i>gp120</i> interaction interface has been studied through a comprehensive protein–protein interaction network (PPIN) analysis and highlighted as a useful step towards identifying potential therapeutic drug targets against HIV-1 infection. We prioritized <i>gp41, Nef</i> and <i>Tat</i> proteins of HIV-1 as valuable drug targets at early stage of viral infection. Lack of crystal structure has made it difficult to understand the biological implication of these proteins during disease progression. Here, computational protein modeling techniques and molecular dynamics simulations were performed to generate three-dimensional models of these targets. Besides, molecular docking was initiated to determine the desirability of these target proteins for already available HIV-1 specific drugs which indicates the usefulness of these protein structures to identify an effective drug combination therapy against AIDS.</p

Sources of information regarding the HPV vaccination.

<p>(Respondents could choose more than one option in these questions).</p

Obstacles for implementation of HPV vaccination program.

<p>(Respondents could choose more than one option in these questions).</p

Acceptance of HPV vaccine.

<p>Acceptance of HPV vaccine.</p

Awareness about cervical cancer prevention through HPV vaccination.

<p>Awareness about cervical cancer prevention through HPV vaccination.</p