Mental health literacy: focus on developing countries

Mental health literacy refers to knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management and prevention. This is a non-systematic review of published articles on mental health literacy in the general population and among primary healthcare workers, in particular, in developing countries, sourced from Medline, PsychInfo and African Healthline databases (1990-2006). Our review of the literature suggests that public knowledge about mental disorders as medical conditions, and their evidence based treatment strategies, in developing countries may be generally poorly or inaccurately understood. The review also reveals that improving the mental health literacy among primary health care professionals is imperative. Poor mental health literacy can be an obstacle to providing treatment for those in need, and is of particular concern in low and middle-income countries where mental health services are already scarce. It is likely that strategies for improvement will need to be comprehensive and innovative, taking advantage of opportunities and meeting challenges faced in the developing world.African Journal of Psychiatry Vol. 11 (1) 2008: pp. 23-2

Cold-adapted RTX lipase from antarctic Pseudomonas sp. strain AMS8: isolation, molecular modeling and heterologous expression

A new strain of psychrophilic bacteria (designated strain AMS8) from Antarctic soil was screened for extracellular lipolytic activity and further analyzed using molecular approach. Analysis of 16S rDNA showed that strain AMS8 was similar to Pseudomonas sp. A lipase gene named lipAMS8 was successfully isolated from strain AMS8, cloned, sequenced and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Sequence analysis revealed that lipAMS8 consist of 1,431 bp nucleotides that encoded a polypeptide consisting of 476 amino acids. It lacked an N-terminal signal peptide and contained a glycine- and aspartate-rich nonapeptide sequence at the C-terminus, which are known to be the characteristics of repeats-in-toxin bacterial lipases. Furthermore, the substrate binding site of lipAMS8 was identified as S207, D 255 and H313, based on homology modeling and multiple sequence alignment. Crude lipase exhibited maximum activity at 20 C and retained almost 50 % of its activity at 10 C. The molecular weight of lipAMS8 was estimated to be 50 kDa via sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The optimal expression level was attained using the recombinant plasmid pET32b/BL21(DE3) expressed at 15 C for 8 h, induced by 0.1 mM isopropyl β-D thiogalactoside (IPTG) at E. coli growth optimal density of 0.5

Epidemiology of neurodegenerative diseases in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review

BACKGROUND:Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are experiencing rapid transitions with increased life expectancy. As a result the burden of age-related conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases might be increasing. We conducted a systematic review of published studies on common neurodegenerative diseases, and HIV-related neurocognitive impairment in SSA, in order to identify research gaps and inform prevention and control solutions. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE via PubMed, 'Banque de Donnees de Sante Publique' and the database of the 'Institut d'Epidemiologie Neurologique et de Neurologie Tropicale' from inception to February 2013 for published original studies from SSA on neurodegenerative diseases and HIV-related neurocognitive impairment. Screening and data extraction were conducted by two investigators. Bibliographies and citations of eligible studies were investigated. RESULTS: In all 144 publications reporting on dementia (n=49 publications, mainly Alzheimer disease), Parkinsonism (PD, n=20), HIV-related neurocognitive impairment (n=47), Huntington disease (HD, n=19), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, n=15), cerebellar degeneration (n=4) and Lewy body dementia (n=1). Of these studies, largely based on prevalent cases from retrospective data on urban populations, half originated from Nigeria and South Africa. The prevalence of dementia (Alzheimer disease) varied between <1% and 10.1% (0.7% and 5.6%) in population-based studies and from <1% to 47.8% in hospital-based studies. Incidence of dementia (Alzheimer disease) ranged from 8.7 to 21.8/1000/year (9.5 to 11.1), and major risk factors were advanced age and female sex. HIV-related neurocognitive impairment's prevalence (all from hospital-based studies) ranged from <1% to 80%. Population-based prevalence of PD and ALS varied from 10 to 235/100,000, and from 5 to 15/100,000 respectively while that for Huntington disease was 3.5/100,000. Equivalent figures for hospital based studies were the following: PD (0.41 to 7.2%), ALS (0.2 to 8.0/1000), and HD (0.2/100,000 to 46.0/100,000). CONCLUSIONS: The body of literature on neurodegenerative disorders in SSA is large with regard to dementia and HIV-related neurocognitive disorders but limited for other neurodegenerative disorders. Shortcomings include few population-based studies, heterogeneous diagnostic criteria and uneven representation of countries on the continent. There are important knowledge gaps that need urgent action, in order to prepare the sub-continent for the anticipated local surge in neurodegenerative diseases