Knowledge, attitudes and practices of primary health care providers towards oral health of preschool children in Qatar

Objective: Health care providers can effectively participate in oral health promotion for children in primary care setting. Currently, there are no oral health promotion programs that involve primary health care professionals in Qatar. Hence, this study was undertaken to examine the knowledge and attitudes of all health professionals who work in the Well baby Clinics in the primary health centers.Method: A 23-item questionnaire was distributed across 20 primary health centers. The questionnaire sought information on the demographic data of health professionals, their knowledge of oral health and their practices and attitudes towards critical oral health issues.  Data were examined by Pearson Chi-squared tests or Fisher’s Exact test(p = 0.05).Results: The response rate of the health professionals was 62.9%. Only 35.7% of the 225 participants received some form of oral health training during their undergraduate programme. The participants would assess the dental problem of the child(p = 0.05) and discuss the importance of tooth brushing with the mother(p = 0.03). A significant number of respondents (p = 0.04) were unlikely to assess the children’s fluoride intake. There was a significant difference in the group of participants that would examine the child’s teeth(p = 0.01) and counsel the mothers on prevention of dental problems(p = 0.01). This group would also refer children to dentist at 12 months of age(p = 0.05). Conclusions: Health professionals had a positive attitude towards the anticipatory guidance elements of oral health. However, the knowledge of healthcare professionals on childhood oral health is rather limited

A randomised controlled trial of blood pressure self-monitoring in the management of hypertensive pregnancy. OPTIMUM-BP:A feasibility trial

Objective: To assess the feasibility of a blood pressure self-monitoring intervention for managing pregnancy hypertension. Study design: OPTIMUM-BP was an unmasked randomised controlled trial comparing a self-monitoring of blood pressure (SMBP) intervention versus usual care for the management of pregnancy hypertension. Women with chronic (CH) or gestational hypertension (GH) from 4 UK centres were randomised (2:1) intervention to control. Self-monitoring involved daily home blood pressure (BP) measurements, with recording via study diary or telemonitoring. Clinicians were invited to use the home readings in clinical and antihypertensive titration decisions. Main outcomes: The primary outcomes were recruitment, retention, adherence and persistence with the intervention. Results: Women from four UK centres were randomised: 158/222 (71%) of those approached agreed, comprising: 86 women with chronic hypertension (55 SMBP, 31 control) and 72 with gestational hypertension (49 SMBP, 23 control) of whom outcome data were available from 154 (97%) and were included in the analysis. The median (IQR) number of days with home BP readings per week were 5.5 (3.1–6.5) for those with chronic hypertension and 6.1 (4.5–6.7) with gestational hypertension. Participants persisted with the intervention for 80% or more of their time from enrolment until delivery in 86% (43/50) and 76% (38/49) of those with chronic and gestational hypertension respectively. Recorded clinic and study BPs were similar for both groups. Conclusions: This is the first randomised investigation of BP self-monitoring for the management of pregnancy hypertension and indicates that a large RCT would be feasible.</p

A viral kinase mimics S6 kinase to enhance cell proliferation

Viruses usurp the host cell machinery to replicate, disseminate, and propagate themselves. Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) encodes a viral protein kinase (vPK) also known as ORF36. Using in silico modeling and biochemistry, we report that vPK/ORF36 displays limited homology to cellular S6 kinase B1 (S6KB1). Both kinases share overlapping substrates and can phosphorylate S6. However, unlike S6KB1, vPK augments S6 phosphorylation under conditions where mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is inhibited. vPK modulates cellular proliferation and protein synthesis, augments anchorage independence, and enhances angiogenesis. Depletion of vPK/ORF36 during lytic replication inhibits the production of infectious virions, thereby underscoring the importance of this kinase during the KSHV life cycle. Our collective observations suggest that vPK may function as a constitutively active mimic of S6KB1

Isolation and characterization of a novel mycobacteriophage Kashi-VT1 infecting Mycobacterium species

Mycobacteriophages are viruses that infect members of genus Mycobacterium. Because of the rise in antibiotic resistance in mycobacterial diseases such as tuberculosis, mycobacteriophages have received renewed attention as alternative therapeutic agents. Mycobacteriophages are highly diverse, and, on the basis of their genome sequences, they are grouped into 30 clusters and 10 singletons. In this article, we have described the isolation and characterization of a novel mycobacteriophage Kashi-VT1 (KVT1) infecting Mycobacterium &gt;smegmatis mc2 155 (M. smegmatis) and Mycobacterium fortuitum isolated from Varanasi, India. KVT1 is a cluster K1 temperate phage that belongs to Siphoviridae family as visualized in transmission electron microscopy. The phage genome is 61,010 base pairs with 66.5% Guanine/Cytosine (GC) content, encoding 101 putative open reading frames. The KVT1 genome encodes an immunity repressor, a tyrosine integrase, and an excise protein, which are the characteristics of temperate phages. It also contains genes encoding holin, lysin A, and lysin B involved in host cell lysis. The one-step growth curve demonstrated that KVT1 has a latency time of 90 min and an average burst size of 101 phage particles per infected cell. It can withstand a temperature of up to 45°C and has a maximum viability between pH 8 and 9. Some mycobacteriophages from cluster K are known to infect the pathogenic Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis); hence, KVT1 holds potential for the phage therapy against tuberculosis, and it can also be engineered to convert into an exclusively lytic phage

In Vivo Gene Essentiality and Metabolism in Bordetella pertussis

Bordetella pertussis is the causative agent of whooping cough, a serious respiratory illness affecting children and adults, associated with prolonged cough and potential mortality. Whooping cough has reemerged in recent years, emphasizing a need for increased knowledge of basic mechanisms of B. pertussis growth and pathogenicity. While previous studies have provided insight into in vitro gene essentiality of this organism, very little is known about in vivo gene essentiality, a critical gap in knowledge, since B. pertussis has no previously identified environmental reservoir and is isolated from human respiratory tract samples. We hypothesize that the metabolic capabilities of B. pertussis are especially tailored to the respiratory tract and that many of the genes involved in B. pertussis metabolism would be required to establish infection in vivo. In this study, we generated a diverse library of transposon mutants and then used it to probe gene essentiality in vivo in a murine model of infection. Using the CON-ARTIST pipeline, 117 genes were identified as conditionally essential at 1 day postinfection, and 169 genes were identified as conditionally essential at 3 days postinfection. Most of the identified genes were associated with metabolism, and we utilized two existing genome-scale metabolic network reconstructions to probe the effects of individual essential genes on biomass synthesis. This analysis suggested a critical role for glucose metabolism and lipooligosaccharide biosynthesis in vivo. This is the first genome-wide evaluation of in vivo gene essentiality in B. pertussis and provides tools for future exploration. IMPORTANCE Our study describes the first in vivo transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) analysis of B. pertussis and identifies genes predicted to be essential for in vivo growth in a murine model of intranasal infection, generating key resources for future investigations into B. pertussis pathogenesis and vaccine design

Mutations in NLRP5 are associated with reproductive wastage and multilocus imprinting disorders in humans

This is the final version. It first appeared at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150901/ncomms9086/full/ncomms9086.html.Human-imprinting disorders are congenital disorders of growth, development and metabolism, associated with disturbance of parent of origin-specific DNA methylation at imprinted loci across the genome. Some imprinting disorders have higher than expected prevalence of monozygotic twinning, of assisted reproductive technology among parents, and of disturbance of multiple imprinted loci, for which few causative trans-acting mutations have been found. Here we report mutations in NLRP5 in five mothers of individuals affected by multilocus imprinting disturbance. Maternal-effect mutations of other human NLRP genes, NLRP7 and NLRP2, cause familial biparental hydatidiform mole and multilocus imprinting disturbance, respectively. Offspring of mothers with NLRP5 mutations have heterogenous clinical and epigenetic features, but cases include a discordant monozygotic twin pair, individuals with idiopathic developmental delay and autism, and families affected by infertility and reproductive wastage. NLRP5 mutations suggest connections between maternal reproductive fitness, early zygotic development and genomic imprinting.L.E.D. and F.I.R. were supported by the Medical Research Council (MR/J000329/1). J.B., K.B., B.H., L.S. M.B. and T.E. were supported by Bundesministerium fu?r Bildung und Forschung (grant number 01GM1513A and 01GM1513C) and C.T. was supported by an Ipsen Fellowship Grant. The cohort ?Imprinting Disorders-Finding out Why? was accrued through the support of the Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children and through support from the Wessex NIHR clinical research network and NIHR Wellcome Southampton clinical research facility. Funding for DNA collection and methylation analysis of normal control samples was provided in part by the National Institutes of Health R01 AI091905-01, R01 AI061471 and R01 HL082925. ERM thanks Action Medical Research for support

A broadly implementable research course in phage discovery and genomics for first-year undergraduate students

Engaging large numbers of undergraduates in authentic scientific discovery is desirable but difficult to achieve. We have developed a general model in which faculty and teaching assistants from diverse academic institutions are trained to teach a research course for first-year undergraduate students focused on bacteriophage discovery and genomics. The course is situated within a broader scientific context aimed at understanding viral diversity, such that faculty and students are collaborators with established researchers in the field. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) course has been widely implemented and has been taken by over 4,800 students at 73 institutions. We show here that this alliance-sourced model not only substantially advances the field of phage genomics but also stimulates students\u27 interest in science, positively influences academic achievement, and enhances persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Broad application of this model by integrating other research areas with large numbers of early-career undergraduate students has the potential to be transformative in science education and research training

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy