Medicinal Properties of Clinacanthus nutans: A review

To date, medicinal plants are the most important resources in the discovery of new drugs. Clinacanthus nutans has been used traditionally in Thailand folk medicine to promote overall well-being. A few biological constituents of C. nutans and their physiological functions have been evaluated in previous studies. However, the mechanisms of action, potency and efficacy of the plant are still not well understood. In this review, the pharmacological properties of C. nutans such as anti-inflammatory effects, anti-proliferation, anti-venom and anti-bacterial activities, and their underlying mechanisms of action are presented and discussed.Keywords:  Clinacanthus nutans: Anti-inflammatory, Anti-proliferation, Anti-venom, Anti-bacterial propertie

Construct validity and reliability of Malay language-perception towards smoking questionnaire (BM-PTSQ) among secondary school adolescents

Multitude studies have demonstrated that perception is an integral factor associated with smoking. However, no such tool was available in the Malay language. In this study, we established a Bahasa Malaysia version of PTSQ (BM-PTSQ) and tested the validity and reliability among secondary school adolescents. The English version of PTSQ originally consists of 12 items. It was translated into Bahasa Malaysia and back-translated again into English to check for consistency. After face validity (face-to-face query) was determined among 20 secondary school adolescents, only 10 items were included in the survey. Construct validity was established from 407 school adolescents through random selection in the same locality. More than 60% of the respondents were female, while the majority of them (67.3%) were schooling in rural areas. Then, the reliability of the questionnaire was determined with Cronbach’s alpha. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) has grouped PTSQ into two components associated with either knowledge or attitude towards smoking. The variance and Cronbach’s alpha for the first and second components were 38.24% and 0.861 (7 items), 21.62% and 0.661 (3 items), respectively. The PTSQ showed good validity and reliability for measuring perception of smoking among secondary school-going adolescents in Malaysia. Hence, this is a viable measurement tool. But, more importantly, this study showed an urgent need to improve smoking education among adolescents in Malaysia

COVID-19, Suffering and Palliative Care: A Review

According to the WHO guideline, palliative care is an integral component of COVID-19 management. The relief of physical symptoms and the provision of psychosocial support should be practiced by all healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients. In this review, we aim to provide a simple outline on COVID-19, suffering in COVID-19, and the role of palliative care in COVID-19. We also introduce 3 principles of palliative care that can serve as a guide for all healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients, which are (1) good symptom control, (2) open and sensitive communication, and (3) caring for the whole team. The pandemic has brought immense suffering, fear and death to people everywhere. The knowledge, skills and experiences from palliative care could be used to relieve the suffering of COVID-19 patients

Single-chain Fv antibodies for targeting neurodegenerative diseases

Background &amp; Objective: Protein misfolding and aggregation have been considered the common pathological hallmarks for a number of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Huntington’s disease (HD). These abnormal proteins aggregates damage mitochondria and induce oxidative stress, resulting in neuronal cell death. Prolonged neuronal damage activates microglia and astrocytes, development of inflammation reaction and further promotes neurodegeneration. Thus, elimination of abnormal protein aggregates without eliciting any adverse effects are the main treatment strategies. To overcome this, recent studies have deployed single- chain fragment variable antibodies (scFvs) to target the pathological protein aggregates, such as amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides, α-synuclein (α-syn) and Huntingtin (Htt). To date scFv has been effective at inhibiting abnormal protein aggregates formation in both in vitro and in vivo model system of AD, PD and HD. Conclusion: Currently active research is still ongoing to improve the scFv gene delivery technology, to further enhance brain penetration, intracellular stability, solubility and efficacy of scFv intrabody. </jats:sec

Effectiveness of comparative advertising in eastern cultures.

The paper examines whether the Asians and Westerners differ in their reactions to comparative advertising. The research was done using handphone as the research instrument. In the research a weak argument i.e. radiation is introduced against the strong arguments