Medicobotanical Studies in Relation to Veterinary Medicine in Ekiti State, Nigeria: (1) Checklist of Botanicals used for the Treatment of Poultry Diseases

A semi-structured questionnaire matrix and direct field observation were used to identify botanicals used for veterinary health care in the rural areas of Ekiti State, Nigeria. A total of 38 plants belonging to 27 families were valued for the treatments of poultry pests and diseases in the study area and the parts mostly utilized were the leaves. Features that enhanced the continuous utilization of these botanical species were identified and strategies that could further enhance their sustainability were also proposed

Medicobotanical Studies in Relation to Veterinary Medicine in Ekiti State, Nigeria: Conservation of Botanical Species Used for the Treatment of Poultry Diseases

The rare veterinary botanicals in Ekiti State were identified using semi-structured questionnaire matrix. The traditional ecological knowledge defined by the respondents was used to identify the relevant conservation strategies that could guaranteed the continuous supply of the species in the study area

Medicobotanical Studies in Relation to Veterinary Medicine in Ekiti State, Nigeria: (2) Conservation of Botanicals Species Used for the Treatment of Poultry Diseases

The rare veterinary botanicals in Ekiti State were identified using semi-structured questionnaire matrix. The traditional ecological knowledge defined by the respondents was used to identify the relevant conservation strategies that could guaranteed the continuous supply of the species in the study area

Determinants of prostate specific antigen screening test uptake in an urban community in North-Central Nigeria

Background: Despite the increasing incidence of Prostate cancer, there has not been any focused screening policy or strategy in sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria.Objectives: To assess the level of awareness and uptake of PSA screening test and their determinants in a Nigerian community.Methods: A cross-sectional population survey of men with no prior history of prostate cancer was carried out. Logistic re- gression analysis was used to determine the effect of identified variables in predicting awareness and uptake of prostate cancer screening.Results: Mean age was 51.5±9.8 years; a few men (31, 16.9%) had ever heard of the screening test and most got the information from health centers. A low proportion (8, 4.4%) had taken the screening test. Men with incomes above poverty line (OR = 11.7 2.8–50.1, p = .001) or those with health insurance (OR = 2.7 1.2–6.5, p = .023) were significantly more likely to be aware of the test. Only the men with higher incomes (OR = 25.6 5.8–114.2, p = .0001) were significantly more likely to have taken the test.Conclusion: Higher incomes and health insurance status impact screening awareness but only income status determines if men subsequently proceed to take the PSA screening test.Keywords: Prostate cancer; PSA screening; sub-Saharan Africa; Nigeria

Determinants of prostate specific antigen screening test uptake in an urban community in North-Central Nigeria

Background: Despite the increasing incidence of Prostate cancer, there has not been any focused screening policy or strategy in sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria. Objectives: To assess the level of awareness and uptake of PSA screening test and their determinants in a Nigerian community. Methods: A cross-sectional population survey of men with no prior history of prostate cancer was carried out. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the effect of identified variables in predicting awareness and uptake of prostate cancer screening. Results: Mean age was 51.5\ub19.8 years; a few men (31, 16.9%) had ever heard of the screening test and most got the information from health centers. A low proportion (8, 4.4%) had taken the screening test. Men with incomes above poverty line (OR = 11.7 2.8\u201350.1, p = .001) or those with health insurance (OR = 2.7 1.2\u20136.5, p = .023) were significantly more likely to be aware of the test. Only the men with higher incomes (OR = 25.6 5.8\u2013114.2, p = .0001) were significantly more likely to have taken the test. Conclusion: Higher incomes and health insurance status impact screening awareness but only income status determines if men subsequently proceed to take the PSA screening test. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v19i1.42 Cite as: Bello JO, Buhari T, Mohammed TO, Olanipekun HB, Egbuniwe AM, Fasiku OK, et al. Determinants of prostate specific antigen screening test uptake in an urban community in North-Central Nigeria. Afri Health Sci. 2019;19(1). 1665-1670. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ ahs. v19i1.4

Human and preclinical studies of the host-gut microbiome co-metabolite hippurate as a marker and mediator of metabolic health.

OBJECTIVE: Gut microbial products are involved in regulation of host metabolism. In human and experimental studies, we explored the potential role of hippurate, a hepatic phase 2 conjugation product of microbial benzoate, as a marker and mediator of metabolic health. DESIGN: In 271 middle-aged non-diabetic Danish individuals, who were stratified on habitual dietary intake, we applied 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of urine samples and shotgun-sequencing-based metagenomics of the gut microbiome to explore links between the urine level of hippurate, measures of the gut microbiome, dietary fat and markers of metabolic health. In mechanistic experiments with chronic subcutaneous infusion of hippurate to high-fat-diet-fed obese mice, we tested for causality between hippurate and metabolic phenotypes. RESULTS: In the human study, we showed that urine hippurate positively associates with microbial gene richness and functional modules for microbial benzoate biosynthetic pathways, one of which is less prevalent in the Bacteroides 2 enterotype compared with Ruminococcaceae or Prevotella enterotypes. Through dietary stratification, we identify a subset of study participants consuming a diet rich in saturated fat in which urine hippurate concentration, independently of gene richness, accounts for links with metabolic health. In the high-fat-fed mice experiments, we demonstrate causality through chronic infusion of hippurate (20 nmol/day) resulting in improved glucose tolerance and enhanced insulin secretion. CONCLUSION: Our human and experimental studies show that a high urine hippurate concentration is a general marker of metabolic health, and in the context of obesity induced by high-fat diets, hippurate contributes to metabolic improvements, highlighting its potential as a mediator of metabolic health

Genomic attributes of airway commensal bacteria and mucosa

Microbial communities at the airway mucosal barrier are conserved and highly ordered, in likelihood reflecting co-evolution with human host factors. Freed of selection to digest nutrients, the airway microbiome underpins cognate management of mucosal immunity and pathogen resistance. We show here the initial results of systematic culture and whole-genome sequencing of the thoracic airway bacteria, identifying 52 novel species amongst 126 organisms that constitute 75% of commensals typically present in heathy individuals. Clinically relevant genes encode antimicrobial synthesis, adhesion and biofilm formation, immune modulation, iron utilisation, nitrous oxide (NO) metabolism and sphingolipid signalling. Using whole-genome content we identify dysbiotic features that may influence asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We match isolate gene content to transcripts and metabolites expressed late in airway epithelial differentiation, identifying pathways to sustain host interactions with microbiota. Our results provide a systematic basis for decrypting interactions between commensals, pathogens, and mucosa in lung diseases of global significance

Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses

Data Availability Statement: The individual-level data from these studies is not publicly available to main confidentiality. Data generated by the ISARIC4C consortium is available for collaborative analysis projects through an independent data and materials access committee at isaric4c.net/sample_access. Data and samples from the COVID-Clinical Neuroscience Study are available through collaborative research by application through the NIHR bioresource at https://bioresource.nihr.ac.uk/using-our-bioresource/apply-for-bioresource-data-access/. Brain injury marker and immune mediator data are present in the paper and in the source data file. Source data are provided with this paper.To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely.National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) (CO-CIN-01) and jointly by NIHR and UK Research and Innovation (CV220-169, MC_PC_19059). B.D.M. is supported by the UKRI/MRC (MR/V03605X/1), the MRC/UKRI (MR/V007181/1), MRC (MR/T028750/1) and Wellcome (ISSF201902/3). C.D. is supported by MRC (MC_PC_19044). We would like to thank the University of Liverpool GCP laboratory facility team for Luminex assistance and the Liverpool University Biobank team for all their help, especially Dr. Victoria Shaw, Lara Lavelle-Langham, and Sue Holden. We would like to acknowledge the Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre for providing infrastructure support for this research (Grant Reference: C18616/A25153). We acknowledge the Liverpool Centre for Cell Imaging (CCI) for provision of imaging equipment (Dragonfly confocal microscope) and excellent technical assistance (BBSRC grant number BB/R01390X/1). Tom Solomon is supported by The Pandemic Institute and the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at University of Liverpool. D.K.M. and E.N. are supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Centre and by NIHR funding to the NIHR BioResource (RG94028 and RG85445), and by funding from Brain Research UK 201819-20. We thank NIHR BioResource volunteers for their participation, and gratefully acknowledge NIHR BioResource centres, NHS Trusts and staff for their contribution. We thank the National Institute for Health and Care Research, NHS Blood and Transplant, and Health Data Research UK as part of the Digital Innovation Hub Programme. Support for title page creation and format was provided by AuthorArranger, a tool developed at the National Cancer Institute. The authors would like to acknowledge the eDRIS team (Public Health Scotland) for their support in obtaining approvals, the provisioning and linking of data and facilitating access to the National Safe Haven. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the UKRI, NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care

Viral Coinfections in Hospitalized Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients Recruited to the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK Study

Background: We conducted this study to assess the prevalence of viral coinfection in a well characterized cohort of hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and to investigate the impact of coinfection on disease severity. Methods: Multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction testing for endemic respiratory viruses was performed on upper respiratory tract samples from 1002 patients with COVID-19, aged <1 year to 102 years old, recruited to the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK study. Comprehensive demographic, clinical, and outcome data were collected prospectively up to 28 days post discharge. Results: A coinfecting virus was detected in 20 (2.0%) participants. Multivariable analysis revealed no significant risk factors for coinfection, although this may be due to rarity of coinfection. Likewise, ordinal logistic regression analysis did not demonstrate a significant association between coinfection and increased disease severity. Conclusions: Viral coinfection was rare among hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the United Kingdom during the first 18 months of the pandemic. With unbiased prospective sampling, we found no evidence of an association between viral coinfection and disease severity. Public health interventions disrupted normal seasonal transmission of respiratory viruses; relaxation of these measures mean it will be important to monitor the prevalence and impact of respiratory viral coinfections going forward