Identification and Analysis of Two Genes Differentially Expressed in Spear Leaves of High and Low Yielding Oil Palm

Malaysia is the largest producer and exporter of palm oil with a 50% share of the global oil and fat production. Oil palm is the most productive oil crop with an average yield of about 3 to 4 t/ha/year. The productivity of oil palm is at least 3 to 8 times more compared to other oil-producing crops. Over the past few years, it has become clear that the possibilities for further expansion are now greatly reduced due to the low availability of suitable land. In addition, the increasing competitiveness of other vegetable oil crops, scarcity and cost of labour are some of the reasons driving the requirement to increase the productivity of existing planted land. This study was carried out with the objectives to isolate and analyse the differentially expressed genes in high yielding palms by using suppression subtraction hybridization (SSH) and annealing control primer (ACP) and confirming the differentially expressed gene candidates in high and low yielding palms using reverse northern and northern analysis. The SSH was performed using total RNAs were isolated from spear leaves of high and low yielding oil palm of population OxG and P312. In total, 250 subtracted clones were sequenced and 74.4% of them have significant matches with scores higher than 100 while 21.6% sequences have nonsignificant matches with sequences in the GenBank database. The remaining 4% sequences have no matches to the database. Majority of the genes that were differentially expressed in high yielding palm were associated with primary metabolism (48 sequences) such as glycolysis, oxidative pentose phosphate pathway, amino acid metabolism and acyl lipid metabolism including glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and sucrose synthase. Besides, there were sequences encoding for enzymes in protein synthesis and processing (27 sequences), cell wall (8 sequences), gene expression and RNA metabolism (4 sequences), signal transduction and post-translational regulation (2 sequences), miscellaneous (2 sequences), secondary metabolism and hormone metabolism (2 sequences) and finally, defense and cell rescue (1 sequence). Fifteen clones, eight and seven from population OxG and P312, respectively; were selected for reverse northern analysis. Among these clones, five from population OxG (MAY39, MAY65, MAY79, MAY237 and MAY238) and six from population P312 (MAY133, MAY134, MAY144, MAY148, MAY154 and MAY240) were expressed only in high yielding palms and used as homologous probes in northern blot analysis. Northern analysis, demonstrated equal expression in high and low yielding palm of cytosolic aldolase from population OxG, beta galactosidase and pyruvate dehydrogenase from population P312. Clones encoding glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and sucrose synthase were shown to have higher expression in high yielding palm of both populations, OxG and P312. These genes are closely related to photosynthesis and can be found almost in all plant tissues. They may be potentially useful as molecular markers for the screening of high yielding planting materials

Factors associated with asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia

The rapid spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide has led the World Health Organization to declare COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. As the local studies on factors leading to the absence or presence of clinical illness among the COVID-19 cases are sparse, the study aims to determine the factors associated with asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. Data on COVID-19 patients were extracted from the database of confirmed cases in Petaling District Health Office, Selangor, Malaysia from 3rd February 2020 to 30th April 2020. An asymptomatic laboratory-confirmed case is a person infected with COVID-19 who does not develop any symptoms. The study included socio-demographic variables, the detailed information on clinical manifestations and co-morbidity of the patients. Descriptive and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the factors associated with asymptomatic patients. The overall COVID-19 patients in Petaling District were 434. Approximately 70% (n= 292) of the patients were symptomatic while 32.7% (n= 142) were asymptomatic. Multivple logistic regression analyses revealed that factors significantly associated with asymptomatic patients were age below 40 years old (aOR: 1.79, 95% CI 1.11, 2.86), non-Malaysians (aOR: 3.22, 95% CI 1.44, 7.19) and local cases (aOR: 2.51, 95% CI 1.42, 4.42). Gender, ethnicity, co-morbidity and township were not significantly associated with asymptomatic patients. Approximately one-third of COVID-19 patients were asymptomatic and the risk factors identified were younger age, non-Malaysians and local cases. Rigorous epidemiological investigation is helpful in identifying COVID-19 cases among these group of people who are asymptomatic

Anti-diabetic drugs utilization pattern and its cost in managing Type 2 Diabetes patients in hospitals in Selangor, Malaysia

Introduction: Increasing prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) worldwide has been reported in numerous studies. This issue has a significant effect on population quality of life as well as the economic burden in managing the disease. Policy makers have promoted the adoption of a Health Information System (HIS) to facilitate the coordination of medical care. Major hospitals in Selangor, Malaysia are using the HIS as their Electronic Medical Records (EMR). This study is the first attempt to extract data in HIS with the aim to turn data from the HIS into clinical information and to provide evidence for hospital management. Objective: The study aims to describe the antidiabetic drugs utilization pattern and its cost for T2DM in three hospitals equipped with a HIS. Methodology: This study was conducted in 2014 by using secondary data analysis of T2DM patients receiving diabetic medications in three public hospitals in Selangor, Malaysia that are utilizing the same software for their electronic HIS. Patients’ data from January to December 2013 were included in the analysis and were analyzed by using STATA v12. Outpatient, pharmacy, and laboratory dataset were cleaned and merged for data analysis. Results: The data shows prescription patterns for Hospital A are 28.5% monotherapy, 26.9% a combination of 2 oral drugs, and 22.3% a combination of insulin and oral drugs. The pattern is slightly similar to Hospital C where 29.6% of monotherapy, 24.4% of a combination of 2 oral drugs and 23.3% of a combination of insulin and oral drugs. Meanwhile for Hospital B, 30.1% of a combination of insulin and oral drugs, 29.4% of a combination of 2 oral drugs and 29% of monotherapy. The mean cost per patient in 2013 of antidiabetic agents (ADA) for Hospital A is RM 191.21 ± 269.64, Hospital B is RM 217.17 ± 385.49 and for Hospital C is RM 252.28 ± 384.35. Conclusion: Monotherapy, metformin predominantly has been prescribed as a first line treatment for T2DM. The prescribing trend was followed by using a combination therapy of oral hypoglycemic agents (OHA) an then, insulin and OHA. Therefore, this study showed that drugs at low cost have been prescribed commonly in all hospitals studied. Keywords: Utilization, Drugs, Diabetes, Malaysia, HIS, Hospita

Research funding impact and priority setting – advancing universal access and quality healthcare research in Malaysia

Abstract Background Health Research Priority Setting (HRPS) in the Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia was initiated more than a decade ago to drive effort toward research for informed decision and policy-making. This study assessed the impact of funded prioritised research and identified research gaps to inform future priority setting initiatives for universal access and quality healthcare in Malaysia. Methods Research impact of universal access and quality healthcare projects funded by the National Institutes of Health Malaysia were assessed based on the modified Payback Framework, addressing categories of informing policy, knowledge production, and benefits to health and health sector. For the HRPS process, the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative methodology was adapted and adopted, with the incorporation of stakeholder values using weights and monetary allocation survey. Workshop discussions and interviews with stakeholders and research groups were conducted to identify research gaps, with the use of conceptual frameworks to guide the search. Results Seventeen ongoing and 50 completed projects were identified for research funding impact analysis. Overall, research fund allocation differed from stakeholders’ expectation. For research impact, 48 out of 50 completed projects (96.0%) contributed to some form of policy-making efforts. Almost all completed projects resulted in outputs that contributed to knowledge production and were expected to lead to health and health sector benefits. The HRPS process led to the identification of research priority areas that stemmed from ongoing and new issues identified for universal access and quality healthcare. Conclusion The concerted efforts of evaluation of research funding impact, prioritisation, dissemination and policy-maker involvement were valuable for optimal health research resource utilisation in a resource constrained developing country. Embedding impact evaluation into a priority setting process and funding research based on national needs could facilitate health research investment to reach its potential