COVID-19 AND THE ENVIRONMENT – THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTE

The Croatian National Health Care Act defines the areas of activities of the public health institute, including the activities of the epidemiology of infectious diseases and chronic non-communicable diseases, public health, health promotion, environmental health, microbiology, school and adolescent medicine, mental health and addiction prevention at Zagreb City level. This paper reviews the highly variable activities in the Andrija Štampar Teaching Institute of Public Health with the aim of promoting a comprehensive approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. Human and analytical resources in the Institute, activities and rapid implementation of innovations testify to the high capacities for adaptation to emerging risks. In the Institute, it is possible to carry out a whole range of tests and to monitor the environmental factors with predominant impact on human health and safety of the Zagreb environment. The supply of safe water for human consumption in the Republic of Croatia during the current COVID-19 crisis has been uninterrupted and in accordance with applicable legislation. Also, our laboratories have been developing and introducing a method for wastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2 presence. The sludge from wastewater treatment plants is used in agriculture, and potential risks associated with the COVID-19 outbreak should be assessed prior to each application on the soil. Increased use of disinfectants during the epidemic may present a higher risk to the aquatic environment. Air quality monitoring indicates a positive impact on air quality as result of isolation measures

The effective characteristics in PE-based interventions on social cohesion

The physiological benefits of physical activity on young people are well established. Despite these well-known benefits, rates of engagement in physical activity have demonstrated a steady decline globally. Anti-social behaviours have partly contributed to this decline with a plethora of studies which have examined social health, demonstrating the direct link between students’ engagement rates in physical education classes, and social interactions. Interventions targeting social elements have emerged in literature and targeted Physical Education (PE) classes, in particular. Due to the volume of interventions on this topic, a systematic review of literature was needed to clarify the effective characteristics in intervention design for use in literature in the future. A systematic review is required due to its meticulous nature and as it provides researchers with the ability to find gaps in literature, thereby focusing their work on new and emerging ideas. The current systematic review of literature has found that at present ‘effective’ characteristics of PE based interventions have presented mixed results due to numerous contributing factors. The results indicate that future interventions should include stakeholders, such as parents, teachers as facilitators, and to include interventions in both primary and secondary school settings. The duration of interventions yielded mixed results and in order to demonstrate long term, transferable benefits, more research in this area is needed

Genomic profiling supports the diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia and reveals novel candidate genes and genetic variants.

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare inherited autosomal recessive or X-linked disorder that mainly affects lungs. Dysfunction of respiratory cilia causes symptoms such as chronic rhinosinusitis, coughing, rhinitis, conductive hearing loss and recurrent lung infections with bronchiectasis. It is now well known that pathogenic genetic changes lead to ciliary dysfunction. Here we report usage of clinical-exome based NGS approach in order to reveal underlying genetic causes in cohort of 21 patient with diagnosis of PCD. By detecting 18 (12 novel) potentially pathogenic genetic variants, we established the genetic cause of 11 (9 unrelated) patients. Genetic variants were detected in six PCD disease-causing genes, as well as in SPAG16 and SPAG17 genes, that were not detected in PCD patients so far, but were related to some symptoms of PCD. The most frequently mutated gene in our cohort was DNAH5 (27.77%). Identified variants were in homozygous, compound heterozygous and trans-heterozygous state. For detailed characterization of one novel homozygous genetic variant in DNAI1 gene (c. 947_948insG, p. Thr318TyrfsTer11), RT-qPCR and Western Blot analysis were performed. Molecular diagnostic approach applied in this study enables analysis of 29 PCD disease-causing and related genes. It resulted in mutation detection rate of 50% and enabled discovery of twelve novel mutations and pointed two possible novel PCD candidate genes

The Signature of Trauma in Psychosis: a Preliminary Genetic and Epigenetic Analyses of Fk506-Binding Protein 5 Regulation

16th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR), Mar 24-28, 2017, San Diego, C