Evaluation of Punica granatum Peel Against Diabetic Wound Infection

Background: Foot infections are a common and serious problem in diabetic patients.Objectives: To investigate the antibacterial activity of some medicinal plants used by traditional healers for diabetic wounds and to examine in-vivo wound healing activity of active extracts.Materials and Methods: An experimental study in which fifteen plant extracts subjected to preliminary antibacterial screening against six standard organisms (Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus) using cup-plate agar diffusion method and the result was compared with activity of commonly used antibiotics. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined for active extracts using agar plate dilution method. The two extracts was screened against 180 clinical isolates obtained from diabetic wound infection. In this study the wound healing effect of methanolic extracts of Punicagranatum peels was tested on open skin wound model on Swiss Wistar Albino rats.Results: Fourteen extracts (93.3%) exhibited inhibitory activity against one or more of the six organisms. The MICs of the methanolic and aqueous extracts of Punica granatum were very low against all organisms. 180 clinical isolates were obtained from diabetic wound infection, the results of identification showed that 30 were Escherichia coli, 15 Klebsiella pneumoniae, 45 Proteus spp, 15 Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 60 Staphylococcus aureus and 15 Staphylococcus epidermidis. The methanolic extract of Punica granatum peels had inhibitory effect against 99.4% of the isolates at concentration 100mg/ml. The aqueous extract has inhibitory effect against 91.7% of the isolates. Results were obtained by measuring the wound healing percentage. In the first group, healing was completed in 15 days. In the second group and third group, 13 days were required for the completion of healing.Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the methanolic extract of Punica granatum had high antibacterial activity and have wound healing activity.Key words: Antimicrobial activity, wound healing, Punica granatum

Preliminary phytochemical evaluation and seed proximate analysis of Surib (Sesbanialeptocarpa DC.)

Background: Surib (Sessbanialeptocarpa) of the family Leguminosae is a wild plant widely spread in Gezira scheme and sometimes its seeds unavoidably get mixed with machinery-harvested crops especially wheat. Different parts of Surib have been used traditionally for various illnesses in Africa where the plant spread widely.Objectives: To evaluate the nutritional value of Surib.Methods: The preliminary phytochemical screening was performed using the conventional chemical tests using precipitation and color reagents as appropriate, while the standard methods of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists, 1980 were used for the determination of the proximate seed composition.Results: Preliminary phytochemical screening of different plant parts (seeds, leaves and roots) extracts showed the presence of alkaloids in seeds and roots. Seeds and leaves of the plants were found to contain saponins, flavanoids, anthraquinones and tannins while the roots are devoid of these constituents. Proximate analysis of the seed revealed that carbohydrates and crude fibers constitute about 80% while proteins and fats values were 5.25 and 6.13% respectively.Conclusion: The nutrient value of Surib seed is negligible for its low content of proteins and fatty substances and thus it is of no use as animal or human food. The qualitatively determined antinutrient phytoconstituents as tannins, alkaloids, saponins and flavanoids in the seed could be considered as another main limitation to effective utilization of Surib as an animal feed and/or human food.Keywords: Sesbania leptocarpa, proximate analysis, phytochemical screening

Safety and immunogenicity of an autoclaved Leishmania major vaccine

Objective: To test the safety and immunogenicity of two doses of autoclaved L.major (ALM) vaccine mixed with BCG.Setting: Kala-azar endemic area of eastern Sudan.Design: This was a randomised, double blind and BCG controlled phase I/II study.Subjects: Eighty healthy volunteers (forty children and forty adults) with no past history of kala-azar, no reactivity to leishmanin antigen and with a reciprocal direct agglutination test (DAT) titre o

ruvA Mutants that resolve Holliday junctions but do not reverse replication forks

RuvAB and RuvABC complexes catalyze branch migration and resolution of Holliday junctions (HJs) respectively. In addition to their action in the last steps of homologous recombination, they process HJs made by replication fork reversal, a reaction which occurs at inactivated replication forks by the annealing of blocked leading and lagging strand ends. RuvAB was recently proposed to bind replication forks and directly catalyze their conversion into HJs. We report here the isolation and characterization of two separation-of-function ruvA mutants that resolve HJs, based on their capacity to promote conjugational recombination and recombinational repair of UV and mitomycin C lesions, but have lost the capacity to reverse forks. In vivo and in vitro evidence indicate that the ruvA mutations affect DNA binding and the stimulation of RuvB helicase activity. This work shows that RuvA's actions at forks and at HJs can be genetically separated, and that RuvA mutants compromised for fork reversal remain fully capable of homologous recombination

A scoping review of care trajectories across multiple settings for persons with dementia

Multiple transitions across care settings can be disruptive for older adults with dementia and their care partners, and can lead to fragmented care with adverse outcomes. This scoping review was conducted to identify and classify care trajectories across multiple settings for people with dementia, and to understand the prevalence of multiple transitions and associated factors at the individual and organizational levels. Searches of three databases, limited to peer-reviewed studies published between 2007 and 2017, provided 33 articles for inclusion. We identified 26 distinct care trajectories. Common trajectories involved hospital readmission or discharge from hospital to long-term care. Factors associated with transitions were identified mainly at the level of demographic and medical characteristics. Findings suggest a need for investing in stronger community-based systems of care that may reduce transitions. Further research is recommended to address knowledge gaps about complex and longitudinal care trajectories and trajectories experienced by sub-populations of people living with dementia

Psychological interventions in asthma

Asthma is a multifactorial chronic respiratory disease characterised by recurrent episodes of airway obstruction. The current management of asthma focuses principally on pharmacological treatments, which have a strong evidence base underlying their use. However, in clinical practice, poor symptom control remains a common problem for patients with asthma. Living with asthma has been linked with psychological co-morbidity including anxiety, depression, panic attacks and behavioural factors such as poor adherence and suboptimal self-management. Psychological disorders have a higher-than-expected prevalence in patients with difficult-to-control asthma. As psychological considerations play an important role in the management of people with asthma, it is not surprising that many psychological therapies have been applied in the management of asthma. There are case reports which support their use as an adjunct to pharmacological therapy in selected individuals, and in some clinical trials, benefit is demonstrated, but the evidence is not consistent. When findings are quantitatively synthesised in meta-analyses, no firm conclusions are able to be drawn and no guidelines recommend psychological interventions. These inconsistencies in findings may in part be due to poor study design, the combining of results of studies using different interventions and the diversity of ways patient benefit is assessed. Despite this weak evidence base, the rationale for psychological therapies is plausible, and this therapeutic modality is appealing to both patients and their clinicians as an adjunct to conventional pharmacological treatments. What are urgently required are rigorous evaluations of psychological therapies in asthma, on a par to the quality of pharmaceutical trials. From this evidence base, we can then determine which interventions are beneficial for our patients with asthma management and more specifically which psychological therapy is best suited for each patient

Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among women in a Middle Eastern community

BACKGROUND: Common vaginal infections that manifest in women are usually easily diagnosed. However, Chlamydia infection is often asymptomatic, leading to infertility before it is detected. If it occurs in pregnancy, it could lead to significant neonatal morbidity. It may also play a role with other viral infections for e.g. Human Papilloma Virus in the development of cervical cancer. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Chlamydia infection in women undergoing screening for cervical abnormalities as a part of a research project in primary and secondary care institutions in the United Arab Emirates. METHODS: In this cross sectional study married women attending primary and secondary care participating in a large nationwide cervical abnormalities screening survey were offered Chlamydia testing using a commercially available test kit. This kit uses a rapid immunoassay for the direct detection of Chlamydia trachomatis antigen in endocervical swab specimens. As this study was performed in a traditional Islamic country, unmarried women were excluded from testing, as the management of any positive cases would create legal and social problems. All married women consenting to take part in the study were included irrespective of age. RESULTS: Of 1039 women approached over a period of eight months 919 (88.5%) agreed to participate. The number of women in the 16 to 19 years was small (0.01%) and 30% were aged over 40 years. The prevalence of Chlamydia infection in this study was 2.6% (95% confidence interval 1.2–3.3%), which was marginally higher in women screened in secondary care (p = 0.05). CONCLUSION: This is one of the few reports on the prevalence of Chlamydia infection in women from the Middle East. Due to cultural and social constraints this study excluded a large proportion of women aged less than 19 years of age. Hence no direct comparisons on prevalence could be made with studies from the West, which all included younger women at high risk of Chlamydia. However this study emphasizes the importance of cultural factors while interpreting results of studies from different cultures and communities

Migraine headaches among university students using id migraine test as a screening tool

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Migraine is a significant health problem, especially for the young people, due to its frequency and accompanying morbidity, causing disability and loss of performance. In this study, our aim was to determine the prevalence of migraine headaches among university students in Edirne, a Turkish city.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this cross-sectional and descriptive study, study population was composed of students registered to Trakya University in the academic year of 2008-2009. Out of these, 3694 of them accepted to participate. Participants who had two or more headaches in the last 3 months formed the headache group. Afterwards, two preliminary questions were applied to the headache group and participants with at least one affirmative response were asked to perform the validated ID-Migraine™ test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean age of 3694 students participated in the study was 19.23 ± 1.84 (17-39 years), with adolescents:adult ratio being 2.5:1. 1613 students (43.7%) did have at least two headaches in the last three months. Migraine-type headache was detected in 266 subjects (7.2%) based on the ID-Migraine™ test. Of the migraine group, 72 were male (27.1%) and 194 were female (72.9%). There was no significant difference in migraine prevalence between adolescent and adult age groups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>With a prevalence similar to adults, primary care physicians should be aware of the probability of migraine headaches in university students in order to maintain a successful school performance.</p