Patterns of Alcohol Consumption among Male Adults at a Slum in Kolkata, India

Globally, alcohol-abuse is a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Consumption of alcohol has increased in India in the recent decades. It is imperative to know the patterns of alcohol consumption among different types of consumers to launch a well-planned nationwide programme for the prevention and control of this devastating social pathology. This community-based, cross-sectional study was undertaken to identify the patterns of alcohol intake among different types of alcohol consumers and to assess the clinical signs of chronic harmful alcohol-use. A predesigned, pretested, semi-structured alcohol-use disorders identification test (AUDIT) questionnaire was used for interviewing males, aged >18 years, selected by random sampling from an updated household list of a randomly-selected sector of the service area of the Urban Health Centre in Chetla, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Written informed consents were obtained from all the respondents. Relevant clinical examination for chronic harmful alcohol-use was done according to the AUDIT clinical screening procedures. The results revealed that 65.8% (150/228) were current consumers of alcohol; 14% were alcohol-dependents; 8% were hazardous or harmful consumers, and 78% were non-hazardous non-harmful consumers. The mean age of the respondents at the initiation of drinking alcohol was 20.8+5.9 years. Eighty-six percent of dependents (n=21) took both Indian-made foreign liquor and locally-made alcoholic beverages. The proportions of alcohol consumers who drank alone among alcohol-dependents, hazardous or harmful consumers, and non-hazardous non-harmful consumers were 71.4%, 50%, and 7.7% respectively, and the difference was significant (p<0.01). Forty-one percent of the consumers drank at public places and workplaces, which may be socially harmful. About 38% of the dependents purchased alcohol from unlicensed liquor shops. Only 16% expressed concerns for their drinking habit mainly to the past illness. The proportion of the concerned respondents was higher in the hazardous and harmful drinking patterns than in the non-hazardous non-harmful drinking pattern, and the difference was significant (p<0.05). About 62% of the dependents had clinical signs of chronic alcohol consumption. The presence of a considerable proportion of alcohol-dependents, the low mean age at initiation of drinking alcohol, and the habit of drinking in public places and workplaces are the main areas that need special emphasis by intervention programmes

Patterns of Alcohol Consumption among Male Adults at a Slum in Kolkata, India

Globally, alcohol-abuse is a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Consumption of alcohol has increased in India in the recent decades. It is imperative to know the patterns of alcohol consumption among different types of consumers to launch a well-planned nationwide programme for the prevention and control of this devastating social pathology. This community-based, cross-sectional study was undertaken to identify the patterns of alcohol intake among different types of alcohol consumers and to assess the clinical signs of chronic harmful alcohol-use. A predesigned, pretested, semi-structured alcohol-use disorders identification test (AUDIT) questionnaire was used for interviewing males, aged &gt;18 years, selected by random sampling from an updated household list of a randomly-selected sector of the service area of the Urban Health Centre in Chetla, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Written informed consents were obtained from all the respondents. Relevant clinical examination for chronic harmful alcohol-use was done according to the AUDIT clinical screening procedures. The results revealed that 65.8% (150/228) were current consumers of alcohol; 14% were alcohol-dependents; 8% were hazardous or harmful consumers, and 78% were nonhazardous non-harmful consumers. The mean age of the respondents at the initiation of drinking alcohol was 20.8+5.9 years. Eighty-six percent of dependents (n=21) took both Indian-made foreign liquor and locally-made alcoholic beverages. The proportions of alcohol consumers who drank alone among alcoholdependents, hazardous or harmful consumers, and non-hazardous non-harmful consumers were 71.4%, 50%, and 7.7% respectively, and the difference was significant (p&lt;0.01). Forty-one percent of the consumers drank at public places and workplaces, which may be socially harmful. About 38% of the dependents purchased alcohol from unlicensed liquor shops. Only 16% expressed concerns for their drinking habit mainly to the past illness. The proportion of the concerned respondents was higher in the hazardous and harmful drinking patterns than in the non-hazardous non-harmful drinking pattern, and the difference was significant (p&lt;0.05). About 62% of the dependents had clinical signs of chronic alcohol consumption. The presence of a considerable proportion of alcohol-dependents, the low mean age at initiation of drinking alcohol, and the habit of drinking in public places and workplaces are the main areas that need special emphasis by intervention programmes

Structure of the full-length TRPV2 channel by cryo-EM.

Transient receptor potential (TRP) proteins form a superfamily Ca(2+)-permeable cation channels regulated by a range of chemical and physical stimuli. Structural analysis of a 'minimal' TRP vanilloid subtype 1 (TRPV1) elucidated a mechanism of channel activation by agonists through changes in its outer pore region. Though homologous to TRPV1, other TRPV channels (TRPV2-6) are insensitive to TRPV1 activators including heat and vanilloids. To further understand the structural basis of TRPV channel function, we determined the structure of full-length TRPV2 at ∼5 Å resolution by cryo-electron microscopy. Like TRPV1, TRPV2 contains two constrictions, one each in the pore-forming upper and lower gates. The agonist-free full-length TRPV2 has wider upper and lower gates compared with closed and agonist-activated TRPV1. We propose these newly revealed TRPV2 structural features contribute to diversity of TRPV channels

Structural insights on TRPV5 gating by endogenous modulators.

TRPV5 is a transient receptor potential channel involved in calcium reabsorption. Here we investigate the interaction of two endogenous modulators with TRPV5. Both phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) and calmodulin (CaM) have been shown to directly bind to TRPV5 and activate or inactivate the channel, respectively. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), we determined TRPV5 structures in the presence of dioctanoyl PI(4,5)P2 and CaM. The PI(4,5)P2 structure reveals a binding site between the N-linker, S4-S5 linker and S6 helix of TRPV5. These interactions with PI(4,5)P2 induce conformational rearrangements in the lower gate, opening the channel. The CaM structure reveals two TRPV5 C-terminal peptides anchoring a single CaM molecule and that calcium inhibition is mediated through a cation-π interaction between Lys116 on the C-lobe of calcium-activated CaM and Trp583 at the intracellular gate of TRPV5. Overall, this investigation provides insight into the endogenous modulation of TRPV5, which has the potential to guide drug discovery

Allosteric Antagonist Modulation of TRPV2 by Piperlongumine Impairs Glioblastoma Progression.

The use of computational tools to identify biological targets of natural products with anticancer properties and unknown modes of action is gaining momentum. We employed self-organizing maps to deconvolute the phenotypic effects of piperlongumine (PL) and establish a link to modulation of the human transient receptor potential vanilloid 2 (hTRPV2) channel. The structure of the PL-bound full-length rat TRPV2 channel was determined by cryo-EM. PL binds to a transient allosteric pocket responsible for a new mode of anticancer activity against glioblastoma (GBM) in which hTRPV2 is overexpressed. Calcium imaging experiments revealed the importance of Arg539 and Thr522 residues on the antagonistic effect of PL and calcium influx modulation of the TRPV2 channel. Downregulation of hTRPV2 reduces sensitivity to PL and decreases ROS production. Analysis of GBM patient samples associates hTRPV2 overexpression with tumor grade, disease progression, and poor prognosis. Extensive tumor abrogation and long term survival was achieved in two murine models of orthotopic GBM by formulating PL in an implantable scaffold/hydrogel for sustained local therapy. Furthermore, in primary tumor samples derived from GBM patients, we observed a selective reduction of malignant cells in response to PL ex vivo. Our results establish a broadly applicable strategy, leveraging data-motivated research hypotheses for the discovery of novel means tackling cancer

Prevalence and health-seeking behavior of reproductive tract infection/sexually transmitted infections symptomatics: A cross-sectional study of a rural community in the Hooghly district of West Bengal

A community-based, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in Purushottampur village of the Singur block, Hooghly, using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire, to find out the prevalence of RTI / STI symptomatics among the general population aged 15 to 49 years, and to assess their profiles and health-seeking behaviors. Prevalence of (Reproductive tract infection) RTI / STI (Sexually transmitted infections) symptoms in the last 12 months was found to be 13.9 and 13.6% among males and females, respectively. The most common symptom was dysuria and vaginal discharge among males and females, respectively. Almost half of the STI symptomatics (52% male, 50% female) did nothing for their symptoms. Better health-seeking behavior was observed among females. About 9.4% of the males and 47% of the females sought advice from the clinic / hospital / health workers. Strengthening of activities of the existing national program among the general population is needed to build a positive health-seeking behavior that will ensure success of the syndromic management of RTI / STI

Mental health, protective factors and violence among male adolescents: A comparison between urban and rural school students in West Bengal

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 199 (104 urban, 95 rural) male students of classes VIII and IX, of two schools, in urban and rural areas of West Bengal to compare the prevalence of protective factors, mental health issues, and violence among the urban and rural adolescents using a self-administered questionnaire. Higher proportion of urban students than rural (67.3% vs. 62.5%) reported that their guardians understood their problems. Mental health issues like loneliness (17.3% vs. 9.8%), worry (17.3% vs. 10.7%), and suicidal thoughts (19.2% vs. 14.1%) were higher among urban students. Physical fight (53.8% vs. 11.6%), bullying (46.4% vs. 17%), physical attack by family members (46% vs. 17%), and by teachers (53% vs. 10.7%) were all more in urban adolescents. Mental health- and violence-related issues were prevalent more among urban students than those among rural students in spite of having more protective factors suggesting the need of frequent supervision, monitoring, and support of adolescents

Partial purification and sugarcane bagasse induction of extracellular thermostable Amylase by Bacillus sp. under submerged fermentation

Enzyme with relatively low stability shows an industrial incompetence which creates an urgent need of potential enzymes with high stability in a cost effective way. Thus, thermostable enzymes derived from microorganism are the alternative resources for convenient industrial application. Our present study was aimed for production of thermostable amylase with wide range of pH and temperature stability, and induction of over production of the enzyme by using sugarcane bagasse as the sole carbon source. The strain was an isolate from railway track of Cuttack railway station, Odisha, India. Morphologically the strain was identified as Bacillus species by gram staining, and a potential amylase producer in normal Luria Bertani (LB) broth at 60°C. The optimum extracellular amylase production observed was 0.085 U/ml after 6 hours at 60°C under submerged culture condition. Extracellular amylase was precipitated through ammonium salt fractionation, and partially purified by Sephadex G-50 column chromatography. The partially purified protein under SDS-PAGE was found to be resolved in to three distinct bands of molecular weights approximately 108.69 kDa, 78.12 kDa and 65.63 kDa. The amylase enzyme showed wide range of temperature stability till 90°C and pH stability from pH 5 to 8, respectively. However, the optimum stability of amylase was found at 90°C in pH 8. The induction study has been carried out with abundantly available agro-industrial waste product sugarcane bagasse for over production of amylase in four different concentrations (0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0%, and 5.0%). The enzyme production was enhanced with increase in concentration of sugarcane bagasse as compared to the control LB medium. The highest amylase production observed was 0.190 U/ml with 5.0% inducible substrate after 10 hours of submerged culture condition at 60°C. Thus, the strain is found to be a potential producer of extracellular amylase and further studies are needed for the optimization of increased production and induction of other possible enzymes by different inducible substrates