Different Umbilical Cord Cutting Techniques Prevailing among Rural Population of District Attock

OBJECTIVES: To study different umbilical cord cutting techniques prevailing among rural population of district Attock. METHODOLOGY: This descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from April - June 2017 in the rural population of district Attock. The sample size was 300 which were selected by non-probability convenient sampling technique. The data was collected over a period of three months using a pre-tested self-structured questionnaire. Informed consent was taken. Data was analyzed in SPSS version 23. RESULTS: A total number of 300 infantswere included in this study. The mean age (in days) ± SD of infants was 14.10±8.96. The mean age (in years) ±SD of mothers was 27.58±3.99. Surgical blade usage for cord cutting was 50%, 48.7% used scissors while 1.3% used knife to cut the umbilical cord after birth. 8.7% mothers applied nothing on the cord for cord care, whereas 30.7% of mothers applied domestic products on the infant’s umbilical cord which included fried onion, garlic, ghee, oil, kohl and turmeric. Chi-Square test revealed that the use of harmful domestic products was highest among the infants who were born at homes (p<0.05). The application of medical or domestic products on the cord was irrespective of infant’s gender and mothers’ educational status. CONCLUSION: This study revealed diversity in methods of cutting and caring the cord after birth among the rural population of district Attock. Most of the participants of this study maintained the good cord care practices; however, there were a significant proportion of participants who followed harmful traditional practices for their infant’s cord care

Design and Immunoinformatic Assessment of Candidate Multivariant mRNA Vaccine Construct against Immune Escape Variants of SARS-CoV-2

To effectively counter the evolving threat of SARS-CoV-2 variants, modifications and/or redesigning of mRNA vaccine construct are essentially required. Herein, the design and immunoinformatic assessment of a candidate novel mRNA vaccine construct, DOW-21, are discussed. Briefly, immunologically important domains, N-terminal domain (NTD) and receptor binding domain (RBD), of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) and variants of interest (VOIs) were assessed for sequence, structure, and epitope variations. Based on the assessment, a novel hypothetical NTD (h-NTD) and RBD (h-RBD) were designed to hold all overlapping immune escape variations. The construct sequence was then developed, where h-NTD and h-RBD were intervened by 10-mer gly-ala repeat and the terminals were flanked by regulatory sequences for better intracellular transportation and expression of the coding regions. The protein encoded by the construct holds structural attributes (RMSD NTD: 0.42 Å; RMSD RBD: 0.15 Å) found in the respective domains of SARS-CoV-2 immune escape variants. In addition, it provides coverage to the immunogenic sites of the respective domains found in SARS-CoV-2 variants. Later, the nucleotide sequence of the construct was optimized for GC ratio (56%) and microRNA binding sites to ensure smooth translation. Post-injection antibody titer was also predicted (~12000 AU) to be robust. In summary, the construct proposed in this study could potentially provide broad spectrum coverage in relation to SARS-CoV-2 immune escape variants