OBJECTIVES: The emergence of resistant bacteria is being increasingly reported around the world, potentially threatening millions of lives. Amongst resistant bacteria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the most challenging to treat. This is due to emergent MRSA strains and less effective traditional antibiotic therapies to Staphylococcal infections. The use of bacteriophages (phages) against MRSA is a new, potential alternate therapy. In this study, morphology, genetic and protein structure of lytic phages against MRSA have been analysed. METHODS: Isolation of livestock and sewage bacteriophages were performed using 0.4 μm membrane filters. Plaque assays were used to determine phage quantification by double layer agar method. Pure plaques were then amplified for further characterization. Sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and random amplification of polymorphic DNA were run for protein evaluation, and genotyping respectively. Transmission electron microscope was also used to detect the structure and taxonomic classification of phage visually. RESULTS: Head and tail morphology of bacteriophages against MRSA were identified by transmission electron microscopy and assigned to the Siphoviridae family and the Caudovirales order. CONCLUSION: Bacteriophages are the most abundant microorganism on Earth and coexist with the bacterial population. They can destroy bacterial cells successfully and effectively. They cannot enter mammalian cells which saves the eukaryotic cells from lytic phage activity. In conclusion, phage therapy may have many potential applications in microbiology and human medicine with no side effect on eukaryotic cells.
Agar ; Bacteria ; Bacteriophages ; Caudovirales ; Classification ; DNA ; Electrophoresis ; Eukaryotic Cells ; Head ; Humans ; Livestock ; Membranes ; Methicillin Resistance ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ; Methods ; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning Transmission ; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission ; Sewage ; Siphoviridae ; Staphylococcal Infections ; Tail

Introduction: Malaria is a vector-borne disease caused by the bites of infected female mosquitoes that transmit the parasite to humans. In Guinea, the entire population is at risk of malaria infection. The objective of this study is to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the Malaria Free Zone program using the Health Belief Model (HBM) to improve malaria prevention knowledge, attitudes, and practices among university students in Conakry, Guinea. Methods: The study design is a clustered randomized controlled trial (RCT). Students are selected using the clustered sampling method, with each university representing one group, either the intervention or control group. The sample size is 113 university students from each group. The content of the Malaria Free Zone program includes eight sessions, which are based on the HBM constructs. This program takes approximately 6 hours and 30 minutes to complete. Respondents are required to complete a questionnaire over four time points. Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) will be used to determine the effectiveness of the Malaria Free Zone program on malaria prevention knowledge, attitudes, and practices, adjusted with covariates. Conclusion: It is expected that there will be a significant difference in knowledge, attitude, and practice of malaria prevention in the post-test, 2-week and 2-month follow up of the intervention group after the Malaria Free Zone program. Students in the intervention group will have significant higher knowledge, attitude and practice of malaria prevention compared to students in the control group. Trial Registration: PACTR202102614259601

ABSTRACT Implant periapical lesion (IPL) is also known as retrograde peri-implantitis and as the name suggests, it involves inflammation surrounding the apical part of the dental implants. Previously, many studies have reported the event of IPL that further delays osseointegration, and some reported failure of implant placement due to this disease. In this article, we described two cases of early dental implant failure that was associated with active IPL and correlated the clinical and radiographical findings with the histopathological findings.
Dental Restoration Failure ; Dental Implants--adverse effects ; Periapical Tissue

Objective: To identify regions of the brain affected during cognitive working memory during tasks to assess attention, planning and decision making among military aviation personnel who have chronic intermittent exposure to high altitude environment. Method: A case-control study was conducted in the Universiti Putra Malaysia among eight military personnel, four of whom had chronic intermittent exposure to high altitude training. They were divided into two groups, chronic intermittent exposure group (CE) (n=4) and a control group (n=4). They underwent a task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that utilised spatial working memory task to objectively evaluate the neural activation in response to the Tower of London paradigm. Each correct answer was given a score of one and the maximum achievable score was 100%. Results: A consecutive dichotomised group of CE (4/8) and control (4/8) of age-matched military aviation personnel with a mean age of 37.23±5.52 years; showed significant activation in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). This in turn was positively correlated with response accuracy. A significant difference in the response accuracy was noted among both the groups at p<0.05. Conclusion: At the minimum results of power analysis of this preliminary fMRI study, our group of aviation personnel who had chronic intermittent exposure to hypobaric hypoxic environment, did not have any significant decrease in cognitive function namely attention, decision-making and problem solving compared to controls during a working memory task

Objective: Problematic smartphone use (PSU) is the development of pathological dependence at the expense of performing activities of daily living, thus having negative health and psychological impact on the users. Previous PSU studies focused on medical students and little is known regarding its effect on students undergoing other courses. The objective of this study is to identify the pattern of smartphone usage and determine the psychological factors affecting PSU among undergraduate students in Malaysia and compare the pattern among students from different fields of study. Method: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted using the validated Smartphone Addiction Scale–Malay version (SAS-M) questionnaire. One-way ANOVA was used to determine the correlation between the PSU among the students categorised by their ethnicity, hand dominance and by their field of study. MLR analysis was applied to predict PSU based on socio-demographic data, usage patterns, psychological factors and fields of study. Results: A total of 1060 students completed the questionnaire. Most students had some degree of problematic usage of the smartphone. Students used smartphones predominantly to access SNAs, namely Instagram. Longer duration on the smartphone per day, younger age at first using a smartphone and underlying depression carried higher risk of developing PSU, whereas the field of study (science vs. humanities based) did not contribute to an increased risk of developing PSU. Conclusion: Findings from this study can help better inform university administrators about at- risk groups of undergraduate students who may benefit from targeted intervention designed to reduce their addictive behaviour patterns