Background: CARD4/NOD1 is a member of the Caterpiller (CLR) gene family and is involved in the recognition of entero-invasive bacteria, such as Helicobacter pylori and ensures immunity responses. As a consequence, gene variability can influence the gastric inflammatory response to Helicobacter pylori. Objectives: The study was conducted to investigate the frequency of the E266K CARD4/NOD1 gene polymorphism and its relationship with Helicobacter pylori infection as well as the outcome on upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Methods: Consecutive patients who underwent gastrointestinal endoscopy were eligible for the study. DNA was isolated from whole blood and polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism procedure was used for genotyping. The link between endoscopic diagnosis, Helicobacter pylori infection status and genotype data was analyzed using Pearson\u2019s chi-square test and regression analysis. Results: A total of 186 patients were studied (mean age of 43 years with SD = 12.6, male was 37%). Helicobacter pylori infection rate is indifferent between patients with different variants of E266K (wildtype (n=80) 54%, heterozygotes (n=71) 65% and homozygotes (n=35) 43%; p=0.09). In patients infected with Helicobacter pylori, the prevalence of peptic ulcer identified by endoscopy was 19%, 17% and 47% for the E266K wildtype, heterozygote and homozygote variants, respectively (p=0.049). Conclusion: The E266K CARD4/NOD1 gene polymorphism carriers are at increased risk of peptic ulcer in the presence of Helicobacter pylori.
Peptic ulcer ; gene ; Helicobacter pylori

Background: Some researchers indicated that investigating MUC5AC is necessary for H.pylori infection because H.pylori is easy to locate in MUC5AC. However, there is no publication about the effect of variable number tandem repeat polymorphism of MUC5AC on H.pylori infection. Objective: To investigate the relationship between mucin 5AC variable number tandem repeated polymorphism and H.pylori infection. Subject and Method: 170 patients were studied, mean age: 43, male: 35%. Blood samples were collected from patients, who visited Can Tho General Hospital for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. DNA was isolated from whole blood; the repeated section of the MUC5AC alleles was not cut out with a restriction enzyme (SacI). H.pylori infection was diagnosed with 14 C urea breath test. Distributions of allele fragment length were compared to H.pylori positive and negative patients. Results: 52% of patients were H.pylori infected. MUC5AC SacI-restricted allele fragment lengths ranged from 6.2 to 11.2 kbp (mean 7.9), the calculated number of repeated ranged from 170 to 380 (mean 243). Mean allele length was identical for H.pylori positive and negative patients were 7.9 kbp, and the distribution of allele fragment lengths was also similar for both groups (p=0.7). Conclusion: The number of repeats in the MUC5AC gen was highly polymorphic, but the variation in allele length was limited. The variable number tandem repeat polymorphism of MUC5AC was not associated with H.pylori infection.
H.pylori infection ; MUCSAC

Background: Several studies reported a high prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency in some Asian countries and in Asian immigrants living in Western countries. However, there is no data regarding the prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency in Viet Nam.\r\n', u'Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency in patients with upper gastrointestinal symptoms in the Mekong Delta and to investigate the risk factors for vitamin B12 deficiency. \r\n', u'Methods: Blood samples were collected from patients visiting Can Tho General Hospital for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Serum vitamin B12 concentration was measured at the University Medical center St Radboud Nijmegen, Netherlands. \r\n', u'Results: Between September and December 2003, 216 patients (80 male, 136 female, mean age 43.2 years) were studied. Ten patients had gastric cancer, 28 peptic ulcer disease/ and 178 gastritis only or no visible pathology. Only 2 patients (0.9%) had clinical vitamin B12 deficiency (<160 pmol/l, whereas 15 patients (7.0%) had sub-clinical vitamin 812 deficiency (160-250 pmol/l). H. pylori positive patients (n=111) were more likely to have para-clinical vitamin B12 deficiency than H. pylori negative patients (odds ratio 3.7~ 95%CI 1.10-12.76). \r\n', u'Conclusions: Vitamin B12 deficiency is uncommon in the Mekong Delta. Helicobacter pylori infection is a risk factor for vitamin B12 deficiency. \r\n', u'
Vitamin B12 deficiency ; gastroenterologic symptoms

Background: Dementia is a common pathological condition that affects older people. Most causes of dementia are Alzheimer\u2019s disease and vascular dementia. Diagnosing these conditions mostly relied on clinical patterns, but some biomarkers have been mentioned as the indicators of this condition. Objectives: 1) To evaluate the alteration of some biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from Alzheimer\u2019s patients. 2) To compare the concentration of biomarkers in CSF samples from patients with vascular dementia and Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Subjects and method: Case group involved 41 patients who were diagnosed as AD and vascular dementia based on DSM-IV criteria. 31 matched healthy people were included in control group. All subjects were given neuro-psychological tests and thorough clinical examination. Brain CT scan and MRI were done for both groups. CSF samples were taken from patients in the study group to measure levels of some biomarkers. Results. The levels of total taurine (T-tau) and phosphorylated taurine (P-tau) 181 proteins are higher in the dementia group. The concentration of Abeta-42 is significantly different between case and control groups, but similar between vascular dementia and Alzheimer\u2019s disease patients. Conclusion: Changes in biomarkers are valuable in different diagnosis of Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other types of dementia. However, findings of CSF studies have to be considered with findings from imaging studies and clinical examination.
Biomarker ; Dementia ; Alzheimer\u2019s disease

Background: Recently, microplate almar blue assay has been used commonly in detecting gen related to tuberculosis drug resistance, which provides results after 5-7 days with lower cost compared to traditional methods. Objective: To evaluate the application of microplate almar blue assay for rapid detection of drug resistance of M. tuberculosis strains. Subject and Method: A microplate-based assay which uses Alamar blue reagent - an oxidation reduction dye (MABA), was used for the determination of the anti-tuberculosis drug (isoniazid-INH, rifampicine-RIF, streptomycine-STR and ethabuton=EMB) resistance of 96 M. tuberculosis strains isolated from Vietnamese patients in comparison to those obtained by conversional method. Result: MABA showed to have high sensitivity and specificity in testing the sensitivity to individual anti-tuberculosis drugs (from 82.4% for STR to 93.3% for - INH and from 82.5% for EMB to 98.4% for STR; respectively), as well as for the multi-drug resistant M.tuberculosis (86.4% of sensitivity), highly correlated with the result determined by proportion method. Conclusion: MABA reveals the advantage in shortening test time, in simple performance and lower cost compared with the conversional culture based methods.
Microplate almar blue assay ; M. tuberculosis ; drug resistance

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary hepatic tumor and one of the most common cancers worldwide. HCC is a primary malignancy of hepatocellular origin. Objectives:The aim of study is to combinate therapy of transarterial chemoembolization and percutaneousethanol injection afterward emerging metatasis caused by fine needle aspiration cytology. Subjects and method: A 50 years old male patient with hepatocellular carcinoma having a diameter of tumor more than 5 cm was treated by combination of transarterial chemoembolization and percutaneous ethanol injection from December 2000. Results & Conclusion: Results of study showed that: Transarterial chemoembolization and percutaneous ethanol injection are the two of non-surgical methods for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma which are most commonly available in applied clinical activities at present. Up to now, the patient's life expectancy after therapy is more than 6 years that means the result of treatment is very good. However, the emerging metatasis into the anterior-right-Iower chest wall that was caused by fine needle aspiration cytology should be reviewed for further evaluating clinical experience, especially in cases with quite clear imaging features of untrasonography and significantly elevated AFP level higher than 200 ng/rnl.
Carcinoma ; Hepatocellular/ pathology ; therapy

Artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) is a perennial plant belonging to the Asteraceae family originating from the Mediterranean region. In Vietnam, there are some varieties of artichoke which are extensively cultivated and propagated in highland areas, however, there have been limited detailed scientific publications on the chemical composition and biological activity of artichoke grown in Vietnam. Therefore, this study provides a detailed description of the extraction, isolation, and structural determination of 20 natural secondary metabolites present in harvested artichoke. The antioxidant activity of the extract and the 9 isolated compounds are tested in 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging and ex vivo malondialdehyde model. Among the selected compounds, 1-caffeoylquinic acid, 3-caffeoylquinic acid, chlorogenic acid, 4-caffeoylquinic acid, cynarin, 1,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 4,5-di-caffeoylquinic acid, cynaroside, and scolymoside exhibited strong radical scavenging activity with IC50 values ranging from 5.7 to 61.6 µM. In the malondialdehyde assay, 1,3-dicaffeoylquinic acid (or cynarin) showed the strongest activity with an IC50 value of 24.7 µM, followed by 1,5-di-caffeoylquinic acid (66.8 µM), and 4,5-di-caffeoylquinic acid (127.3 µM). This outcome contributes to establishing a database on the phytochemical and antioxidant activity of the Vietnamese artichoke.

The Second Meeting of the National Control Laboratories for Vaccines and Biologicals in the Western Pacific, was jointly organized by the National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in the Republic of Korea, and by the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific. In the National Lot Release Systems session countries including Canada, China, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Republic of Korea, all shared information on their current Lot Release Systems, including current practices and developments in risk-based official lot release of vaccines. In the session on Quality Control of Blood Products, experts from the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control shared quality control and research results for; blood coagulation factor VIII products, and the measurement of procoagulant activity in immunoglobulin products. Representatives from Japan proposed a regional collaborative study to test aggregated immunoglobulin free from complement activity. A cell-based Japanese encephalitis vaccine potency assay was proposed by representatives from Korea and they also called for voluntary participation of other National Control Laboratories in a collaborative study, on the first Korean Gloydius anti-venom standard. Participants agreed in general to continue communicating, and coordinate presentation of the study results.
Blood Coagulation Factors ; Canada ; China ; Complement System Proteins ; Encephalitis, Japanese ; Factor VIII ; Immunoglobulins ; Japan ; Korea ; Malaysia ; Quality Control ; Republic of Korea ; Vaccine Potency ; Vaccines* ; Vietnam ; World Health Organization

The first meeting of the National Control Laboratories for Vaccines and Biologicals in the Western Pacific Region was held on September 1–2, 2016 in Seoul, the Republic of Korea. The meeting objectives were to share results of current research and to promote collaboration between the National Control Laboratories. To this end, we first discussed each country’s current status of research on quality control of biologicals. Next, we reviewed quality control of snake venom and antivenom production and the progress of a collaborative study on the Korean reference standard candidate for snake venom. We also discussed the establishment of the second regional reference standard antivenom and the characterization of the Vero cell genome landscape and its application to quality control. Moreover, we also reflected on the importance of collaboration among interested parties participating in this meeting. In conclusion, the meeting initiated networking between the national control laboratories in the Western Pacific region and paved the way to continue collaboration, which will eventually improve the region’s capacity for quality control of biologicals.
Cooperative Behavior ; Genome ; Quality Control ; Republic of Korea ; Seoul ; Snake Venoms ; Vaccines* ; Vero Cells