Social Anxiety Symptoms and Quality of Life of Secondary School Students of Abha, Saudi Arabia.

Interest in social anxiety disorder has grown substantially over the past few decades. Most of the available data from United States and European countries emphasized its high prevalence, comorbidity and morbidity and its association with occupational, educational, social affairs, stress, depression and substance use disorder contributing to poor quality of life. Present study was aimed to assess the social anxiety symptoms and to explore its impact on quality of life of secondary school students. Present study included male (n = 200) and female (n = 200) students enrolled at government secondary schools, Abha, Saudi Arabia. Arabic version of Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) and World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL) were implemented to assess the social anxiety symptoms and quality of life of the students. Results revealed that 45% of the students showed social anxiety symptoms. Associated factors were younger age, chronic diseases, parent's status, parent's occupation and income. Quality of life was found significantly lower in students with social anxiety symptoms as compared to the students without symptoms. We suggest that the school health program should include routine screening of students for social anxiety disorder. Students diagnosed with social anxiety symptoms should be promptly managed and their quality of life should be improved.

From sequence analysis of DPP-4 to molecular docking based searching of its inhibitors.

Literature data suggests that Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) is a potential target for type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Therefore, it is of interest to identify new DPP-4 inhibitors using molecular docking analysis. We document compounds such as STOCK1N-98884, STOCK1N-98881, and STOCK1N-98866 with optimal binding features with DPP-4 from the ligand database at https://www.ibscreen.com/ for further consideration.

Endometrial cancer patients have high affinity antibodies for estrogen metabolite-receptor aggregate: A potential biomarker for EC.

AIM: Elevated levels of 16α-hydroxyestrone (16α-OHE1 ) have been described in endometrial cancer (EC) and estrogen receptors (ER) expressed in endometrial tissue, but research on their combined role is lacking. We aimed to investigate the affinity and binding specificity of EC antibodies against the 16α-OHE1 -ERα aggregate in the serum of EC patients. Specificities of EC antibodies were also evaluated according to various clinical characteristics found in these cancer patients. METHODS: The binding specificity and affinity of EC antibodies against 16α-OHE1 -ERα in the serum of 120 EC patients were evaluated by direct binding and competition ELISA and quantitative precipitation titration. Binding of EC antibodies was also determined according to various clinical characteristics in EC patients through competition ELISA. RESULTS: Antibodies from EC patients demonstrated high recognition of 16α-OHE1 -ERα compared to ERα (P < 0.05) or 16α-OHE1 (P < 0.001). The relative affinity of EC IgG was 1.49 × 10-7 M, 1.34 × 10-6 M and 1.13 × 10-6 M for 16α-OHE1 -ERα, ERα and 16α-OHE1 , respectively. Several factors, such as obesity, postmenopausal status, use of hormonal therapy, ER and progesterone receptor (PR) status, low 2-OHE1 /16α-OHE1 ratio, chemotherapy and hypertension, augment the production of antibodies against 16α-OHE1 -ERα in EC patients. CONCLUSION: 16α-OHE1 -ERα is a high-affinity antigen for EC antibodies in the serum of EC patients and might function as a biomarker for this disease. Furthermore, several factors enhanced the production of antibodies against 16α-OHE1 -ERα in the sera of these EC patients.