Impact of perceived social support on psychological resilience: A comparison between medical and surgical postgraduate residents.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the predictable relationship and differences between perceived social support and psychological resilience among medical and surgical postgraduate residents. Methods: The analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from July to September 2021 at Dr Ruth K.M. Pfau Civil Hospital, Karachi, and comprised postgraduate medical and surgical residents of either gender. Data was collected using validated self-administered questionnaires. Data was analysed using SPSS 22. RESULTS: Of the 200 residents, 100(50%) were medical residents and 100(50%) were surgery residents. Besides, 161 (80.5%) were females and 39(19.5%) were males. The overall mean age was 27.57±2.13 years. Mean perceived social support score was 62.53±15.41 and mean score for psychological resilience was 70.40±13.73. Perceived social support was a significant predictor of resilience (p=0.0001). Medical residents scored significantly higher (p=0.034) on perceived social support compared to residents from surgery departments. Marital status, residency year, and birth order in the family significantly differed with reference to perceived social support and resilience (p<0.05). Conclusion: There was a favourable role of perceived social support in building resilience among postgraduate residents.

Discovery of novel inhibitors of histone deacetylase 6: Structure-based virtual screening, molecular dynamics simulation, enzyme inhibition and cell viability assays.

Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) contributes to cancer metastasis in several cancers, including triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)-the most lethal form that lacks effective therapy. Although several efforts have been invested to develop selective HDAC6 inhibitors, none have been approved by the FDA. Toward this goal, existing computational studies used smaller compound libraries and shorter MD simulations. Here, we conducted a structure-based virtual screening of ZINC "Druglike" library containing 17,900,742 compounds using a Glide virtual screening protocol comprising various filters with increasing accuracy. The top 20 hits were subjected to molecular dynamics simulation, MM-GBSA binding energy calculations, and further ADMET prediction. Furthermore, enzyme inhibition assay and cell viability assay were performed on six available compounds from the identified hits. C4 (ZINC000077541942) with a good profile of predicted drug properties was found to inhibit HDAC6 (IC50: 4.7 ± 11.6 µM) with comparative affinity to that of the known HDAC6 selective inhibitor Tubacin (TA) in our experiments. C4 also demonstrated cytotoxic effects against triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line MDA-MB-231 with EC50 of 40.6 ± 12.7 µM comparable to that of TA (2-20 µM). Therefore, this compound, with pharmacophore features comprising a non-hydroxamic acid zinc-binding group, heteroaromatic linker, and cap group, is proposed as a novel HDAC6 inhibitor.

Association of Maternal Lactation With Diabetes and Hypertension: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: Lactation has been shown to be associated with lower rates of diabetes and hypertension in mothers. However, the strength of association has varied between studies, and sample sizes are relatively small. Objective: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine whether lactation is associated with a lower risk of diabetes and hypertension. Data Sources: Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, Cochrane CENTRAL, and CINAHL databases were searched from inception to July 2018 with manual search of the references. Study Selection: Studies of adult women that specified duration of breastfeeding for at least 12 months, evaluated primary hypertension and diabetes as outcomes, were full-text articles in English, and reported statistical outcomes as odds ratios were included. Data Extraction and Synthesis: Study characteristics were independently extracted using a standard spreadsheet template and the data were pooled using the random-effects model. The Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guideline for reporting was followed. Main Outcomes and Measures: Diabetes and hypertension. Results: The search yielded 1558 articles, from which a total of 6 studies met inclusion criteria for association between breastfeeding and diabetes and/or hypertension. The 4 studies included in the meta-analysis for the association between lactation and diabetes had a total of 206 204 participants, and the 5 studies included in the meta-analysis for the association between lactation and hypertension had a total of 255 271 participants. Breastfeeding for more than 12 months was associated with a relative risk reduction of 30% for diabetes (pooled odds ratio, 0.70 [95% CI, 0.62-0.78]; P < .001) and a relative risk reduction of 13% for hypertension (pooled odds ratio, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.78-0.97]; P = .01). Conclusions and Relevance: This study suggests that education about the benefits of breastfeeding for prevention of diabetes and hypertension in women is a low-risk intervention that can be easily included in daily practice and may have a positive impact on cardiovascular outcomes in mothers.

Prevalence and Predictors of Use of Home Sphygmomanometers Among Hypertensive Patients.

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have looked at the predictors of use of home sphygmomanometers among hypertensive patients in low-income countries such as Pakistan. Considering the importance of home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM), cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of the usage of all kinds of HBPM devices. METHOD: This study was conducted in Karachi during the time period of January-February 2017. Adult patients previously diagnosed with hypertension visiting tertiary care hospitals were selected for the study. Interviews from the individuals were conducted after verbal consent using a pre-coded questionnaire. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences v. 23.0 (SPSS, IBM Corporation, NY, USA). Chi-squared test was applied as the primary statistical test. RESULTS: More than half of the participants used a home sphygmomanometer (n=250, 61.7%). The age, level of education, family history of hypertension, compliance to drugs and blood pressure (BP) monitoring, few times a month at clinics were significant determinants of HBPM (P values < 0.001). It was found that more individuals owned a digital sphygmomanometer (n=128, 51.3%) as compared to a manual type (n=122, 48.8%). Moreover, avoiding BP measurement in a noisy environment was the most common precaution taken (n=117, 46.8%). CONCLUSION: The study showed that around 40% of the hypertensive individuals did not own a sphygmomanometer and less than 25% performed HBPM regularly. General awareness by healthcare professionals can be a possible factor which can increase HBPM.