The Burden of Undernutrition and Its Associated Factors Among Children Below 5 Years of Age in Bambao Region, Comoros.

Background: Undernutrition remains a major public health problem in low- and middle-income countries and Comoros is no exception. This study aimed to examine the prevalence and identify the risk factors of undernutrition among children under-five years in Bambao region, Comoros. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Bambao region among 837 under-five years and their caregivers. Analyses were conducted using both descriptive and logistic regression to examine the magnitude and factors associated with stunting, wasting and underweight. Results: Prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight were 21.6, 13.7, and 13.6% respectively. Factors associated with stunting were caregiver's secondary education level compared to no education (AOR = 1.89, 95% CI: 1.04-3.43, P < 0.04), age of child between 13-24 months compared to 0-12 months (AOR = 2.69, 95% CI: 1.44-5.01, P < 0.001), and food insecurity (AOR = 2.55, 95% CI: 1.20-5.41, P < 0.02). Children aged 25-59 months were 78% less likely to have wasting compared to those with 0-12 months (AOR = 0.22, 95% CI: 0.10-0.51, P < 0.001). Wasting was also associated with food insecurity (AOR = 2.70, 95% CI: 1.12-6.49, P < 0.03), and low birthweight (AOR = 3.21, 95% CI: 1.73-5.94, P < 0.001). Children aged between 25-59 months were 86% less likely to have underweight compared to those aged 0-12 months (AOR = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.06-0.36, P < 0.001). Food insecurity (AOR = 2.65, 95% CI: 1.08-6.54, P < 0.03), low birthweight (AOR = 3.15, 95% CI: 1.67-5.93, P < 0.001), and non-exclusively breastfeeding (AOR = 2.37, 95% CI: 1.15-4.90, P < 0.02) were also associated with underweight. Conclusion: More than one in five children under-five is stunted in Bambao region, Comoros. Moreover, more than 13% are underweight or wasted calling for streamlined efforts to address poor feeding practices, food insecurity, low birthweight, and socio-demographic disadvantages in this and other areas with similar context.

A scale-down model of 4000-L cell culture process for inactivated foot-and-mouth disease vaccine production.

The anticipated increasing demand for inactivated foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease vaccine calls for its larger production capacity, while development of a large-scale process typically requires high running cost and has very limited experimental throughput at manufacturing scale. Thus, an economic scale-down model of representing a large-scale process becomes necessary and essential. In this study, we used a systematic approach to establish a scale-down model representing a 4000-L culture process for FMD vaccine production by suspension BHK-21 cells. In detail, we firstly compared hydrodynamic properties of three bioreactors (14-L, 800-L and 4000-L) under three different conditions (equivalent mixing time, equivalent shear stress and equivalent volumetric power). We figured out equivalent volumetric power (P/V) potentially as an appropriate scale-down strategy, since it resulted in comparable calculated hydrodynamic parameters among three bioreactors. Next, we used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to provide more details about hydrodynamic environments inside the bioreactors, which supports the reliability of this scale-down strategy. Finally, we compared cell growth, metabolites, vaccine productivity and product quality attributes during FMD vaccine production by BHK-21 cells and observed very close performances among three bioreactors, which once again demonstrates the robustness of this scale-down model. This scale-down strategy can be applied to study variations and critical quality attributes (CQAs) in the resultant production process based on quality by design (QbD) principles, aiming at further more efficient optimization of vaccine production.

Development of a Sensitive Chemiluminescence Immunoassay for the Quantification of Folic Acid in Human Serum.

Folic acid (FA) is an important vitamin for human growth, especially for pregnant women. FA deficiency is associated with megaloblastic anemia, neural tube defects, cardiovascular diseases, irritability, diarrhea, and psychiatric disorders. Normally, FA molecules bind to folate-binding protein (FBP) in the serum as complex. Before quantify the FA concentration, a releasing procedure should be conducted. Alkaline condition and tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) are used to release binding FA to freeing state. In this work, a chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) for human serum FA was established by competition model. Streptavidin (SA) was labeled to magnetic beads by an 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide/N-hydroxysuccinimide (EDAC/NHS) method. Activated biotin molecules were labeled to FBP molecules purified from milk. FA was labeled to horseradish peroxidase (HRP) by EDAC to activate the FA molecules. The pretreated samples or standards were added into the reaction tube with biotin-FBP and FA-horseradish peroxidase (HRP), FA in the sample compete with FA-HRP for binding to biotin-FBP, the signal is inversely proportional to the FA concentration. The method established shows good thermostability and performance. The limitation of detection (LOD) is 0.44 ng/mL. The intra-assay coefficient of variation (CV) is 3.6%-7.1%, the interassay CV is 4.2%-7.5%, and the recovery rate is 92.1%-103.5%. Cross reactivity (CR) was remarkably low with aminopterin, folinic acid, and methotrexate. The method shows good correlation with the FA CLIA product from Beckman Coulter; the equation is y = 0.9618x-0.1434 while the R 2 value is 0.9224. The established method is sensitive, rapid, and accurate which can fully satisfy for the clinical requirement.

Quality by Design-Driven Process Development of Cell Culture in Bioreactor for the Production of Foot-And-Mouth Veterinary Vaccine.

Quality by design (QbD) principle has been established as a guideline to emphasize the understanding of the relationship of product quality with process control. Vaccine product have characteristics of security and high efficiency, but it also has features such as complexity and rigorous regulatory for production. This case study describes an example of QbD-driven process development for manufacturing a veterinary vaccine produced with baby hamster kidney-21 cells. The study revealed that cell culture duration was the most significant factor affecting 50% tissue culture infectious doses (TCID50) and antigenic titer, and the factors of culture temperature and pH at infection phase exhibited less effect. Culture temperature at infection phase was the only significant factor for total protein. Through the Monte Carlo simulation, the design spaces of process parameters were determined. Meanwhile, the excellent and robust performance in manufacturing scale (4000-L) validated the effectiveness of this strategy. A reliable and robust multivariate process parameter range, that is, design space, was identified by this systematic approach. Our investigation presents a successful case of QbD principle, which encourages other researchers to combine the methodology into other biopharmaceutical manufacturing process.

Association of Intake Folate and Related Gene Polymorphisms with Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women worldwide and is associated with a variety of risk factors. Folate and vitamin B12 are key elements of the one-carbon metabolism pathway where methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) plays a significant role. Though many molecular and epidemiological studies have been performed to explore the relationship between intake folate, vitamin B12, MTHFR gene polymorphism and breast cancer risk, there is no consensus to date. By reviewing the relevant literatures and summarizing the potential effect of dietary folate intake on MTHFR genes polymorphism and breast cancer risk, we conclude that MTHFR C677T gene polymorphism is associated with breast cancer risk among Asian, but not Caucasians, and the MTHFR A1298C gene polymorphism is not a susceptibility factor of breast cancers. Concomitant low activity of MTHFR enzyme resulted from C677T gene polymorphism and low dietary folate intake is associated with increased breast cancer risk.

Cytotoxicity screening of Melastoma malabathricum extracts on human breast cancer cell lines in vitro.

OBJECTIVE: To screen the cytotoxic activity of Melastoma malabathricum (M. malabathricum) against human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) in vitro. METHODS: A three steps extraction protocol using n-hexane, chloroform and methanol as the solvents systems was carried out on leaves, stems and flowers of M. malabathricum. Dimethyl sulfoxide was used in extracts dilution and serial dilutions were conducted to obtain five different extract concentrations (100 µg/mL, 50 µg/mL, 25 µg/mL, 12.5 µg/mL and 6.25 µg/mL). The evaluation of cell growth was determined using methylene blue assay. RESULTS: Methanol extract from the leaves showed significant anticancer activity against MCF-7 cell lines with the IC50 value of 7.14 µg/ml while methanol and chloroform extract from the flowers exhibited a moderate activity towards MCF-7 cell line with the IC50 value of 33.63 µg/mL and 45.76 µg/mL respectively after 72 h of treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The extracts from leaves and flowers of M. malabathricum showed promising anticancer activity toward human breast cancer cell lines with the lowest IC50 at 7.14 µg/mL while the extracts from stems showed less growth inhibition activity.

Cytotoxicity screening of Melastoma malabathricum extracts on human breast cancer cell lines in vitro

Objective: To screen the cytotoxic activity of Melastoma malabathricum (M. malabathricum) against human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) in vitro. Methods: A three steps extraction protocol using n-hexane, chloroform and methanol as the solvents systems was carried out on leaves, stems and flowers of M. malabathricum. Dimethyl sulfoxide was used in extracts dilution and serial dilutions were conducted to obtain five different extract concentrations (100 μg/mL, 50 μg/mL, 25 μg/mL, 12.5 μg/mL and 6.25 μg/mL). The evaluation of cell growth was determined using methylene blue assay.Results:Methanol extract from the leaves showed significant anticancer activity against MCF-7 cell lines with the IC50 value of 7.14 μg/ml while methanol and chloroform extract from the flowers exhibited a moderate activity towards MCF-7 cell line with the IC50 value of 33.63 μg/mL and 45.76 μg/mL respectively after 72 h of treatment.Conclusions:The extracts from leaves and flowers of M. malabathricum showed promising anticancer activity toward human breast cancer cell lines with the lowest IC50 at 7.14 μg/mL while the extracts from stems showed less growth inhibition activity.