Childhood Allergy Disease, Early Diagnosis, and the Potential of Salivary Protein Biomarkers.

Allergic disease has risen to epidemic proportions since the last decade and is among the most common noncommunicable, chronic diseases in children and adolescents worldwide. Allergic disease usually occurs in early life; thus, early biomarkers of allergic susceptibility are required for preventive measures to high-risk infants which enable early interventions to decrease allergic severity. However, to date, there is no reliable general or specific allergy phenotype detection method that is easy and noninvasive for children. Most reported allergic phenotype detection methods are invasive, such as the skin prick test (SPT), oral food challenge (OFC), and blood test, and many involve not readily accessible biological samples, such as cord blood (CB), maternal blood, or newborn vernix. Saliva is a biological sample that has great potential as a biomarker measurement as it consists of an abundance of biomarkers, such as genetic material and proteins. It is easily accessible, noninvasive, collected via a painless procedure, and an easy bedside screening for real-time measurement of the ongoing human physiological system. All these advantages emphasise saliva as a very promising diagnostic candidate for the detection and monitoring of disease biomarkers, especially in children. Furthermore, protein biomarkers have the advantages as modifiable influencing factors rather than genetic and epigenetic factors that are mostly nonmodifiable factors for allergic disease susceptibility in childhood. Saliva has great potential to replace serum as a biological fluid biomarker in diagnosing clinical allergy. However, to date, saliva is not considered as an established medically acceptable biomarker. This review considers whether the saliva could be suitable biological samples for early detection of allergic risk. Such tools may be used as justification for targeted interventions in early childhood for disease prevention and assisting in reducing morbidity and mortality caused by childhood allergy.

The Effect of Deworming Using Triple-Dose Albendazole on Nutritional Status of Children in Perobatang Village, Southwest Sumba, Indonesia.

High prevalence of STH leads to malnutrition, anemia, cognitive impairment, and growth disorders. Triple-dose albendazole 400 mg is a broad-spectrum anthelminthic; however, its effectiveness varies in every region. This study aims to determine the benefits of deworming using triple-dose albendazole on children's nutritional status in Perobatang Village, Southwest Sumba, Indonesia. This pre-post study was conducted in July 2016 and January 2017. Children aged 1-15 years were asked to collect stool for diagnosis of STH infection (Kato-Katz method), were measured for anthropometry status to obtain the nutritional status, and took albendazole 400 mg for three consecutive days. Data was analyzed with SPSS version 20. Prevalence of STH prior to the treatment was 95.4%: T. trichiura 85.2%, A. lumbricoides 71.6%, and hookworm 18.2%. After treatment, prevalence of STH decreased significantly (McNemar test, p < 0.001) to 53.4%, (T. trichiura 39.8%, A. lumbricoides 22.7%, and hookworm 1.1%). Before treatment, 33% participants were in normal nutritional status, 47.7% underweight, and 19.3% severely underweight. After treatment, children in normal nutritional status increased to 75%, underweight children decreased to 25%, and there were no severely underweight children. In conclusion, deworming with triple-dose albendazole 400 mg is effective in improving the nutritional status of children in Perobatang Village.

Carotid intima media thickness and high sensitivity C-reactive protein as markers of cardiovascular risk in a malaysian population.

INTRODUCTION: Carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) being a cost effective and easily performed technique is useful in the detection of subclinical atherosclerosis and has been shown to be a prognosticator of cardiovascular events. The primary objective of this study was to obtain the distribution of CIMT measurements, highly sensitive C reactive protein (hs-CRP) and assessing health awareness and attitudes of the Malaysian population at cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and not receiving lipid lowering agents. Secondarily the study sought to assess the significance of the relationship between these measurements against various patient characteristics. METHODS: Measurements of CIMT are obtained by ultrasonography of 12 sites within the common carotid artery was recorded for 123 subjects from a single centre tertiary hospital of Malaysia who had two or more CVD risk factors but were not receiving lipid lowering therapy. CVD risk factors and lipid and glucose profiles were analyzed with respect to distribution of CIMT and high-sensitivity Creactive protein (hs-CRP) values. RESULTS: The mean-max CIMT was 0.916±0.129mm (minimum 0.630mm, maximum 1.28mm) and the mean-mean CIMT was 0.743±0.110mm (minimum 0.482mm, maximum 1.050mm) and mean hs-CRP was 0.191mg/dL (minimum 0.030mg/dL, maximum 5.440mg/dL). Multivariate analyses confirmed a significant association between increasing CIMT and increasing age, total and low density lipoprotein cholesterol while log-transformed hs-CRP levels showed significant association with increasing body mass index, waist circumference, high blood glucose and triglyceride levels. Our patients had good health awareness on CVD. CONCLUSION: Newly defined CIMT measurements and hs-CRP levels may be useful adjunctive tools to screen for atherosclerosis in the Malaysian population. It may help in refining risk stratification on top of traditional clinical assessment.

Lead and zinc removal from aqueous solutions by aminotriphosphonate-modified converted natural phosphates.

Apatite particles prepared from natural phosphate rock and grafted with nitrilotris(methylene)triphosphonate (NTP) were evaluated for Pb2+ and Zn2+ sorption from aqueous solutions. Sorption capacities as high as 640 mg.g-1 and 300 mg.g-1 could be obtained for the highest organic content (10 wt%). Analysis of the sorption isotherms using Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Kaganer-Radushkevich models revealed that Pb2+ ions have a larger affinity for apatite (sorption energy ≈ 8 kJ.mol-1) than for NTP so that organo-modified surfaces led to a heterogenous adsorption process. In contrast, Zn2+ interacts weakly (sorption energy ≈ 1 kJ.mol-1) and similarly with the mineral surface and the organic moieties following a homogenous sorption process. Such an association of organic metal ligands with reactive apatite surfaces within porous materials appears as a promising strategy to obtain efficient adsorbents at low cost and limited environmental impact.

Pyridine and phenol removal using natural and synthetic apatites as low cost sorbents: influence of porosity and surface interactions.

A natural phosphate rock and two synthetic mesoporous hydroxyapatites were evaluated for the removal of pyridine and phenol from aqueous solutions. Experiments performed by the batch method showed that the sorption process occurs by a first order reaction for both pyridine and phenol. In contrast, the Freundlich model was able to describe sorption isotherms for phenol but not for pyridine. In parallel, the three apatites exhibit similar pyridine sorption capacities whereas phenol loading was in agreement with their respective specific surface area. This was attributed to the strong interaction arising between pyridine and apatite surface that hinders further inter-particular diffusion. This study suggests that, despite its low specific surface area, natural phosphate rock may be used as an efficient sorbent material for specific organic pollutants, with comparable efficiency and lower processing costs than some activated carbons.

Adsorption of phenol from an aqueous solution by selected apatite adsorbents: kinetic process and impact of the surface properties.

Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to investigate the removal of phenol from wastewater by addition of three apatites (porous hydroxyapatite (PHAp) and crystalline hydroxyl- (HAp) and fluoroapatite (FAp)). The best performances were obtained with porous hydroxyapatite PHAp, which presented higher adsorption capacities (experimental: 8.2mgg(-1); calculated 9.2mgg(-1)) than HAp and FAp (3-4mgg(-1)). Different models of adsorption were used to describe the kinetics data, to calculate corresponding rate constants and to predict the theoretical capacities of apatite surfaces for phenol adsorption. A mechanism of phenol adsorption associating chemisorption and physisorption processes is presented allowing the discussion of the variations in adsorption behavior between these materials in terms of specific surface area and chemical composition. These data suggest that apatites are promising materials for phenol sorption.