Causes of women's postpartum depression symptoms: Men's and women's perceptions.

OBJECTIVES: To describe men's and women's perceptions of the causes of women's PPD symptoms and to explore similarities and differences between men's and women's perceptions. DESIGN: Qualitative-descriptive study involving in-depth semi-structured individual interviews and content analysis. SETTING: In-home interviews of participants recruited in two tertiary care hospitals, both in urban centres of the province of Quebec, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Both members of 30 heterosexual couples from which women scored at least 12 on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. FINDINGS: Participants described nine causes underlying women's depressive symptoms: societal expectations and pressure on women, physical health problems, transition to parenthood, social connectedness, personality and past psychological history, child health and temperament challenges, unmet care needs, unmet expectations for childbirth, and other life stressors. With one exception, all causes were endorsed by both men and women. Only men mentioned societal pressure on women. KEY CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Men and women mainly perceived similar causes, which could be explained by socio-cultural factors and extended paternal leaves. Understanding men's and women's perceptions could help tailoring health- care professionals' interventions to couples' needs.

Plasmodium vivax antigen discovery based on alpha-helical coiled coil protein motif.

Protein α-helical coiled coil structures that elicit antibody responses, which block critical functions of medically important microorganisms, represent a means for vaccine development. By using bioinformatics algorithms, a total of 50 antigens with α-helical coiled coil motifs orthologous to Plasmodium falciparum were identified in the P. vivax genome. The peptides identified in silico were chemically synthesized; circular dichroism studies indicated partial or high α-helical content. Antigenicity was evaluated using human sera samples from malaria-endemic areas of Colombia and Papua New Guinea. Eight of these fragments were selected and used to assess immunogenicity in BALB/c mice. ELISA assays indicated strong reactivity of serum samples from individuals residing in malaria-endemic regions and sera of immunized mice, with the α-helical coiled coil structures. In addition, ex vivo production of IFN-γ by murine mononuclear cells confirmed the immunogenicity of these structures and the presence of T-cell epitopes in the peptide sequences. Moreover, sera of mice immunized with four of the eight antigens recognized native proteins on blood-stage P. vivax parasites, and antigenic cross-reactivity with three of the peptides was observed when reacted with both the P. falciparum orthologous fragments and whole parasites. Results here point to the α-helical coiled coil peptides as possible P. vivax malaria vaccine candidates as were observed for P. falciparum. Fragments selected here warrant further study in humans and non-human primate models to assess their protective efficacy as single components or assembled as hybrid linear epitopes.

Malaria vaccines - The long synthetic peptide approach: Technical and conceptual advancements.

This review describes the advances in malaria antigen discovery and vaccine development using the long synthetic peptide platforms that have been made available during the past 5 years. The most recent technical developments regarding peptide synthesis with the optimized production of large synthetic fragments are discussed. Clinical trials of long synthetic peptides are also reviewed. These trials demonstrated that long synthetic peptides are safe and immunogenic when formulated with various adjuvants. In addition, long synthetic peptides can elicit an antibody response in humans and have demonstrated inhibitory activity against parasite growth in vitro. Finally, new approaches to exploit the abundance of genomic data and the flexibility and speed of peptide synthesis are proposed.