Investigation of susceptibility genes for chickenpox disease across multiple continents.

Chickenpox (varicella) is caused by infection with the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), a neurotropic alpha herpes virus with a double-stranded DNA genome. Chickenpox can cause life-threatening complications, including subsequent bacterial infections, central nervous system symptoms, and even death without any risk factors. Few studies have been reported to investigate genetic susceptibility implicated in chickenpox. Herein, our study identified global genetic variants that potentially contributed to chickenpox susceptibility by utilizing the established bioinformatic-based approach. We integrated several databases, such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS) catalog, GTEx portal, HaploReg version 4.1, and Ensembl databases analyses to investigate susceptibility genes associated with chickenpox. Notably, increased expression of HLA-S, HCG4P5, and ABHD16A genes underlie enhanced chickenpox susceptibility in the European, American, and African populations. As compared to the Asian population, Europeans, Americans, and Africans have higher allele frequencies of the extant variants rs9266089, rs10947050, and rs79501286 from the susceptibility genes. Our study suggested that these susceptibility genes and associated genetic variants might play a critical role in chickenpox progression based on host genetics with clinical implications.

The knowledge of COVID-19 treatments, behaviors, and attitudes of providing the information on COVID-19 treatments: Perspectives of pharmacy students.

BACKGROUND: Increasing community awareness about the transmission and treatment of COVID-19 will stop the spread of the virus. Pharmacy students are the potential facilitator to give community education about COVID-19 treatment. The objective of this study is to evaluate the pharmacy students' knowledge of COVID-19 treatment, behavior, and attitude of providing the information about COVID-19 treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted cross-sectional study, recruiting 429 pharmacy students from three schools of pharmacy in Indonesia. The questionnaire about the knowledge of COVID-19 treatment, behavior, and attitude of providing the information on COVID-19 treatment met the validity and reliability criteria. We defined the proportion of knowledge, behavior, and attitude of the students using SPSS® version 22. RESULTS: Most of the students are in the earlier years (46.63%), female (84.15%), find the information about COVID-19 from many sources of media (85.08%) including scientific articles and know information about COVID-19 transmission around their life area (76.46%). The students' knowledge about antiviral and plasma convalescent is good (>70%), the positive behaviors are related to the COVID-19 treatment information regarding to the antiviral and the provision of Vitamin C (>50%), and the positive attitude are related to giving information about the use of avigan®, plasma convalescent, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, and immunomodulator (>50%). CONCLUSIONS: As a future pharmacist, the knowledge of pharmacy students about COVID-19 treatment needs to be improved since earlier years. Furthermore, using the good knowledge about COVID-19 treatment, the positive behavior and attitude of providing information of the students, the community behavior and attitude will be improved. The high year students have a tendency for the good knowledge and positive behavior and attitude of providing the information.

The Genetic Polymorphism of CYP3A4 rs2242480 is Associated with Sirolimus Trough Concentrations Among Adult Renal Transplant Recipients.

BACKGROUND: The large interindividual variability in the genetic polymorphisms of sirolimus (SIR)- metabolizing enzymes, transporters, and receptors can lead to qualitatively and quantitatively distinct therapeutic responses. OBJECTIVE: We examined the impact of numerous candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) involved in the trough concentration of SIR-based immunosuppressant regimen. METHODS: This is a retrospective, long-term cohort study involving 69 renal allograft recipients. Total DNA was isolated from recipient blood samples and trough SIR concentrations were measured by microparticle enzyme immunoassay. Genome sequence reading was targeted based on next-generation sequencing. The association of tagger SNPs to SIR trough concentrations with non-genetic covariate adjusting was analyzed using logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of 300 SNPs were genotyped in the recipient DNA samples using target sequencing analysis. Only the SNP of CYP3A4 (Ch7: 99361466 C>T, rs2242480) had a significantly higher association with SIR trough concentration as compared to the other 36 tagger SNPs. The mean trough SIR concentration of patients in the CYP3A4 rs2242480-CC group was more significant compared to that of the CYP3A4 rs2242480-TC and TT group, respectively 533.3; 157.4 and 142.5 (ng/ml)/mg/kg, P<0.0001. After adjusting the SNPs, there was no significant association between clinical factors such as age, follow-up period, the incidence of delayed graft function, immunosuppression protocol, and sex with SIR trough concentration. CONCLUSION: These findings indicated a significant association of polymorphism in the CYP3A4 (Ch7: 99361466 C>T, rs2242480) with SIR trough concentration after 1-year administration in patients who have undergone kidney transplantation.