The economic burden of dengue fever in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Rapid urbanization, global trade, and the exceptionally great numbers of worldwide visitors during Hajj and Umrah have all placed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at a significant risk of introducing several vector-borne tropical diseases, such as dengue fever virus (DENV) infection. In this study we estimated DENV infection cost of illness (COI) in Saudi Arabia in the period 2013–2017, by processing national data including all declared cases recorded in referral centers in the western region, being the endemic region of the country. Using a statistically validated predictive model that was built on a representative sample of 717 laboratory-confirmed cases of DENV infection, direct costs, due to care-related expenditures, were estimated by applying the predictive equation to national data. However, indirect costs, which are due to productivity loss, were estimated using the human capital model based on gross domestic product adjusted for invalidity duration. Further, under-reporting was adjusted by using an expansion factor EF = 3. We observed highest estimated costs in 2016 with over US$168.5 Million total costs, including direct (US$29.0 Million) and indirect (US$139.5 Million) costs, for a total 4415 confirmed cases. The total DENV COI for the five years was estimated as US$551.0 Million for a total 15,369 patients (59.7%) out of 25,745 declared cases, resulting in an average cost of US$11 947.6 by patient. Depending on the year, productivity years loss costs accounted for 63.3% to 83.8% of the estimated total costs. Dengue has a substantial local economic burden that costs US$110.2 Million per year, stressing the urgent need for an effective national prevention strategy to perform considerable cost-savings besides reducing morbidity.     

Flooding or drought which one is more offensive on pepper physiology and growth?

Molecular Biology Reports - Both extreme usage of water in agriculture i.e., drought and flooding affect physiological and growth aspects of the plant as well as gene expression undertaken in water...     

Synthesized Zn(II)-Amino Acid and -Chitosan Chelates to Increase Zn Uptake by Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) Plants

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Plants require optimum amounts of nutrients for suitable growth and yield production. Accordingly, the most efficient methods of fertilization, including the...     

Growth and Physiology of Maize (Zea mays L.) in a Nickel-Contaminated Soil and Phytoremediation Efficiency Using EDTA

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Nickel (Ni) element is strongly phytotoxic at high concentrations for several plants, but due to its dual behavior and complicated chemistry, it has received...     

In-Silico Analyses of Nonsynonymous Variants in the BRCA1 Gene

BReast CAncer gene 1 (BRCA1)—a tumor suppressor gene plays an important role in the DNA repair mechanism. Several BRCA1 variants perturb its structure and function, including synonymous and nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In the present study, we performed in-silico analyses of nonsynonymous SNPs (nsSNPs) of the BRCA1 gene. In total, 122 nsSNPs were retrieved from the NCBI SNP database and in-silico analyses were performed using computational prediction tools: SIFT, PROVEAN, Mutation Taster, PolyPhen-2, MutPred, and ConSurf. Of these tools, SIFT, PROVEAN, and Mutation Taster predicted 61 out of 122 nsSNPs as “damaging”, based on structural homology analysis. PolyPhen-2 classified 22 nsSNPs as “probably damaging”. These nsSNPs were further analyzed by MutPred to predict basic molecular mechanisms of amino acid alteration. ConSurf analysis predicted eleven conserved amino acid residues with structural and functional consequences. We identified five amino acid residues in the RING finger domain (L22, C39, H41, C44, and C47) and two in the BRCT domain (P1771 and I1707) with the potential to deter the BRCA1 protein function. This study provides insights into the effect of nsSNPs and amino acid substitutions in BRCA1.

     

Peptides with Dual Antimicrobial-Anticancer Activity Derived from the N-terminal Region of H. pylori Ribosomal Protein L1 (RpL1)

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - Whereas the traditional approaches of cancer therapy including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy have failed to properly...     

The Role of Peptide-Based Tumor Vaccines on Cytokines of Adaptive Immunity: A Review

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - Recently, peptide-based materials have been applied to solving many therapeutic problems and have shown particular efficacy as cancer...