Search

Abstract Childhood and adolescence, vital in shaping adult life and society, are profoundly impacted during conflicts like Syria’s devastating war. This study explores the prevalence of behavioral disorders in Syrian children and adolescents, examining the influence of war and family-related factors. This cross-sectional study was conducted on children aged 2–17 years at a children’s outpatient clinic in Damascus, Syria. We assessed parents’ quality of life, war and family-related factors, and behavioral difficulties through parental interviews using two questionnaires: the Arabic version of the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the brief Arabic version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF). 74.67% of children aged 2–4 years and 61.29% of children aged 5–17 years were experiencing behavioral difficulties, with emotional difficulties being the most prevalent ones. Children exposed to kidnapping, family losses, lack of school enrollment, and those with parents having lower education, lower socioeconomic status, and poorer quality of life exhibited higher Total SDQ scores. The high prevalence of behavioral difficulties among children and adolescents in Syria is a major concern, with both direct and indirect war-related factors contributing to this issue.

Abstract Animal and human data indicate variable effects of interferons in treating coronavirus infections according to inflammatory status and timing of therapy. In this sub-study of the MIRACLE trial (MERS-CoV Infection Treated with a Combination of Lopinavir–Ritonavir and Interferon β-1b), we evaluated the heterogeneity of treatment effect of interferon-β1b and lopinavir–ritonavir versus placebo among hospitalized patients with MERS on 90-day mortality, according to cytokine levels and timing of therapy. We measured plasma levels of 17 cytokines at enrollment and tested the treatment effect on 90-day mortality according to cytokine levels (higher versus lower levels using the upper tertile (67%) as a cutoff point) and time to treatment (≤ 7 days versus > 7 days of symptom onset) using interaction tests. Among 70 included patients, 32 received interferon-β1b and lopinavir–ritonavir and 38 received placebo. Interferon-β1b and lopinavir–ritonavir reduced mortality in patients with lower IL-2, IL-8 and IL-13 plasma concentrations but not in patients with higher levels (p-value for interaction = 0.09, 0.07, and 0.05, respectively) and with early but not late therapy (p = 0.002). There was no statistically significant heterogeneity of treatment effect according to other cytokine levels. Further work is needed to evaluate whether the assessment of inflammatory status can help in identifying patients with MERS who may benefit from interferon-β1b and lopinavir–ritonavir. Trial registration: This is a sub-study of the MIRACLE trial (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02845843).

Abstract Sources and levels of heavy metals (HMs) in soil and dust of urban and suburban areas in Riyadh (industrial city) and Mahad AD’Dahab (mining area) cities in Saudi Arabia were reported in this study. Additionally, the concentrations of HMs in different soil particle size fractions (> 250, 63–250 and 2). The hazard index values of dust and soil ( 1, suggesting non-carcinogenic risk. Therefore, the dust and soil samples from the mined area of Mahad AD’Dahab had a higher pollution levels, as well as ecological and human health risks than those from Riyadh. Hence, the pollution of such residential environments with HMs (especially Cd, Cu, Zn, and Pb) needs to be monitored.

Abstract Human carbonic anhydrase XII (hCA XII) isozyme is of high therapeutic value as a pharmacological target and biomarker for different types of cancer. The hCA XII is one of the crucial effectors that regulates extracellular and intracellular pH and affects cancer cell proliferation, invasion, growth and metastasis. Despite the fact that interaction features of hCAs inhibitors with the catalytic site of the enzyme are well described, lack in the selectivity of the traditional hCA inhibitors based on the sulfonamide group or related motifs is an urgent issue. Moreover, drugs containing sulfanomides can cause sulfa allergies. Thus, identification of novel non-classical inhibitors of hCA XII is of high priority and is currently the subject of a vast field of study. This study was devoted to the identification of novel potential hCA XII inhibitors using comprehensive set of computational approaches for drug design discovery: generation and validation of structure- and ligand-based pharmacophore models, molecular docking, re-scoring of virtual screening results with MMGBSA, molecular dynamics simulations, etc. As the results of the study several compounds with alternative to classical inhibitors chemical scaffolds, in particular one of coumarins derivative, have been identified and are of high interest as potential non-classical hCA XII inhibitors.