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Background: As a component of health promoting school, a school curriculum for health education was considered a fundamental. This survey aimed to identify the components of health-related topics and in which subjects were they taught. Methods: Four topics were chosen: (i) hygiene, (ii) mental health, (iii) nutrition-oral Health, and (iv) environmental education related to global warming in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Before gathering the curricula from partner countries, school health specialists were gathered to discuss the appropriate components of a curriculum that required evaluation. The survey sheet was distributed to and answered by our partner in each country. Results: About hygiene, individual practices or items that improve health-related were widely covered. However, items that imparted health-related education from an environmental perspective were not widely covered. About mental health, two types of country groups were identified. The first group included countries that taught mental health topics mainly as part of morals or religion; the second group included countries that imparted mental health topics mainly as part of health. The first group focused mainly on communication skills or coping methods. The second group focused not only on communication and coping skill but also on basic knowledge of mental health. About nutrition-oral education, three types of country groups were identified. One group imparted nutrition-oral education mainly in terms of health or nutrition. Another group imparted this topic mainly in terms of morals, home economics, and social science. The third group was the intermediate group. About ESD, a solid structure for this topic was not identified in any country. Many items were taught as part of science, while some were taught as part of social studies. Climate change was the most commonly taught item across all countries. The items related to environment were relatively limited compared to those related to natural disasters. Conclusions: Overall, two different approaches were identified: the cultural-based approach, which promotes healthy behaviors as moral codes or community-friendly behaviors and the science-based approach, which promotes children’s health through scientific perspectives. Policymakers should initially  consider the findings of this study while making decisions on which approach should be taken.

Intracellular delivery is crucial not only in achieving effective oligonucleotide therapeutics but also for a wide variety of therapeutic strategies. In this study to elucidate the effects of the number of incorporated arginine residues on cell membrane permeability, we designed a series of peptide ribonucleic acids (PRNAs) that alternatingly incorporated 4, 8, or 12 arginine residues (PRR1-3) in the PRNA backbone for experimental verifications. Indeed, the cellular uptake efficiency and the aggregation properties turned out to be critical functions of the number of incorporated arginine residues. Thus, the optimized PRR2that incorporates 8 arginines showed the most efficient cellular uptake ability, much higher than that of octaarginine, without accompanying cytotoxicity or aggregation.To elucidate the effects of the number of incorporated arginine residues on cell membrane permeability, we designed a series of peptide ribonucleic acids (PRNAs) that alternatingly incorporated 4, 8, or 12 arginines residues in the PRNA backbone for experimental verifications, and then found optimized PRNA that incorporates 8 arginines showed the most efficient cellular uptake ability without cytotoxicity.

In this study, a series of novel -Peptide ribonucleic acid (-PRNA) oligomers, possessing alternative -PRNA/arginine or serine sequences, were newly designed, synthesized, and evaluated as the third-generation PRNA. As expected, these -PRNAs formed highly stable sequence-specific complexes with the complementary RNAs, for which both the conventional hydrogen-bonding interactions between the complementary nucleobase pairs and the electrostatic interactions between the arginines guanidinium cation and the RNAs phosphate anion on the backbone are jointly responsible. Moreover, in the cases of -PRNA and single point mismatched DNA mixing systems, appreciable T_m could not be observed, thus -PRNAs containing Arg were expected to have high nucleobase sequence discrimination abilities. It was demonstrated that the recognition behavior of -PRNA with Arg/Ser backbone with complementary RNA can be controlled externally through the orientation change of pyrimidine nucleobase induced by borate ester formation of the riboses 2,3-cis-diol.