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The prevalence of psychotic symptoms in kratom (Mitragyna speciosa Korth.) Users in Malaysia

Leong Bin Abdullah MFI, Singh D, Swogger MT, Rahim AA, Vicknasingam B

Asian J Psychiatr, 2019 Jun;43:197-201.
PMID: 31302592 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2019.07.008

BACKGROUND: Kratom is a traditional medicinal herb widely used in Malaysia and Thailand. Despite its widespread use and statements by regulatory agencies on the potential for kratom-associated psychosis, there is little data regarding the prevalence of psychotic symptoms among kratom users. This study investigated the prevalence of psychosis among kratom users, described psychotic symptomatology and severity, while examining associations between kratom use characteristics and the occurrence of psychotic symptoms.
METHODS: This cross-sectional clinical survey recruited 150 regular kratom users. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition (DSM-V) diagnostic criteria were used to evaluate psychotic symptomatology among kratom users, and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) was used to assess the severity of psychiatric symptoms. Chi-square tests with Yate's correction were performed to determine the association between kratom use characteristics and the occurrence of psychotic symptoms among kratom users in this study.
RESULTS: Six out of 150 kratom users (4%) presented with any psychotic symptoms. The psychotic symptoms reported were positive symptoms and thought alienation, with a mean BPRS score of 33 (i.e., mild severity). Variables related to kratom use (such as intake of kratom with diphenhydramine, duration of kratom use, and quantity and frequency of daily kratom use) were not associated with the occurrence of psychotic symptoms among kratom users.
CONCLUSION: Although psychotic symptoms could occur among regular kratom users, they were rare and not significantly associated with kratom use characteristics. We found no evidence of elevated psychosis among regular users.
Fulltext Elliptical metallic rings-shaped fractal metamaterial absorber in the visible regime

Bilal RMH, Saeed MA, Choudhury PK, Baqir MA, Kamal W, Ali MM, et al.

Sci Rep, 2020 Aug 20;10(1):14035.
PMID: 32820192 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71032-8

Achieving the broadband response of metamaterial absorbers has been quite challenging due to the inherent bandwidth limitations. Herein, the investigation was made of a unique kind of visible light metamaterial absorber comprising elliptical rings-shaped fractal metasurface using tungsten metal. It was found that the proposed absorber exhibits average absorption of over 90% in the visible wavelength span of 400-750 nm. The features of perfect absorption could be observed because of the localized surface plasmon resonance that causes impedance matching. Moreover, in the context of optoelectronic applications, the absorber yields absorbance up to ~ 70% even with the incidence obliquity in the range of 0°-60° for transverse electric polarization. The theory of multiple reflections was employed to further verify the performance of the absorber. The obtained theoretical results were found to be in close agreement with the simulation results. In order to optimize the results, the performance was analyzed in terms of the figure of merit and operating bandwidth. Significant amount of absorption in the entire visible span, wide-angle stability, and utilization of low-cost metal make the proposed absorber suitable in varieties of photonics applications, in particular photovoltaics, thermal emitters and sensors.
Modification of oil palm fronds lignin by incorporation of m-cresol for improving structural and antioxidant properties

Sa'don NA, Rahim AA, Ibrahim MNM, Brosse N, Hussin MH

Int J Biol Macromol, 2017 Nov;104(Pt A):251-260.
PMID: 28602987 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2017.06.038

Lignin extracted from oil palm fronds (OPF) underwent chemical modification by incorporating m-cresol into the lignin matrix. This study reports on the physicochemical properties and antioxidant activity of unmodified autohydrolyzed ethanol organosolv lignin (AH EOL) and the modified autohydrolyzed ethanol organosolv lignin (AHC EOL). The lignin samples were analyzed by FTIR, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, 2D NMR: HSQC spectroscopy, CHN analysis, molecular weight distribution analysis; GPC and thermal analysis; DSC and TGA. The lignin modification has reduced the hydrophobicity of its complex structure by providing better quality lignin with smaller fragments and higher solubility rate in water (DAHCEOL: 42%>DAHEOL: 25%). It was revealed that the modification of lignin has improved their structural and antioxidant properties, thus venture their possible applications.
Effect of temperature on thermophilic composting of aquaculture sludge: NH3 recovery, nitrogen mass balance, and microbial community dynamics

Koyama M, Nagao N, Syukri F, Rahim AA, Kamarudin MS, Toda T, et al.

Bioresour Technol, 2018 Oct;265:207-213.
PMID: 29902653 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.05.109

Development of thermophilic composting for maximizing NH3 gas recovery would enable the production of a nitrogen source which is free from pathogen/heavy metal, for the cultivation of high-value microalgae. The present study examined the effect of NH3 recovery, nitrogen mass balance, and microbial community dynamics on thermophilic composting of shrimp aquaculture sludge. The emission of NH3 gas at 60 and 70 °C was 14.7% and 15.6%, respectively, which was higher than that at 50 °C (9.0%). The nitrogen mass balance analysis revealed that higher temperatures enhanced the solubilization of non-dissolved nitrogen and liberation of NH3 gas from the produced NH4+-N. High-throughput microbial community analysis revealed the shift of the dominant bacterial group from Bacillus to Geobacillus with the rise of composting temperature. In conclusion, thermophilic composting of shrimp aquaculture sludge at 60-70 °C was the most favorable condition for enhancing NH3 gas recovery.
Electrochemically Modulated Liquid-Liquid Extraction for Sample Enrichment

Jajuli MN, Hussin MH, Saad B, Rahim AA, Hébrant M, Herzog G

Anal Chem, 2019 06 04;91(11):7466-7473.
PMID: 31050400 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b01674

A new sample preparation method is proposed for the extraction of pharmaceutical compounds (Metformin, Phenyl biguanide, and Phenformin) of varied hydrophilicity, dissolved in an aqueous sample. When in contact with an organic phase, an interfacial potential is imposed by the presence of an ion, tetramethylammonium (TMA+), common to each phase. The interfacial potential difference drives the transfer of ionic analytes across the interface and allows it to reach up to nearly 100% extraction efficiency and a 60-fold enrichment factor in optimized extraction conditions as determined by HPLC analysis.
Fulltext Factors Associated with Musculoskeletal Disorders among Regular and Special Education Teachers: A Narrative Review

Abdul Rahim AA, Jeffree MS, Ag Daud DM, Pang N, Sazali MF

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2022 Sep 16;19(18).
PMID: 36141974 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191811704

Musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) is a major health problem, which can lead to an enormous burden to the institution as well as chronic disability to the individual. Teachers are at risk of developing MSD due to the exposure to various ergonomic risk factors. Teachers of special education, for example, are expected to perform extra duty such as lifting and moving students, feeding food, changing diapers, and helping them in ambulation. Although there is an adequate amount of scientific research on MSD's prevalence and its risk factors among regular teachers, only few studies have focused on special education teachers. This review aimed to address these gaps by describing the evidence from various papers on the prevalence of MSD among regular and special education teachers and the related risk factors. The papers have been gathered using electronic databases, including PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Springer. The prevalence of MSD among regular teachers ranges from 48.7% to 73.7%, while the prevalence ranges from 38.7% to 94% in special education teachers. Risk factors, such as individual (age, duration of teaching, working hours, and work burden), physical (teaching activities, affected body areas), and psychological factors (stress, anxiety, fear), were identified. From the review, it is recommended to implement ergonomically designed workplaces, comprehensive ergonomic training, psychological approaches, and functional training among teachers at risk.
Fulltext The multiple roles of hypothetical gene BPSS1356 in Burkholderia pseudomallei

Yam H, Rahim AA, Mohamad S, Mahadi NM, Manaf UA, Shu-Chien AC, et al.

PLoS One, 2014;9(6):e99218.
PMID: 24927285 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099218

Burkholderia pseudomallei is an opportunistic pathogen and the causative agent of melioidosis. It is able to adapt to harsh environments and can live intracellularly in its infected hosts. In this study, identification of transcriptional factors that associate with the β' subunit (RpoC) of RNA polymerase was performed. The N-terminal region of this subunit is known to trigger promoter melting when associated with a sigma factor. A pull-down assay using histidine-tagged B. pseudomallei RpoC N-terminal region as bait showed that a hypothetical protein BPSS1356 was one of the proteins bound. This hypothetical protein is conserved in all B. pseudomallei strains and present only in the Burkholderia genus. A BPSS1356 deletion mutant was generated to investigate its biological function. The mutant strain exhibited reduced biofilm formation and a lower cell density during the stationary phase of growth in LB medium. Electron microscopic analysis revealed that the ΔBPSS1356 mutant cells had a shrunken cytoplasm indicative of cell plasmolysis and a rougher surface when compared to the wild type. An RNA microarray result showed that a total of 63 genes were transcriptionally affected by the BPSS1356 deletion with fold change values of higher than 4. The expression of a group of genes encoding membrane located transporters was concurrently down-regulated in ΔBPSS1356 mutant. Amongst the affected genes, the putative ion transportation genes were the most severely suppressed. Deprivation of BPSS1356 also down-regulated the transcriptions of genes for the arginine deiminase system, glycerol metabolism, type III secretion system cluster 2, cytochrome bd oxidase and arsenic resistance. It is therefore obvious that BPSS1356 plays a multiple regulatory roles on many genes.
Evaluation of the Atlas Helicobacter pylori stool antigen test for diagnosis of infection in adult patients

Osman HA, Hasan H, Suppian R, Bahar N, Hussin NS, Rahim AA, et al.

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2014;15(13):5245-7.
PMID: 25040982

BACKGROUND: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is one of the most important causes of dyspepsia and gastric cancer and diagnosis can be made by invasive or non-invasive methods. The Atlas Helicobacter pylori antigen test is a new rapid non-invasive method which is simple to conduct. The aim of this study was to determine its sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and accuracy.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective study was conducted between July 2012 and December 2013. Stool samples of 59 dyspeptic patients who underwent upper endoscopy were evaluated for H. pylori stool antigen.
RESULTS: From the 59 patients who participated in this study, there were 36 (61%) males and 23 (39%) females. H. pylori was diagnosed in 24 (40.7%) gastric biopsies, 22 (91.7 %) of these being positive for the Atlas H. pylori antigen test. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy were 91.7%, 100%, 100%, 94.6% and 96.6% respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: The Atlas H. pylori antigen test is a new non-invasive method which is simple to perform and avails reliable results in a few minutes. Thus it can be the best option for the diagnosis of H. pylori infection due to its high sensitivity and specificity.
Physicochemical of microcrystalline cellulose from oil palm fronds as potential methylene blue adsorbents

Hussin MH, Pohan NA, Garba ZN, Kassim MJ, Rahim AA, Brosse N, et al.

Int J Biol Macromol, 2016 Jun 30;92:11-19.
PMID: 27373428 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2016.06.094

The present study sheds light on the physical and chemical characteristics of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) isolated from oil palm fronds (OPF) pulps. It was found that the OPF MCC was identified as cellulose II polymorph, with higher crystallinity index than OPF α-cellulose (CrIOPFMCC: 71%>CrIOPFα-cellulose: 47%). This indicates that the acid hydrolysis allows the production of cellulose that is highly crystalline. BET surface area of OPF MCC was found to be higher than OPF α-cellulose (SBETOPFMCC: 5.64m(2)g(-1)>SBETOPFα-cellulose:Qa(0) 2.04m(2)g(-1)), which corroborates their potential as an adsorbent. In batch adsorption studies, it was observed that the experimental data fit well with Langmuir adsorption isotherm in comparison to Freundlich isotherm. The monolayer adsorption capacity (Qa(0)) of OPF MCC was found to be around 51.811mgg(-1) and the experimental data fitted well to pseudo-second-order kinetic model.
Severity of Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa Korth.) Psychological Withdrawal Symptoms

Singh D, Narayanan S, Müller CP, Swogger MT, Rahim AA, Leong Bin Abdullah MFI, et al.

J Psychoactive Drugs, 2018 08 28;50(5):445-450.
PMID: 30152738 DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2018.1511879

Kratom leaves (Mitragyna speciosa Korth.) are traditionally used in Southeast Asia for their medicinal value. Self-report studies suggest that cessation from chronic kratom tea consumption (freshly brewed kratom tea) was associated with unpleasant psychological symptoms. This study sought to assess the severity of anxiety and depression during kratom cessation. Regular kratom users (N = 150) were recruited from the northern state of Penang (Malaysia) for this retrospective study. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scales were used to assess the severity of the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Most respondents (70%) experienced symptoms of mild anxiety, while 81% experienced symptoms of mild depression during kratom cessation. Those who consumed higher quantities of kratom tea daily (≥4 glasses) had higher odds of reporting longer duration of kratom use history (OR = 4.8, 95% CI 2.3 -10.1, p
Fulltext A Review on Haematococcus pluvialis Bioprocess Optimization of Green and Red Stage Culture Conditions for the Production of Natural Astaxanthin

Oslan SNH, Shoparwe NF, Yusoff AH, Rahim AA, Chang CS, Tan JS, et al.

Biomolecules, 2021 02 10;11(2).
PMID: 33578851 DOI: 10.3390/biom11020256

As the most recognizable natural secondary carotenoid astaxanthin producer, the green microalga Haematococcus pluvialis cultivation is performed via a two-stage process. The first is dedicated to biomass accumulation under growth-favoring conditions (green stage), and the second stage is for astaxanthin evolution under various stress conditions (red stage). This mini-review discusses the further improvement made on astaxanthin production by providing an overview of recent works on H. pluvialis, including the valuable ideas for bioprocess optimization on cell growth, and the current stress-exerting strategies for astaxanthin pigment production. The effects of nutrient constituents, especially nitrogen and carbon sources, and illumination intensity are emphasized during the green stage. On the other hand, the significance of the nitrogen depletion strategy and other exogenous factors comprising salinity, illumination, and temperature are considered for the astaxanthin inducement during the red stage. In short, any factor that interferes with the cellular processes that limit the growth or photosynthesis in the green stage could trigger the encystment process and astaxanthin formation during the red stage. This review provides an insight regarding the parameters involved in bioprocess optimization for high-value astaxanthin biosynthesis from H. pluvialis.
Kratom and Pain Tolerance: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Study

Vicknasingam B, Chooi WT, Rahim AA, Ramachandram D, Singh D, Ramanathan S, et al.

Yale J Biol Med, 2020 06;93(2):229-238.
PMID: 32607084

Background: Kratom has a long history of traditional medicine use in Southeast Asia. Consumption of kratom products has also been reported in the US and other regions of the world. Pain relief is among many self-reported kratom effects but have not been evaluated in controlled human subject research. Methods: Kratom effects on pain tolerance were assessed in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. During a 1-day inpatient stay, participants received a randomized sequence of kratom and placebo decoctions matched for taste and appearance. Pain tolerance was measured objectively in a cold pressor task (CPT) as time (seconds) between the pain onset and the hand withdrawal from the ice bath. Health status, vital signs, objective, and subjective indicators of withdrawal symptoms, self-reported data on lifetime kratom use patterns, and assessments of blinding procedures were also evaluated. Results: Twenty-six males with the mean (SD) age 24.3 (3.4) years were enrolled. They reported the mean (SD) 6.1 (3.2) years of daily kratom consumption. Pain tolerance increased significantly 1 hour after kratom ingestion from the mean (SD) 11.2 (6.7) seconds immediately before to 24.9 (39.4) seconds 1 hour after kratom consumption (F(2,53.7)=4.33, p=0.02). Pain tolerance was unchanged after consuming placebo drinks: 15.0 (19.0) seconds immediately before and 12.0 (8.1) seconds 1 hour after consumption of placebo (F(2,52.8)=0.93, p=0.40). No discomfort or signs of withdrawal were reported or observed during 10-20 hours of kratom discontinuation. Conclusions: Kratom decoction demonstrated a substantial and statistically significant increase in pain tolerance. Further rigorous research on kratom pain-relieving properties and a safety profile is needed.
Fulltext Descriptive epidemiology of the first wave of COVID-19 in Petaling District, Malaysia: Focus on asymptomatic transmission

Supramanian RK, Sivaratnam L, Rahim AA, Abidin NDIZ, Richai O, Zakiman Z, et al.

Western Pac Surveill Response J, 2021;12(2):82-88.
PMID: 34540316 DOI: 10.5365/wpsar.2020.11.4.001

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 was first detected in Malaysia on 25 January 2020. Multiple clusters were detected in Petaling District, with the first locally transmitted case reported on 8 February. Descriptive analyses of the epidemiology of the COVID-19 outbreak in Petaling are presented, from the first case to the end of the first wave.
METHODS: All laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases reported to the Petaling District Health Office between 1 February and 26 June 2020 were analysed. Socio-demographic characteristics, symptoms, date of onset, date of exposure, travel history and history of comorbidities were obtained by phone interviews using one of two investigation forms. The descriptive analysis was conducted according to time, place and person.
RESULTS: There were 437 COVID-19 cases, for an incidence rate of 24/100 000 population. Ten (2.3%) deaths and 427 recovered cases were recorded. Of the 437 cases, 35.5% remained asymptomatic and 64.5% were symptomatic. Common symptoms included fever (43.8%), cough (31.6%) and sore throat (16.2%); 67.3% had no comorbidities, 62.5% reported close contact with a confirmed case, and 76.7% were local infections. Transmission occurred in four main groups: religious gatherings (20.4%), corporations (15.1%), health facilities (10.3%) and a wholesale wet market (6.4%). In 31.9% of confirmed cases, an epidemiological link to an asymptomatic case was found.
CONCLUSION: Transmission of the disease by asymptomatic cases should be emphasized to ensure continuous wearing of face masks, hand hygiene and social distancing. Further research should be conducted to better understand the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from asymptomatic cases.

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