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Seroprevalence of human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) in countries of Southeast Asia compared to the USA, the Caribbean and Africa

Ablashi D, Chatlynne L, Cooper H, Thomas D, Yadav M, Norhanom AW, et al.

Br. J. Cancer, 1999 Nov;81(5):893-7.
PMID: 10555764

Seroprevalence of HHV-8 has been studied in Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Trinidad, Jamaica and the USA, in both healthy individuals and those infected with HIV. Seroprevalence was found to be low in these countries in both the healthy and the HIV-infected populations. This correlates with the fact that hardly any AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma has been reported in these countries. In contrast, the African countries of Ghana, Uganda and Zambia showed high seroprevalences in both healthy and HIV-infected populations. This suggests that human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) may be either a recently introduced virus or one that has extremely low infectivity. Nasopharyngeal and oral carcinoma patients from Malaysia, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka who have very high EBV titres show that only 3/82 (3.7%) have antibody to HHV-8, demonstrating that there is little, if any, cross-reactivity between antibodies to these two gamma viruses.
Fulltext A Hybrid Digital Parenting Program Delivered Within the Malaysian Preschool System: Protocol for a Feasibility Study of a Small-Scale Factorial Cluster Randomized Trial

Cooper H, Nadzri FZM, Vyas S, Juhari R, Ismail N, Arshat Z, et al.

JMIR Res Protoc, 2024 Apr 26;13:e55491.
PMID: 38669679 DOI: 10.2196/55491

BACKGROUND: The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 4, and particularly target 4.2, which seeks to ensure that, by 2030, all children have access to quality early childhood development, care, and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education, is far from being achieved. The COVID-19 pandemic compromised progress by disrupting education, reducing access to well-being resources, and increasing family violence. Evidence from low- and middle-income countries suggests that in-person parenting interventions are effective at improving child learning and preventing family violence. However, scaling up these programs is challenging because of resource constraints. Integrating digital and human-delivered intervention components is a potential solution to these challenges. There is a need to understand the feasibility and effectiveness of such interventions in low-resource settings.
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a digital parenting program (called Naungan Kasih in Bahasa Melayu [Protection through Love]) delivered in Malaysia, with varying combinations of 2 components included to encourage engagement. The study is framed around the following objectives: (1) to determine the recruitment, retention, and engagement rates in each intervention condition; (2) to document implementation fidelity; (3) to explore program acceptability among key stakeholders; (4) to estimate intervention costs; and (5) to provide indications of the effectiveness of the 2 components.
METHODS: This 10-week factorial cluster randomized trial compares ParentText, a chatbot that delivers parenting and family violence prevention content to caregivers of preschool-aged children in combination with 2 engagement components: (1) a WhatsApp support group and (2) either 1 or 2 in-person sessions. The trial aims to recruit 160 primary and 160 secondary caregivers of children aged 4-6 years from 8 schools split equally across 2 locations: Kuala Lumpur and Negeri Sembilan. The primary outcomes concern the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and its components, including recruitment, retention, and engagement. The effectiveness outcomes include caregiver parenting practices, mental health and relationship quality, and child development. The evaluation involves mixed methods: quantitative caregiver surveys, digitally tracked engagement data of caregivers' use of the digital intervention components, direct assessments of children, and focus group discussions with caregivers and key stakeholders.
RESULTS: Overall, 208 parents were recruited at baseline December 2023: 151 (72.6%) primary caregivers and 57 (27.4%) secondary caregivers. In January 2024, of these 208 parents, 168 (80.8%) enrolled in the program, which was completed in February. Postintervention data collection was completed in March 2024. Findings will be reported in the second half of 2024.
CONCLUSIONS: This is the first factorial cluster randomized trial to assess the feasibility of a hybrid human-digital playful parenting program in Southeast Asia. The results will inform a large-scale optimization trial to establish the most effective, cost-effective, and scalable version of the intervention.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: OSF Registries; https://osf.io/f32ky.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/55491.
Fulltext Loss-of-Function Myeloperoxidase Mutations Are Associated with Increased Neutrophil Counts and Pustular Skin Disease

Vergnano M, Mockenhaupt M, Benzian-Olsson N, Paulmann M, Grys K, Mahil SK, et al.

Am J Hum Genet, 2020 09 03;107(3):539-543.
PMID: 32758448 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.06.020

The identification of disease alleles underlying human autoinflammatory diseases can provide important insights into the mechanisms that maintain neutrophil homeostasis. Here, we focused our attention on generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP), a potentially life-threatening disorder presenting with cutaneous and systemic neutrophilia. Following the whole-exome sequencing of 19 unrelated affected individuals, we identified a subject harboring a homozygous splice-site mutation (c.2031-2A>C) in MPO. This encodes myeloperoxidase, an essential component of neutrophil azurophil granules. MPO screening in conditions phenotypically related to GPP uncovered further disease alleles in one subject with acral pustular psoriasis (c.2031-2A>C;c.2031-2A>C) and in two individuals with acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (c.1705C>T;c.2031-2A>C and c.1552_1565del;c.1552_1565del). A subsequent analysis of UK Biobank data demonstrated that the c.2031-2A>C and c.1705C>T (p.Arg569Trp) disease alleles were also associated with increased neutrophil abundance in the general population (p = 5.1 × 10-6 and p = 3.6 × 10-5, respectively). The same applied to three further deleterious variants that had been genotyped in the cohort, with two alleles (c.995C>T [p.Ala332Val] and c.752T>C [p.Met251Thr]) yielding p values < 10-10. Finally, treatment of healthy neutrophils with an MPO inhibitor (4-Aminobenzoic acid hydrazide) increased cell viability and delayed apoptosis, highlighting a mechanism whereby MPO mutations affect granulocyte numbers. These findings identify MPO as a genetic determinant of pustular skin disease and neutrophil abundance. Given the recent interest in the development of MPO antagonists for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease, our results also suggest that the pro-inflammatory effects of these agents should be closely monitored.

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