Project description:BACKGROUND:Recent studies have revealed a low measles vaccination (MV) rate in the Republic of Guinea-Bissau (West Africa) that has not increased in accordance with the increasing coverage of other vaccinations. Measles is the deadliest of all childhood rash/fever illnesses and spreads easily, implying that if the vaccination coverage is declining there is a significant risk of new measles outbreaks [27]. Meanwhile, mobile health (mHealth; the use of mobile phones for health interventions) has generated much enthusiasm, and shown potential in improving health service delivery in other contexts. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of mHealth as a tool for improving MV coverage while contributing to the mHealth evidence base. METHODS:This study will take place at three health centers in different regions of Guinea-Bissau. Participants, defined as mothers of the children receiving the MV, will be enrolled when they arrive with their children at the health center to receive the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination, usually within one month of the child's birth. Enrolment will continue until a study population of 990 children has been reached. The participants will be randomly assigned to a control arm or one of two intervention arms. Each of the three groups will have 330 participants, distributed equally between health centers. Participants in the first intervention arm will receive a scheduled short message service (SMS) text message reminding them of the MV. Participants in the second intervention arm will receive a voice call in addition to the SMS message, while the control arm will receive no interventions. The MV is scheduled to be administered at 9 months of age. Although the vaccine would still be effective after 12 months, local policy in Guinea-Bissau prevents children aged >12 months from receiving the vaccination, and thus the study will follow-up with participants after the children reach 12 months of age. Children who have not yet received the MV will be offered vaccination by the project group. RESULTS:The study will analyze the efficiency of the intervention by determining its overall effect on MV coverage and timeliness when children reach 12 months of age. The main analysis will be stratified by intervention group, health center, level of education, ethnic group, and role of the person receiving the text messages (eg, mother, father, other family member). Secondary outcomes include the average number of health center visits (with intention to obtain the MV) required before successful administration. CONCLUSIONS:Despite the rapid proliferation of mHealth projects, only a small number have been evaluated in terms of direct links to health outcomes. This gap in knowledge requires solid evidence on which policy-makers can base decisions. This study aims to produce significant knowledge about mHealth implementation within a Sub-Saharan context while creating data-supported evidence. TRIAL REGISTRATION:Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02662595; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02662595 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6jH8YiSjY).

Project description:BackgroundCurrent artesunate (ARS) regimens for severe malaria are complex. Once daily intramuscular (i.m.) injection for 3 d would be simpler and more appropriate for remote health facilities than the current WHO-recommended regimen of five intravenous (i.v.) or i.m. injections over 4 d. We compared both a three-dose i.m. and a three-dose i.v. parenteral ARS regimen with the standard five-dose regimen using a non-inferiority design (with non-inferiority margins of 10%).Methods and findingsThis randomized controlled trial included children (0.5-10 y) with severe malaria at seven sites in five African countries to assess whether the efficacy of simplified three-dose regimens is non-inferior to a five-dose regimen. We randomly allocated 1,047 children to receive a total dose of 12 mg/kg ARS as either a control regimen of five i.m. injections of 2.4 mg/kg (at 0, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h) (n = 348) or three injections of 4 mg/kg (at 0, 24, and 48 h) either i.m. (n = 348) or i.v. (n = 351), both of which were the intervention arms. The primary endpoint was the proportion of children with ? 99% reduction in parasitemia at 24 h from admission values, measured by microscopists who were blinded to the group allocations. Primary analysis was performed on the per-protocol population, which was 96% of the intention-to-treat population. Secondary analyses included an analysis of host and parasite genotypes as risks for prolongation of parasite clearance kinetics, measured every 6 h, and a Kaplan-Meier analysis to compare parasite clearance kinetics between treatment groups. A post hoc analysis was performed for delayed anemia, defined as hemoglobin ? 7 g/dl 7 d or more after admission. The per-protocol population was 1,002 children (five-dose i.m.: n = 331; three-dose i.m.: n = 338; three-dose i.v.: n = 333); 139 participants were lost to follow-up. In the three-dose i.m. arm, 265/338 (78%) children had a ? 99% reduction in parasitemia at 24 h compared to 263/331 (79%) receiving the five-dose i.m. regimen, showing non-inferiority of the simplified three-dose regimen to the conventional five-dose regimen (95% CI -7, 5; p = 0.02). In the three-dose i.v. arm, 246/333 (74%) children had ? 99% reduction in parasitemia at 24 h; hence, non-inferiority of this regimen to the five-dose control regimen was not shown (95% CI -12, 1; p = 0.24). Delayed parasite clearance was associated with the N86YPfmdr1 genotype. In a post hoc analysis, 192/885 (22%) children developed delayed anemia, an adverse event associated with increased leukocyte counts. There was no observed difference in delayed anemia between treatment arms. A potential limitation of the study is its open-label design, although the primary outcome measures were assessed in a blinded manner.ConclusionsA simplified three-dose i.m. regimen for severe malaria in African children is non-inferior to the more complex WHO-recommended regimen. Parenteral ARS is associated with a risk of delayed anemia in African children.Trial registrationPan African Clinical Trials Registry PACTR201102000277177.

Project description:Activation of Sirtuin (silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog) 1, or SIRT1, is an unexplored therapeutic approach for treatment of inflammatory diseases. The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical activity and tolerability of multiple doses of SRT2104, a selective activator of SIRT1, in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis after day 84 of treatment. Forty patients were randomized 4:1 to three escalating doses of SRT2104 (250, 500, 1000 mg/d SRT2104 or placebo). Across all SRT2104 groups, 34.6% of patients (9 out of 26; 90% CI 18.0%-54.2%, p<0.0001) achieved good to excellent histological improvement based on skin biopsies taken at baseline and day 84. To evaluate the changes in expression profile with treatment and to identify pathways involved in histological improvement, a subset of 22 Pre and Post treatment biopsies from 11 patients (4 Placebo, 7 Active Treatment) were hybridized to hgu133plus2 chips. Improvement in histology was associated with modulation of IL-17 and TNF-_ signaling pathways and keratinocyte differentiation target genes. Various studies suggest a crucial role of TNF_ and IL-17 in psoriasis pathogenesis and IL-17/TNF_ synergism induces a strong induction of differentially expressed genes in psoriasis, thus advocating a crucial role of IL-17/TNF_ combination in the molecular basis of disease (Chiricozzi et al., 2010). In the current study, broad scale gene expression profiling revealed that SRT2104 significantly reduced known IL-17 and TNF_ responsive genes including SERPINB4, S100A12, SERPINB3, kynu etc. even though the sample size for this analysis was small. One of the most highly modulated genes by SRT2104 included Kynu, a gene that regulates tryptophan metabolism, known to confer antibacterial effector functions (Daubener and MacKenzie, 1999). Interestingly kynu is part of the etanercept residual genomic profile that is not modulated by etanercept therapy even though clinical efficacy is achieved. Possibly, SRT2104 may be modulating the lipid barrier of the epidermis of psoriatic skin via modulation of keratinocyte diferentiation genes, which would be consistent with the observed improvement in skin histology. These results indicate a combinatorial effect of SRT2104 on TNF_, and IL-17 inflammatory signaling pathways and keratinocyte differentiation that could be a contributing factor towards improvement in clinical scores by the SIRT1 activator, SRT2104. Paired Pre (Day 1) and Post (Day 84) Treatment samples were obtained from 4 Placebo Patients and 7 patients treated with SRT2104 at 3 different doses (250, 500, 1000 mg).

Project description:Background: Severe malaria is a leading cause of acquired neurodisability in Africa and is associated with reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability. A neuroprotective role for inhaled NO has been reported in animal studies, and administration of inhaled NO in preterm neonates with respiratory distress syndrome is associated with a 47% reduced risk of cognitive impairment at two years of age.Methods: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of inhaled NO versus placebo as an adjunctive therapy for severe malaria was conducted in Uganda between 2011 and 2013. Children received study gas for a maximum 72 hours (inhaled NO, 80 parts per million; room air placebo). Neurocognitive testing was performed on children<5 years at 6 month follow-up. The neurocognitive outcomes assessed were overall cognition (a composite of fine motor, visual reception, receptive language, and expressive language), attention, associative memory, and the global executive composite. Main outcomes were attention, associative memory, and overall cognitive ability.Results: Sixty-one children receiving iNO and 59 children receiving placebo were evaluated. Forty-two children (35.0%) were impaired in at least one neurocognitive domain. By intention-to-treat analysis, there were no differences in unadjusted or unadjusted age-adjusted z-scores for overall cognition (? (95% CI): 0.26 (-0.19, 0.72), p = 0.260), attention (0.18 (-0.14, 0.51), p = 0.267), or memory (0.14 (-0.02, 0.30), p = 0.094) between groups by linear regression. Children receiving inhaled NO had a 64% reduced relative risk of fine motor impairment than children receiving placebo (relative risk, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.14-0.96) by log binomial regression following adjustment for anticonvulsant use.Conclusions: Severe malaria is associated with high rates of neurocognitive impairment. Treatment with inhaled NO was associated with reduced risk of fine motor impairment. These results need to be prospectively validated in a larger study powered to assess cognitive outcomes in order to evaluate whether strategies to increase bioavailable NO are neuroprotective in children with severe malaria.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01255215.

Project description:Activation of Sirtuin (silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog) 1, or SIRT1, is an unexplored therapeutic approach for treatment of inflammatory diseases. The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical activity and tolerability of multiple doses of SRT2104, a selective activator of SIRT1, in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis after day 84 of treatment. Forty patients were randomized 4:1 to three escalating doses of SRT2104 (250, 500, 1000 mg/d SRT2104 or placebo). Across all SRT2104 groups, 34.6% of patients (9 out of 26; 90% CI 18.0%-54.2%, p<0.0001) achieved good to excellent histological improvement based on skin biopsies taken at baseline and day 84. To evaluate the changes in expression profile with treatment and to identify pathways involved in histological improvement, a subset of 22 Pre and Post treatment biopsies from 11 patients (4 Placebo, 7 Active Treatment) were hybridized to hgu133plus2 chips. Improvement in histology was associated with modulation of IL-17 and TNF-_ signaling pathways and keratinocyte differentiation target genes. Various studies suggest a crucial role of TNF_ and IL-17 in psoriasis pathogenesis and IL-17/TNF_ synergism induces a strong induction of differentially expressed genes in psoriasis, thus advocating a crucial role of IL-17/TNF_ combination in the molecular basis of disease (Chiricozzi et al., 2010). In the current study, broad scale gene expression profiling revealed that SRT2104 significantly reduced known IL-17 and TNF_ responsive genes including SERPINB4, S100A12, SERPINB3, kynu etc. even though the sample size for this analysis was small. One of the most highly modulated genes by SRT2104 included Kynu, a gene that regulates tryptophan metabolism, known to confer antibacterial effector functions (Daubener and MacKenzie, 1999). Interestingly kynu is part of the etanercept residual genomic profile that is not modulated by etanercept therapy even though clinical efficacy is achieved. Possibly, SRT2104 may be modulating the lipid barrier of the epidermis of psoriatic skin via modulation of keratinocyte diferentiation genes, which would be consistent with the observed improvement in skin histology. These results indicate a combinatorial effect of SRT2104 on TNF_, and IL-17 inflammatory signaling pathways and keratinocyte differentiation that could be a contributing factor towards improvement in clinical scores by the SIRT1 activator, SRT2104.

Dataset Information

Paracetamol versus placebo in treatment of non-severe malaria in children in Guinea-Bissau: a randomized controlled trial.

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Paracetamol versus placebo in treatment of non-severe malaria in children in Guinea-Bissau: a randomized controlled trial.

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