The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a widely used measure of a core facet of the positive body image construct. However, extant research concerning measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across a large number of nations remains limited. Here, we utilised the Body Image in Nature (BINS) dataset - with data collected between 2020 and 2022 - to assess measurement invariance of the BAS-2 across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that full scalar invariance was upheld across all nations, languages, gender identities, and age groups, suggesting that the unidimensional BAS-2 model has widespread applicability. There were large differences across nations and languages in latent body appreciation, while differences across gender identities and age groups were negligible-to-small. Additionally, greater body appreciation was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction, being single (versus being married or in a committed relationship), and greater rurality (versus urbanicity). Across a subset of nations where nation-level data were available, greater body appreciation was also significantly associated with greater cultural distance from the United States and greater relative income inequality. These findings suggest that the BAS-2 likely captures a near-universal conceptualisation of the body appreciation construct, which should facilitate further cross-cultural research.
Several new viral infections have emerged in the human population and establishing as global pandemics. With advancements in translation research, the scientific community has developed potential therapeutics to eradicate or control certain viral infections, such as smallpox and polio, responsible for billions of disabilities and deaths in the past. Unfortunately, some viral infections, such as dengue virus (DENV) and human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1), are still prevailing due to a lack of specific therapeutics, while new pathogenic viral strains or variants are emerging because of high genetic recombination or cross-species transmission. Consequently, to combat the emerging viral infections, bioinformatics-based potential strategies have been developed for viral characterization and developing new effective therapeutics for their eradication or management. This review attempts to provide a single platform for the available wide range of bioinformatics-based approaches, including bioinformatics methods for the identification and management of emerging or evolved viral strains, genome analysis concerning the pathogenicity and epidemiological analysis, computational methods for designing the viral therapeutics, and consolidated information in the form of databases against the known pathogenic viruses. This enriched review of the generally applicable viral informatics approaches aims to provide an overview of available resources capable of carrying out the desired task and may be utilized to expand additional strategies to improve the quality of translation viral informatics research.
- MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- pandemie MeSH
- virové nemoci * farmakoterapie genetika MeSH
- výpočetní biologie * MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- přehledy MeSH
Over the past decades, a number of 1,4-naphthoquinones have been isolated from natural resources and several of naphthoquinone derivatives with diverse structural motif have been synthesized; they possess a multitude of biochemical properties and modulate numerous pharmacological roles that offer new targets for addressing the challenges pertaining to novel drug developments. Among natural naphthoquinones, lapachol, α-lapachone, β-lapachone, lawsone, juglone, and plumbagin have been evaluated for its potential as antitrypanosomal activities. The chemotherapeutic drugs available for combating human trypanosomiasis, that is, American trypanosomiasis and African trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma brucei, respectively, and animal tripanosomosis caused by Trypanosoma evansi have a problem of drug resistance and several toxic effect. Therefore, search of alternative effective drug molecules, without toxic effects, have enthused the researchers for searching new drug entity with potential clinical efficacy. In the search for new antitrypanosomal compound, this review focuses on different natural quinones and their synthetic derivatives associated with antitrypanosomal studies. In this context, this review will be useful for the development of new antitrypanosomal drugs mainly based on different structural modification of natural and synthetic naphthoquinones.
- MeSH
- Chagasova nemoc * farmakoterapie MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- naftochinony * chemie MeSH
- paraziti * MeSH
- Trypanosoma cruzi * MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- přehledy MeSH
Zika virus (ZIKV) has been characterized as one of many potential pathogens and placed under future epidemic outbreaks by the WHO. However, a lack of potential therapeutics can result in an uncontrolled pandemic as with other human pandemic viruses. Therefore, prioritized effective therapeutics development has been recommended against ZIKV. In this context, the present study adopted a strategy to explore the lead compounds from Azadirachta indica against ZIKV via concurrent inhibition of the NS2B-NS3 protease (ZIKVpro) and NS5 RNA dependent RNA polymerase (ZIKVRdRp) proteins using molecular simulations. Initially, structure-based virtual screening of 44 bioflavonoids reported in Azadirachta indica against the crystal structures of targeted ZIKV proteins resulted in the identification of the top four common bioflavonoids, viz. Rutin, Nicotiflorin, Isoquercitrin, and Hyperoside. These compounds showed substantial docking energy (-7.9 to -11.01 kcal/mol) and intermolecular interactions with essential residues of ZIKVpro (B:His51, B:Asp75, and B:Ser135) and ZIKVRdRp (Asp540, Ile799, and Asp665) by comparison to the reference compounds, O7N inhibitor (ZIKVpro) and Sofosbuvir inhibitor (ZIKVRdRp). Besides, long interval molecular dynamics simulation (500 ns) on the selected docked poses reveals stability of the respective docked poses contributed by intermolecular hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions. The predicted complex stability was further supported by calculated end-point binding free energy using molecular mechanics generalized born surface area (MM/GBSA) method. Consequently, the identified common bioflavonoids are recommended as promising therapeutic inhibitors of ZIKVpro and ZIKVRdRp against ZIKV for further experimental assessment.
- MeSH
- antivirové látky chemie MeSH
- Azadirachta * chemie MeSH
- flavonoidy chemie MeSH
- infekce virem zika * farmakoterapie MeSH
- inhibitory proteas chemie MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- olovo farmakologie MeSH
- proteasy farmakologie MeSH
- RNA-dependentní RNA-polymerasa MeSH
- simulace molekulového dockingu MeSH
- virové nestrukturální proteiny metabolismus MeSH
- virus zika * MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), accountable for causing the coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19), is already declared as a pandemic disease globally. Like previously reported SARS-CoV strain, the novel SARS-CoV-2 also initiates the viral pathogenesis via docking viral spike-protein with the membranal angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) - a receptor on variety of cells in the human body. Therefore, COVID-19 is broadly characterized as a disease that targets multiple organs, particularly causing acute complications via organ-specific pathogenesis accompanied by destruction of ACE2+ cells, including alveolus, cardiac microvasculature, endothelium, and glomerulus. Under such circumstances, the high expression of ACE2 in predisposing individuals associated with anomalous production of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may promote enhanced viral load in COVID-19, which comparatively triggers excessive apoptosis. Furthermore, multi-organ injuries were found linked to altered ACE2 expression and inequality between the ACE2/angiotensin-(1-7)/mitochondrial Ang system (MAS) and renin-angiotensin-system (RAS) in COVID-19 patients. However, the exact pathogenesis of multi-organ damage in COVID-19 is still obscure, but several perspectives have been postulated, involving altered ACE2 expression linked with direct/indirect damages by the virus-induced immune responses, such as cytokinin storm. Thus, insights into the invasion of a virus with respect to ACE2 expression site can be helpful to simulate or understand the possible complications in the targeted organ during viral infection. Hence, this review summarizes the multiple organs invasion by SARS CoV-2 linked with ACE2 expression and their consequences, which can be helpful in the management of the COVID-19 pathogenesis under life-threatening conditions.
The Breast Size Satisfaction Survey (BSSS) was established to assess women's breast size dissatisfaction and breasted experiences from a cross-national perspective. A total of 18,541 women were recruited from 61 research sites across 40 nations and completed measures of current-ideal breast size discrepancy, as well as measures of theorised antecedents (personality, Western and local media exposure, and proxies of socioeconomic status) and outcomes (weight and appearance dissatisfaction, breast awareness, and psychological well-being). In the total dataset, 47.5 % of women wanted larger breasts than they currently had, 23.2 % wanted smaller breasts, and 29.3 % were satisfied with their current breast size. There were significant cross-national differences in mean ideal breast size and absolute breast size dissatisfaction, but effect sizes were small (η2 = .02-.03). The results of multilevel modelling showed that greater Neuroticism, lower Conscientiousness, lower Western media exposure, greater local media exposure, lower financial security, and younger age were associated with greater breast size dissatisfaction across nations. In addition, greater absolute breast size dissatisfaction was associated with greater weight and appearance dissatisfaction, poorer breast awareness, and poorer psychological well-being across nations. These results indicate that breast size dissatisfaction is a global public health concern linked to women's psychological and physical well-being.
- MeSH
- celosvětové zdraví * MeSH
- dospělí MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- nespokojenost s tělem psychologie MeSH
- osobní uspokojení * MeSH
- prsy * MeSH
- velikost orgánu MeSH
- Check Tag
- dospělí MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
The development of biologically active molecules based on molecular recognition is an attractive and challenging task in medicinal chemistry and the molecules that can activate/deactivate certain receptors are of great medical interest. In this contribution, selected pyrimidine/piperidine derivatives were synthesized and tested for the ability to activate/deactivate Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and Glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Tested compounds are shown to activate the receptors but to much lesser extent than positive controls, dioxin and dexamethasone for Ahr and GR, respectively. However, some of them antagonized the positive controls action. Although further in vivo studies are needed to fully characterize the bioactivities of these compounds, the reported in vitro evidences demonstrate that they might be used as the modulators of AhR and GR activities.
- MeSH
- buňky Hep G2 MeSH
- HeLa buňky MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- molekulární modely MeSH
- objevování léků MeSH
- piperidiny chemie farmakologie MeSH
- pyrimidiny chemie farmakologie MeSH
- receptory aromatických uhlovodíků agonisté antagonisté a inhibitory metabolismus MeSH
- receptory glukokortikoidů agonisté antagonisté a inhibitory metabolismus MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- MeSH
- buněčná diferenciace účinky léků MeSH
- buněčné dělení účinky léků MeSH
- exprese genu účinky léků MeSH
- nádorová transformace buněk etiologie účinky léků MeSH
- onkogeny účinky léků MeSH
- vitaminy fyziologie genetika terapeutické užití MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Check Tag
- zvířata MeSH
- Publikační typ
- techniky in vitro MeSH
