In Bangladesh, an array of measures have been adopted to control the rapid spread of the COVID-19 epidemic. Such general population control measures could significantly influence perception, knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19. Here, we assessed KAP towards COVID-19 immediately after the lock-down measures were implemented and during the rapid rise period of the outbreak. Online-based cross-sectional study conducted from March 29 to April 19, 2020, involving Bangladeshi residents aged 12-64 years, recruited via social media. After consenting, participants completed an online survey assessing socio-demographic variables, perception, and KAP towards COVID-19. Of the 2017 survey participants, 59.8% were male, the majority were students (71.2%), aged 21-30 years (57.9%), having a bachelor's degree (61.0%), having family income >30,000 BDT (50.0%), and living in urban areas (69.8). The survey revealed that 48.3% of participants had more accurate knowledge, 62.3% had more positive attitudes, and 55.1% had more frequent practices regarding COVID-19 prevention. Majority (96.7%) of the participants agreed 'COVID-19 is a dangerous disease', almost all (98.7%) participants wore a face mask in crowded places, 98.8% agreed to report a suspected case to health authorities, and 93.8% implemented washing hands with soap and water. In multiple logistic regression analyses, COVID-19 more accurate knowledge was associated with age and residence. Sociodemographic factors such as being older, higher education, employment, monthly family income >30,000 BDT, and having more frequent prevention practices were the more positive attitude factors. More frequent prevention practice factors were associated with female sex, older age, higher education, family income > 30,000 BDT, urban area residence, and having more positive attitudes. To improve KAP of general populations is crucial during the rapid rise period of a pandemic outbreak such as COVID-19. Therefore, development of effective health education programs that incorporate considerations of KAP-modifying factors is needed.

In Bangladesh, an array of measures have been adopted to control the rapid spread of the COVID-19 epidemic. Such general population control measures could significantly influence perception, knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19. Here, we assessed KAP towards COVID-19 immediately after the lock-down measures were implemented and during the rapid rise period of the outbreak. Online-based cross-sectional study conducted from March 29 to April 19, 2020, involving Bangladeshi residents aged 12-64 years, recruited via social media. After consenting, participants completed an online survey assessing socio-demographic variables, perception, and KAP towards COVID-19. Of the 2017 survey participants, 59.8% were male, the majority were students (71.2%), aged 21-30 years (57.9%), having a bachelor's degree (61.0%), having family income >30,000 BDT (50.0%), and living in urban areas (69.8). The survey revealed that 48.3% of participants had more accurate knowledge, 62.3% had more positive attitudes, and 55.1% had more frequent practices regarding COVID-19 prevention. Majority (96.7%) of the participants agreed COVID-19 is a dangerous disease, almost all (98.7%) participants wore a face mask in crowded places, 98.8% agreed to report a suspected case to health authorities, and 93.8% implemented washing hands with soap and water. In multiple logistic regression analyses, COVID-19 more accurate knowledge was associated with age and residence. Sociodemographic factors such as being older, higher education, employment, monthly family income >30,000 BDT, and having more frequent prevention practices were the more positive attitude factors. More frequent prevention practice factors were associated with female sex, older age, higher education, family income > 30,000 BDT, urban area residence, and having more positive attitudes. To improve KAP of general populations is crucial during the rapid rise period of a pandemic outbreak such as COVID-19. Therefore, development of effective health education programs that incorporate considerations of KAP-modifying factors is needed.

BACKGROUND: Latin American countries have been profoundly affected by COVID-19. Due to the alarming incidence of identified cases, we intended to explore which psycho-social elements may be influencing the poor adherence toward the mandatory control measures among the population. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and vulnerability perception of Peruvians during the coronavirus outbreak.METHOD: Using a web-based cross-sectional survey, we collected data from 225 self-selected participants, evaluating demographic information. The overall respondents were between 18 and 29 years old (56.8%), being female (n = 134), belonging to educated groups, and graduated professionals (69.3%), the majority of them. RESULTS: Logistic regression showed that knowledge is highly correlated with education (p=0.031), occupation (p=0.002), and age (p= 0.016). Our study identified that, although people reported adequate knowledge by identifying expected symptoms and virus transmission ways in COVID-19 disease. There is a significant perceived susceptibility to contract the mentioning virus, displaying stigmatized behavior (59.1%) and fear of contracting the virus from others (70.2%). Additionally, it is reported to lack people's confidence to health national authorities on the sanitary responses (62.7%), preparedness for the disease (76.9%) and the lack of adequate measures to deal with it (51.1%). CONCLUSION: We suggest that public policies consider guidelines on knowledge translation and risk communication strategies for both containing psychological responses in a timely manner and ensuring compliance with public control measures by the population.

Although sleep disturbances are common co-morbidities of metabolic diseases, the underlying processes linking both are not yet fully defined. Changes in the duration of sleep are paralleled by changes in the levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), an anabolic hormone that shows a circadian pattern in the circulation and activitydependent entrance in the brain. However, the specific role, if any, of IGF-I in this universal homeostatic process remains poorly understood. We now report that the activity of orexin neurons, a discrete cell population in the lateral hypothalamus that is involved in the circadian sleep/wake cycle and arousal, is modulated by IGF-I. Furthermore, mice with blunted IGF-I receptor activity in orexin neurons have lower levels of orexin in the hypothalamus, show altered electro-corticographic patterns with predominant slow wave activity, and reduced onset-sleep latency. Collectively, these results extend the role in the brain of this pleiotropic growth factor to shaping sleep architecture through the regulation of orexin neurons. We speculate that poor sleep quality associated to diverse conditions may be related to disturbed brain IGF-I input to orexin neurons.

Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) signaling plays a key role in learning and memory processes. While the effects of IGF-I on neurons have been studied extensively, the involvement of astrocytes in IGF-I signaling and the consequences on synaptic plasticity and animal behavior remain unknown. We have found that IGF-I induces long-term potentiation (LTP IGFI ) of the postsynaptic potentials that is caused by a long-term depression of inhibitory synaptic transmission in mice. We have demonstrated that this long-lasting decrease in the inhibitory synaptic transmission is evoked by astrocytic activation through its IGF-I receptors (IGF-IRs). We show that LTP IGFI not only increases the output of pyramidal neurons, but also favors the NMDAR-dependent LTP, resulting in the crucial information processing at the barrel cortex since specific deletion of IGF-IR in cortical astrocytes impairs the whisker discrimination task. Our work reveals a novel mechanism and functional consequences of IGF-I signaling on cortical inhibitory synaptic plasticity and animal behavior, revealing that astrocytes are key elements in these processes.

BACKGROUND: Latin American countries have been strongly affected by COVID-19. Due to the alarming prevalence of cases, we set out to explore which psychosocial elements may be exerting an influence on the poor compliance with mandatory control measures among the population.OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, and susceptibility perception of Latin American population during the coronavirus outbreak.METHOD: We collected data from 600 self-selected participants through a web-based cross-sectional survey evaluating demographic information. The respondents were between 16 to 77 years old. The majority of the participants were female (n= 382), graduated professionals (56.8 %), citizens living in any country in South America (72.2%).RESULTS: Logistic regression showed that knowledge is highly related with age (p=0.010*), attitude is related with marital status (p=0.017*), perception susceptibility is related with education (p=0.049*), marital status (p=0.001**) and occupation (p=0.001**). Our study identified that, although people reported adequate knowledge by identifying expected symptoms and coronavirus transmission process. There is a significant perceived susceptibility to contracting the mentioning virus (57.7%), displaying stigmatized behavior (59.1%), fear of contracting the virus from others (70.2%), and concern regarding serious consequences after the COVID-19 disease (72.3%). Additionally, we found that people distrust National Health administration's response (61.57%), preparedness for the disease (73.8%), and suggesting insufficient measures to deal with COVID-19 disease (61.3%). CONCLUSION: Within the framework of government regulations, it is suggested that guidelines be considered to expand strategies and provide reliable knowledge to facilitate positive attitudes towards protection measures against COVID-19. Communication strategies would serve both to contain psychological reactions and the perception of risk of contagion, as well as educational actions to ensure compliance with public control measures among the population.

Maladaptive coping behaviors are probably involved in post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), but underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. We now report that mice lacking functional insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) receptors in orexin neurons of the lateral hypothalamus (Firoc mice) are unresponsive to the anxiolytic actions of IGF-I and develop PTSD-like behavior that is ameliorated by inhibition of orexin neurons. Conversely, systemic IGF-I treatment ameliorated PTSD-like behavior in a wild-type mouse model of PTSD (PTSD mice). Further, systemic IGF-I modified the GABA/Glutamate synaptic structure in orexin neurons of naïve wild-type mice by increasing the dephosphorylation of GABA(B) receptor subunit through inhibition of AMP-kinase (AMPK). Significantly, pharmacological inhibition of AMPK mimicked IGF-I, normalizing fear behavior in PTSD mice. Thus, we suggest that IGF-I enables coping behaviors by balancing E/I input onto orexin neurons in a context-dependent manner. These observations provide a novel therapeutic approach to PTSD through modulation of AMPK.

We recently reported that exercise increases resilience to stress in young female mice. Underlying mechanisms include an interaction of the ovarian hormone estradiol (E2) with insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), and an increase in the hippocampal levels of the latter. Since changes in mood regulation during aging may contribute to increasing incidence of affective disorders at older age, we determined whether the protective actions of exercise are maintained at later ages. We found that during peri-menopause, exercise no longer improves resilience to stress and even becomes anxiogenic. Furthermore, the interaction seen in young females between the E2 α receptor (ERα) and the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) is lost at middle-age. In addition, E2 no longer induces IGF-I uptake by brain endothelial cells, and consequently, hippocampal IGF-I levels do not increase. Treatment of middle-aged females with an ERα agonist did not recover the positive actions of exercise. Collectively, these data indicate that the loss of action of exercise during peri-menopause may be related to a loss of the interaction of IGF-IR with ERα in brain endothelial cells that cannot be ameliorated by estrogen therapy. Changes in regulation of mood by physical activity may contribute to increased appearance of affective disorders along age.